Author: admin

  • | | | |

    No More Hired Guns?

    Byadmin

    Governor blasts California universities’ hiring of pricey presidents:Jerry Brown criticizes the trend of paying high salaries to ‘hired guns’ from out of state instead of seeking Californians who might take less Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday criticized leaders of California’s public universities for recruiting highly paid “hired guns” from across the country to run campuses instead of looking for home-grown talent that might be willing to work for lower salaries. The governor said officials at California State University and the University of California appeared in recent salary decisions to have adopted a…

  • | |

    Possible Pension Fix Coming from On High?

    Byadmin

    Could this be the ultimate deus ex machina to fix the UC pension’s unfunded liability? Unseen comet’s orbit indicates possible crash David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 2011 A stream of dusty fragments from a comet born in the outermost reaches of the solar system has hit the Earth on a path that leads astronomers to conclude the comet itself could be “potentially hazardous” if it crashes into the planet. The comet’s location is unknown, making it difficult to say when it will approach Earth, but “the orbits of the dust trail tells us that the comet is on…

  • | | |

    Maintaining a Healthy Balance

    Byadmin

    UC has maintained a kind of cautionary balance for its health plans meant to smooth out sudden bumps in health care premiums. Since the state budget has squeezed the UC budget – including using UC as a loan department – the Regents approved various actions at their July meeting to try and deal with the cash crunch. Among these was tapping the health reserve. As the letter below (a public document I have been assured) indicates, the systemwide University Committee on Faculty Welfare has expressed concern about completely depleting the fund. Apparently, that is not the intention at this time,…

  • | | | |

    Could Washington Debt-Ceiling Impasse Adversely Affect UC?

    Byadmin

    The simple answer is – as someone said – you betcha! Chaotic financial conditions – if such occur – can damage the economy, e.g., 2008, and ultimately cut into state tax revenue. Drops in the value of financial assets hurts the pension fund (and the individual 403b and 457b accounts of UC employees) and other funds UC maintains. Significant funding flows from the federal government to UC in the form of research contracts, Medicare payments, etc. Will that be interrupted? Who knows? This is one social science experiment we would do well not to undertake. Bottom Line: There is no…

  • | | | | |

    Higher Ed Dream Act (One of Them) Signed by Governor

    Byadmin

    Gov. Brown signed AB 130 by Assemblymember Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) – Student financial aid: eligibility: California Dream Act of 2011. The new law allows illegal alien children who have been raised in California to receive financial aid in public higher education institutions (UC, CSU, community colleges). However, the aid to which the law refers is private scholarship money. The issue of such aid has arisen in the controversy over tuition increases at UC. Although the university provides assistance to lower-income students, it cannot do so with public monies including tuition money to illegal alien students. Protests over UC tuition…

  • | |

    Not Again! Another Pension Initiative Filed

    Byadmin

    Ted Costa of Peoples Advocate has submitted a ballot initiative on public pensions that explicitly includes UC. Peoples Advocate is the organization originally founded by Paul Gann of the Jarvis-Gann initiative known as Prop 13. You have probably heard of Prop 13. (Joke) The organization by itself does not have funding for signature gathering. But it has a history of getting funding from others. Most notably, it kicked off the recall of Gray Davis. So I would take this initiative seriously. It has things like $100,000 caps on pensions, limits on cost of living adjustments, rules about funding, etc. It…

  • | | |

    CalPERS May Contest San Jose’s Way With Pension

    Byadmin

    As noted in prior posts, it seems clear that accumulated public pension rights of retirees and current workers cannot be voided or reduced. And it is also clear that new hires can be given lesser benefits than current workers or retirees. In the private sector, benefit formulas of current worker going forward can be made less generous. However, the degree to which that is possible in the public sector has been disputed. CalPERS takes the position that only new hires can have reduced benefits and formulas. But San Jose has a measure on the ballot that would change formulas for…

  • |

    Rooms at the Inns

    Byadmin

    UCLA (Covel on the first day) is the site of a conference sponsored by Governor Jerry Brown on “Local Renewable Energy Resources.” You can find the agenda for the event at: http://gov.ca.gov/s_energyconference.php Now here is an interesting side note to the conference. Apparently, the participants and guests can be accommodated without a big hassle (and without a new on-campus hotel). If you click on the website above, you will find the statement: Hotel information: The nearby Luxe Hotel is providing rooms at a group rate. Call (800) 468-3541 and provide the group code UCLAGOV to book a room. Below that,…

  • | | | |

    Fee vs. tax

    Byadmin

    The Sacramento Bee today runs an article on a shift in the new state budget towards “fees” and the impact on particular households. Temporary tax extensions ended in the last fiscal year. The legislature raised certain fees as a result. However, as the excerpt above shows, the dramatic fee increases occurred at UC and CSU where tuition went up, not directly by action of the legislature but through the governing boards of the two systems. The full graphic from which the excerpt above was taken and the accompanying article are at: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3790500/california-lowers-taxes-raises.html