Money talks; it spoke loud and clear at Tuesday’s California primary elections when Propositions 57, 58 and 55 all passed.
The proposition that will effect EC the most is Proposition 55, which is a $12.3 billion bond issue that provides $920 million for California Community Colleges.
Of the $920 million, $7 million to $8 million will be provided to EC to help with construction.
“This will be some additional revenue coming into our building programs,” Pamela Fees, business manager, said, “and we’re estimating it will be between seven and eight million dollars.”
Vice president of administrative services Victor Hanson said that the extra revenue would be used to help complete the addition to EC’s Learning Resource Center, which will be located on the west side of the Schauerman Library.
“The passing of this particular proposition will help with funding of the initial drawing of the preliminary plans,” Fees said. “This doesn’t fund the whole thing, but once the state commits to do some of the initial plans, it will follow through with the funds for the construction.”
Fees also said nothing would take place immediately. She said it would not be until sometime in the 2004-2005 year that any construction will get underway.
EC must first wait to receive some of the money from Proposition 55 to begin the process before work can begin on construction projects.
“First the state must sell the bonds,” Lance Widman, political science professor, said. “Then the money will be made available to districts that are approved, so this (time it will take to receive money from Proposition 55) could be four months, six months; it all depends on how long this process takes.”
Proposition 55,Widman said, will be great for education, community colleges, UC’s, CSU’s, and for EC specifically.
“Hopefully, with the passing of 55, there will be the money there to do the modernization and construction projects needed,” Widman said.
The other propositions EC officials had their eyes on were Propositions 57, also known as the Economic Recovery Bonds, and Propositions 58, also known as the California Balanced Budget Act.
The two propositions go hand in hand and one could not pass without the other.
Proposition 57 is a one-time bond measure of $15 billion which will help California retire its current deficit and allow the state to get its finances in order.
Proposition 58 requires the enactment of a balanced budget and establishes a budget reserve.
Basically, 58 states that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature must complete a planned budget before any funds from 57 can be seen.
“Basically, what the passing of 57 and 58 means is that the worst-case scenario for additional budget cuts will not happen,” Widman said.
“However, there still will be cuts to services because of cutbacks at the state level.”
Widman said that Proposition 57could cause more debt for California.
Nevertheless, with the budget situation that California is, where the state is spending more than what it has coming in, he said it only has three choices: cut back spending, increase revenue, or borrow to try and get through the short term.
“So basically what we did is we decided to use our Master Card to get us through,” Widman said.
“This gives California a certain amount of breathing room, but it doesn’t solve our debt.”
Hanson said that before the election, EC was making a lot of estimates of what would have to be cut if Proposition 57 and 58 hadn’t passed Tuesday. He said they were prepared for the worst.
“Even if we had to cut back five percent, that would have been four million dollars we would have had to cut,” Hanson said.
“If 57 hadn’t passed, we would have probably reduced some sections; we would have continued the hiring freeze and we would have had to start controlling our spending significantly.”
