State Budget

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State Controller Reports More Money

Byuclafaculty

The state controller has just released his data on cash receipts for 2012-13 through May.  As it turns out, the month of May brought in more cash than forecast in the governor’s May revise, just under $800 million more.  This outcome will add fuel to the conflict between the governor and the legislature as to how much revenue to project for 2013-14.  The governor has argued that much of the extra money that has come in this year is a one-time capital gains result that cannot be assumed to continue. As our previous post noted, the legislature is due to…

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Legislative Deadline for State Budget is Saturday

Byuclafaculty

This week is deadline week for the legislature to pass a state budget.  The formal deadline is midnight, Saturday, June 15.  As we have noted in earlier postings, there is unlikely to be any budget surprise for UC.  Possibly, there could be some funding beyond the governor’s May revise proposal for student scholarships and Cal Grants.  As previously noted, most of the inconsistencies between the assembly and senate budgets involve K-14 and social programs.  The two houses are using a more optimistic projection of revenues than the governor. Nonetheless, as negotiations proceed, they could reach a fever pitch by Saturday night:

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The Three State Budgets

Byuclafaculty

Last Friday, there was a legislative hearing on the current three versions of the state budget for 2013-14.  There is the governor’s “May Revise” proposal and two separate proposals by the state assembly and the state senate.  The two legislative versions rely on a revenue forecast by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) which projects higher tax receipts than the governor’s Dept. of Finance (DOF).  However, the two legislative proposals use the extra revenue differently. From the UC perspective, there is no significant direct effect on the operating budget regardless of which budget is enacted.  However, the assembly version provides for…

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New Tax Graveyard

Byuclafaculty

The governor and the legislative leaders have been tamping down expectations that the Democrats – with a 2/3 “supermajority” in the legislature would be enacting new taxes.  For one thing, the supermajority is shaky at best.  One Democratic seat in the Senate recently became a GOP seat in a special election.  Some of the Democrats were elected in swing districts under the new top-2 primary system and might not vote with the majority on a tax increase. Today’s Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee reports: Measures aimed at creating new taxes on Californians were held by the Senate Appropriations…

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New LAO Report on (More) State Revenues

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has released a commentary on the governor’s May Revise budget proposal.  It’s headline feature is that LAO expects higher revenues than the governor projects.  That extra money is not pure gravy since it interacts with the Prop 98 formulas for K-14.  Nonetheless, the report will become part of the legislative process and negotiations which will go on between the governor and legislature.  The governor wants to be cautious and his way of doing it is to tilt toward less optimistic revenue projections.  LAO has a lot of cautionary notes in its report – things that could…

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Listen to (Part of) Morning Session of UC Regents

Byuclafaculty

I had some trouble with recording this morning’s meeting of the Regents.  It began with a statement by UC President Yudof which included reference to the impending strike at UC hospitals (which UC is trying to enjoin).  During the public comment period, however, various union spokespersons said a strike would take place next week and the public comment session ended in a demonstration which led to a halt in the meeting (and transmission) while the room was cleared.  I did record the later meeting of the Committee on Finance.  Below is a summary and a link to a recording. Before…

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The official response

Byuclafaculty

If you are wondering about the official UC response to the governor’s May Revise budget proposal, here it is:  Patrick Lenz, the University of California system’s vice president for budget and capital resources:   With this proposal, the governor is continuing his multi-year funding commitment to increase the University of California by 5 percent in the 2013-14 fiscal year and then 5 percent, 4 percent, and 4 percent in the subsequent fiscal years. In addition, the administration is continuing its support for UC restructuring debt to achieve $80 million in annual savings. Those savings will provide not only the additional…

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A Quick Review of the May Revise and an Inadvertent Lesson on Online Education

Byuclafaculty

As per our previous post this morning, the governor’s May Revise budget was released today in a presentation by the governor and his finance director.  But before we get to the numbers and issues relating to UC’s budget, yours truly cannot resist the following observation: There is nothing per se about online education in the latest summary document that accompanies the May Revise.  (More budget details will come out in the days to come.)  However, the online transmission of the news conference was a fiasco of jerky images, frozen audio, and total breaks in the transmission.  The effort in real…

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Governor’s May Revise (State Budget) Unveiling at 10 AM Today

Byuclafaculty

You can see it live-streamed at 10 AM at www.calchannel.com.  As noted in prior posts, bits and pieces have been leaking out as is traditional.  From the UC perspective, the elements to watch are contingent allocations based on performance goals and earmarks such as for online education. Another tradition is advance interpretation in the news media:http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-to-propose-1-billion-for-common-core-education-standards.html http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/14/5417832/browns-revised-budget-has-more.html http://www.californiascapitol.com/2013/05/where-has-all-the-surplus-gone-gone-to-classrooms-everywhere/ http://www.news10.net/rss/article/244970/525/5-key-things-worth-watching-in-Browns-revised-budget http://www.edsource.org/today/2013/school-funding-will-be-focus-source-of-contention-of-browns-revised-budget/31977 

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May Revise Tomorrow

Byuclafaculty

Word has it that the governor will release his “May Revise” proposal for the state budget tomorrow (on Tuesday).  It is a tradition that the governor presents a revision of his constitutionally-mandated January state budget proposal about this time of the year.  The revised budget typically reflects both updated economic, revenue, and expenditure information and a political reading of what is feasible.  Tradition also has it that outlines of the budget are leaked in advance.  The leaks, as far as UC is concerned, is that there will be a contingent budget for UC linked to performance of various goals.  Note…