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Wilson fee increases opposed by Senate

By Doug Willis

The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Pete Wilson's proposal to increase student fees by up to 15 percent at California's public colleges was opposed Tuesday by a majority of the state Senate.

Twenty-three of the Senate's 39 members signed letters to the Republican governor opposing the fee increases. Senators at a Capitol news conference called the proposed increases a tax hike on the middle class.

"There will be no budget passed this year with fee increases," said Democratic Sen. Alfred Alquist of San Jose, chairman of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

'"This is a substantial tax increase on the middle class, and we are going to stop it," Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, also a Democrat, added.

Assistant State Finance Director H.D. Palmer said the senators were ignoring student aid increases which are linked to the fee hikes and how California fees compare to other states.

"We hope they will take a step back and look at the entire higher education funding picture and the budget priorities," Palmer said. "We have the lowest fees in the nation.

"Higher education in one of only two areas, along with public schools, getting cost-of-living increases in this budget."

The proposed annual fee increases are from $3,799 to $4,179 for full-time students in the University of California system; from $1,584 to $1,740 for California State University system students; and from $390 to $450 for full-time community college students. The increases are 10 percent, 10 percent and 15.3 percent respectively.

Lockyer distributed charts showing student fees increasing in the past five years by 123 percent at the CSU system, 157 percent at the UC system, and 350 percent at community colleges.

Palmer responded with charts showing student aid rising by 128 percent, from $280 million to a proposed $639 million, in the same period.

Lockyer said the proposed fee increases total $90 million, which he described as "not an unimaginable, impossible amount to find" in a $56 billion state budget.

He said one possible place to find that money would be in the $3.7 billion state prisons budget, but he didn't limit it to prisons.

The dispute over college funds is just the first of what is expected to be dozens of clashes between Wilson and the Legislature over the state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

It takes a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and Assembly to pass the budget. Neither party has anything near that two-thirds majority, so the outcome of the battles is uncertain.