COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

My Republican colleagues and I recently rolled out a budget plan that contains $22 billion in solutions to our budget crisis — without raising taxes and without any gimmicks.

The Legislature must make significant cuts in order to solve the short term problems, while including reform, such as a hard spending cap, to ensure that California can live within its means in the future. With this said, there are vital areas of the budget that we must protect, and one of those is education. That is why our budget proposal keeps the promise we made to our students and parents by continuing to fund education through Proposition 98. My Republican colleagues and I are also proposing measures to give schools flexibility and relief from mandates so that more money ends up in the classroom and not wasted on bureaucracy. But there are other areas of education that need reform — one of which is a law that allows some illegal immigrants to pay much less for college tuition than some American citizens.

This law is a prime example of an ideological expense that can be cut in order to save money and avoid raising taxes on struggling families. Illegal immigrants were given this financial benefit when Democrats passed Assembly Bill 540 in 2001. Under AB 540, qualifying illegal immigrants are allowed to pay in-state tuition of $3,048 per year to attend a California State University. But a legal citizen who is a resident of Nevada would have to pay out-of-state tuition of $10,170 per year to attend a CSU. This means the state is losing at least $7,000 in revenue per illegal immigrant. For the University of California the taxpayer subsidy is even higher. Resident fees are $4,466 while non-residents pay $14,770 — a difference of $10,202 per year per student.

Eliminating this subsidy would not deny illegal immigrant students the opportunity to attend the University of California; it would merely treat them the same as we treat all other students who are not legal residents of California. While it is important for young people to become educated so that they can be better prepared for the job market, we must not provide benefits to illegal immigrants at the expense of our own citizens who are here legally. Even if an illegal immigrant has graduated from a California high school, we cannot grant a tax subsidy to non-citizens.

The California State Supreme Court has indicated that it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of this law later this year or early in 2010. My hope is that common sense will prevail. Californians rightfully demand action now.

Repealing AB 540 should be a no-brainer. Doing so will result in an estimated annual cost savings of $75 million. And with the state’s budget deficit reaching unprecedented levels, what limited funds are available should be used to benefit the legal residents of California.

JIM SILVA represents the 67th Assembly District.