politics

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Recalling the Recall

Byuclafaculty

It’s all yours, Arnold. We are getting to the 10th anniversary of the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and his replacement by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  One of the events that followed was a UC “compact” with the new governor that was worthless; as soon as the state had budgetary problems, the compact disappeared.  A key problem was that the governor doesn’t appropriate funds; the legislature does.  Nonetheless, there were photo ops: Compact buddies For nostalgia buffs, here is a video history of the recall in three parts:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt7O-yyzFJs?feature=player_detailpage] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUZZQ11u6w?feature=player_detailpage] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6eSlO46FnA?feature=player_detailpage] Finally, the comic side from Harry Shearer:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WR6T3JG6R8?feature=player_detailpage]

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Fossils

Byuclafaculty

If you have listened to the public comment sessions at Regents meetings posted on this blog, you will have heard statements from a student group pushing the Regents to divest its pension and other portfolios from “fossil fuels.”  By this demand, the group – which is part of a national movement – appears to mean not just oil-coal-gas producers but also at least some major utilities.  We have noted that there are problems with using other peoples’ money to favor or disfavor particular political/social causes, partly involving the esoteric elements of finance and returns to the portfolio, but also the…

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Orchestration of Public Pension Issue? Issue for UC?

Byuclafaculty

In a prior post, we noted that there appeared to be a campaign underway by various groups to put a public pension initiative on the California ballot.  We noted that there have been such efforts in the past, but the money needed to mount an effective campaign wasn’t forthcoming.  Now, there may be such money.  The problem for UC is that we tend to be swept into such initiatives despite the fact that the Regents adopted their own pension plan changes back in 2010. This time around, there seems to be some coordination and orchestration of the campaign, e.g.: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/30/5782679/capitol-alert-cal-tax-estimates.html…

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No Government Tomorrow?

Byuclafaculty

According to Inside Higher Ed today, a government shutdown – if it happens tomorrow – won’t much affect major student aid programs such as Pell grants but will cut off research funding.  Some smaller student aid programs may be affected, however. More details and links can be found at:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/30/shutdown-looming-outlook-colleges

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Reminder that Your Emails Aren’t Private

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin carries a story today about a demand for a UCLA professors emails. Excerpt: Two state senators have accused UCLA of withholding the records of a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences from the public, the most recent development in a conflict that has lasted about three years.  The two California senators – Minority Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) and Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) – started corresponding with UCLA about Professor John Froines’s public records earlier this year, when they noticed UCLA had not disclosed all of Froines’s emails in a past records request.Controversy over the records…

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Possible Pension Initiative Which Would Include UC

Byuclafaculty

In a move to slash the retirement benefits of public employees in California, a group of mostly conservative policy advocates has been working behind the scenes on a possible 2014 ballot initiative. A copy of the still-secret draft initiative, which could dramatically impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of Californians and send a signal nationwide, has been obtained by Frying Pan News. If enacted, the proposed law would allow the state and local governments to cut back retirement benefits for current employees for the years of work they perform after the changes go into effect. Previous efforts to curb…

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Listen to First Segment of Afternoon Session of UC Regents: 9-18-2013

Byuclafaculty

Summary: The afternoon session began with a presentation by the new president of the UC Students Assn.  He described a program to find jobs for graduate students whose careers are currently limited by the loose labor market.  He described a program focused on prisons vs. UC, the details of which were not clear.  He favored an oil severance tax and also divestment from fossil fuels.  (Some listeners might find those causes somewhat in conflict; depends on how you look at them.)    Much of the afternoon was then spent on budgetary issues.  Charts were shown indicating the volatility in tuition…

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Not Quite Enough

Byuclafaculty

If you are state budget aficionado, you may recall that last June there was a disagreement between Governor Brown and the legislative leaders as to whether to use a conservative forecast for 2013-14 state revenue.  The governor pushed for, and ultimately won, the use of more conservative forecast revenue than the LAO and the legislative leaders wanted to use. We are now two months into the fiscal year and according to the state controller, actual revenue received was below the governor’s estimate by something over $300 million.  In addition, the state is looking at some unexpected spending for such things…

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Five Seats in Search of a Regent

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times is carrying a story about Governor Brown’s seeming reluctance to fill five empty seats on the UC Board of Regents.  Speculation appears in the article about the motive.  A gubernatorial spokesperson says there is no motive.  But there could be an agenda.  The governor has been attending Regents meetings as an ex officio Regent and has noted that he is technically the president of the Board.  He has been pushing for online ed and performance standards.  (He line-item vetoed a mandate for UC he himself had inserted in the latest state budget on the promise that UC…

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More than you wanted to know about the state budget?

Byuclafaculty

It may be more than you wanted to know, but a draft chapter for California Policy Options 2014 on the California state budget (with some references to UC) is available at: http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topic/402/research/californias-sleep-well-state-budget-draft-8-31-2013  [Click on pdf to download.]