Legislator reintroduces bill to block big pay hikes for university execs

State Sen. Leland Yee reintroduced a bill on Monday that would block pay raises for California’s top public university administrators in years when there’s a budget crunch.

Yee (D-San Francisco) revived a proposed law that passed the Legislature in 2009 but was vetoed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The decision to try again, Yee said, was prompted by recent actions by the boards of the University of California and California State University systems to hike the pay of executives while approving steep increases in student tuition for the fall.

In a meeting last week, CSU trustees agreed to pay the president of its San Diego campus $100,000 more than his predecessor, for an annual compensation of $400,000. The board also approved an increase in tuition for the fall term of 12%, compounding an earlier 10% bump for the same school year. On Friday, the UC regents raised tuition by almost 10% for the fall, on top of an earlier 8% increase for 2011-12. UC regents also approved a $195,000 pay increase for the chief executive of the UC San Francisco Medical Center, bringing his total compensation to $1.2 million for next year.

[ Source: Los Angeles Times ]