State Budget

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Pension Deal in Legislature to Gain GOP Votes?

Byuclafaculty

There continue to be reports that the Republican price for going along with putting Gov. Brown’s proposed tax extensions on the ballot will be some kind of public pension proposition. To recap, Brown needs the legislature to put his tax extensions on the ballot by June; there is not enough time to go the petition-signature-initiative route. The legislature would normally need a 2/3 vote to do so which would require all Democrats plus 5 Republicans to agree. While there has been discussion of ways to bypass the 2/3 requirement, such an approach could lead to a legal challenge which could…

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Budget from Hell Coming Back

Byuclafaculty

Before Gov. Brown delivered his budget proposal in early January, it was speculated that he would follow a “Budget from Hell” strategy. Under that approach, he would have presented a budget on the assumption that no tax extensions were approved. Having seen Hell, voters would (presumably) gratefully vote for the tax extensions as the path out of Hell. In the end, however, he did not follow that approach. Instead, his budget was premised on the tax extensions being approved. When asked, he said that he did not believe in scare tactics – or at least he did not think scare…

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UC Testimony on Cost Savings Before Assembly Committee on Higher Ed: 1-18-11

Byuclafaculty

The chair of the UC-Berkeley Academic Senate, UC VP Peter Taylor, and a student representative testified on steps UC is taking to cut costs and improve efficiency. (This hearing is the same one at which an LAO staffer testified as shown in a prior post on this blog.) There was discussion of such things as online courses and centralization of various campus support functions. You can see the testimony in two parts below: Part 1: UC-Berkeley Senate Chair Part 2: Administration & Student

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Why the UC Pension Reform May Be Undone

Byuclafaculty

Pension reform – finally? John Diaz, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 30, 2011 Until very recently, all but a few lonely politicians had one of three reactions to the topic of pension reform: glazed eyes, denial or lip service. But that was before the revelations that top dogs in tiny working-class Bell were pillaging the town treasury for their personal gain, before 36 University of California executives threatened legal action to prevent the state from calculating their pension on a $245,000 limit instead of their actual stratospheric salaries and before the governor’s new budget asked Californians to brace for deeper budget…

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LAO Continues to Support UC Budget Cut Including Cut in Current Year

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst, in a slide presentation to the legislature, continues to argue that the governor’s cuts are reasonable, given the magnitude of the state budget crisis, and that the cut should be partially in the current year rather than all next year. Slide #7 of the presentation states: LAO assessment: proposed General Fund savings are reasonable. * Given the magnitude of the state’s budget shortfall and the universities’ current-year augmentations, we believe the magnitude of the proposed cuts is reasonable. * However, we recommend achieving some of the General Fund savings by reducing the universities’ current-year augmentations. The full…

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The Ying and Yang of the UC Pension: Brown vs. LAO?

Byuclafaculty

Two views on the UC budget (cut) and the UC pension. Jerry Brown’s flack says state won’t pay (sort of). In contrast, the LAO has no objection to the state paying in the abstract (reminder: Thanks to the UCLA Faculty Assn.!!!), but seems to want unspecified assurances. From California’s Capitol: UC Faces a Budget Hole of Not $500 Million But $700 Million Jan. 25, 2011 The University of California faces a more than $200 million deeper reduction than the $500 million proposed in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget – in part because the state refuses to make a contribution to the…

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LAO to UC: You Were Prudent So We Can’t Wait. Let’s Cut You Now Rather Than Later

Byuclafaculty

Bizarre! The LAO had previously said that instead of cutting UC (and CSU) next year, we should cut now – although we are more than half way through the fiscal year – spreading the cuts equally among the two years. I am reproducing a new report by LAO that makes the argument that UC and CSU were prudent and therefore taking away money this year won’t hurt as much. The relevant portions are in LARGE italics below. I reproduce the entire report. Scroll to the bottom for a link to a pdf version. January 24, 2011 The 2011–12 Budget: Achieving…

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Brown’s Need for Tax Extension Could Lead to High Tension on Pension

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, yours truly has noted that a public pension proposition on the ballot could override the Regents’ action last December, unless it explicitly exempted UC. It is possible there could be a proposition related to pensions as early as June. Such a proposition would not be an initiative, i.e., a proposition put on the ballot by voter petition. There is not enough time to go the initiative route. However, Jerry Brown needs to get his tax extension on the ballot by June and he needs the legislature to put it there (since, again, there is no time…