UC Davis officials are in the final stages of budget planning for a tough year ahead — one that does not now include pay raises in 2008-09 beyond normal faculty merit pay and any already agreed-upon raises.

Kelly Ratliff, associate vice chancellor in the Office of Resource Management and Planning, said all indications are the campus will be short about $42 million for 2008-09, just as she predicted almost a month ago.

"Times are tough," said Ratliff, acknowledging that UC Davis employees are facing tough times of their own on the home front, with rising prices for food and gasoline.

On the plus side, she said, "People around campus have really taken to heart protecting staff," meaning that in preparing their budget reduction plans, officials have kept the layoff number to 43.4 full-time equivalent jobs that rely on the campus's core funds — out of nearly 18,500 full-time employees on the payroll as of last fall.

In addition, reduction plans show 92 vacant positions that would be eliminated.

The forthcoming cutbacks, now under review, culminate a months-long effort to reach out to department chairs and their management teams, and to administrative management groups, about the seriousness and immediacy of the university's financial problems. Officials also held two staff forums.

"We wanted to get as much information as we could to as many people as possible," said Barbara Horwitz, interim provost and executive vice chancellor.

She and Ratliff met with 500 or so people in all types of jobs, to explain the predicament of the budget crunch and to gather ideas for dealing with it now and in future years.

Also, Horwitz asked every time she could: "What can we stop doing? What can we do differently? What new revenue can we generate?"

In her budget letter in February, Horwitz directed academic and administrative units to draw up plans for nearly $18 million in permanent cuts. Ratliff's office subsequently reviewed the plans, and drafted summaries, comments and recommendations — all of which are now available online (budget.ucdavis.edu).

The university community is welcome to comment on the plans, with submissions due to Horwitz and Ratliff by June 30 (bahorwitz@ucdavis.edu and kmratliff@ucdavis.edu).

To go along with permanent cuts, the university intends to make nearly $24 million in one-time cuts, for a total budget reduction of $42 million to make it through the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Here is a breakdown:

• $14 million — UC Davis' potential loss if the Legislature and Schwarzenegger cannot agree on the governor's proposal for a total allocation of $3.26 billion to UC — the same amount of money given to the system in 2007-08.

The allocation includes the governor's $98.5 million boost to the UC system, as spelled out in his latest budget proposal, known as the May revise. UC Davis' share is estimated at $14 million. So, that is how much the campus stands to lose if the $98.5 million does not survive the debate that promises to carry on at the Capitol through summer, long past the constitutional deadline for a new budget.

• $26 million in new spending to meet a number of campus commitments — $14 million for mandatory cost increases (for example, funding to continue salary and benefits expenses provided this year), $10 million for the Davis campus's utility bill deficit, $1 million for graduate student support, and $1 million to help pay for UC Merced enrollment growth (a cost shared by all nine of Merced's sister campuses).

• $2 million in contingency funding.

In the best-case scenario, as described by Horwitz at the June 6 Academic Senate meeting, UC Davis would get the extra $14 million from the governor's revised budget, and therefore the campus budget deficit would be $28 million. But there is no guarantee.

Budget planning letter

In her Feb. 26 letter, Horwitz directed cuts as follows:

• Academic units — Permanent reductions of 7 percent in general fund base budgets, excluding ladder faculty salaries and teaching assistant funds.

• Academic support and administrative units — Permanent reductions of 7 percent in general fund and registration fee base budgets.

The administration exempted the following campus priorities from budget reductions: utilities (gas and electricity purchased from outside vendors), graduate student support managed by the Office of Graduate Studies, and student mental health programs in Counseling and Psychological Services — programs that are being expanded in response to the UC Student Mental Health Committee Report.

Units turned in their reduction proposals by April 25, and the Office of Resource Management and Planning then reviewed each unit's plan. From those reviews, ORMP developed summaries, contextual information, comments and recommendations.

The reports are available on the budget Web page: budget.ucdavis.edu. Also look there for Ratliff's PowerPoint presentation delivered to department chairs and other managers.