Hollywood is More Important Than Education in California

Last February, Hollywood was given a late Christmas present when Assembly Bill 15xxx was passed behind closed doors with no hearings. The tax revision bill put a huge film credit and single-sales-factor change in one package, benefiting the film industry as well as non-entertainment companies.

Those benefitting from the tax breaks donated heavily to Schwarzenegger and measures on a May special election ballot. Those companies included Walt Disney, NBC Universal and parent company General Electric.

Two-part gift to the film industry at the expense of education

The film tax credit portion of AB 15xxx alone gives the film industry an unfairly rich tax break. The program has been funded for five years at $100 million per year. The Franchise Tax Board says the tax policy change will save the film industry $58 million each year by 2015-16.

The single-sales-factor change allows companies to report only the income made on sales in the state and disregard property holdings or payroll that were previously taxed. The Franchise Tax Board estimates this change will cost the state $260 million in revenues starting in 2010-11, working its way up to $1.05 billion in 2015-16.

How does the University of California funding compare to Hollywood?

The University of California system has been on a steady decline in state funding since 1990, when California contributed $16,000 per student. That amount has now dropped to $7,300 per student.

With the UC system being squeezed, administrators are desperately cutting the budget right and left without taking the time to study the impact some of those cuts will make on the community in which they're located.

UC Santa Barbara is a case in point. The university has had an Off Campus Studies program in Ventura for 35 years giving university access to students in the Ventura area. In the 1990's, the Ventura Center was cited on the floor of the State Assembly as an example of how other UC's should model their Off Campus programs. Today, it's the last remaining Off Campus Studies program in the UC system, proudly offering degree programs to non-traditional students who would otherwise be unable to attend classes at the UCSB main campus.

How have budget cuts affected UCSB Ventura?

Although many programs at UCSB are having their budget belts tightened, the Ventura campus is now scheduled to be eliminated altogether. The UCSB budget is lacking $46 million dollars and decided that the cost of running the Ventura campus was too high to continue. It's a sad sign of the times when a yearly budget of $500,000 is slashed completely from the books to help bridge the budget gap of $46 million. The closure of the Ventura Center means there will no longer be local access to classes and programs used by more than 200 people.

What are the Ventura students' options?

For those students unable to finish their degree program by the close of the campus, believed to be scheduled for as early as June 2010, chances are they will have to abandon their education for lack of access to the main UCSB campus. These students are non-traditional, meaning they don't have the means to spend the day on campus because of family obligations, jobs, and other personal issues.

Hollywood bailout steals from education and California's future

The huge amount of money that went into the film industry in February of this year has diverted tax income from state coffers that might otherwise have been used to fund our state's withering education system.

There are cutbacks everywhere, but education is an investment in the future and should not be cut in favor of an industry that is known for frivolous overspending. The university uses a comparatively small amount to put out competent and contributing members of society who bolster the economy. When there are fewer educational opportunities, will the film industry be the one to maintain the high standards in every sector of California business?

California residents are allowing this decline in their education system to happen by continuing to support legislators who are influenced by money rather than moral obligations to their constituents. When students find that university is out of their reach financially, we will have only ourselves to blame.

Sources:
Personal Experience
The Wall Street Journal
Deadline: Hollywood
The Sacramento Bee