Office recommends raise in fees after budget cuts

By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Reporter

Students will face an increase in mandatory fees unless the
University of California can secure more state funding or cut
programs.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office, a bi-partisan body which
makes recommendations to the legislature on budget and policy
issues, suggests raising student fees anywhere from $1,000 to
$2,620 annually to compensate for the state’s budget
shortfall.

“To keep the quality of UC education at the same level, as
costs increase, revenue needs to increase,” said Sona Nagar,
an analyst for the LAO. “Because the general fund does not
provide those funds, I think increasing student fees would be the
most likely way to gain those resources.”

For the past seven years, the state budget has given funds to
the UC to prevent a fee increase, but Gov. Gray Davis’ budget
this year does not provide for such funding.

His budget has $12.5 billion less in revenue than last year, and
an LAO report released Wednesday said an additional $5 billion will
need to be cut statewide.

Unless fees increase, the only way to balance the UC’s
budget is to cut programs, Nagar said.

Hayward confirmed that this is a possibility if the UC
can’t get more funding from the state, but he did not specify
which programs could be cut.

Fees for California residents are currently $3,859 per year.
While the legislature debates raising in-state resident fees, the
UC has already approved raising non-resident fees to $15,631″“
a 4 percent increase ““ for the 2002-03 school year.

One LAO recommendation is to increase the percentage students
pay for total costs of their education.

According to estimates in the governor’s budget, student
fees only account for 21 percent of the cost of educating an
undergraduate student.

Increasing student fees to cover 30 or 40 percent of the cost of
undergraduate education would raise fees to $4,859 and $6,479,
respectively.

The other recommendation is to make UC fees the same as
comparable public institutions. This would result in a fee increase
of more than $2,000. The LAO suggests increasing fees by 10 percent
annually through 2009-2010 in this recommendation.

“We should avoid a sudden shock,” Nagar said.
“Changes should be gradual and moderate.”

According to Max Espinoza, higher education consultant for the
state assembly’s budget committee, the legislature often does
not adopt the LAO’s recommendations.

“Everything is on the table,” Espinoza said.
“Higher education will receive its share of cuts.”

State Assembly Higher Education chair Elaine Alquist,
D”“Santa Clara, will not vote for any budget that includes a
fee increase, according to her spokesman, Paul Mitchell.

“Students need to advocate very hard that they don’t
want fee increases,” Mitchell said.