BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 290 (Knight) - Veterans: Nonresident tuition exemption
Amended: May 1, 2013 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: SB 290 exempts a student enrolling in the
California State University (CSU), or University of California
(UC) who was a member of the Armed Forces of the United States
stationed in this state on active duty for more than one year
immediately prior to being discharged from paying nonresident
tuition for up to one year if he or she files an affidavit with
the enrolling campus stating that he or she intends to establish
residency in California as soon as possible, if that student
uses this exemption within 2 years of being discharged.
Fiscal Impact (as approved on May 23, 2013): The cost of this
bill's nonresident tuition exemption to the UC and CSU depends
upon the number of veterans that meet the narrow requirements to
qualify for the exemption. This bill is likely to result in
significant revenue loss to the CSU and UC.
Background: Existing law establishes uniform residency
requirements for purposes of determining the amount of fees to
be paid by students at the UC, the CSU, and California community
colleges (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 �
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68074)
4) A student dependent of a member of the Armed Forces may
keep his or her resident classification until he or she has
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)
Existing law, recently enacted by AB 2478 (Hayashi) Ch. 405/2012
provides, for purposes of CCC fees a former member of the Armed
Forces can utilize the one-year nonresident fee exemption within
two years of being discharged provided the former member of the
Armed Forces has filed an affidavit with the CCC stating his or
her intention to establish residency in California as soon as
possible. (EC � 68075.5)
Proposed Law: SB 290 provides that a student enrolling in the
CSU or UC who was a member of the Armed Forces of the United
States stationed in California on active duty for more than one
year immediately prior to being discharged from paying
nonresident tuition for up to one year if he or she files an
affidavit with the community college stating that he or she
intends to establish residency in California as soon as
possible, if that student uses this exemption within 2 years of
being discharged.
Staff Comments: SB 290 extends the nonresident tuition exemption
provided to a narrow subset of veterans enrolling in CCCs to
that same demographic seeking to enroll in the CSU or UC.
This bill exempts veterans formerly stationed in California, who
intend to reside in the state, from paying nonresident tuition
at CSU and UC. Each affected veteran enrolling as an
undergraduate in the CSU would be eligible to pay $5,472 per
year, instead of $5,472 + $372 per unit (which would be an
additional $11,160 per year for two 15-unit course load
semesters). Each affected veteran enrolling as an undergraduate
in the UC would be eligible to pay $12,192 instead of $35,070, a
difference of $22,878.
The number of veterans who will be eligible to benefit from this
bill is not known, but it likely to be very small (although, the
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number may increase with this additional benefit). The CSU has
indicated it currently serves approximately 350 nonresident
veterans. If even 10% of them meet the other eligibility
criteria in this bill to qualify for in-state tuition under this
bill, and were full-time students, revenue loss to the CSU would
be nearly $400,000.
The committee amendments would specify that the exemption would
apply only to undergraduate enrollment.