University of California general funds are ending up in the wrong places

SUBMITTED BY Chris Bray

Take a moment to look at the chart on the state Department of Finance Web site. If you look at the chart, you’ll see this listing of the state’s General Fund expenditures, given in billions of dollars. So, the looming crisis in California state spending is simply this: We face a serious threat of having a little more money to spend in 2009 than we spent in 2005. This is not the apocalypse.

So why does it feel that way? One word: kleptocracy.

In 2005, with state tax revenues on the upswing, the University of California hired a new chancellor to run UC Santa Cruz. Before Chancellor Denice Denton would move into her state-owned house, however, she needed the taxpayers to make it livable for her. They sure did that, spending $600,000 in public funds to renovate the chancellor’s residence. If you pay taxes in California, you bought Denton’s dogs a $30,000 dog run. You also bought Denton herself a new Sub-Zero refrigerator. Because, after all, how is one to educate the youth without a Sub-Zero refrigerator? How is one to truly lead with some mere … Maytag refrigerator? (Great questions to ponder: May an intellectual shop for appliances at a place like Sears?)

More recently, UC President Mark Yudof moved to the state from his job in Texas and needed a place to live. The University of California owns a 13,000 square foot home for its president, but Yudof declined to live in it. The UC issued a press release to explain Yudof’s alternative living arrangements:

“The 24-month lease authorized today (May 15) will be for a home in Oakland with approximately 6,800 square feet to be used for official university events and as a personal residence for Mr. Yudof and his wife. The house and its furnishings will be leased for $11,360 per month, increasing to $11,750 per month in the second year. An average additional $2,025 per month is expected to be paid for utilities, gardening, garbage collection and related services.”

Students, remember those figures when your tuition goes up. Faculty and staff, remember those figures while you enjoy your next furlough. Fellow teaching assistants, you may have noticed that the University of California pays you about as much money every month as Mark Yudof gets for his household incidentals.

You can read that press release yourself, by the way:

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/17841.

Pick your own favorite part, but mine is the one that says Yudof can’t live in the Blake Mansion because “it sits on an active geologic slide, which causes continual foundation movement and related structural issues.” Imagine a home in California that sits in a place where the ground sometimes moves ““ amazing stuff!

This kind of open looting isn’t limited to the University of California. Even now, state government is a bursting piggybank for political families. As the Los Angeles Times reported on March 27, the state’s payrolls are crowded with the friends and relatives of leading politicians. A daughter of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa makes $68,000 a year from state funds, for example, “as a field representative for Democrats.” Imagine how much her back must ache after she puts in a full day on the job.

Here’s my proposal: Invite the mayor’s daughter to find a private sector job, and we can take back the $68,000. That’s full tuition for eight UCLA students, with a little change left over. Maybe Mark Yudof can use the leftover cash for a plane ticket back to Texas, where he can buy his own house.

Bray is a graduate student in history.