CALmatters, 5-15-18, Felicia Mello [excerpt]
Gov. Jerry Brown... added to his proposed 2018-19 budget a one-time infusion of $100 million each for UC and California State University to make campus repairs. The funds are part of a larger effort to upgrade the state’s ailing infrastructure. But they will only cover a fraction of the backlog and don’t account for the university’s long-term need for new buildings.
“He’s proposing a Band-Aid on a massive capital deficit wound,” said state Sen. Steve Glazer, an Orinda Democrat who wants to put a proposition on the November ballot asking voters to support $4 billion in bond funding* for the two universities to build classrooms and labs...
UC spends only about half of what comparable public research universities do on maintaining its campuses, a recent PPIC analysis** found. Spending plunged in 2010 and has not bounced back.
Private donations can help fund marquee projects like a new performing arts center, or profit-sharing ventures like a parking garage. But the less-glamorous task of building and maintaining classrooms usually requires public dollars, said Patrick Murphy, a senior fellow at PPIC who studies capital spending in higher education. “No one’s lining up to put their plaque on the air conditioning unit,” Murphy said...
Statement by Glazer:
http://sd07.senate.ca.gov/news/2017-02-16-glazer-introduces-2-billion-higher-education-bond-bil
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*The most recent version of the bill says $2 billion, not $4 billion:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB483
**http://www.ppic.org/blog/bricks-mortarboards-capital-investment-colleges/
It would be cheaper to budget $100million a year without borrowing money through a bond. Maintenance is an annual expense, not a one-time expense!
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