governor

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Whoops

Byuclafaculty

No, things are not as bad as the picture suggests. But the state controller reports that through November, receipts are about $800 million below the original budget estimates (which include Prop 30).  About half of the missing revenue is attributable to corporate profits tax net receipts.  The controller also notes that Facebook’s IPO produced less for the state than expected.  And expenditures are up more than $2 billion above estimates.  The state isn’t running out of cash.  And there are 7 months to go in this fiscal year.  But note that these numbers are coming in at a time when…

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Dirks’ Perks Irk

Byuclafaculty

Much of the news media coverage of the appointment of the new UC-Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks involved the fact that his salary would be $50,000 more than that of his predecessor (albeit an increment paid by private funds).   You can find the salary comparison used to justify the pay level to the Regents at: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov12/c1.pdf The governor, the lieutenant governor, and one regent was unhappy with the salary and the news media picked up the complaints.  See, for example: http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_22074232/uc-berkeleys-new-chancellor-under-consideration-by-regents http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2012/11/cost-cutting-wont-come-easy-to-uc/ Probably, however, if there was to be controversy, it might have been over an item in the footnotes…

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Did I say that?

Byuclafaculty

A look backwards: Lieutenant Governor (and ex officio Regent) Gavin Newsom was interviewed on KGO radio on Oct. 17 about Prop 30 and its relation to tuition.  In the course of the interview, he criticized Governor Brown for being late to get into the campaign for the proposition and, effectively, for not telling students the truth that their tuition would rise even if Prop 30 passed. At the time, polling (which proved inaccurate) was indicating that Prop 30’s chance of passage was marginal.  And Governor Brown had just made a campaign stop at UCLA to enlist student support.  As it…

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Gov. Brown on UC online education & budget

Byuclafaculty

Last Wednesday, we posted the audio of the UC Regents meeting of that day which Governor Brown attended as an ex officio Regent.  We noted in that posting that he pushed for UC to move into online education.  And he indicated that without such a shift in the “paradigm,” UC could not receive enough funding from the state to prevent continued increases in tuition.  For the convenience of blog readers, below is an excerpt from that meeting in which these views are expressed by Governor Brown: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKX-F5OCBJc?feature=player_detailpage]

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Wishlist budget adopted by Regents

Byuclafaculty

As expected, the Regents adopted the budget – which the governor on Wednesday termed a wishlist – yesterday.  The value of adopting a wishlist budget which will not be funded as requested was debated on Wednesday but adopted by the Committee on Finance of the Regents.  We posted the audio of that meeting, including the governor’s comments. Yours truly was in transit yesterday and so could not record the Regents’ live stream audio. We will, as usual, request the recording as a public document and post it when received. (And [sigh] again we ask why the Regents audios are not…

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More Prop 30 Election Post Mortem

Byuclafaculty

There has been much discussion as to whether it was the youth vote that ultimately passed Prop 30, the governor’s tax initiative.  Prop 30 had done marginally in the pre-election polls and appeared to be slipping.  Yet it ultimately passed with 54% of the vote.  So did this result stem from a surge in youth voters? It appears that the answer is yes and no.  The Field Poll now reports that it underestimated the youth vote when it made its calculation of likely voters.  Pollsters routinely adjust their samples to try and get at who will actually show up on…

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Listen to Afternoon Session of the Regents: Nov. 14, 2012

Byuclafaculty

The open part of the Regents meeting today after lunch was the Committee on Educational Policy segment.  (Most of the meeting was closed.)  The meeting began with some discussion of fund raising. However, most of the discussion revolved around increased enrollment of out-of-state students.  It is evident the increased number of out-of-staters is taking place for budget reasons – since such students pay full freight.  But UC reps emphasized educational benefits such as a more diverse (geographically) student body with different perspectives, especially with regard to foreign students. The top foreign nationalities among the out-of-staters were reported to be Chinese,…

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Listen to Morning Session of UC Regents: 11-14-12

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly was not able to record yesterday’s Regents’ session (Building and Grounds committee).  However, I did listen and record this morning.  [The live stream seemed to start a few minutes after the meeting began.  The recording begins in the midst of Regents chair Lansing celebrating the passage of Prop 30.]  A recording by yours truly won’t be possible of the session tomorrow due to other commitments.  But as usual, we will request the audios as public documents and post them when received. At today’s meeting, Governor Brown attended and raised questions at various points.  Some of the questions were…

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Prop 30 Election Post Mortem

Byuclafaculty

We know that Prop 30 – the governor’s tax initiative – passed with about 54% of the vote.  But the polls always showed it in a marginal position and losing support towards the end.  One possible explanation is that Prop 30 always had a plurality of “yes” votes and that undecided voters ended up voting yes in sufficient numbers to enact it. However, the political number crunchers are now raising questions about whether the pollsters’ estimates of “likely voters” were biased towards older folks who were less positive than younger voters about Prop 30. From Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee columnist:…

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Veterans’ Day and some UC/UCLA History UCOP might not want raised

Byuclafaculty

ROTC at UCLA’s old Vermont Avenue campus: 1928 Note that UCLA is closed tomorrow although Veterans’ Day is today.  There is a bit of history here.  UC did not always close on Veterans’ Day.  When Gray Davis was governor, however, someone complained about UC being open.  The governor couldn’t order UC to close but the powers-that-be went along with his request to do so.    As yours truly recalls it, the Faculty Welfare committee at UCLA – and possibly others in the Academic Senate – noted that with a ten-week fall quarter, cutting a day out of the term would…