On January 10th, Governor Brown announced his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. Here are highlights:
Read the complete Budget Update.
We are all relieved that Proposition 30 was approved by the voters of California. Approval means that the CSU is not subject to massive additional $250m “trigger” budget cuts. With passage of Proposition 30, CSULB faces a $13.5m reduction this year, instead of $20m.
What does this mean for Academic Affairs for Spring 2013 and the next academic year? Academic Affairs faces a reduction of about $5m instead of $10m. We have planned carefully. Unless there are surprises in the January 10th Governor’s budget message, we are planning
The CSU and CSULB budgets for next year depend upon Governor Brown’s November ballot initiative that would increase sales and income taxes. Voter approval is very uncertain. Should initiatives fail, the CSU will face a $200 million reduction. The CSU Board of Trustees will include many new Governor-appointed members who may not be willing to approve a fee increase large enough to mitigate the reduction.
If this occurs, CSULB could face a $27m budget shortfall. CSULB does not have enough temporary resources to manage a cut of this magnitude.
Enrollment reduction would lead to even larger budget reductions because student fees now contribute more to our total revenue than state appropriations.
The magnitude of the possible budget reduction is so large that we cannot wait until November to take action. Pending the November vote, I see no option but to reduce General Fund expenditures in anticipation of a very large budget reduction in 2012-13. The following actions are effective beginning July 1 for the Fall semester, at least.
Support for travel to disseminate faculty and student scholarship, enhance the professional development of our faculty and staff, and expand the global reach of curricular offerings and student learning is important to the mission of CSULB.
Unfortunately, due to budget reductions from the state of California, CSULB must continue to limit support for travel. Academic Affairs travel guidelines apply to all faculty and staff in the academic division and to all travel in any way sponsored by the division. Please see the revised guidelines.
Submit an idea on how Academic Affairs can reduce costs and generate revenue.