LAO Comments on Governor's Budget Proposal

The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has issued its report on the governor's budget proposal. While not providing detailed tables revising the governor's proposal, the headline story will be that LAO projects more revenue than does the governor. Some of that revenue, a lot, will end up in K-14 and the Prop 2 rainy day fund thanks to formulas built into the budget mechanism by voters. However, the more-revenue headline will be an encouragement to those (including both UC and CSU) seeking increased funding.

LAO has never liked the way the governor simply allocates money to UC and CSU without some kind of formulas or principles that link to goals and enrollments. It repeats that critique in its latest report. Although LAO is supposed to be neutral in the sense of non-partisan, it is a creature of the legislature and thus favors approaches to budgeting that are not exclusively a matter of gubernatorial discretion. If there were formulas or principles driving the higher ed budget allocations, presumably these would be formulas and principles set by, or agreed to, by the legislature.

You can find the LAO report at:
http://lao.ca.gov/reports/2015/budget/overview/budget-overview-2015.pdf