BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          AB 2478 (Hayashi) - Student residency requirements: Veterans.
          
          Amended: August 6, 2012         Policy Vote: Education 8-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: Yes
          Hearing Date: August 16, 2012                               
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez                       
          
          SUSPENSE FILE.

          
          Bill Summary: AB 2478 provides that a California Community 
          College (CCC) student who was a member of the Armed Forces 
          stationed in California for more than one year immediately prior 
          to being discharged, is exempt from paying nonresident fees for 
          up to one year, if he or she files an affidavit with the 
          community college stating an intent to establish California 
          residency, as specified.

          Fiscal Impact: Significant revenue loss to the CCCs, and cost 
          pressure to backfill from the General Fund. See staff comments.
          
          Background: Existing law establishes uniform residency 
          requirements for purposes of determining the amount of fees to 
          be paid by students at the University of California, the 
          California State University, and CCC and establishes various 
          exceptions to these residency requirements, including the 
          following:

             1)   A member of the Armed Forces who is stationed in the 
               state on active duty, except a member assigned for 
               educational purposes.  (Education Code § 68075)

             2)   A member of the Armed Forces who is transferred to 
               another state but continuously enrolled at a college in 
               California.  (EC § 68075)

             3)   A student who is a dependent of a member of the Armed 
               Forces stationed in this state on active duty.  (EC § 
               68074)

             4)   A student dependent of a member of the Armed Forces may 
               keep his or her resident classification until he or she has 








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               resided in the state for the minimum time necessary to 
               become a resident in the event the member of the Armed 
               Forces upon whom they are dependent is transferred outside 
               of the state or retires as an active member of the Armed 
               Forces.  (EC § 68072)

          Proposed Law: AB 2478 exempts a CCC student who was a member of 
          the Armed Forces stationed in California for more than one year 
          immediately prior to being discharged, from paying nonresident 
          fees for up to one year, if he or she files an affidavit with 
          the community college stating his or her intent to establish 
          California residency.

          Related Legislation: AB 2250 (Gaines) 2012 would provide that a 
          student, or spouse of a student, who is an active member of the 
          Armed Forces who has served at least 2 years, is exempt from 
          paying nonresident fees and tuition at California's public 
          postsecondary institutions.  This measure was held under 
          submission in the Assembly Appropriations committee. 

          Staff Comments: This bill exempts veterans formerly stationed in 
          California, who intend to reside in the state, from paying 
          non-resident tuition at CCCs. Each affected veteran would be 
          eligible to pay $46 per unit, rather than $244 per unit. For 
          each full time student (enrolled in 30 units per academic year), 
          the CCC would lose $5,920 in fee revenue. If even 10 students 
          benefit from this bill, the resulting fee revenue loss would 
          meet the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.

          The number of veterans who will be eligible to benefit from this 
          bill is not known. There are currently approximately 44,000 
          veterans enrolled in CCCs statewide. If 1% of them were 
          full-time students newly eligible to pay resident tuition rates, 
          the resulting fee loss would be approximately $2.6 million. The 
          CCC system budget assumes a certain amount of fee revenue each 
          year. Fee revenue losses result in General Fund cost pressure to 
          backfill the lost revenue in order to continue to provide 
          necessary programs.

          This bill does not make affected veterans eligible for Board of 
          Governors (BOG) fee waivers, because it only waives non-resident 
          fees requirements, rather than providing that they meet 
          residency requirements (needed for BOG fee waiver eligibility).









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