UC

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Cash Management

Byuclafaculty

With a budget now enacted, the state controller is authorized to make payments that have been held up. The problem is that the budget enactment did not create more cash. Indeed, not having a budget conserved cash precisely because payments were not being made. Excerpts from the website of controller John Chiang: How bad is the State’s cash flow? Unfortunately, the more than three-month long stalemate over a spending plan resulted in the State being unable to make more than $8.3 billion in payments to small businesses, community clinics, and local governments since July 1. After accounting for September’s cash…

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Chop, Chop: The Budget With the Governor’s Line-Item Vetoes (Including a UC Pension-Related Veto)

Byuclafaculty

The previous post on this blog gave the LAO’s description of the newly-passed state budget. It provided reserve at the end of the current fiscal year that I described as within the range of white noise. The governor has now exercised his line-item vetoes, raising the reserve projected for June 30, 2011 to $1.3 with roughly a billion dollars in vetoes. So for the current year, revenue and transfers remain as in the previous post at $94.2 billion. But expenditures drop by a billion to $86.5 billion, leading to an operating surplus of $7.7 billion. The governor’s budget document is…

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Despite Apparent Budget Deal, State Continues Indirect Use of UC’s Credit Card

Byuclafaculty

The state has so far managed to avoid handing out registered warrants (IOUs) instead of making payments in cash. As you will recall, a year ago there were such IOUs issued. Part of the way the state has conserved cash is by not having a budget, so that certain payments could not be legally made. And part has been by deferring payments to various entities at other levels of government that it normally would make. Those entities then have to borrow as best they can or use up reserves to operate. Among the programs to which the state has deferred…

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PEB Options vs. CalPERS New Hire Plan? UC vs. CSU? What’s in It for Me?

Byuclafaculty

The governor made pension reform part of the proposed budget deal. Some state unions negotiated two-tier plans with bigger contributions by employees. Under two-tier, new hires get a lower pension; incumbent workers stay in the old plan. However, the big missing piece was the contract with SEIU Local 1000 which has now been negotiated. (The deal has to be ratified by members and approved by the legislature.) The workers involved are under CalPERS and as the deal spreads across other state workers under CalPERS, it might cover CSU. But in the state budget proposal, CSU gets an even more generous…

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UC and CSU Official Responses to Proposed State Budget

Byuclafaculty

Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed: Under the (budget) proposal, the state would rely upon a combination of general funds and federal stimulus dollars to prop up the University of California and California State University. While Schwarzenegger had proposed $305 million in restored recurring dollars for each system, the budget deal would give $199 million in recurring dollars and rely on $106 million in one-time federal stimulus funds to make up the difference, university analysts said. “Our hope going forward is we could make that $106 million a permanent increase to our base, but in a fiscally challenged year like this…

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Early Information on the State Budget Proposal

Byuclafaculty

There is now an official document about the proposed state budget available at: http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/COMMITTEE/STANDING/BFR/_home/2010conf/ConfAgenda10610.pdf from the state Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. There is also a preliminary write up about this proposal at: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/10/budget-details-released.html It is apparent there is a lot of deferral into next year and assumed money from the feds that may not arrive. There is a pension proposal which appears to be CalPERS-only, i.e., not UC. And there is a rainy day fund proposition to be put on the ballot in 2012. There is some additional money for UC and CSU which is said to…

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California Supreme Court Reported Skeptical of Challenge to In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students

Byuclafaculty

A 2001 California law allows students who graduate from a high school within the state to attend any public higher education institution at in-state (resident) rates. Thus, a foreign-born student who was brought to the U.S. illegally and attended a California high school is treated the same for tuition purposes as any other state resident. (Such students are ineligible for various federal assistance programs, however.) A challenge to the law was brought recently and heard by the state Supreme Court. Excerpt from a report on the L.A. Now blog of the LA Times: October 5, 2010 – The California Supreme…

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No Bananas: Rationing of Community College Courses

Byuclafaculty

UC and UCLA have boasted of the degree to which their undergrads are transfer students from community colleges. Such transfers reduce tuition costs to students and increase undergrad capacity at UC. However, due to budget cuts, community colleges are effectively rationing entry – not to their campuses, but to courses needed to transfer. See the LA Times article below: Community college class wait lists throw a wrench into students’ plans: Enrollment in California’s colleges has surged, but budget cuts leave many students unable to get the courses they need, meaning it’ll take them longer to earn a degree and join…

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UC Gets Good PR on Enrollment of Pell Grant/Low-Income Students

Byuclafaculty

UC boosts ranks of low-income students: Officials cite financial aid, with a record high 39% of undergraduates getting federal Pell grants (excerpt) By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2010 The University of California, sensitive to criticism about student fee hikes, reported Friday that more low-income undergraduates than ever are enrolling at its campuses and said financial aid is helping them to stay. An estimated 70,000 UC undergraduates are receiving federal Pell grants, which typically are awarded to students with family incomes below $50,000. According to the report, that is the largest number in UC history and represents 39%…

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Bill Signed by Governor to Ease Path from Community Colleges to UC and CSU

Byuclafaculty

I attended a talk yesterday by Chancellor Block at which he indicated that about 40% of UCLA undergrads are transfers from community colleges. Coincidentally, the governor signed some related legislation. One bill mandates some steps by CSU. Respecting its constitutional autonomy, a second bill urges similar action by UC. The text of the governor’s press release is below: 09/29/2010 GAAS:618:10 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Bills to Guarantee CSU Admission to Community College Graduates To increase access to the California State University (CSU) system, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed SB 1440 by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) and AB 2302…