The LAO's Grumbles About Merced

The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) has some grumbles about a proposed medical building at UC-Merced. That fact may surprise you because UC-Merced doesn't have a medical school. However, it has some kind of cooperative program with UC-San Francisco.

In any event, the LAO has a variety of issues with a proposal in the governor's budget that would approve the Merced medical building. Part of the concerns revolve around the building's size, which the LAO compares to a UC-Riverside building. LAO says the proposed Merced building is too big. Moreover, it complains that it contains space for non-medical education such as public health. And there is space for research, not just narrow medical education.

Apart from the Merced matter, LAO follows its more general theme of making more information on capital project proposals available to the legislature.

You can read the full LAO report at https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2021/4395/University-Capitol-Outlay-030521.pdf