Author: admin

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    Who Will Bail Out UC?

    Byadmin

    The parking of a Hummer belonging to Lipstick Bail Bonds (slogan: “Kiss Jail Goodbye”) at the UCLA med center recently raises the issue of who bails out UC if the governor’s tax extensions-resumptions don’t pass. Students, apparently, will be the answer: UC tuition might jump 32% if tax proposal fails, official says UC President Mark G. Yudof tells regents that this fall’s 8% tuition increase may be dwarfed by an additional 32% midyear hike if Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for tax extensions is not approved. By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times May 19, 2011 Reporting from San Francisco — University…

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    LAO Points to Alternatives to the May Revise

    Byadmin

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has prepared its analysis of the governor’s May revise proposal. It believes that recent increases in state income tax receipts are more heavily the result of capital gains than the governor does. In the short term, i.e., through the next fiscal year, the source of the revenue doesn’t much matter. However, the LAO believes that in the outyears (beyond 2011-12), less revenue can be expected than the governor’s projection would suggest. LAO provides a similar analysis of the corporate profits tax; it has a less rosy outlook in the outyears than the governor. The LAO…

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    No End in Sight (for tuition increases)

    Byadmin

    UC leaders: Tuition hikes nearly inevitable (excerpt) Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times, 5/18/11 The University of California may charge higher tuition each of the next five years even if the state stops cutting its budget, UC leaders said Wednesday. Administrators presented four budget scenarios Wednesday to help the Board of Regents plan future budgets. Under the rosiest scenario — which is unlikely, given the state’s financial crisis — UC would raise tuition 8 percent per year, starting in 2012… Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed $500 million cuts to both the 10-campus UC and 23-campus California State University systems, and the…

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    Focusing on the Proposed Hotel/Conference Center

    Byadmin

    Some background documents regarding the proposed hotel/conference center planned to replace the Faculty Center can be accessed below. There will shortly be focus groups on campus set up on the hotel/conference center issue. If you are part of such a group, or know someone who is, you (or he/she) should be acquainted with the documents below and many others. The Academic Senate website has many pertinent documents, for example. A simple way to track the hotel/conference center issue if you are already on this blog is to type in “faculty center” in the search option and read the resulting entries….

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    Wind or Windfall in the State Budget?

    Byadmin

    There are constant headlines about a state revenue “windfall.” It refers to a projection that this fiscal year, the Dept. of Finance thinks there will be more revenue than it did back in January when Gov. Brown made his original budget proposal. The May revise was discussed in a prior post. It was noted that while more revenue was projected for the current year, it turned out that the general fund, viewed as a checking account, now seems to have been more overdrawn at the start of the fiscal year (July 1, 2010) than was thought in January. On the…

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    Video: The Governor’s May Revise News Conference

    Byadmin

    An earlier post on this blog analyzes the May Revise news conference held by Gov. Brown on May 16. There is video of that news conference on the governor’s website but – at least on my computer – it tended to pause and freeze. The version on the calchannel was even worse and caused a total crash at one point. So below is the video transplanted to YouTube by yours truly which works best. It is divided into 4 parts due to YouTube time limits. Part 2, it might be noted, contains a statement by the governor that he would…

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    BID FOR WESTWOOD?

    Byadmin

    No, not that kind of bid. BID stands for Business Improvement District. Essentially, through a process permitted under state law, local businesses form a BID which provides services (such as street cleaning and security) above and beyond what the city provides. In effect, the businesses tax themselves to pay for the added services. There are several BIDs in downtown LA, for example. Westwood went into decline after a shooting in the late 1980s seemed to scare away tourism and shoppers. The action went to Century City and Santa Monica. A BID was formed at one point but someone ran off…

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    The May Revise

    Byadmin

    Here is a preliminary look at Governor Brown’s May revise budget based in part on yours truly watching the media conference at which the May revise was presented and a look at the accompanying documents. For those concerned about UC in particular, there appears to be no change in the net $500 billion reduction previously announced. That reduction consists of a drop in the general fund contribution to UC plus the ending of federal stimulus funds. You can find this information at http://www.dof.ca.gov/budget/historical/2011-12/governors/summary/documents/BS_HED.pdf and http://www.dof.ca.gov/budget/historical/2011-12/governors/documents/May_Revision_2011-12_Summary.pdf At the more general level, let’s start with the observation that budget terminology in the…