...The Governor’s higher education plan worsens the state’s projected budget deficit in 2025-26 substantially, with the proposed deferrals contributing $1.5 billion to that deficit. The Governor’s proposed deferrals for UC and CSU are even worse than the deferrals the state has done to date.
Whereas the state typically has used deferrals to protect existing programs from deeper cuts, the Governor is proposing that UC and CSU expand their programs. Rather than increasing university costs, the state historically has contained those costs during such times. The Governor’s plan also would increase CCC costs even though available Proposition 98 funding is not sufficient to cover even existing CCC costs... Given the difficulty entailed in cutting other ongoing state programs to make room for more higher education spending, there is no guarantee the state would be able to provide UC and CSU with the $1.5 billion the Governor proposes in 2025-26. To mitigate these challenges, we recommend the Legislature hold university funding and associated spending expectations flat in 2024-25 rather than relying on revenue that is not currently available to support that spending.
Such an approach would be consistent with the state’s traditional approach of containing rather than increasing university costs when facing multiyear budget deficits.
The full report is at https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2024/4829/Higher-Ed-Budget-Overview-013024.pdf.
Have you forgotten the ins and outs of the January budget proposal? For your convenience, we have musically shortened the two-hour budget presentation to a mere seven minutes:
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