Author: uclafaculty

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A One-Sided Deal?

Byuclafaculty

At their July meeting, the Regents are likely to endorse the governor’s tax initiative in exchange for certain promises from “senior” people in the governor’s office.  Specifically, a four-year compact with UC is on offer assuming that the initiative passes in November.Below the relevant parts of the deal are described, taken from a document on the Regents’ agenda.  Note that a) the compact is unenforceable and we had a bad experience with a supposed compact with the previous governor and b) the legislature is seemingly not involved even though the legislature is where budgets are enacted.Although the deal encompasses a…

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Final Nail in Coffin for November Pension Ballot Proposition

Byuclafaculty

At one time, Gov. Brown was insisting that there should be ballot proposition in November limiting public pensions.  As readers of this blog will know, the governor has a plan for public pensions that would override the changes the Regents enacted for the UC pension system in 2010. The time has long passed for an initiative on pensions to make it to the November ballot.  In theory, the legislature could put something on pensions on the ballot despite any time limits.  But in fact legislative Dems don’t like the governor’s plan and would be unlikely to go along with the…

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Post Mortem: What Happened Last Fiscal Year in State General Fund Cash Flows?

Byuclafaculty

Readers of this blog and state budget aficionados will recall that in June 2011, the legislature assumed $4 billion in a kind of extra phantom revenue that was unallocated among the various taxes the state was projected to collect.  Essentially, the legislature and governor assumed that a windfall would arise somewhere, but no one could say precisely where.  Nonetheless, that assumption allowed passage of a budget by a simple majority vote that was ostensibly “balanced” by some definition.   Not surprisingly, now that the state controller has released the cash flows for full fiscal year 2011-12 (which ended June 30,…

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Numbers Game Mainly Over for November Ballot Propositions

Byuclafaculty

The legislature and Governor Brown succeeded in getting the governor’s tax initiative at the top of the ballot (as Prop 30).  There is still some litigation on the numbering issue going on but below is the likely listing you will see in November: Prop 30 – Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax increase planProp 31 – State budget process changesProp 32 – Ban on payroll deductions for political contributions; ban on contributions to candidates from unions and corporationsProp 33 – Auto insurance rates based on driver’s history of coverageProp 34 – Death penalty repealProp 35 – Increased penalties for human traffickingProp 36…

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The Hotel: It’s Twins!

Byuclafaculty

UCLA’s Plan C for the hotel/conference center and the July Regents meetings has now been released.  It’s basically Plan B – the version prepared for the March Regents meeting – with different text.  Here’s the thing: As long as it’s a 250-room hotel (or whatever euphemism is used to avoid the word hotel), it has the same flaw.  How are you going to fill up all those rooms without taking commercial business?  And if you start taking questionable business, the local commercial hotel owners have every incentive to call the IRS.  Of course, any occupancy rate can be assumed for…

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Questions Raised About Parking Reimbursement for Proposed UCLA Hotel/Conference Center

Byuclafaculty

The proposed UCLA hotel/conference center would involve demolition and removal of the parking spaces of parking structure #6 (shown at left).  UCLA policy is to reimburse the parking service for such demolitions.  In the UCLA case, however, the planned reimbursement seems over $10 million less than policy would require.  Parking expert Prof. Donald Shoup – author of the acclaimed book “The High Cost of Free Parking” – examined the planned reimbursement and has questioned the proposed reimbursement on behalf of the UCLA Faculty Welfare Committee, a committee of the campus Academic Senate. The Faculty Welfare Committee’s minutes for the June…

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Will the UCLA Hotel Pass the Sniff Test in November?

Byuclafaculty

We noted in a blog posting yesterday that the UCLA proposal for a 250-room hotel/conference center is back on the Regents’ July agenda.  Also on the agenda is discussion of the recently-enacted state budget and the governor’s November tax initiative.  The Regents are likely to endorse the ballot initiative which, as prior posts have noted, is not polling as well as it should at this stage. So an interesting question for the Regents is whether the hotel passes the sniff test for wise spending of UC (and UCLA) resources.  Given all the fiscal difficulties UC has faced in recent years,…

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The 250-Room Whatchamacallit is Back on the Regents Agenda

Byuclafaculty

The Regents’ agenda for the July 17-19 meeting is now posted.  The UCLA hotel/conference center is back on the agenda as item GB2.  It is now called a “conference and guest center.”   UCLA still is in denial that a 250-room establishment is a hotel.  Perhaps it should be called a No-Tel in view of the denial.  The material the Regents will consider is not attached to the agenda in keeping with no tell; at least it is not attached as of 9:30 AM today but the link is: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jul12/gb.pdf Other items of interest: As expected, the proposal for tuition…

They’re back! The Return of the Banned Berkeley Farmers

Byuclafaculty

Remember the unwanted “farmers” who took over an agricultural research tract owned by UC-Berkeley – and were eventually evicted? You might have thought they issue was – well – dead, but they’re back.  From the Daily Cal: Members of Occupy the Farm broke into UC-owned research land in Albany Saturday morning in order to weed and harvest crops they planted during their three-week occupation of the land that ended in May.  The approximately 50 activists on hand at the land known as the Gill Tract were spurred to action by a scheduled harvest by the city of Albany to which…