UCOP

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Pension Train Is Leaving the Station

Byuclafaculty

The Legislature has formed a joint committee to hold meetings around the state on public pensions. As noted in a prior blog post, the governor seems to be formulating his own proposal which he says will involve constitutional changes and need a vote of the electorate. On the joint committee: Legislative leaders have named six lawmakers to a joint committee that will hold hearings on changes to public employee pension systems. Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez has appointed Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, Warren Furutani, D-Gardena and Jim Silva, R-Huntington Beach. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has appointed Gloria Negrete…

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Gov. Brown Says Pension Proposal Will Involve Constitutional Changes & a Vote of the People

Byuclafaculty

At the Milken Institute State of the State conference today (attended by yours truly), Governor Brown was asked by Michael Milken about public pensions in California. (Cell phone photo of conference event at right.) Brown indicated he was working on a proposal on pensions – but did not give a precise date when it would be unveiled. He did say that it would involve a constitutional amendment that would have to be approved by a vote of the people. It was unclear what the coverage of the pension proposal would be. All state and local pensions in California? Just state-level…

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How Inevitable is the Budget Trigger?

Byuclafaculty

As shown above, there is bipartisan disapproval in the latest Field Poll of the budget cut trigger that was enacted as part of the 2011-12 California state budget. Of course, what the legislature enacts, it can amend or un-enact. Readers of this blog will know that the trigger includes more cuts for UC. Given voter sentiment, perhaps – if UCOP and the Regents – work on it, what happens if the trigger is pulled is not inevitable. There was much bemoaning by the Regents at their recently-concluded meeting about what to do and whether to accept a UCOP plan for…

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Regents Go Off UCOP Script

Byuclafaculty

Maybe next time, UCOP might try to put the Regents meeting at the above location rather than at UC-SF. See below: UC regents balk at mandating annual tuition hikes (excerpts) Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 16, 2011 San Francisco — The University of California regents dodged a controversy Thursday by ignoring a proposal from UC President Mark Yudof that would have mandated annual tuition increases of 8 to 16 percent for the next four years. Instead, the regents turned their meeting at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus into a therapy session of sorts, gnashing their teeth about the steep drop…

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Some Time – But Not Too Much – Can Go By on Pensions

Byuclafaculty

As has been stressed ad nauseum on this blog, UC could be swept into some statewide pension changes which would override the Regents’ action of December 2010. The legislature seems to be giving UC a bit of time to have some influence. See below: Lawmakers essentially threw in the towel Thursday on comprehensive public pension reform – at least for now. With this year’s legislative session scheduled to end at midnight today, the Assembly voted 51-21 to approve a last-minute bill declaring its commitment to pension reform but conceding that more time is needed. …The measure reads: “This bill would…

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Unseemly Picture? A Proposal to Tax State Public Pensions – But Not UCRP – Is Among Three Initiatives Submitted by a Santa Barbara Group

Byuclafaculty

A group called the California Center for Public Policy submitted three initiatives to the Attorney General Tuesday. One would ban collective bargaining in the public sector in California. Two others deal with public pensions. Notably, the two pension initiatives omit the UC pension and cover only CalPERS and CalSTRS. One initiative would tax pension benefits above $100,000 with progressive surcharges. The other raises the basic retirement age to 65. Scroll down to the bottom of this entry to read the three initiatives. (Reminder: Anyone can submit initiatives for $200. It takes $1-$2 million to pay signature-gathering firms to get things…

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Action Needed Before We Get Boxed In on Pensions in 2012

Byuclafaculty

One impact of the recently-enacted state budget is that – because it was done without Republican support – there will be no special election this calendar year and, therefore, no propositions dealing with public pensions. In 2012, however, there could be pension-related items on the ballot. California senate leader Darrell Steinberg had this to say about what the legislative Democrats might put on the ballot: Steinberg pointed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposals to eliminate purchase of air time, prohibit so-called pension holidays and retroactive pension increases and ban payment of pension benefits to employees who are convicted of a felony…

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UC Tuition Up Another Rung

Byuclafaculty

From today’s Sacramento Bee: “…UC officials said Friday they will recommend that the Board of Regents consider raising undergraduate tuition by 9.6 percent when it meets in mid-July. That increase would come on top of a previously approved 8 percent tuition hike set to go into effect this fall. If approved, tuition for in-state undergraduates would rise by more than $1,000 to about $12,200, not including room, board or campus fees…” Full story at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/01/3742982/uc-eyes-another-tuition-increase.html

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Deeply Disappointed

Byuclafaculty

When the previous (and now-vetoed) state budget was enacted, President Yudof and Regents Chair Gould put out a strong press release condemning the action. Now that we a new budget with the same cut and a trigger that could add still more cuts, the press release reaction seems rather tepid, given that this is the second time around: UC statement on state budget plan 2011-06-28 The following statement about the budget plan announced by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic leaders of the state Legislature was released today (June 28) by the University of California Office of the President: The…

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Radio Interview on UC Budget Cut (in Now-Vetoed Budget)

Byuclafaculty

UC Exec VP for Business Operations Nathan Brostrom was interviewed earlier today by Madeline Brand, KPCC, shortly before the governor vetoed the state budget. Brostrom asserts that the governor could have line-item vetoed the UC cut. It’s not clear that the governor could do that but, in any event, vetoing the entire budget ends the issue for now. Click below for the interview. Note that it is uncertain where we go from here. The governor and the legislative Democrats are now at odds. The state controller, John Chiang, is deciding whether the budget that was passed but vetoed was “balanced”…