Huff Speaks Out Against ‘Middle Class Scholarship Plan’

California State Assembly Democrats introduced a scholarship plan Wednesday that would slash CSU and UC tuition by about two-thirds for middle class families, but Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), who represents us in the 29th district, isn’t buying it.

Huff says that the Democrats have already slashed state college budgets by $1.5 billion, and that the state budget needs to be balanced and Governor Jerry Brown’s pension reforms need to be enacted before any changes should be made to higher education or taxes.

“Someone should remind the Speaker that it was Democrats that enacted a partisan majority-vote budget that cut $1.5 billion from UC and CSU – without a single Republican vote. It seems to me that this is similar to an arsonist that sets fires and then joins the volunteer fire department,” Huff said in a statement.

The ‘middle class scholarship plan’ would cost over one billion dollars, according to ABC News 10, and would save about 150,000 CSU students and 42,000 UC students between $16,000 and $33,000 over four years of schooling. ABC says that Democrats hope to pay for it by rescinding a tax break it gave to corporations in 2009.

“Republicans have long argued that the low income students are heavily subsidized and that the UC and CSU are relative bargains for the more affluent students. It’s always the middle class that gets squeezed as legislative Democrats continue to prioritize welfare programs and public employee salaries and pensions,” said Huff in a statement.

In order to pass, the plan would need a two-thirds majority vote.