UC Davis budgeting chief Kelly Ratliff says Gov. Schwarzenegger "continues to bring good news to the campus" and the entire UC system with his revised budget proposal for 2006-07.

The revision, released last Friday, adds $1.3 million in spending to the UC proposals that the governor first announced in January. They include a "buyout" strategy to keep systemwide fees the same as this year, and money for salary and health benefit cost increases averaging 4 percent for faculty and staff.

Also, the governor's budget still includes spending authority for two UC Davis construction projects: a $22 million expansion and renovation of King Hall, which houses the School of Law, and $3 million to start the planning process for a new veterinary medicine building.

The state's share of costs — $18 million for the King Hall project and the full amount for the vet med planning work — is not guaranteed, however, according to Rick Keller, assistant vice chancellor for capital resource management. The money is included in a $10.4 billion bond measure due to go before voters in November.

The governor's budget revisions pertaining to UC amounted to "small adjustments," the UC Office of the President declared in a statement. The revisions, according to the governor's budget Web site and the UC Davis Office of Resource Management and Planning:

• A reduction in the UC budget for the fiscal year now under way, cutting the budget by $3.8 million to reflect final enrollment numbers, with the money to go back to the state's general fund. The Davis portion of the $3.8 million is about $900,000.
• A proposed augmentation of $1 million, on a one-time basis for 2006-07, for faculty recruitment and start-up costs supporting an expansion of undergraduate and graduate nursing programs.
• An increase of $300,000 in Proposition 99 funds to provide additional funding for tobacco-related research.

With the revisions in place, Schwarzenegger's budget for the next fiscal year boosts total state support for kindergarten through 12th-grade and higher education to more than $55 billion, up from $50 billion in 2005-06. The Legislature and governor now will try to craft a spending plan acceptable to both, with constitutional deadlines of June 15 for legislative passage and July 1 for the governor's signature, although a budget deal typically is never done by then.

"We continue to be hopeful that the academic preparation funding will be restored, said Ratliff, assistant vice chancellor of budget resource management. The governor's January budget proposal excluded the $17.3 million allocation, and he did not include it in his revision. UC still has $12 million in internal resources available for the programs that assist educationally disadvantaged kindergarten through 12th-grade students.

Still intact are these proposals from January:

• An additional $80.5 million in basic budget support, representing a 3 percent increase, in accordance with the compact that Schwarzenegger negotiated with UC in 2004. The governor's revised budget proposal includes $20.7 billion in support for UC with money from the general fund and other sources.
• A $52 million allocation to cover the costs of educating 5,279 additional full-time-equivalent students, an increase of 2.5 percent, also in accordance with the compact.

Also intact are funding for the faculty and staff salary and benefit cost increases, subject to collective bargaining requirements, and the state's buyout of the systemwide fee increases.

The Board of Regents decided in November to enact fee increases of 5 percent to 10 percent in the 2006-07 academic year. Schwarzenegger countered in January with his proposal to spend $75 million to "buy out" the increases. In other words, as an alternative to the fee increases, the state would give the university the extra revenue that the increased fees would bring in.

The governor's proposed buyout does not extend to campus fee increases. At UC Davis, for example, California resident undergraduates are due to pay 2 percent more, or $127, to cover student-approved fees for the multipurpose stadium and the move up to Division I athletics, plus normal inflation for other fees.

Nor does the proposed buyout extend to a 5 percent increase in nonresident undergraduate tuition. The regents did not alter tuition for other nonresident students — those in graduate programs and professional schools.

Also, the buyout does not affect the full implementation of student fees that were only partially put in place in 2005-06. Most professional degree students will see a $350 increase in the temporary educational fee, and law students will see a $318 increase in their professional degree fee.

Budget details are available online, from the governor's office, www.ebudget.ca.gov, and from the UC Office of the President, www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2006/jan10.html.