The legislature is taking final actions on the 2007-08 state budget in an effort to meet their June 15 constitutional deadline to submit a budget to the Governor. Currently the Senate/Assembly budget conference committee are reviewing and approving the recommendations of each house’s budget subcommittees.

The system has no issues before the conference committee as both houses approved the Compact funding, restored $7 million in Outreach funding and augmented the CSU budget for K-12 Math and Science Teacher Preparation ($2 million) and Nursing Programs ($3.6 million). In addition, the CSU budget includes:

• $129.5 million for Compensation
• $76.9 million for Enrollment Growth of 2.5 percent to enroll nearly 11,000 additional students
• $42 million for Mandatory Costs (health benefits, new space, energy costs)
• $38.8 million for Student Financial Aid
• $9.2 million for Long Term Need (academic technology, libraries, deferred maintenance)

There were a few items that CSU continues to work with the legislature and the Governor to try and get it inserted into the budget, including:

• $41 million needed for increased costs associated with employee compensation including health benefits.
• $46 million needed for the current over-enrollment growth of 6,300 students

The CSU has asked the legislature to take a look at these two key issues and their overall impact on the system. Without these additional funds the CSU campuses will need to look inward at ways in which they can make up these costs within the context of $500 million worth of under funding in prior years for the system.

Barring no additional changes, the 2007-08 CSU budget will total $4.3 billion with nearly $3.0 billion from the State General Fund and $1.3 billion from fee revenue. This represents an increase of $302 million or 6.95 percent over the 2006-07 CSU budget.