CSU
funding cut by $533 million
By Jamie Ouye
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Gov. Gray Davis signed California's budget
Saturday, more than a month after the Constitutional
deadline of July 1. The new budget will
cut the California State University system
by $533 million and Cal State Long Beach
is going to lose $40 million in funding.
Lawmakers said California, the world's sixth
largest economy, has a projected $8 billion
shortfall. The California UCP Capitol
Report said after a record 27-hour session
the California Assembly approved the budget
proposed by the state senate 56-22. The
reason for the session's length was a possible
$40 billion deficit that Democrats wanted
to solve with tax hikes while Republicans
were in favor of deep spending cuts.
CSULB is planning on "mitigating the
$40 million cut in general funding with
the already approved 30 percent increase
in student tuition, a 4-5 percent reduction
in operations costs and the rest with university
savings," Robyn Mack, associate vice
president for budget and human resources
at CSULB said.
Controversies over funding went through
two rounds. An early proposal in January
suggested a $448 million cut to the CSU
system, which translated to a $34 million
cut for CSULB. A late proposal of a $533
million cut made it into the approved budget
and that translates to a nearly $40 million
cut for CSULB said Mack.
Gov. Davis said that he wished the budget
didn't rely so heavily on borrowing and
that there was a tax increase, but the repercussions
of not signing the budget were much worse.
He also said he realizes that the budget
deficit is something that one cannot expect
to correct in a year.
The 30 percent increase in student tuition
is going to cover a large chunk of the $40
million cut, but one-third of those funds
are going to financial aid. The additional
funds will be used to counteract the fee
increases for students on financial aid
said Mack.
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