Budget Kabuki

As we have noted in our discussion of the recent Regents meetings, which happened to occur at the same time the governor's May Revise was unveiled, there was a lot of thanking the governor for reducing the UC budget cut from 8% in January to 3%.

There is much stylized dancing that occurs when it comes to UC and the state budget.

You can look at the January proposal as the opening bid in a negotiation, not just with UC, but with the legislature. Did the governor really think that minus 8% was going to be acceptable to the legislature, particularly since it violates the so-called "compact" to the point where ad hoc tuition increases might have been on the table? Probably not? Can the governor really promise that the legislature in the future will get us back to the compact track? Not really.

Does the Kabuki dance nonetheless require UC to thank the governor for minus 3%? It does, not by law but by tradition. So that's what happened.