State Budget

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Brown Indicates He Will Protect K-12 (or is it K-14?) From Budget Cuts If Voters Approve Tax Extension

Byuclafaculty

Reports are leaking out that Gov. Brown says he will protect funding for K-12 (or maybe K-14) if voters approve extending tax increases that were put into effect in Feb. 2009. Voters rejected extending those tax increases in an election in May 2009. But the strategy appears to be to confront voters with a Budget from Hell and then offer a repeat of the May 2009 choice as a way out of Hell. Prop 98 of 1988 has various formulas for K-14 funding which the legislature can suspend. So what is unclear in the leaking reports is whether the Brown…

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In Inauguration Address Jerry Brown Mentions Budget & Pensions But Mainly Talks About History and Need for Cooperation

Byuclafaculty

I have put a video of the inauguration on YouTube. It is divided into two parts to meet the time duration limits of YouTube. There are considerable references to California history and personal history of Brown ancestors. There are references to the state budget crisis and pensions but no specific proposals. Part 1 Part 2 It’s not over ’til it’s over:

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More State BudgiLeaks Suggest UC Will Be Cut

Byuclafaculty

As a prior post noted, it is traditional for governors to leak bits and pieces of their budget plans to the news media before the formal presentation. Jerry Brown will be sworn in today and undoubtedly make some budget-related remarks in his inaugural address. The formal budget comes next week. But the reality is that because the budget is a complicated document to prepare, it is already 99% done, if not 100%, and lacks only an unveiling. The latest leak explicitly mentions UC: Brown to propose broad list of budget cuts (excerpt) Jan. 03, 2011, Sacramento Bee, Kevin Yamamura The…

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The Coming Budget Brownout

Byuclafaculty

Wikipedia defines a “brownout” as follows A brownout… is a drop in voltage in an electrical power supply. The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by lighting when the voltage sags. Wikipedia then goes on to describe the impact of a brownout on various devices. Here are some of those impacts: * The heat output of any resistance device, such as an electric space heater will vary with the true power consumption, which is proportional to the square of the applied voltage. Therefore a significant loss of heat output will occur with a relatively small reduction in voltage. Similarly,…

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Regent Blum Says Consequences of More State/UC Budget Cuts Will Lead More to Internal Cuts Than Tuition

Byuclafaculty

UC regents brace for more bad news on budget (excerpt) Dec. 27, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle, Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross The University of California regents are bracing for more bad financial news from Sacramento, but board veteran Richard Blum doubts he and his colleagues could stomach another round of tuition hikes. “I think the emphasis is much more on making cuts,” said Blum, who chaired the board until recently. “I think the last thing we want to do is touch student fees, but that depends on what they do to us.” Blum said most of the newly approved 8…

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Sacramento Bee Article Predicts a Not-So-Cheery Budget Outlook for Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

A Christmas present from the UCLA Faculty Association blog. Scroll down to the large print. What budget cuts, taxes and gimmicks might Jerry Brown propose? (excerpts) Dec. 25, 2010, Sacramento Bee, Kevin Yamamura Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued grim budgets the last two years, but in many ways he had it easier than the challenge facing Gov.-elect Jerry Brown in 2011. In proposing ways to close the budget gap, Schwarzenegger relied on ideas few expected to come to pass, like eliminating CalWORKs and getting $7 billion from the federal government. But Brown has already assailed budget gimmicks, such as counting on…

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LA Times Op Ed Says No Pay, No Say to Legislature

Byuclafaculty

Want more say over UC? Pay up (excerpts) The lawmakers outraged over tuition hikes are partly responsible for them by presiding over a sustained decline in public support for higher education. By Gary Fethke and Andrew Policano December 22, 2010, LA Times As The Times notes in its Dec. 17 editorial, California legislators — who increased state funding to the University of California system this year in exchange for greater control over finances — are incredulous over the university’s recent tuition increases. Their outrage is ill-informed. While they complain about rising costs, they fail to recognize that what has changed…

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Virginia Governor Proposes a De Facto 50% Tax on Tuition Increase for a State-Funded University

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today points to a conflict in Virginia in which Virginia Commonwealth University raised tuition and the governor proposes to cut its state appropriation by half of the added tuition revenue. One can look at this take-away as a punishment for raising tuition, as the article below does. Or one can consider it to be a way in which the state effectively grabs some tuition money for its own budgetary purposes. Your choice. Either way, this development is a cautionary note about the politics of tuition increases at public universities. The article: McDonnell punishes VCU for tuition increase…

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Budget Strategy Risks for Jerry Brown (and Therefore for UC)

Byuclafaculty

The blog Calbuzz.com pointed me to two items, both related to the state budget. One is the cartoon on the right, which suggests the political challenge for incoming-Governor Brown. [If you can’t make out the captions, go http://www.calbuzz.com/2010/12/swap-meet-jerry-and-santa-meet-landslide-harris/ and scroll down until you see the cartoon.] The other is an article that appeared last week pointing to another aspect of the challenge. The two budget-related meetings Brown has had (see earlier posts) – plus statements during the election campaign – suggest that his strategy is to get the legislature to pass a budget with no tax increases that would have…