Budget Update

State Budget Update

On November 10, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projected that Gov.-elect Jerry Brown will face a massive $25.4 billion budget shortfall next year, twice as large as legislative leaders were anticipating. Of that amount, $19.3 billion is projected for the 2011-12 fiscal year that begins in July, and the remaining $6.1 billion is due to overly optimistic assumptions in the current $86.6 billion 2010-11 budget plan.

This year’s plan relied on $5.4 billion in new federal aid, a figure that was considered wildly optimistic before the governor signed it; the LAO now believes the state will only receive about $1.9 billion of that money, $3.5 billion less than expected.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has called a special session starting December 6 to deal with the shortfall, and all options are on the table, including the restored CSU funds.

 “CSUEU is committed to supporting our members by doing everything possible to secure proper funding for the CSU,” says CSUEU President Pat Gantt. “We’ll continue to monitor the budget and CSU funding situation closely on behalf of all our represented employees.”