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Friday, March 14, 2025

Scrambling for pennies - Part 2

We noted in a prior post that the governor was looking for extra pennies anywhere he could find them in making his January budget proposal, which means it will be difficult (but not impossible) for UC to get more than he proposed.* There is more in his penny hunting. From columnist George Skelton in the LA Times

One Newsom [budget] gimmick has drawn little attention amid Los Angeles-area wildfires and all the focus on chaos generated by President Trump. To help balance his budget, the governor wants to grab roughly $300 million from the $10-billion climate bond approved overwhelmingly by voters in November. OK, that’s only a fraction — 3% — of the bond total. But it’s the principle of the money grab. It could set a pattern for this governor and his successors to continue dipping into the climate bond pot...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2025-03-10/skelton-monday-politics-newsletter-politics-newsletter-template-do-not-use-make-a-copy-politics.

And we continue to note that the phrase "to help balance his budget" is misleading. The budget proposal, which draws down reserves, is in deficit - not in balance - using the common English meaning of those words. If you have to draw down reserves, it means that you are spending more than you are taking in.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/03/scrambling-for-pennies.html.

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