Will We Get Some More?

Please sir, can I have some more?

As blog readers will know, the governor a few weeks back came out with his May Revise budget.* But budgets aren't decided by the governor; the legislature has to enact budgets. And it has to do so by mid-June. 

There is a version of a legislative budget floating around on the web.** It assumes a bit more overall revenue and spending than does the May Revise, but - given the vagaries of trying to forecast - the overall amounts aren't much different from the governor's estimates. 

It does say [page 16] that UC is proposed to get $50 million more in "ongoing base augmentation" than the governor proposed. It's not clear, however, whether that terminology refers to total dollars or what the governor likes to view as ongoing dollars. It is also useful to keep in mind that inflation has been running around 8%, so what looks like an increase could be a lot less in real dollars, even negative. It is also unclear whether what the legislative budget now contains is what will be its final allocation for UC.

In theory, the governor could use his line-item veto on whatever the legislature enacts. However, in recent years, there has been discussion between the governor and Democratic legislative leaders before final enactment so such vetoes are unlikely. 

On verra. 

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-may-revise-budget-quick-analysis.html.

**https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/sites/sbud.senate.ca.gov/files/Legislative%20Version%20Summary%20Final.pdf.