State budget update - June 12, 2014
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June 12, 2014 Dear Colleagues, Good morning from Eureka, where I'm visiting College of the Redwoods today. Last night, the Conference Committee on the State Budget took major actions with an eye toward completing work on the state's 2014-15 budget by Sunday's midnight deadline. Unfortunately, much of the budget trailer bill language is not yet available. As widely expected, the Legislature agreed to mostly accept the governor's lower revenue calculations, backing off a proposed $246 million in greater community college spending previously approved by budget-writing committees. In the end, there were two major changes to the community college budget proposed in the May Revision--the funds for Student Equity were reduced from $100 million to $70 million and Disabled Students funding was increased by $30 million. Here are the major community college items, with changes from the May Revise identified in yellow:
Instead of completely paying off the community college deferrals, the compromise would repay $498 million in deferrals, with the remaining $98 million tied to state revenues. Under the LAO's revenue projections, the deferral would be completely paid off this year. Language was inserted into the budget last night to limit the amount of reserves K-12 districts may hold for bad economic times, should the Rainy Day fund proposal be approved by voters in November. Similar language was not included for community colleges. While education advocates hoped an education facilities bond would be approved in conjunction with the budget, there was no movement on the issue as most of the work on the education budget was completed. Here are some more details and a multi-year chart prepared for our board meetings by League Vice President Theresa Tena. Thank you to all the advocates and our great Team League for a great budget cycle for community colleges! Sincerely, |
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