California’s Budget Surplus
State Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) states in his article (March 18), “A State Tax Refund Would Shortchange Our Children,” that a tax cut for California in 1986 is on the “not-so-secret agenda of Democrats and Republicans alike.”
Garamendi urges that the members of the so-called “new generation of Howard Jarvis” not opt for a onetime tax refund of $30 to $50 a person but rather save the projected billion-dollar surplus for “economic uncertainties.” He reasons that by the year 2000 there will be 30% more people living in California and therefore we need to save the excess money.
There will also be 30% more people in California paying taxes, and I believe that with the influx of people there will also be a greater influx of money.
Garamendi states that California builds “universities that are the envy of the world,” and that we must “invest now and give our children the same opportunities that our parents’ investment gave us.” If California, in our parents’ time (when there were 30% less people paying taxes and no billion-dollar budget surplus), was able to build some of the “world’s finest universities,” then why won’t we be able to do so in the future?
I believe that Garamendi’s fear that a tax cut would deny our children a quality education is unfounded.
VALERIE HORCHAR
Los Angeles
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