Summary of LAO Findings and Recommendations on the 2013-14 Budget

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Budget Issue
LAO Finding Or
Recommendation

Last Updated
See Detail  UC, CSU and Hastings Debt restructuring. Recommend rejecting the Governor’s proposal to allow the universities to restructure the state’s lease-revenue debt associated with university projects. 3-21-13
See Detail  UC, CSU, and Hastings Combining capital and support budgets. Recommend rejecting the Governor's proposal to (1) shift funding for general obligation debt service into the universities' base budgets and (2) remove restrictions on funding for lease-revenue debt service. 3-21-13
See Detail  UC, CSU and Hastings Retirement costs. Recommend adopting the Governor’s proposal to limit future adjustments for CSU’s retirement costs. Recommend designating $67 million of UC’s proposed base budget augmentation for retirement costs. Recommend increasing Hastings’ proposed base budget augmentation from $392,000 to $455,000 and designating the full amount for retirement costs. 3-21-13
See Detail  UC, CSU, and CCC Caps on state-subsidized units at public colleges and universities. Modify Governor’s January proposal to exclude certain types of credits earned and provide additional guidance regarding waivers. Provide no special treatment for double majors. Allow two-year implementation lag. 3-15-13
See Detail  UC and CSU Extended tuition freeze at public universities. Reject Governor’s January budget proposal for an extended tuition freeze at the universities. Adopt share-of-cost fee policy instead. 3-15-13
See Detail  UC and CSU Enrollment targets for public universities. Set enrollment targets for all three segments to ensure that improvements in student outcomes do not come at the expense of existing student access. 3-15-13
See Detail  CCC Funding reform. Reject Governor's January proposal to fund CCC based on course completions. Consider an alternative funding approach that balances student access with student success. 3-15-13
See Detail  CCC Board of Governors Fee Waiver Program (BOG). Recommend approving Governor's January proposals to (1) require students to complete a federal financial aid application to obtain a BOG fee waiver and (2) count dependent students' income for purposes of determining eligibility for the BOG fee waiver. 3-15-13
See Detail  UC, CSU, and CCC Governor's higher education technology initiatives. Reject Governor's January proposals to (1) earmark $10 million each for UC and CSU and up to $16.9 million for CCC to develop new online courses and (2) purchase a CCC learning management system. Achieve similar policy objectives using primarily existing resources. Withhold recommendation on Governor's January proposal to expand credit-by-examination opportunities pending further information. 3-15-13
See Detail  CCC CCC mandates Reject Governor’s proposal to retain “Community College Construction” in mandate block grant. Recommend eliminating the four specific mandated content areas as districts likely would continue to include such information in their capital outlay plans. 3-15-13
See Detail  CCC Capital outlay project at Solano Community College. Approve Governor's January proposal to provide $1.2 million in general-obligation bond funding for theater-renovation project at Solano Community College. 3-15-13
See Detail  Cal Grants TANF and SLOF adjustments for Cal Grant program. Conform TANF funding amount for Cal Grants with decisions on CalWORKs. Increase SLOF support by $25 million over Governor’s proposal. In both cases, these funds directly offset General Fund expenditures for Cal Grants and have no programmatic effect. 3-15-13
See Detail  Cal Grants Cal Grant funding. Recommend adopting Governor’s January budget proposal to increase total Cal Grant funding by $61 million in 2012-13 and an additional $100 million in 2013-14. The proposed increases are needed to fully fund Cal Grants under current state law. 3-15-13
See Detail  CSU Collective bargaining for CSU employee health care premiums. Either (1) adopt the Governor’s January proposal to apply the same minimum employer health care contribution rate to CSU as currently applied to most other the state agencies or (2) remove the standard for CSU from statute altogether, thereby treating CSU similar to UC and Hastings. 3-15-13
See Detail  UC, CSU, CCC, and Hastings Unallocated base increases for public colleges and universities. Reject the Governor’s January approach to base increases. Fund obligations (including debt service, employee pension costs, and deferral pay downs) as a first priority. If more funding is provided, link with specific expectations. 3-15-13