Gov. Gray Davis gave California higher-education officials some encouraging budget news on Wednesday. In issuing a revised state budget plan, the governor, a Democrat, pared back hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts he had previously proposed for community colleges and largely protected the state’s public universities from further reductions.
Even though the state’s projected budget deficit has increased by $3.6-billion since January, when Mr. Davis released his original budget proposal for the 2003-4 fiscal year (The Chronicle, January 13), the governor said that he wanted to protect education and “other critical government services” in the plan he announced on Wednesday.
“Education is the key to California’s future,” Mr. Davis said. “It is the passport to a better life.”
Mr. Davis said that California’s budget gap now stands at about $38.2-billion. To try to erase the growing deficit, he proposed new cuts to state agencies and programs, as well as increases in sales, income, and cigarette taxes and a rise in the state’s vehicle-license fee.
It has become an annual rite in California for the governor to offer a revised budget proposal that is based on April’s tax receipts, which are believed to be the most accurate reading of the state’s economy. Now it is up to state lawmakers, who must approve state budget proposals before they can be enacted, to debate the governor’s latest offering and come up with a final plan. The state’s fiscal year begins July 1.
For the governor’s new limits on higher-education cuts to stand, lawmakers would have to agree to the tax increases and to a plan to issue $10.7-billion in bonds that would finance some state projects. Those proposals are likely to stimulate intense debate. In addition, state lawmakers have proposed a range of higher-education budgets already, some of which would cut college budgets by more than the governor had proposed earlier this year.
In his January plan, Mr. Davis had recommended cutting state spending on the University of California system by almost $300-million, or 4.4 percent. Under that budget proposal, California State University campuses faced a reduction of $326-million, or 12 percent, and community colleges a cut of $530-million, or 10.5 percent.
On Wednesday, community-college officials were especially pleased with the governor’s revisions. Under Mr. Davis’s new proposal, two-year institutions would be cut by $285-million, or 5.6 percent. That would provide the institutions with a net increase of about $246-million from what the governor had earlier proposed.
Mr. Davis also proposed a smaller tuition increase for two-year-college students than he did in January and allocated $154.7-million to make up for the revenues that the colleges would have received from the higher tuition rates. The new budget plan would raise the student fee by $7 per credit unit, or 63.6 percent, to $18 per unit. The governor’s previous plan would have more than doubled the charge, to $24 per unit from the current fee of $11.
“Governor Davis deserves credit for taking significant steps to reduce the magnitude of the disproportionate reductions that he proposed for community colleges in January,” said Thomas J. Nussbaum, chancellor of the California Community Colleges system. “The fight on behalf of our 2.9 million students is far from over, but we have gained significant ground.”
Among the previously proposed cuts Mr. Davis restored are $36-million to programs for disabled students and $36-million to programs that provide counseling, tutoring, and financial aid to students with economic, cultural, or language difficulties. Those programs, which originally faced a 45-percent cut, would be reduced by only about 1 percent under the revised budget.
The governor’s new proposal does call for more cuts to community colleges’ Partnership for Excellence program, which has helped finance the hiring of more faculty members and student counselors to try to improve retention rates and students’ academic performance. The new plan adds $14.5-million in cuts to the reductions proposed in January. In all, the program would now be cut by about 49 percent.
For the University of California, the governor’s revised budget proposes no additional cuts beyond the $300-million proposed in January. In fact, it adds $1.5-million to help the system’s campuses make up for expected losses of tuition revenue if legislation is enacted to waive student fees for members of the California National Guard.
“We are grateful to the governor for placing a priority on public education in this time of great fiscal distress for the state,” said Lawrence C. Hershman, vice president for budget at the University of California. “The governor clearly recognizes the major role UC can play in stimulating California’s economic recovery, and he shares our view that we must continue providing access for all UC-eligible students.”
Meanwhile, the governor’s plan would further reduce, by $6-million, general funds for the California State University system to make up for a $7.5-million glitch in how the state had accounted for some services it provided to the university. The university would be credited $1.5-million against that to help its campuses recover expected revenue losses from offering tuition waivers to California National Guard members.
Background articles from The Chronicle:
