Gov. Jerry Brown joined state Democratic leaders Monday afternoon to announce that they have agreed on a newly revised budget plan — which includes an additional $150 million cut each to the University of California and California State University systems, bringing the total cuts for each system to $650 million if the plan is enacted.
The new plan, which lawmakers will begin voting on Tuesday and can be passed by a simple majority vote, seeks to close the state’s $9.6 billion deficit by partially relying on $4 billion in tax revenues, but states that about $2.6 billion in spending cuts would occur if the income does not surface.
If the revenues do not materialize, both K-12 and higher education could be hit with deeper mid-year cuts.
UC President Mark Yudof has said the university could absorb the current $500 million cut it faces without raising tuition but that any additional cuts would likely mean fee hikes throughout the system.
If the proposed plan pushes through, the likely result will be a double-digit tuition increase on top of the 8 percent hike already approved for next year, according to UC officials.
“The latest state budget plan is deeply disappointing,” reads a statement from the UC Office of the President. “If the governor and Legislature impose $650 million in funding cuts on the University of California, the impact will be felt by Californians in every part of the state. Because cuts of this magnitude inevitably will drive up tuition for public university students and their families, we cannot stand silent. While we recognize the enormity of the fiscal challenge facing the state, we continue to oppose further cuts, and support any efforts that will restore long-term stability to state funding of higher education.”
Brown vetoed a budget passed by Democratic legislators June 15 that included the same cut to the UC and CSU, stating that the budget was not balanced and would not address the state’s long-term financial woes.
Brown’s veto of the Democrats’ previous plan — the first in state history — was followed by a decision by state Controller John Chiang to halt pay for lawmakers until the budget is resolved. Under Proposition 25, which was approved by voters in November, lawmakers forfeit their pay for every day the Legislature fails to pass a balanced budget.
Though Democratic lawmakers had passed a budget by the June 15 deadline, Chiang determined that it was not balanced, therefore halting legislators’ pay until a balanced budget is adopted.
Full story to follow.
Allie Bidwell is the news editor.
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Should nonresidents be charged more for summer attendance? I understand foreigners are charged $500 more already, but should Michigan residents? Consider first, that many summer sessions profs are foreigners or from Michigan, should they be paid less?The Onion” is a parable told by Ivan Karamazov in a Russian novel I read for a literature survey course given by a foreigner in a 1960′s summer session at dear old Cal. In it, a wretched old woman, who reportedly never committed a single good deed in her life, dies, and is sent to “the lake of fire.” Her guardian angel testifies that she actually did commit one good deed: she once gave an onion to a beggar. God tells the guardian angel to take the onion, let her grab it, and be pulled out of the lake. If she is able, she can then be pulled to paradise. This is done, and she begins to be pulled out. However, the other damned in the lake start to grab on to her, trying to be pulled out along with her. The woman kicks the others, and says it is her onion and her right to go. At that, the onion broke, and the woman falls back into the lake.
better than $500m i guess…but still waiting for the tuition increase :(
Consider that our fellow Cal alum Dick Blum (regent and immediate past chair thereof) holds $700 million in for-profit college stock. When I asked him if that figure was correct, he said his investment company and not him held it, and that he had purchased it before he married DiFi. For-profit colleges, while enrolling 11 percent of students nationwide, accrue 85-90% of their budget stream from federal grants and loans. Before restructuring UCs (e.g, merging them with Cal States and/or California CCs — and then eliminating those in the worst financial straits) it makes sense to eliminate those fraudulent and deceptive (‘bad actors’) who drive so many dreamholders into Bush era bankruptcy.
going of a tangent here but, since ive heard this a lot…is there really a need to restructure the university system? i mean things are pretty bad, but there really not that dire
after all, UCOP can always choose the penn state private university model…and CSU and CCC all charge very very little for tuition