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Education Initiative Enters Circulation

Tax to Pay Tuition and Fees at California Public
Universities. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponents of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for their measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponents and to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponents and to county elections officials, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Attorney General's official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

TAX TO PAY TUITION AND FEES AT CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE. Adds .7 percent to personal income tax rate applied to taxable income over $250,000 (over $342,465 if filing as head of household), and adds 1.7 percent to personal income tax rate applied to taxable income over $500,000 (over $684,930 if filing as head of household). Allocates new revenue to pay up to four years' tuition and fees for full-time undergraduate California residents attending University of California or California State University who maintain minimum 2.7 grade point average or perform 70 hours of annual community service. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Annual loss of state tuition revenue of about $2.8 billion per year beginning in 2013-14, backfilled by additional state personal income tax revenue that is likely to total $2 billion or more per year. Potential shortfalls in university resources in some fiscal years would have to be addressed through some combination of cost reductions and alternative funding sources, which could create pressure on the state General Fund. (11-0086)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1559 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 11-0086.

The proponents for this measure, Suneal Kolluri, Richard Boettner and Kara Duros, must collect signatures of 807,615 registered voters – the number equal to eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponents have 150 days to circulate petitions for this measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by June 21, 2012.

The initiative proponents can be reached at suneal@gmail.com, richlizalex@sbcglobal.net and karaac@gmail.com. No phone number was provided.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia .

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