Apparently, there is nothing much to complain about

It seems that part of the Committee of Two deal is that whatever the governor offers is fine with just a little tweak and we sure hope the legislature gives us that:

Dear Advocate,

As the 2016-17 legislative sessions begins, the University of California has already been very active in Sacramento.  Your assistance has proven critical as we have worked to ensure that UC gets the resources it needs from the State. I wanted to provide you with a current update, and I hope to be able to call on your assistance again later this year as this session moves forward.  

Governor Brown’s 2016-17 budget proposal released January 7 demonstrates ongoing support for higher education.  Consistent with the framework we reached last year, his budget includes a continuing increase to the University’s base budget along with one-time funds to help UC address deferred maintenance and costs associated with the UC retirement system.  This state support is critical in ensuring that we maintain access, affordability and quality for our students.

The Governor’s 2016-17 budget proposal includes the following:
•   A 4% base budget adjustment ($125.4 million from state general fund)
•   $35 million from state general fund for deferred maintenance
•   $25 million from Cap and Trade for energy efficiency (originally proposed in the Governor’s 2015-16 May revision) 
•   $171 million in Proposition 2 funds dedicated to addressing unfunded liability in the UC retirement plan.  

The University respectfully requests approval of these items from the Legislature.  

Enrollment Growth Request for 2016-17 Budget

UC will be enrolling 5,000 additional California undergraduate students next year, with significant growth at every campus.   Many of these students will be transferring from California’s community colleges, where we saw a 12% increase in applications.   In order to ensure a quality education and to support the additional faculty required to teach these students, the UC Regents requested an additional $6 million from the State to enroll 600 additional graduate students. Unfortunately, the Governor did not provide the requested funding in his budget. We will be working with the legislature this session in order to secure these critical funds.  

The University will be looking to grow enrollment of California undergraduate students by 10,000 students over the next three years, and I look forward to working with you as we work collectively with the State to ensure that we have sufficient funding to meet this plan and to address the challenges and opportunities that this presents.  

Once again, thank you for your continued interest and engagement in public higher education advocacy.  We will be back at appropriate times in the legislative process to ask for your support.  In the meantime, we hope you will discuss our budget priorities with friends and colleagues as well as elected officials in your district.

Fiat Lux!

Janet Napolitano

President

University of California

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So not to worry: