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I have something for you to think about. I live, work, and pay taxes in California. There are many things that happen here that piss me off, but none more than taking more money out of my paycheck.
California has a $12.4-billion budget deficit. For those of you that stay away business classes, this means that the state intended on spending a specified amount of money to operate the state. Instead of spending only that amount of money, they spent $12.4 billion more.
What is California doing about this deficit? The first instinctual idea is to raise taxes, to increase revenue for the state. This has been discussed, but taxes are already so high in California. If you raise more revenue, you in-a-sense can make up the deficit. But it never is that easy. You must also change spending habits, in order to change the deficit. This has been evaluated, and it was determined that it may cost millions of dollars to change the state's spending practices.
While some state officials are trying to figure out how to solve that problem, others are figuring out new ways to spend more money.
A new debate has risen in California over a new tuition law that will make college more accessible to illegal immigrants. The new law will allow illegal immigrants to pay the same tuition as in-state students. This is dependent on the illegal immigrant having graduated from an in-state high school.
One side praises the law, citing that illegal immigrants will now be able to afford college. This will increase the enrollment of illegal immigrants, and increase the rate of college attendance among a district's high school graduates. Understand that there are schools in California where up to 10% of the graduating class in made up of illegal immigrants. They can now graduate college and live out the "American dream."
On the opposite side of the debate is where I'm finding myself standing. The new law is expected to increase the amount of illegal immigrants. So taxpayers, like myself, will have to bear the burden of another hand out to someone who, legally, isn't supposed to be in this country.
I do not want to come off as just another person bitching about laws and taxes in California. If that were the case I would spend a couple weeks ranting about gun control issues. Before that happens, I would like to let you know how this affects you.
Did you know that there were bills in federal legislature, prior to September 2001, that addressed the issue of providing financial assistance to illegal immigrants? The bills would overturn the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that disallows colleges and universities to give the in-state discount to illegal immigrants. Had the bills passed, taxes from your part-time student job would be used to pay the tuition of an illegal immigrant.
To look at it another way, there are many of you that came to Ball State University that live outside of Indiana. While you have to pay out-of-state tuition, the person sitting next to you in class, could move to Indiana illegally from another country, and not be charged out-of-state fees. Does this seem right?
There are an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants in the United States right now. These people fight for the same entry-level jobs you do. They fight for the same seat in the classroom you do (this is assuming that you are an astute member of your class that tries to show up on time).
The events of September have reprioritized the concerns of our government, and the federal focus has changed from pro-immigration to anti-immigration. But states do not always see eye-to-eye on federal issues. California is not the first state to enact pro-illegal immigrant tuition discounts, but it is beginning to look as though it may be one of the first to overturn it. Until then I will become more actively involved in reducing the amount of taxes taking from my paycheck.
Write to Rex at rantinrex@hotmail.com
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