GOV. SEEKS TO CUT CSU BY ANOTHER $31 MILLION

Yesterday CFA learned from the Chancellor’s Office that the CSU had received a message from Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Dept. of Finance. The letter described an extension of an executive order that requires an immediate additional cut – euphemistically called a “savings requirement” — from the CSU of $31.3 million.

Although the letter calls for the Chancellor to find “cost savings” in the amount of $31,314,000, CFA is exploring every option to protect our hard-earned $97.6 million budget restoration.

The executive order acknowledges the state budget as enacted is balanced and has a reserve, but adds that because of “a persistent structural deficit” and uncertainties about the economy, the governor has acted to make cuts now to those agencies supported by the state’s “general fund.”

As you well know, the CSU lives and dies in that vulnerable “general fund” portion of the state budget.

The order specifies that these cuts be made in certain ways, including “delays in planned expenditures.” The order recommends cuts “focus on reductions that could become permanent” in areas that are “non-mission-critical.”

And, apparently anticipating another bad year, it states there will be a “no-growth policy for (the) 2009-10 budget.”

With a $215 million shortfall for the CSU already in the state budget adopted in September, and with more difficult budget scenarios unfolding, CFA will continue to explore every option to protect our University, our students and our state.

For your information, here is a link to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning about the UC’s response to the Dept. of Finance.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/22/BA3J13LJBF.DTL

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