Gov. Jerry Brown (courtesy Creative Commons)

Brown previously signed budget bills that reduced California’s deficit by $11.2 billion from the original $26.6 billion to $15.4 billion. Of that, $1.4 billion has already been cut out of higher education programs.

The possible increase in UC tuition comes as Brown tries to compromise with Republicans on a proposal for special election taxes. He asked for a special election to ask voters to extend a temporary increase to sales, personal income and vehicle taxes.

Current tax increases expire June 30, but Brown wants them renewed for five years.

Hopes to extend these taxes in a June election have been undercut by an inability to get the two necessary Republican votes in each house of the state Legislature.

"We've got to get them. If we don't get them, we are going to crash," he said of the GOP votes to The Riverside Press-Enterprise. "Because I'm not going to sit here and paper it over, and kick the can down the road. ... We're at a crossroads, and I believe just as they're threatening to close the government down in Washington, and they're fighting, the two parties, I think California ought to set the example that the two parties can come together and we can find some common ground."

If Republicans do not approve these tax increases, Brown may propose an all-cuts budget.

Brown said in address to the California Hospital Association on Wednesday that UC undergraduate fees could reach up to $25,000 a year if Legislature approves the all-cuts budget. That could also mean tuition for out-of-state students could be push into the range of private universities such as USC.

Current UC tuition is about $12,000 for in-state students and is already scheduled to rise by more than $900 a year next fall.

"It's going to make it harder for people to go to school. You have higher loans, and the quality of life of California is being undermined," Brown told The Press-Enterprise.

Many students protested the previous tuition increases in schools including UCLA and UC Irvine. The federal government, meanwhile, appears on the course of reducing grants for low-income college students.

The facebook group CSU, UC and California Community College students against budget cuts created a group of almost 10,000 members in an “attempt to organize students from as many California public universities and colleges as possible so as to create a more unified movement against budget cuts. Hopefully we can create a network which will connect student leaders from all campuses so that protests and other demonstrations can be felt at the statewide level.”

Students at UCLA are holding a concert Thursday, April 14 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. to protest hikes in tuition prices. They will be shutting down the 300 block on S. Spring Street in front of Brown's office and hope to have over 7,000 attend.

University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges presidents have already lead rallies at the state Capitol to preserve funding. On Tuesday the schools’ presidents met with Brown.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office claims that closing the remaining deficit would require $5 billion of cuts in K-12 schools, $585 million of cuts in community colleges, $1.1 billion in cuts from universities, a 10 percent increase in student fees at California State University campuses and $1.2 billion in cuts to health and social services.

Republicans are arguing instead for rollbacks in public employee pensions, reduced regulations and a spending cap.

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