May 28: Budget Update

Governor Schwarzenegger has incorrectly interpreted the May 19 election results to mean that voters want no new taxes. In fact, recent polls confirm what all CSU unions already know: voters understand that new revenues are needed, and they want legislators to solve the budget puzzle successfully.

Far from supporting any and all budget cuts, the public wants education to be spared. In those recent polls, fully 70 percent of those surveyed opposed cuts to higher education.

At this point, it will take more than polls to shift the slash-and-burn mindset of the Governor and many legislators. They are intent on downsizing our way to solvency, even though common sense should tell them that you can’t get out of accumulated debt simply by spending less—at some point, you need to get your hands on the cold, hard cash to pay off those debts.

Under the governor’s new budget proposals, presented on May 10 and revised on May 26, hundreds of thousands of university students could lose their main source of support to pay for school. The governor’s Cal Grants proposal would save the state about $1 billion by eliminating hundreds of thousands of grants to college students. Students who now have Cal Grants would keep them until they graduate, but no new grants would be issued. Nearly 300,000 students in the CSU, UC and community college systems receive some form of Cal Grant support. Read a May 27 Contra Costa Times article detailing this proposal.

On May 21, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) rolled out analysis and recommendations for closing the budget gap that included a five percent reduction in non-instructional support at CSU (yes, that means CSUEU-represented staff).

Even more draconian are proposed cuts to services, including health insurance for children, as reflected in a California Budget Project fact sheet updated just yesterday. Its headline: More than 940,000 children would lose health coverage if the Healthy Families Program were eliminated.

It’s expected that the Governor will continue proposing yet more cuts—up to $3 billion more—over the next couple of weeks, each followed by LAO analysis a few days later.

The Governor’s proposals are only recommendations and can’t be implemented without approval by a joint budget conference committee that’s meeting over the next two weeks. Senate members of the committee are Denise Ducheny, Bob Dutton, Mark Leno, Alan Lowenthal, and Mimi Walters, while Assembly members are Robert Blumenfield, Kevin De Leon, Noreen Evans, Roger Niello and Jim Nielsen. Their charge is to assess the impacts of the proposed cuts and to send their resulting new version of the budget to the legislature for its approval.

Chair Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) has started a new blog in which she questions the current budget process, which is destined to bring so many cuts to vital services, K-14 and higher education. “In reaction to these cuts at today’s hearing, a member of the public testified that a society which is able but unwilling to provide for its most vulnerable citizens is contemptible,” she stated in yesterday’s entry.

Use Capwiz to send an email to key committee members, urging them to invest in the CSU as California’s economic engine.

Chancellor Reed, joined by the president of the UC and chancellor of the community college systems, will speak to the Budget Conference Committee this Monday, and CSUEU President Pat Gantt is scheduled to speak on Monday as well.

The Chancellor is set to unveil a budget allocation plan to CSU campus presidents this Wednesday, June 3, that will provide complete details on budget cut impacts from the CSU perspective. Until then, we’ll continue gathering information and conducting analysis of the potential impacts on staff.