CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Teachers Support Gas Tax Measure

The California Teachers Assn. has agreed to actively support Proposition 111, a June 5 ballot measure that would modify the state’s spending limit and increase the gas tax. The decision by the 230,000-member organization is a boost for the campaign to win voter approval of the tax increase, which would add 9 cents a gallon over four years. The teachers group had threatened last December to finance a campaign against the measure. CTA President Ed Foglia said teachers were concerned that the proposed modifications in the spending limit would erase many of the gains education won in 1988 with Proposition 98, the school finance initiative. But over the weekend Foglia told the group’s policy-making body that legislative leaders have now agreed to support a bill that would guarantee that “education still gets its fair share of the state budget.”