BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1358
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Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1358 (Fong) - As Amended: April 15, 2013
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:7-4
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes organized community college student body
associations (SBAs) to hold campus-wide elections proposing a
student representation fee (SRF) of $2 per semester, instead of
the current $1, and use revenues from additional $1 increment to
fund state-level governmental affairs representatives for
community college students. Specifically, this bill:
1)Authorizes an SBA to call campus-wide elections to determine
whether to pay an SRF, and whether to increase the SRF from
one dollar ($1) per semester to two dollars ($2) per semester.
2)Changes the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the students
voting in the election to establish the SRF to a majority of
students voting.
3)Specifies that $1 of every $2 fee collected shall be expended
to establish and support the operations of an independent
statewide California Community College (CCC) student
organization that is recognized by the CCC Board of Governors
(BOG).
4)States that any college SBA that has adopted a SRF before
January 1, 2014 may elect to conduct another election to
determine if they will increase their SRF from $1 to $2.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Potential minor cost savings to the CCC Chancellor's Office,
which indicates that, while it currently budgets around
$30,000 to fund the CCC Student Senate's activities, actual
AB 1358
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expenditures have exceeded this amount in recent years.
Pursuant to current law, community college districts have
custody of SRF revenues and may retain up to 7% of these
revenues to cover district administrative costs.
2)To the extent campus-wide elections result in approval of the
higher SRF, non-state funds will be generated to support the
state-level student organization. Currently, 67 of 112 CCC
campuses have adopted the $1 SRF. Depending on the number of
campuses approving the higher SRF, additional revenues
statewide could be in the hundreds of thousands to low
millions of dollars annually.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, the 2.4 million students at
the CCC, unlike their counterparts at the University of
California and the California State University, do not have a
sustainably funded statewide student association. AB 1358
will assist CCC students in establishing and sustaining
statewide legislative and governmental advocacy through their
recognized representative organization, the CCC Student
Senate.
2)Prior Legislation . AB 2756 (Hayden)/Chapter 1238 of 1987,
established the SRF.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081