The California State University Board of Trustees voted Thursday to raise tuition fees 8 percent next fall for undergraduates and 10 percent for graduates. I would not be surprised by another 10 percent hike from the state for 2005. I believe there is hope for the future in a proposal by California Treasurer Phil Angelides.

The California Hope Endowment is a plan by Angelides that could generate up to $300 million a year for the CSU system by transferring management of over $5 billion in state-owned property to a public trust corporation. These funds could be used for various programs like financial aid, grants, college preparation and outreach programs and to improve counseling and support for high schools and community colleges.

According to the State Treasurer’s Web site, “The California Hope Endowment would be funded by a transfer of State-owned property — including offices, industrial property, warehouses and non-environmentally sensitive urban land clearly suitable for development — from the bureaucracy to the CalHope Trust, a public trust corporation that would manage the property like a business on behalf of the taxpayers and the Endowment.

“The Trust would be empowered to buy, lease, build and sell properties and to enter into joint ventures with private sector firms, the State’s pension funds, and local communities.”

To give you an idea of how similar programs work, the California Public Employees Retirement System makes over $1 billion a year from returns on their real estate portfolio to fund state pensions.

A lot of issues are to be worked out if such a plan will ever happen. The CalHope Endowment is only a proposal, and it will need to make it through both houses in the state Legislature with the governor having the final say.

If Proposition 60A passes, which pays on the bonds we sold to balance the budget from the sale of surplus state property, it could minimize the financial impact of the endowment. There is also the question of whether it is fair to devote all the profits from such a program to the CSU system, while other programs the state pays for gets the budget chop.

One thing is for sure, something needs to be done to keep higher tuition fees from spiraling upward. The passing of Proposition 57 and 58 earlier this year has made cuts in entitlement programs and increased fees for higher education a forgone conclusion.

Proposition 58 prohibits borrowing to cover budget deficits, and it appears the only option left to keep costs from skyrocketing for CSU would be in endowment programs like the one proposed by Angelides.

We have a quagmire in the state budget. Unless we see revenues jump dramatically, I do not see an end to the suffering of our bank accounts. If you are not sick and tired of politics yet, then express yourself to a representative or senator that you support an endowment plan like Angelides’.