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	Vol.7, No 59, December 13-17, 1999
			*Holiday Guide 99'*
	Lawmakers back textbook tax drop By Andres Cardenas Daily Forty-Niner After months of meetings about repealing taxes on textbooks, the student representatives from California State University student governments have California legislators listening to them. Assemblywoman Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-79th District, and Assemblyman Ken Maddox, R-68th district, have expressed interest in having textbooks tax-free. Both have discussed working together on this project. "I believe that we should liberate learning from the tyranny of taxation," Maddox said. Maddox said he knows how expensive textbooks are. He is currently working on a master's degree. Maddox became interested in the project when he read an article in the OC Weekly about students working on repealing textbook taxes. Maddox said students can save about $8 for every $100 spent. "To a college student that is still some money," Maddox said. Ducheny spokesman Kevin McCarty said that Ducheny has written bill AB 490 and that it will be presented to the Legislature when it reconvenes in January.  Ducheny has a history of making college affordable. She was the author of the bill that recently cut state tuition by 10 percent in two years. She is also the chairwoman of the Assembly's budget committee where the new bill is likely to make a stop.  Maddox said the biggest problem the bill faces is how Gov. Gray Davis may interpret the loss in state revenue and how it might affect the state budget. However Maddox said he feels confident. "The overall benefit outweighs any negative effect," Maddox said. The students involved with the bill's initial stages said they have learned a lot while they have worked on the project and were fortunate to be a part of it. "Imagine having the opportunity to say to someone that I helped change the system, and made a student's life a little bit easier," said Cal State Fullerton A.S.I. President Ashik H. Popat. "That's the true incentive about this whole initiative." "I think the one thing that I probably remember the most about this is learning how to lobby," said CSULB A.S.I. President Toby Sexton. "It is about the finesse of brining an issue and convincing assembly people and legislative members that this is something they need to buy into because it is going to benefit the people they represent." The ultimate success of the bill will not be determined until next year. "By the end of next summer we will have our answer," McCarty said.		Freshmen dropout rate declines   Educators fight for district seat   Lawmakers back textbook tax drop   Disease common in U.S. colleges   Student aims for U.S. presidency   SEMESTER IN REVIEW   Millennium celebrations across the Southland   Holiday mail volume skyrockets   L.B. 99 percent ready for Y2K, officials say   500 bands to be at first city celebrating 2000   Y2K bug exterminated at CSULB, CSU system   Cultural Christmas NASA wasting space   President pitches reading program   Big market for booze in Long Beach Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.