Governor Kills Funding for South County CSUF Branch

Plans for a satellite campus of Cal State Fullerton in south county were dealt a major setback Friday when Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed $587,000 in start-up money for the facility.

The governor did not veto any other major building project affecting education in Orange County. The budget he signed provides $7 million for new buildings and equipment at UC Irvine; $14.7 million for a new cancer outpatient building and a new psychiatric inpatient facility at UCI Medical Center in Orange; $6.8 million for more improvements at the Orange campus of Rancho Santiago College, and $5.2 million for road improvements, equipment and buildings for Saddleback Community College District.

Deukmejian cited excessive spending by the Legislature as the reason for vetoing the start-up money for the Cal State Fullerton satellite campus.

Loss of the funds this year will delay, but not kill, the California State University system’s plan to put a branch of Cal State Fullerton on part of the unused land at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

“This (veto) delays it for one year,” said George Giacumakis, acting director of the satellite campus for Cal State Fullerton. “We’re going to go at it again and try to get the money in next year’s state budget.”

Cal State Fullerton had hoped to open the Mission Viejo campus next spring with enrollment of about 300. Giacumakis said the earliest the satellite campus can open now is in the fall of 1989.

The California State University Board of Trustees last year authorized the south Orange County branch campus. The proposal also has been approved by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, which is the state’s watchdog over college spending.

But Cal State Fullerton has had trouble, for the second year in a row, in getting start-up funds included in the state budget. The Cal State system requested money for the branch campus last year, but the Legislature turned down the request.

This year, by contrast, the Legislature agreed to include the money, but Deukmejian vetoed it.

Judy Mandel, director of public information at Cal State Fullerton, said the legislative passage of the money this year was very significant. “Because we have the support of the state Legislature, we are confident that the south county campus will become a reality next year,” Mandel said Friday.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-La Habra) played a major role in getting the Legislature to include the $587,000 in the budget. Since Johnson, like Deukmejian, is a Republican, there had been some speculation in Sacramento that the governor would not veto the funds. But Deukmejian had warned the Legislature earlier against expanding his suggested budget, which he unveiled in January. The governor’s proposed budget did not include the start-up money for the south Orange County campus.

Johnson could not be reached for comment Friday about the veto.

The proposed satellite campus has drawn strong support from civic and educational leaders in south Orange County. They have said the growing south county needs more higher-education outlets. About 4,000 south county residents now commute daily to the Cal State Fullerton campus, with the drive often taking up to 45 minutes each way.