Lt. Gov.: state must get 'tough love'

Fresno State alum says he'll lower two-year college fees, CSU's later

By Adrian Rodriguez

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who attended Fresno State in the mid-1970s, promised on Sunday to stabilize the state’s budget deficit and reduce community college fees for its students at a downtown homecoming rally.

“ I am the only candidate to spell out how I will close the budget deficit,” he said.

In his speech to thousands of Valley residents at the New Exhibit Hall in downtown Fresno,

Bustamante turned his campaign focus from denouncing the recall effort to informing voters that they have a right to vote for a governor regardless of their decision about the recall.

“ Finding my name on the ballot will take a few extra minutes,” he said. “There are 135 names... Don’t rush. Find my name and carefully cast your ballot.”

Bustamante also spoke out against Prop 54, an initiative that would prohibit state forms from tracking residents according to their race or ethnicity.

“ Proposition 54 is an attack on our public health system and it must be defeated,” he said.

Bustamante also said he sought to undo “unfair” University of California admissions policies as a UC regent.

Although he said community college fees would be reduced under his state budget plan, called “Tough Love for California,” Bustamante did not say it would help to reduce the student fees that four-year college students face.

“ It raises tobacco and alcohol taxes. It lowers the car tax. It lowers community college fees,” he said. “It makes sure that everyone — top to bottom — pays their fair share, no more, no less.”

The “Tough Love” plan also attacks MediCal fraud, corporate loopholes and excess spending, Bustamante said.

“ I will make the tough budget decisions,” he said. “And I’ll protect education.”

California State University student fees may increase next year for a third time and many believe the hardest cuts are yet to come for the CSU system.

He blamed the deficit partly on energy corporations he said used market power to hike Californian’s utility bills.

“ We had a $10 billion surplus and they stole it from us,” Bustamante said. “And now 50,000 kids can’t afford the higher college tuition we have to charge.”

Bustamante’s campaign consultant Richie Ross said four-year college students can expect some help in the future from Bustamante, but he has made community college fees a priority because community college students are typically poorer and more can be helped per-dollar.

“ We have to get rid of the deficit first,” Ross said. “Nothing good’s going to happen until he becomes governor. We have an $8 billion hole, and nobody’s talking about it except for him.”

Bustamante studied public administration at Fresno State from 1973 to 1977. During his stint he served as a student senator and on the board of directors for the Fresno State College Association, now called the California State University, Fresno Association.

But his ties to a Chicano student group called MEChA drew scrutiny from his opponents, some of whom compared the organization to the Ku Klux Klan. Bustamante made no mention of these criticisms.

But College of the Sequoias student, Nicholas Montoya, a member of MEChA, said the organization is no longer the same it was in the 1970s.

“ We’ve evolved so far past that,” he said. “I came to hear what he has to say, that he doesn’t cut education.”

Fresno State professor Sudarshan Kapoor said he remembers when Bustamante was a student.

“ He was a good student; a rabble-rouser,” Kapoor said. “He always had a calm and quiet posture. I could see that he’s a peacemaker. Even in those days also. He was good at getting different viewpoints together, which is very important to California.”