Governor Signs New State Budget

The governor has signed into law a 1997-98 state budget that freezes general students fees for the third consecutive year and provides state funding to help restore faculty salaries to competitive levels and make up for years when staff received no increases. It also provides funds to expand outreach programs to further student diversity and to continue cooperative research with industry. The budget fulfills the third year of the governor's four-year compact with higher education to bring fiscal stability and predictability to UC and the California State University. However, as part of the state's effort to balance its budget, UC must absorb a one-time $12 million undesignated cut in its state operating funds. UC President Richard Atkinson said he will present a plan for absorbing the cut to the UC Board of Regents in September. Restoring the funding, he said, will be a top priority in developing the university's 1998-99 budget plan. Even with the one-time cut, the state budget provides UC with a 5.9 percent, or $121.5 million increase in state general funds over last year. The total state general fund budget for the university will be $2.18 billion. The budget also calls for: Funding to bring UC faculty salaries to within 1.6 percent of the average of salaries at eight comparison institutions. This is a high priority of the regents, who plan to close the faculty salary gap by 1998-99. Funds to help staff recoup from the years of no salary increases, making UC staff salary increases comparable to the increases state employees received in previous years. An additional $1 million to expand student academic outreach efforts. Making permanent the $5 million provided in state funding last year for UC's Industry University Cooperative Research Program to speed the transfer of research from the laboratory to the market place. Funding for legislative initiatives, including $5 million to expand academic programs and continue planning for a 10th campus in the Central Valley. Provides $150 million for capital improvement projects on UC's nine campuses. The funding comes from Proposition 203, the higher education bond approved by voters in March 1996.