Budget arrives too tardily for schools

California finally passed a budget late Friday after a record-setting delay, but the long wait still dealt a financial blow to local colleges OCC and UCI.

Because of the record budget stalemate, both schools spent more than two months operating without tens of millions of dollars in government funds, but they still needed to pay their workers and give financial assistance to their students.

The Coast Community College District, which operates OCC and two other area schools, got by with money it had in its reserve, and may have had to resort to drawing from a $25-million line of credit if the budget hadn’t come through in time.

“We had to take a large loan from the treasurer to keep afloat,” said Trustee Jim Moreno.

Taking money from the reserve means that the college district is not earning interest on that money. District financial officers have not crunched the exact numbers yet, but their roughly $20-million reserve, on which they ordinarily earn 3% to 4% interest, would probably have been depleted by the beginning of October when paychecks have to go out.

Some student financial aid was also withheld by OCC. The college has not given out Cal Grants, which are state-funded financial aid awards given to low-income students.

Financial Aid Supervisor Kathie Tran said Friday that most students haven’t felt a crunch yet because the majority also qualifies for federal aid that has already been distributed.

Overall, the budget deadlock would take money from the school, but not a crippling amount, Allen said Friday.

“It will just hurt our budget a little more. It probably won’t be enough to materially affect our overall operation, but it’s another thing we have to deal with,” Allen said.

UCI has had similar but worse problems, according to Associate Vice Chancellor Rich Lynch. Instead of letting students go without Cal Grant funding, the university has fronted about $10 million out of its own pocket to pay for the grants.

Campus research labs, which constitute a big portion of the university’s budget, have been stopped in their tracks. Employees working on state-funded research have been shuffled around to other positions so the university can avoid laying them off.

Also, as of Friday, 50 to 60 new faculty members the university hoped to hire for the semester were not given job offers just yet.

For UCI, it wasn’t just the delay that hurt, though. Regardless of when the budget was passed, funding is slated to be cut across the board, meaning larger class sizes and fewer courses offered.

“We need to understand how the state is going to right the course here. I mean, we still have money, but going forward, there’s a lot of uncertainty,” Lynch said Friday.

The university’s enrollment will probably grow by about 1,200 students this year, he added, and the state doesn’t plan to give the school any extra money to pay for its education.

For this reason, UCI will most likely limit its growth next year, making it harder for students to get into the school.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].