State Contribution

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LAO Report on Higher Ed Contains Significant Pension Recommendations

Byuclafaculty

The state’s Legislative Analyst has released a lengthy report on funding higher education which covers UC, CSU, and the community colleges (as well as CalGrants).  The report is essentially a response to the governor’s January budget proposal with regard to higher ed. Generally, the report tends to disagree with the governor’s approach which the Legislative Analyst views as giving too much autonomy to UC and the other segments with regard to enrollment and other matters.  On the other hand, it documents the trend towards reduced state funding and thus seems to continue the pay-less/say-more approach which is odd on its…

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More History Lessons (from Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read)

Byuclafaculty

As Chair of the Faculty Association at UCLA, I would like to emphasize again the point that was made in the Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 Blog on this site, “Plenty of Nothing.” The Governor wrote in his proposed budget: “The University of California (UC) will receive an increase of $90 million from the General Fund for base operating costs, which can be used to address costs related to retirement program contributions.”  The main purpose of the public employee retirement law (PERL), passed in 1931, was to separate pension funding from all other kinds of funding. Early on, the state recognized that…

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Piggy-Back

Byuclafaculty

Can UC piggy-back on CalSTRS? We are “education,” too. And we have pension funding issues. If you don’t ask, you surely don’t get. See below: CalSTRS reported ready to seek more state funding Sacramento Bee, 10/11/11, Dale Kasler For more than two years, CalSTRS has been talking about asking state lawmakers for more money to plug its funding gap. Now the teachers’ pension fund believes the Legislature is ready to listen. Pension fund Chief Executive Jack Ehnes said last week he wants Gov. Jerry Brown to include additional CalSTRS funding in a long-awaited pension reform proposal he’s expected to release…

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Something that could be done on the UC Budget: Time to Ask

Byuclafaculty

On The Record (Excerpt) Gov. Jerry Brown recently announced that he was ending talks with Republican legislators over a temporary tax increase. What can be done to prevent partisan standoffs in Sacramento and improve the UC’s financial circumstances? Daniel 
Mitchell, 4-11-11, Daily Bruin When the state legislature spends time in the midst of a major budget crisis debating about whether to ban shark fin soup, you know we’re in trouble. The current focus on soup is not because legislators don’t know about the dire budget situation. Rather it means they don’t know what to do about it. And that is…

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LAO’s Position is that State Pension Contributions to UC are Voluntary & Should Come With Conditions

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has released a video of about 15 minutes on public pensions. Most of the discussion deals with CalPERS, CalSTRS, and other systems. There are occasional references to UC at various points in the video. However, at the end it is stated that the state at some point should voluntarily contribute to UC but make that contribution conditional on the UC pension being more or less the same as other state systems. Put another way, the LAO’s position is that the state has no legal obligation to contribute at any point. Moreover, the video describes a future…

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Video of Yudof Testimony on Budget Cut at State Assembly

Byuclafaculty

UC President Yudof testified at the State Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Educational Finance last Monday. Below are videos of his testimony and questions-and-answers with assembly members. The video is divided into two parts because of time-limits on Facebook. As a previous post noted, he indicated that there would not be another tuition hike in response to the governor’s proposed budget cut for UC. But that was contingent on, among other things, voter passage of the governor’s proposed tax extensions. Also notable was Yudof’s remark that tuition hikes help low-income students because of the recycling of one third of tuition revenue…

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Moody’s Evidently Thinks the State Has an Obligation for the UC Pension

Byuclafaculty

Calpensions.com is reporting that Moody’s is counting state (any state, not just California) pension debt, along with regular bond debt, in calculating total obligations. Presumably, this sum will be considered in rating bonds. I imagine most folks will take this as Bad News. But note that UC has struggled to get the state to acknowledge that it had a liability for the UC pension. The state is making contributions to its other major pension plans, CalPERS and CalSTRS, but it is not doing anything for UC, forcing the University to divert resources from its general operations. Thanks to efforts of…

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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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Yudof on Budget, Privatization, Pensions

Byuclafaculty

There is an interview in the LA Times today (1-15-11) of President Yudof by Patt Morrison. Below are excerpts. …Morrison: You’ve used the Ed Koch line, “How’m I doing?” After 2 ½ years, how’re you doing? Yudof: I think we’re doing well, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna-ish. We have a $20-billion shortfall, long run, in the pension plan. I think it’s going to take 20 years to dig our way out, but we have a plan. We put the new [student] eligibility standard into effect; it’s going to be a less mechanical admission [process], looking at the whole…

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Legislative Analyst Acknowledges UC Pension Issue for State

Byuclafaculty

In his press conference on Jan. 12 on the state budget, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor explicitly raised the issue of state funding for the UC pension. Those who follow that issue know that at one point, the Leg Analyst took the position that the state had no responsibility for the UC pension. After a meeting with UCLA Faculty Association reps, that position changed. The legislature dropped language asserting that it had no liability for the UC pension. Of course, so far, no actual funding has appeared. The relevant part of the press conference is on the video below: