Cal State Long Beach will soon see its state funds cut by $2.4 million as part of an overall budget tightening in the face of California’s slumping economy.
The CSU system will be hit with a $31.3 million reduction in state funds, and the chancellor’s office has advised campuses to institute hiring-freezes, delay travel for faculty and curtail spending.
The cuts come as a result of a $390-million hole in the state budget that has evolved since May as a result of revenue shortfalls for California, according to CSULB President F. King Alexander.
“We had no idea how short revenues were going to be,” Alexander said. “I don’t think anyone did.”
Largely, this is the end result of California’s unemployment rate, which has risen to nearly 8 percent.
“When people are unemployed, they’re not spending money and they’re not generating revenues,” Alexander said. And California relies heavily on its tax revenues to fill its budget.
CSU officials do not expect this to be the only time the system will be affected by the state’s economic woes.
Teresa Ruiz, a public affairs specialist for the CSU Office of the Chancellor, said, “From what we understand, this is not going to be the last round of cuts in [the] 2008-2009 [fiscal year].”
“Fortunately we have anticipated some of this,” Alexander said. “When the governor signed the May revise, basically not giving anybody a cut, they also retained the authority…that the budget director can make a mid-year cut without getting legislator approval. So we didn’t get cut when he signed it, but two weeks [to] three weeks later everybody got cuts.”
The University of California system received $32 million in cuts as a result of the budget tightening.
Alexander said California is not unique in its need to curtail state funding.
“This is going on all over the United States,” Alexander said. “You’re starting to see the ramifications from the markets [and] from unemployment going up. We’ve got the third highest of the nation for unemployment rate.”
CSU campuses were alerted to the cuts on Thursday by a news release from CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, who anticipates the CSUs “will be able to manage this reduction without disrupting campus operations or impacting instruction, student services or public safety,” but also warned of seemingly inevitable future cuts.
Reed can’t be impeached because his position is appointed by the governor. He can be forced to resign for selling out the CSU Alliance and every student in the university system. This “voluntary” give back was the sweetheart deal Chuckie made with the governor when they violated the Higher Education Compact. The California Faculty Association is equally culpable for not holding these thieves accountable when they had the chance to support impeaching Arnold while he was holding their paychecks hostage by putting all state employees on minimum wage and laying off 10,000 part-time employees. He did all of this to bully this sham of a balanced budget through the legislature. Californians, you get what you deserve when you trust used car salesmen. What will Arnold and Chuck Reed have to do to get you in this vehicle today?
charles reed voluntarily give this money back to the governor.
impeach charles reed now!