Associated Students Inc. Senate approved the first reading of Senate Resolution 2020-09 Wednesday, which supports Proposition 13.
The proposition, which is known as the public preschool, K-12, and college health and safety bond Act of 2020, looks to raise $15 billion in general obligation bonds for maintenance in infrastructure needs for schools. The California State University system would receive $2 billion via this bond.
The author of the resolution, Sen. Dale Lendrum said that during the recent budget crisis, maintenance needs were put on the backburner and this bond measure would help ensure all of the buildings on campus are safe.
“That could be something as simple as making sure that we have locks in buildings to make sure that active shooters don’t go inside classrooms or that tiles don’t fall from ceilings or whatever the case may be,” Lendrum said.
Lendrum also mentioned the bond would provide funding for much-needed improvements, including making buildings seismically safe and updating the technological infrastructure.
“Obviously a lot of it is because our buildings are really, really old and we need to make sure that they’re safe for us and that they’re also accessible for all students,” Sen. Jireh Deng said.
The bond would be funded by an increase in taxes directed toward the costs of the measure.
“This all goes to ensuring that our CSU system continues to serve the California population well and that we continue to produce graduates to enter the California workforce,” Deng said.
ASI Senate elected Hannah Peedikayil, healthcare administration major, as Lobby Corps Student at-large and Joanna Felix-Mendez, third-year nursing major, as senator of College of Health & Human Services.
The next ASI Senate meeting will be Feb. 12 at 3:30 p.m. in USU 234.