One of the saving graces for California taxpayers has been 1978’s Proposition 13 reforms that stopped the rapid escalation in property taxes by capping local property taxes at 1 percent of the property value on the day of purchase.

However, California’s progressives and politicos have been seeking to undermine those reforms for years. One savvy University of California – Los Angeles student reports on the most recent “reform” campaign at her school, that falsely links those reforms to tuition. Katie Shepherd files the following report:

“Simply put, California is broke.”

The statement, pulled directly from an event page on Facebook put up by the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s External Vice President Office, offers a sweeping explanation for the University of California’s inflated tuition rates.

This particular statement, as with many others in the event’s description, is flatly misleading.

…Contrary to the claims of Fund the UC and the EVP office, California isn’t broke. The state generated enough revenue to run a surplus for the past two years.

Later, beneath a subtitle declaring these proclamations “the facts,” the event description bemoans the priorities of the state, saying education isn’t one of them.

But anybody who followed the 2012 election cycle can tell you the state’s recent political history says otherwise. Following the passage of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30, the UC has seen some funding restored. Most visibly for students, tuition rates were frozen in return for a promised base 5 percent increase from the state.

Hall said that despite these increases, her office hopes that endeavors like Proposition 13 reform will result in tuition decreases rather than mere freezes. From a pragmatic standpoint, tuition rollbacks are a siren song in a time of fiscal tiptoeing in Sacramento.

This is made more concerning in the context of Proposition 13 reform: Promoting the reform with the promise of lowering tuition is disingenuous if no direct link exists between Proposition 13 and the UC budget.

Hall also said that an important aspect of reforming the law would be increased access to the UC because of better funding for K-12 schools. But if that’s the EVP’s goal, the organizers should say so. Obscuring the equally important issue of access behind “facts” about UC funding does the cause a disservice.

The EVP Office has the power to be a force for change in the UC, but it does not honor this position properly unless it campaigns wisely for issues that directly impact students.