Think of all the people with money in California: Silicon Valley dot-commers, Hollywood movie stars and San Francisco blue-bloods. So when there’s an important cause that needs funding — say, K-12 outreach — it’s obvious where the state should go begging for money: UCSD students.

If that strikes you as a non-sequitur, then you should oppose the upcoming fee referendum recently approved by Associated Students that would increase student fees by $3 starting next year to pay for Student-Initiated Outreach.

Not that Student-Initiated Outreach isn’t a good cause; it can be a valuable opportunity for students to interact with the community and help out those who are less fortunate. But at a time when the state is cutting funding for K-12 programs in general, it would set a dangerous precedent for students to increase their financial burden.

Passing such a referendum would shift some of the financial burden from the state to a group of Californians among the least able to pay more. And as good a cause as outreach is, it’s probably a bad idea to send Sacramento the message that if a cause is important enough, students will shell out. It’s also probably not the best way to express our collective displeasure at rising student fees and falling financial aid.

Even if the referendum is passed, collecting $3 from each student would only total a little more than $50,000. To put that into perspective, the baseball that San Francisco Giants left-fielder Barry Bonds hit for his record-setting 73rd home run sold for $450,000. A grilled-cheese sandwich purported to bear the image of the Virgin Mary — and with a bite already taken out of it — went for $28,000 on eBay. Even a new Chevy Silverado — the official truck of an “American Revolution” — goes for more than $35,000. So basically, a grilled-cheese sandwich and a Silverado could pay for this worthy cause, if only Sacramento would expend the political capital to increase the proposed 2005-06 budget by about 0.00000058 percent, or at least to get some of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood buddies to hold a telethon or something.

Traditionally, self-assessed fees have been used for things that improve the quality of life for students only. They’re self-assessed to pay for expenses that we can’t justify to California’s taxpayers, such as RIMAC or Student Center. But to change the nature of the fees to include funding for general policy initiatives is like painting a giant target on the collective backs — and wallets — of students. The next thing you know, we could be paying for everything from a larger portion of financial aid to wage increases for UC staff members. Not that these, along with outreach, aren’t good causes, but that’s precisely the point. They are programs that serve California in general, which makes it ludicrous that the burden for paying for them should fall soley on the shoulders of college students.

So as the referendum approaches, remember this: It’s not about the cause, it’s about the principle. If the state proposed a special tax on UCSD students to pay for something that didn’t directly benefit UCSD students, but benefited the state as a whole, student groups would probably be up in arms.

Undoubtedly, the state is in a tight financial situation and as Californians, we should all do our part to promote fiscal responsibility. But if the situation is so dire that Schwarzenegger needs to hit up students for 50K, then we should probably move to Oregon.