Budgetary Lesson from a Tree

From the Berkeley Daily Planet, 1-11-19:

A falling tree north of the Greek Theater on the University of California Berkeley campus killed Alexander Grant. He was 32. Very sad and totally predictable. A week before, UC started cutting trees at People's Park and spokesperson Dan Mogulof claimed, "deferred maintenance." The huge eucalyptus fell Sunday, January 6 at 3:46 pm...

Full story at http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2019-01-11/article/47299

The article above goes on to air the author's complaints about outsourcing and other matters. But there is a larger fiscal issue. Our earlier review of Gov. Newsom's budget proposal for 2019-20 of last Thursday as it regards UC notes that a distinction is made between ongoing budgetary items and "one time" allocations. In the past, the ongoing component was driven by enrollments, etc., basically an analog to K-12's average daily attendance. Under Gov. Brown, the amount given to UC seemed to be based on what the governor wanted to give rather than any formula. "One time" allocations for this and that purpose also seemed to be based on what the governor wanted to give. So the distinction between ongoing and one-time was at best fuzzy.

Much of the $153 million that Newsom now labels "one time" is said to be deferred maintenance which is put at $138 million. (See pages 48 and 48 of the budget summary.) But the fact is that trees deteriorate and buildings depreciate on a regular, predictable basis, when you consider the enormous UC infrastructure as a whole. The ongoing vs. one-time distinction is artificial and at best cosmetic, particularly when you consider that the ongoing label came to mean what the governor wants under Brown and the one-time label also applied to what the governor wants.