Governor Signs Budget; Thank You Notes Requested
From Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer
Community College League of California
Governor Schwarzenegger just signed the 2008-09 budget corrections and the 2009-10
budget bill. While the budget has something in it for everyone to hate, it preserves
access to community colleges at a critical time for our state's economy. As a recap,
the budget funds 36,000 more full-time students next year, and does not reduce the
current year growth money, which is serving 24,000 additional full-time students.
Given the pain felt in other parts of the government, even with a large tax increase,
today clearly shows that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Community College Governor.
The governor cut an additional $510 million from UC and CSU, which is expected to
reimbursed by funds in the federal stimulus bill. While there were rumored cuts to
the Competitive Cal Grant program, the governor left intact the funding included by
the Legislature to maintain the program, which serves low-income Californians returning
to community colleges from the workforce.
There are many people to thank for keeping the doors open through this historically
bad period in our state's fiscal history. However, today, we want to thank the legislative
leaders and a key advisor to the governor.
I hope you'll join me in writing "thank you" letters to the "Big 5" that negotiated
this budget deal:
The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor
State of California
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
The Honorable Darrell Steinberg
Senate President Pro Tempore
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249
The Honorable Dave Cogdill
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249
The Honorable Karen Bass
Speaker of the Assembly
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249
The Honorable Mike Villines
Assembly Republican Leader
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249
Also, while we usually focus on members, we wanted to make a special request that
you send a handwritten "thank you" card to the Governor's education advisor, Paul
Navarro. He was instrumental in reversing $120 million in planned cuts late last week,
and has been a key player in efforts for community college equalization and a fair
share for community colleges of state bond funding.
Thus, I hope you'll join me in sending a "thank you" to Paul at:
Paul Navarro
Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
A simple handwritten "thank you for keeping the doors to California's community colleges
open" would send a strong message to Paul for his years of support.
Finally, as I've said many times, thank you. Thank you for your strong advocacy, but
more importantly for the great work you do in support of our colleges to make our
job in Sacramento so easy.
Scott Lay
President and Chief Executive Officer
Community College League of California
2017 O Street, Sacramento, California 95811
916.444.8641 . www.ccleague.org