Fog still hangs over University of California finances

By U-T San Diego Editorial Board

In 2013, upset over the University of California’s lack of fiscal transparency, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring UC to provide a thorough accounting of its funding and an explanation of exactly how those funds were spent. Gov. Jerry Brown, an open skeptic of UC claims to be well-managed, was happy to sign the measure.

Now, nearly two years later, lawmakers are still complaining about UC’s lack of openness. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that UC appears unable to readily provide accurate information on what funds are being used to pay some of the system’s highest-salaried workers. “I think we should demand, ‘Who is making what salaries, and what component of that is private and what part is coming from state money?’” said Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Rafael.

Baker is vice chair of the Assembly’s higher education committee. She shouldn’t have to “demand” such basic information from UC officials. That she and other lawmakers feel so frustrated should serve as a warning to UC President Janet Napolitano to end her brinkmanship on tuition and enrollment issues in her fight over UC funding with the governor and the Legislature.

There are no less than six bills now pending in Sacramento that would reduce Napolitano’s authority on fiscal issues. If the former Arizona governor thinks these bills are idle threats, she still doesn’t understand California politics.

[Source]: UT-San Diego