Ryan ChartrandFour weeks into the new fiscal year and without a budget, California State University professors are not seeing the effects of spring contract negotiations in their July 31 paychecks.
All CSU faculty members were set to receive one percent pay raises effective June 30, with another 3.7 percent raise effective July 31.
These raises are the result of a contract battle this spring, where 23 CSU campuses picketed and 94 percent of the 10,000 CFA faculty members voted to strike.
CSU officials negotiated base pay increases of 20.7 percent over a four-year period for faculty members, including step increases for eligible faculty.
State Controller John Chiang said in a statement on his Web site that in the absence of a state budget, he will “continue to pay regular salaries and wages, including overtime, to all state and California State University employees who are covered by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.”
California-elected officials and their personal staff, policy-making appointees and legal advisors not protected by civil service laws cannot be paid until a budget has been enacted, Chiang said.
Once a state budget is approved, assuming the higher education “compact” is fully funded, faculty raises will be paid retroactively, according to the California Faculty Association (CFA).
According to the CFA, any loss of funding would mean slashing classes for all students, cutting new student enrollment, and reopening CSU employee contracts. If contracts were reopened, CSU faculty could strike when fall classes resume.
Senate Republicans blocked the governor’s proposed $145 billion budget at the beginning of July, calling for cuts to reduce California’s budget deficit.
Although the seven-year deficit has decreased over the years, Senate Republicans said the proposed budget would increase the deficit to $5.5 billion next year, and force many new programs to potentially be cut.
“The question now is whether we cut education funding,” California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a July 20 statement. “I don’t think that’s what the people of California want. I will not cut education.”
Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget allocates $66.3 billion towards education, a 4.4 percent funding increase from the 2006-07 budget.
Of that, $19.8 billion would be spent on higher education, which would enable over 35,000 new students to be supported in the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems, according to the governor’s Web site.
CSU funding would increase to $4.4 billion, escalating from the 2006-07 budget by $270.6 million.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said in a July 21 statement, “(The Senate Republican Caucus’) refusal to vote for a budget leaves our state’s credit rating at risk and creates confusion and concern for our school districts which will be starting fall term in just a few weeks.
“I urge the Senate Republicans to come back to the table with a plan that also lives up to the commitment we must make to our schools if we truly want our students to be prepared for success in the competitive global economy of the 21st century,”
Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin) responded July 25 with his own list of cuts to the budget.
Ackerman and other Senate Republicans produced a “balanced and fiscally responsible” budget, he said in a statement on his Web site.
Ackerman’s proposal leaves funding for both the CSU and UC systems relatively intact, with the exception of a plan to cut the UC Labor Institute and a UC science program.
Republican Sen. Tom McClintock also proposed his own list of cuts, which includes cutting CSU enrollment funding and cost-of-living pay adjustments. McClintock’s plan would also repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students and increase the minimum grade point average to qualify for a Cal Grant B.
Senators met Monday to try and finalize the budget, where Senate Republicans called for a tax-relief package, which would give tax cuts to revenue-generating businesses such as biotech and high-tech firms.
If Senate Republicans remain stubborn in their demands, the budget impasse could last well into August, leaving thousands of people with lowered paychecks, uncertain about the future.