�ٺ���Ƶ

The governor giveth and the governor taketh, $65.5 million to be exact. That is how much Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing as a midyear cut in the state allocation to UC for 2008-09.

As of midweek, when Dateline went to press, the governor and legislative leaders had not agreed on anything. Consequently, the UC Board of Regents had not acted — so there was no telling how such a cut, if approved, would play out on the 10 campuses.

In his budget recommendations last week, Schwarzenegger also proposed a one-day-a-month furlough for state employees and the elimination of two paid holidays. Such actions have not applied to UC in the past; in fact, the governor has no constitutional authority over the UC work force.

State and UC employees get the same number of paid holidays, 13, but the two that Schwarzenegger would take away — Lincoln’s Birthday and Columbus Day — are not UC holidays.

Whether UC went along with the governor’s furlough-holiday plan would be up to the Board of Regents. Its next regularly scheduled meeting is Nov. 18-20, and the state’s budget crisis is likely to be a topic.

Should the governor and Legislature agree on a midyear cut, the regents would need to decide where the money would come from. Assuming the campuses share at least some of the burden, �ٺ���Ƶ is likely to be responsible for 14 percent to 15 percent, according to Associate Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff of the Office of Resource Management and Planning.

Therefore, if the systemwide reduction is $65.5 million, as Schwarzenegger has proposed, and the regents apportion all of it to the campuses, �ٺ���Ƶ’ share would be $9.2 million to $9.8 million.

This would be on top of the $33 million shortfall that the campus already is dealing with for 2008-09. Earlier budget actions included nearly $17 million in cuts and the levying of a 3 percent “self-supporting assessment.”

When officials announced the self-supporting assessment last month, Ratliff estimated it would bring in $7 million annually. Of that amount, she said, $5 million would go toward balancing the campus’s 2008-09 budget and $2 million would go into a contingency fund, for the possibility of further cuts down the road.

Well, we are already “down the road,” with the California budget projected to be billions in the red this fiscal year, the result of the continuing economic downturn.

Last week the Schwarzenegger administration estimated a shortfall of $11.2 billion for 2008-09 and an additional $13 billion through June 2010. The Republican governor proposed $4.5 billion in cuts across state government, including UC, and $4.7 billion in tax increases, notably a 1.5-cent hike in the sales tax.

The governor is meeting with legislative leaders on his proposal, and has called the Legislature into special session to deal with the crisis. The regents and the campus are anxiously awaiting the outcome.

At the campus level, Ratliff knows she has $2 million in contingency money to cushion any additional cuts that may be coming. And she and other campus leaders are trying to figure out where the rest would come from.

For example, the Enrollment Policy Board met on Nov. 10 to discuss enrollment for 2009-10, whether to grow or not to grow, given the state’s dim financial outlook.

The California State University system already is looking at enrollment. At its meeting next week, the CSU board of trustees is expected to consider turning away some eligible students from all 23 campuses for the first time in CSU history.

The UC system does not expect to make any enrollment adjustments in 2008-09. No enrollment decisions have been made for 2009-10.

And, while UC is reluctant to impose midyear fee increases when the academic year is under way, a final decision awaits budget action at the Capitol.

Schwarzenegger’s proposed $65.5 million reduction for UC comes on top of a $48 million year-over-year reduction in state funding. The state budget also left the university on its own to achieve an additional $100 million in savings to cover enrollment growth and increases in fixed costs.

“We are of course disappointed to be facing another potential budget cut on top of the reductions we are already making this year,” UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement.

At the same time, he added, “we understand the severity of the state’s immediate fiscal condition and understand the need to play a constructive role in the solution.”

Nevertheless, in looking to UC’s 2009-10 budget, to be presented at the regents meeting next week, Yudof intends to put forth a request for what the university truly needs from the state.

“We believe higher education is crucial to California’s ability to grow its way out of this economic downturn, and we ultimately need to be talking about ways to improve investment in our state’s human capital,” he said.

RETIREMENT PLAN UPDATE

Just as the state and UC budgets have taken a beating in this economic downturn, so too has the UC Retirement Plan, dropping in value more than 28 percent from July 2007 through October 2008. Today, the plan’s assets cover about 100 percent of obligations, down from 105 percent funded status on June 30, 2007. In a statement Nov. 10, UC President Mark G. Yudof assured employees that their benefits are secure and that UCRP investments are well diversified. Read his letter: atyourservice.ucop.edu.