CSBA President Martha Fluor tells fellow Republicans, “We need temporary tax extensions” at Governor's press conference
Sacramento, Calif. – CSBA President Martha Fluor joined Governor Brown, along with leaders in law enforcement, business, agriculture, labor and local government today to urge the Legislature to pass a balanced budget by temporarily extending tax revenues. With local school district budget deadlines looming at the end of this month, school districts across the state are required to pass balanced budgets based on revenue they can count on.
“As a long-time Republican, I am here to ask all legislators to allow us to base our local budgets on real funding, by extending taxes over the next year,” said Fluor. “The revenue generated from extending existing tax rates amounts to less than one percent of California’s Gross State Product. This is not a fiscal problem. It’s a problem of priorities.”
Schools have endured $18 billion of funding reductions, lost purchasing power, and deferrals over the past three years, and as a result are forced to cut the very programs that ensure students’ academic success.
If temporary tax extensions are not approved, according to the governor, the ugly consequence would be $5 billion in additional cuts that schools and colleges can’t afford. These cuts would result in further crowding of classrooms, the shortening of a school year that is already one of the shortest in the industrialized world, as well as laying off even more teachers and other educators.
Fluor outlined drastic impacts education cuts have had on all schools throughout state and insisted her own Republican legislators start to make students their priority by passing the temporary tax extensions.
“In education, as in all other walks of life, you get what you pay for. In California, we are paying for less and less each year. The truth is, our schools are not failing us. We—as a state—are failing our schools.”
For more information, please contact Brittany McKannay at (916) 669-3244.