State Budget

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No Mandate for Online Ed at UC: Let’s Pretend!

Byuclafaculty

Our post last night that the governor line-item vetoed his own $10 million mandate in the new state budget for online courses at UC is correct in a literal sense. But what appears to have happened is that UC – which doesn’t like overt mandates which challenge its constitutional autonomy – agreed that it would spend $10 million on online ed anyway if the governor would just remove the mandate language. From Inside Higher Ed today: …“We’ve made a commitment to provide the $10 million, so it’s not going to affect our plans,” said Steve Montiel, a spokesman for the UC…

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Online Ed Earmarked Money Line-Item Vetoed

Byuclafaculty

Michael Meranze, in commenting on the previous post, noted that among the items vetoed by the governor was language that earmarked $10 million at UC for online ed courses.  As readers will know, that earmark was in the budget bill at the request of the governor.  Other quasi-earmarks were also vetoed.  The actual language doesn’t delete dollars from the UC budget – which is why I missed it in the prior post.  It just deletes specifications for how dollars are to be used.  The veto language reads: Item 6440-001-0001 — For support of University of California. I revise this item…

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Budget Signed: Smile But Then Scroll Down

Byuclafaculty

It was generally all smiles and laughter at the state budget signing this morning as the photo above shows.  Contrast that photo with the one below at the 2011 budget signing when the governor had to sign a budget – after getting no GOP support for putting a tax measure on the ballot – that assumed a phantom $4 billion in revenue to make things seem in “balance.”  No smiles there. In any case, there appear to be no surprises for UC in the budget. [But see the updated post above on the governor’s veto of his own online education…

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The State Budget Will Be Signed Tomorrow

Byuclafaculty

From the governor’s office: Governor Brown to Sign State Budget Tomorrow 6-26-2013 SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. will be joined tomorrow by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Pérez as he signs the Budget Act of 2013 (AB 110) in Sacramento.The Governor will also sign ABX1 1 (Pérez) and SBX1 1 (Hernandez-Steinberg), which, in accordance with the federal Affordable Care Act, will help ensure health care coverage for Californians.When: Tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 11:00 a.m.Where: California State Capitol, Governor’s Council Room, Sacramento, CA 95814NOTE: Immediately after the signing event, Department of Finance…

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Someone Noticed Newco

Byuclafaculty

Some readers may recall coverage on this blog of the most recent Regents meeting (May) in which an entity at UCLA to be known as Newco was created to license university-developed technology.  One small newspaper – the East Bay Express – has now given the new entity some (negative) attention and points out that there was little coverage of the issue in the news media. In a unanimous vote last month, the Regents of the University of California created a corporate entity that, if spread to all UC campuses as some regents envision, promises to further privatize scientific research produced…

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Budget Enacted – Details & Vetoes to Come

Byuclafaculty

The legislature has passed a state budget which now goes to the governor for signature (he will) and line-item vetoes (some will likely be made).  Thereafter, there should be formal releases of the details by the Dept. of Finance and the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). In the meantime, the Sacramento Bee has a summary of highlights.  It includes for higher ed: Proposes an average 5 percent general fund increase to California State University, the University of California and community colleges. No fee increases are envisioned through 2016-17. Authorizes scholarships, beginning in the 2014-15 academic year, for UC and CSU students…

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Middle-class scholarships to UC, CSU likely

Byuclafaculty

But not this year! So says the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: [excerpt] The “Middle-Class Scholarship” proposed by Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, would offer tuition discounts for students from families earning $80,000 to $150,000 a year. The program would start in the 2014-15 school year, with partial scholarships costing the state $107 million from its general fund. The state would increase spending on the program each year until it was fully implemented in 2017-18, at a cost of $305 million – assuming 75 percent of eligible students apply. Tuition discounts would decrease as family income rises… Full story at…

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Wrong Irk; Right Irk

Byuclafaculty

Op Ed: Yours truly will concede that everyone is entitled to his or her own pet irk.  There is a headline in the Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee entitled “Cap-and-Trade Loan in Budget Deal Irks Environmentalists.”*  Actually, there is nothing unusual about borrowing by the general fund from other earmarked funds of the state.  The controller routinely does such borrowing when the general fund is short of cash – which was the situation much of the time during the last few years.  What is the real irk here is that as part of the budget that looks likely…

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Want a Riverside Med School? Legislature Says (Commands?) Do It Yourself

Byuclafaculty

There has been ongoing agitation from UC-Riverside and UC for the state to put up money for a med school.  As bits and pieces about the state budget leak out, it appears that the legislature has not provided extra money but instead has told UC to take it out of its general allocation.  Apparently, the legislature doesn’t view this matter as a suggestion; more of a command. From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:The Legislature’s budget conference committee late Monday altered the funding mix for a school of medicine at UC Riverside, eliminating a $15 million augmentation but directing the UC system to…

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Deal Reportedly Reached on the State Budget Between Legislature and Governor

Byuclafaculty

From the governor’s website: Governor Brown Issues Statement on Budget 6-10-2013: SACRAMENTO – Following action from the Joint Legislative Conference Committee on the Budget this evening, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued the following statement:  “The Legislature is doing their job and doing it well. It looks like California will get another balanced budget and, very importantly, educational funding that recognizes the different needs of California’s students.” Source: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18087 The Sacramento Bee indicates that a) the deal is based on the governor’s more conservative revenue estimates as compared to the Legislative Analyst’s numbers* and b) there is (some) money for…