What do Chrysler, General Motors, International Paper, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble all have in common? Besides being major, out-of-state corporations, they have banded together to create a deceptive campaign against California’s middle class families by attempting to stop the passage of Assembly Bill 1500. The bill, which is a component of Speaker John A. Pérez’s Middle Class Scholarship Act, would require these corporations to pay a uniform tax rate, rather than the current policy, which enables them to choose a lower tax rate.
Despite corporate America’s opposition to the Middle Class Scholarship Act, young people from all walks of life, who attend private schools, CSUs, UCs and community colleges are uniting together behind the act, because it has the potential to benefit students across the state. This joint op-ed and our teamwork in advocating for this legislation is reflective of this unification, as it is authored by a Cal State student active in Democratic Party politics and a leader in UC Berkeley’s student government and progressive community.
This unification is in response to the inherent need to revitalize our public higher education systems. The facts are simple: the state of public higher education in California is absolutely deplorable, as tuition rises exponentially and services are continually slashed. We stand in solidarity, opposed to the state’s massive divestment from public higher education.
In reaction to the need for higher education reform, more than 10,000 students from all over California flooded the State Capitol on March 5 to stand up for our right to an affordable higher education. Just days after the march, a state Assembly panel voted to reject further cuts to the Cal Grants program. Students, such as ourselves, who lobbied legislators to reject cuts to Cal Grants, heard those same legislators use the same arguments we presented them in the committee hearings. The decision to reject cuts to Cal Grants is an example of the success and political clout California’s college students can carry.
At a broader level, we believe that our best shot at changing course is increasing affordability and access to higher education. By closing a wasteful corporate tax loophole, the Middle Class Scholarship Act will reduce fees in the CSU and UC systems by two-thirds for students with family incomes of less than $150,000 that do not already have their fees covered.
However, some out-of-state-corporations are unsurprisingly mobilizing against the scholarship, rejecting any alteration of their tax rate. In fact, the corporations behind the attack on the scholarship are known for being unscrupulous. According to Consumer Watchdog, some of the corporations working against the Middle Class Scholarship Act are among the top U.S. tax evaders.
Despite opposition, closing the loophole so that out-of-state corporations don’t get to pick their preferred tax rate has broad bipartisan support in the California state legislature and from California businesses, as it would equalize the playing field for businesses while generating about $1 billion in revenue to help middle-class families.
As dissatisfaction with our public higher education systems continues to grow, the tides have finally begun to turn in Sacramento. Recently Nathan Fletcher, a Republican state legislator representing San Diego, decided to dump the Republican Party. This decision bodes well for the Middle Class Scholarship Act, which to pass, must be supported by two-thirds of our state legislature. Upon his departure, Fletcher remarked that he is fed up with the partisanship and “petty games,” indicating that increasingly our state is exhausted by inaction and wants to bring about real change.
We urge you to join your fellow college students across California as we continue to advocate for the Middle Class Scholarship Act in the wake of corporate America’s attacks. If we can convince our state lawmakers to pass this legislation, we will prove that student voice is valuable and more important than corporate interests. Students should share their higher education stories and sign the Middle Class Scholarship Act petition. Together we can ensure that UCs, CSUs and California community colleges are accessible and affordable for all Californians. Together, we can do anything.
Andrew Albright is an ASUC senator. Paul Murre is the president of the California College Democrats.
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I know what GM and Chrysler have in common. They’re only as powerful as they are today because the taxpayers bailed them out. You don’t like corporate power? Stop supporting government intervention in the economy, which only leaves a few ultra-powerful corporations and kills everybody else.
Fuck you, stop stealing other people’s money for your own benefit.
I’ve determined this is the only appropriate response to such things. What Albright does is essentially say ‘fuck you, pay me.’
“What do Chrysler, General Motors, International Paper, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble all have in common? … the corporations behind the attack on the scholarship are known for
being unscrupulous. According to Consumer Watchdog, some of the corporations working against the Middle Class Scholarship Act are among the top U.S. tax evaders.”
It’s ironic that both Chrysler and General Motors received huge government bailouts and are now enemies of Calfornia. After the 2009 restructuring the U.S. government is 60% owner and the UAW union is 17% owner of GM. Thus the Cal Democrats are calling the U.S. government and the UAW “unscrupulous tax evaders”? Maybe Andrew Albright and Paul Murre are actually Tea Party members in disguise.
Corporate America isn’t “attacking” the Middle Class. Didn’t this “attack” begin when the UC’s provided full tuition to students with family incomes less than $80,000 and nothing for Middle Class students and expected them to fund their educations with student loans, resulting in the Middle Class students representing only 8% of total UC students? Realizing how the Middle Class was being squeezed, our Legislators couldn’t find any state money available to help the Middle Class (another “attack”) because of their incredible mismanagement of funds. This is so typical of our Legislators to try to drive more Corporations (and jobs) out of CA. Hasn’t Sacramento chased away enough companies & individuals out-of-state with their high taxes, regulations, etc.?
Oh, did you see this Op-ed piece in the WSJ by a Cal alum?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304444604577340531861056966.html
If anything, this “attack” on the middle class is more of a response to being targeted by the tax-and-spend crowd in Sacramento. It is deceptive to say that out-of-state corporations (um, still American right?) are attacking the middle class by trying to preserve a tax structure that they have planned around. I support scholarships, but come on, at least call a spade a spade and stop with the class warfare nonsense
Jesse, the tax loop hole is also making it where in-state corporations are having trouble competing with these out of state corporations. It’s wrong for the state’s long term economy to promote these companies over education.
You want education? Take out a fucking loan, asshole. Nobody owes you an education. Especially you, considering how useless you, specifically, will be to society.
That is probably one of the most ignorant sentences I have ever read. Education is a right not a privilege. The fact that this is even being called into question is a sign that our public education system has failed us. Yes we are owed an education, or how else would we be able to have a functioning society? You would rather have the next generation of workers be weighed down by massive amounts of debt rather than give an equal and equitable opportunity for every citizen to learn to the best of their abilities?
If any commenter is from a generation prior to ours, than you cannot fully understand our current plight. Tuition during your time was nowhere near as expensive as it is now. Nevermind that while the cost of living has increased, the minimum wage has been static.
You call us useless but you don’t wonder if it’s because we aren’t able to continue gaining our bachelors or masters to BECOME USEFUL.
Think before you type out your terribly misinformed views.
A college education isn’t a right. That is why their is a selection process and then you are charged. You don’t understand your current plight when you say stupid things like education being a right. How did you sneak into Cal?
The real solution is to lower the taxes for in state corporations so they match out of state corporations. The university only has funding issues because of the poor economy. California’s economy is worse that almost every other state, because most companies are no longer interested in working in the state. The states legislature has chased business out of the state for a couple of decades, and the students are suffering because of it.
“What do Chrysler, General Motors, International Paper, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble all have in common?”
For starters, they produce goods and services others are willing to pay for, and provide jobs for millions of taxpayers – something you whiners certainly do not.
Pay higher taxes, pass price increases on, poor and middle class families get screwed.
But Cal kiddies get goodies so they feel good. Morons.
Taxing high-earners up to 90% is cool
I guess it would be cool to you, given that you probably have never worked a day in your life.
Taxing high earners…yawn
More tax demogagury from Lib morons like Berkeleyprotest:
According to Internal Revenue Service data for 2009, available athttp://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html, the top 1 percent of American income earners paid almost 37 percent of federal income taxes. The top 10 percent paid about 70 percent of federal income taxes, and the top 50 percent paid nearly 98 percent. Roughly 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax. Here’s my fairness question to you: What standard of fairness dictates that the top 10 percent of income earners pay 70 percent of the income tax burden while 47 percent of Americans pay nothing?
The fact that the income tax burden is distributed so unevenly produces great politically borne fiscal problems. People who pay little or no income taxes become natural constituents for big-spending Libtard politicians. After all, if you pay no income taxes, what do you care if income taxes are raised? Also, you won’t be enthusiastic about tax cuts; you’ll see them as a threat to your handouts.
Libs have a vested interest to expand handouts…it grows their base and keeps them dependent on the Lib Plantation. This works until the economy takes a dump a la Greece.
Let’s see how “cool” you think it is when there are no jobs left, because those with money decide to either retire in place, or move out of state. Ignoramuses like you think fail to realize that people with money have two options when it comes to punitive taxation. One of them is to no longer have income by simply retiring in place: quitting their jobs or selling off their businesses. However, should they care to remain in business or in the work force, they will simply move out of state. When that happens, goodbye middle class jobs: all you have left is a few wealthy types and a lot of people working service jobs. The economy is going to look a lot like a third world country. Is that what you really want?