Last Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown released his proposed 2012/13 spending plan.
The plan includes no obvious cuts to the CSU but does include a $200 million “trigger cut” if a ballot initiative to increase taxes on sales and the wealthy is voted down in November. Beyond that potential cut, the Governor included a number of proposals to shift the funding source from which CSU mandatory costs would be paid.
For instance, under this budget plan it appears that the state would shift its historic responsibility to pay the CSU’s bond debt service from a state fund to the university’s general fund, potentially leaving the CSU on the hook to cover the payments from its ever-shrinking general fund.
There are other unclear aspects of the budget that the union will continue to investigate and clarify over the coming weeks. It is important to note that the plan released by the governor last week remains just a proposal and will be debated and vetted in the weeks and months to come.
“While the budget proposal released by the Governor Thursday appears to contain no immediate cuts to the California State University, the proposal includes changes in how mandatory costs would be paid that MAY ultimately create a bigger hole in the public university’s already stressed budget,” said CFA President Lillian Taiz, a professor of history at CSU Los Angeles.
