Where We Are on the Budget

Although the legislature passed a "budget" within the constitutional timeframe, negotiations with the governor have continued since what was passed differed in various ways from the governor's May Revise. The state assembly and senate have produced summaries of the current state of affairs. Below are the summaries for UC.

What appears to have happened is that instead of no nominal cut for the 2025-26 budget year that begins July 1, UC will be provided with a no interest loan that is equivalent to the cut. This appears to be a purely cosmetic way of pretending no spending is involved. But it also appears that the promise for future years has been cut back.

As we have noted many times, today's legislature really can't make promises. The budgets for years beyond the one that starts on July 1, 2025 will be enacted by future legislatures and will be determined by the situation at those future times.

In any case, here are the two summaries pertaining to UC:

University of California

(from State Assembly Summary of the Status of the Budget in negotiations with the governor to date)

 Rejects the May Revision proposal to reduce operational funding by $129.7 million ongoing General Fund, or a 3 percent cut to ongoing state support. Restores the cut but defers payment until July 1, 2026. Includes budget bill language allowing UC to access a no-interest loan from General Fund resources in 2025-26.

 Modifies the Governor’s Budget proposal to defer $240.8 million ongoing General Fund to support a 5 percent base increase in 2025-26. Instead provides a 2 percent deferred base increase in 2026-27 instead of 5 percent, and the rest of the increase in 2028-29.

Adheres to the other pieces of the Administration’s compact deferral structure for 2026-27 and 2027-28.

 Approves Governor’s Budget and May Revision proposals to defer $31 million ongoing General Fund to continue the 5-year program to replace nonresident students with California students at the Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego campuses. Also includes budget bill language allowing UC to count additional reductions of nonresident students beyond the yearly target toward the next year.

 Approves budget bill language setting an enrollment target of 2,947 full-time equivalent students (FTES) in 2025–26 over the estimated 2024–25 baseline level of 206,588 FTES, for a total enrollment of 209,535.

 Provides $5 million one-time General Fund to support the CalBRIDGE program.

 Provides $15 million one-time General Fund to support the Local News Fellowship Program.

 Modifies the May Revision proposal to reduce debt service payments for student housing program by authorizing the Davis and Santa Barbara projects and $5.2 million ongoing General Fund to support debt service costs. Returns $1 million ongoing of bond cost savings to the General Fund.

 Approves the May Revision proposal to provide $1.8 million one-time General Fund to support First Star foster youth cohorts.

 Provides $430,000 ongoing General Fund to support the California Local Newspaper project at UC Riverside.

 Provides $5 million one-time General Fund to UC San Diego to support the development of a bachelor’s degree program in public health in South San Diego.

 Provides $4.5 million one-time General Fund to support the UC Davis Transportation Research Center.

 Provides $3.6 million one-time General Fund to the UC Office of the President for campus climate and antidiscrimination efforts.

 Provides $3 million one-time General Fund to support menopause health centers at University of California hospitals.

 Provides $2.5 million one-time General Fund to UC San Diego to support the ALERTCalifornia.

 Provides $1.8 million one-time General Fund to UC San Francisco to support the pilot Doctor of Dental Surgery Advocacy, Science, Public Interest and Research (DDSASPIRE) program.

 Provides $1.5 million one-time General Fund to support the PRIME Central Coast program at the UC Davis School of Medicine, in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz.

 Provides $1 million one-time General Fund to support the UC Davis Firearms Research Center.

 Provides $750,000 one-time General Fund to UCLA to support social media research.

 Approves the May Revision to reappropriate funding for the California Climate Initiatives.

 Approves the May Revision proposal authorizing the use of interest from bond funds to support the UCLA Powell Library Seismic Renovation project.

 Approves May Revision adjustments to the California Breast Cancer Research Fund, the Electronic Cigarette Tax Fund, and the Medical Research Program Account Fund due to updated revenue projections.

 Approves May Revision language-only proposals to eliminate compact reporting and make a technical correction to academic year in UC financial aid provision.

 Approves May Revision adjustments to the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Division.

Source: https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2025-06/floor-report-of-the-2025-26-budget-june-24-2025.pdf (pp. 55-56).

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From the State Senate summary:

Rejects Governor’s proposal to reduce the UC ($129.7 million) and CSU ($143.8 million) by 3% ongoing. Instead defers the 3% amount in 2025-26 for both the UC and CSU to 2026-27 and the state will provide access to zero-interest short term loans to mitigate the deferral impact. Additionally, splits the deferred 5% Compact increase from 2025-26 to 2% for the UC ($96.3 million) and CSU ($100.9 million) in 2026-27 and defers 3% for the UC ($144.5 million) and CSU ($151.4 million) to 2028-29.

Source: https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/system/files/2025-06/summary-of-the-budget-act-of-2025-final-1.pdf (p. 7).