LAO Report on Higher Ed: Continues New Line on Pension

The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO)  is out with a new report on higher ed in the state budget. The report does not break new ground when it comes to UC. It is largely descriptive. LAO suspects UC is admitting more than its Master Plan target of the top eighth of California high school grads. It notes the rise of non-California residents at UC in recent years. And it wants - as an agency of the legislature - to have the budget somehow be more in alignment with legislative priorities and less a function of gubernatorial whims. However, it is also clear from the report that it would be difficult to identify what exactly those legislative priorities are.

Important for UC is that while there is a lengthy descriptive discussion of the UC pension, there is - for the second time in an LAO report* - no assertion that the UC pension is not a liability of the state. Indeed, it suggests that the legislature hold a hearing about the UC pension.

You can find the report at http://lao.ca.gov/reports/2016/3372/higher-education-022516.pdf
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2016/02/lao-stops-disputing-state.html