The California Assembly passed legislation proposing that undergraduate students in the California State University system would pay no more than 30 percent of the overall annual costs of education at a California State University.

Under the bill, authored by Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, the chair of the Committee of Higher Education, undergraduate students in the University of California system, would pay no more than 40 percent of the overall cost. CSU students currently pay roughly 29 percent of the overall annual cost; the state makes up for the other 71 percent.

According to the California Senator’s Web site, the bill also proposes that undergraduate tuition fees should not increase more than 8 percent in one year. Tuition fees will also be adjusted to the statewide per capita personal income, which would be compiled by the Department of Finance.

The bill proposes that the Legislative Analyst’s Office provide the Legislature with the annual per-student cost of education for the past fiscal year, according to the Senator’s Web site.

The assembly passed the bill on the floor 53-15 on Jan. 26. If the bill gets approval from the Senate and the governor, it would go into effect on July 1, 2007.

The passing came one month after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his proposal for the 2006-07 budget. In his proposal, the governor would compensate for the cancelled student fee increases with a surplus of $54.4 million in the CSU General Fund. The UC system would receive a $75.8 million surplus in the General Fund.

In an earlier press release, Liu said, “This measure will end the annual guessing game about student fees and (will) allow students to plan for the costs of education.”

In an e-mail, Steve Boilard, the director of the higher education section at the Legislative Analyst’s Office, said, “A policy that sets student fees at a fixed percentage of education costs makes sense as a way to achieve gradual moderate and predictable changes.

“When students know they will pay a portion of any cost increases, then students will demand the university be responsible in the way it spends money.”

Student reactions to the proposed initiative of caps on tuition are agreeable.

“It’s a good and bad idea,” said Erica Tholmer, a senior business administration and psychology major. “It will benefit the students who have limited resources, but it will also limit the school’s resources.”Jon Wiley, a senior communications and government major, said, “It is nice to know that (the university administrators) do not have unlimited power.”At press time, the date of which the Senate would vote on this bill is unknown.

Jamie Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]