California bill seeks oil tax to aid colleges
A state lawmaker says he’s found a way to give California’s cash-strapped colleges and universities nearly a billion extra dollars a year – but those schools, at least for now, are saying "no thanks." Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, a Fremont Democrat running for state attorney general, is pushing for an oil severance tax to benefit higher education… The current proposal gives UC 30 percent of the estimated yearly revenue of $900 million, or $270 million per year. CSU would get 60 percent, or $540 million. Community colleges would get just 10 percent, $99 million, because they already have a dedicated source of state funding under voter-approved Prop. 98. All three school systems say another concern is that if state lawmakers think higher education is adequately funded from oil money, they would withhold funding from other sources.
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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.