CSUEU E-News: November 18, 2010
Biweekly news digest from the California State University Employees Union
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STATE BUDGET UPDATE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
CSU MONTEREY BAY BU7 MEETING
CSUEU LAUNCHES YOUTUBE CHANNEL
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
CALPERS GAINS 13.3 PERCENT IN 2009-10 FISCAL YEAR
SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM
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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.”
Board of Trustees Meeting
At last week’s CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach, November 9-10, the trustees, as expected, approved a two-step tuition increase in the form of a mid-year increase of five percent—or $105—for 2010-11 that will go into effect January 1, 2011, for the winter/spring terms and a 10 percent—or $444—annual increase for the 2011-12 academic year that would become effective for fall 2011.
Read Senator Leland Yee’s (D-San Francisco) November 9 press release expressing his outrage over these latest fee hikes.
Read an article from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times detailing Californians’ worries about CSU tuition increases.
Read yesterday's Public Policy Institute of California press release about survey results showing that a majority of Californians favor more spending on public universities.
The trustees also discussed an information item dealing with a proposed change of the term “fees” to “tuition.”
Several trustees, including Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez, who appeared at the Board for the first time, voiced their strong opposition. The Speaker’s key argument was that the California Master Plan for Higher Education is based on the idea of tuition-free education for all qualified California students, so the change in terminology would represent a repudiation of the Master Plan. Both Speaker Perez and Trustee Melinda Guzman questioned whether the Board even had the authority to change fees to tuition, arguing that only the state legislature had that authority.
Board Chair Herb Carter stated that this issue did not require a vote and that he expected the Chancellor would consider all of the input received during the hearing. It appeared to the audience that this matter had been tabled and that the change in terminology would not be forthcoming.
However, the Office of the Chancellor is already informally using the term “tuition,” and the CSU Public Affairs Office has indicated that the Chancellor may issue a policy statement formalizing the new terminology in the coming weeks.
“The Board of Trustees and Office of the Chancellor are certainly sending mixed messages on this important issue, which has so many ramifications for the future of the Master Plan,” stated CSUEU President Pat Gantt. “Although the intent of the terminology will remain the same whether or not the term changes from ‘fees’ to ‘tuition,’ this level of inconsistency at the highest administration levels should be of concern to any reasonable taxpayer who’s following the issue.”
Many chapters have inquired as to whether a change in terminology would impact the fee waiver and dependent fee waiver provisions outlined in our collective bargaining agreement. CSU Chief Negotiator Sharyn Abernatha has told CSU that her office sees this as solely a change in terminology, not an elimination of the benefit. She agrees that, if the change is formalized, we will eventually have to modify our contract to update the references to fee waiver.
Read VP for Representation Russell Kilday-Hicks’ and BU 9 Council Chair Rich McGee’s impassioned comments to the board.
CSU Monterey Bay BU7 Meeting
With everyone’s busy schedules, the idea of holding bargaining unit meetings at each chapter can take a low priority. But, says BU 7 Council Chair Michael Brandt, it’s important for each bargaining unit make the effort to hold meetings at the chapter level.
A good example, he points out, is a November 7 BU 7 meeting at CSU Monterey Bay Chapter 322. “Monterey Bay has made a smart move by resurrecting bargaining unit meetings, which had started to go by the wayside,” says Brandt. “Bargaining unit meetings are a great morale booster, but, more importantly, they allow members to stay updated on union issues while networking with one another.”
Toni Uribe, Lead Customer Service Specialist, Campus Service Center; Irene Moulton, Administrative Support Coordinator, Center for Reading Diagnosis and Instruction; and Paul Bender, Records Specialist, University Police Department, were among the attendees at the CSU, Monterey Bay Chapter 322 BU7 meeting on November 7.
CSUEU Launches YouTube Channel
The last few meetings of the CSUEU Board of Directors have begun with slide shows depicting rallies, tabling, leafleting, meetings and other actions across all 24 chapters during the previous months. They’ve been so well received that it seemed natural to make them more widely available for all members to view.
And thus was born the idea of creating a CSUEU YouTube Channel, which has gone live over just the last few days. Visit www.youtube.com/CSUEU and be sure to check out the two uploaded slide shows, the first covering events earlier this year and the second dealing with activities this summer and early fall.
More uploads are sure to follow as chapters submit videos of actions at their campuses in the months to come.
Board of Directors Meeting
The CSUEU Board of Directors met in Manhattan Beach over three days, November 5-7, to discuss budget, policy and administrative issues. The next BOD meeting is set for February 25-27 in Sacramento.
CalPERS Gains 13.3 Percent in 2009-10 Fiscal Year
On November 9, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) reported a final net return on its investments of 13.3 percent for the one-year period that ended June 30, beating the pension fund’s preliminary return estimate by almost two percentage points.
“This updated report indicates a gain of more than $40 billion since our turn-around from the lowest point of the recession in March 2009,” said Chief Investment Officer Joe Dear. “We also beat our benchmark of 12.95 percent and eclipsed return targets for every asset class except real estate. But even that asset class improved dramatically over what we reported in July.”
The upturn for the 2009-10 fiscal year exceeded the long-term annualized earnings target of 7.75 percent and brought the 20-year return average through June 30, 2010 to 7.65 percent.
“These figures confirm our initial assessment a few months ago that we were in a recovery mode with the opportunity to capture future returns because of our long-term investment horizon,” Dear said.
CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund, administering retirement benefits for 1.6 million active and retired state, public school, and local public agency employees and their families and health benefits for 1.3 million members.
Social Security Reform
The Washington D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives, has just published two thought-provoking articles on Social Security reform.
Action on Social Security is a nine-page brief published earlier this month arguing that it would be foolhardy on a number of fronts to make any immediate changes to the system.
And a mid-October blog entry, “Why Is It So Acceptable to Lie to Cut Social Security Benefits?”, refutes popular but ill-informed arguments in favor of seemingly inevitable reform.
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