2022-23 RPP Task Force Budget Recommendations

 

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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH

TO: Jane Conoley, President

FROM: Karyn Scissum Gunn, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Scott Apel, Vice President for Administration and Finance
Co-chairs, 2022-23 Resource Planning Process (RPP) Task Force

DATE: June 9, 2022

SUBJECT: 2022-23 RPP Task Force Budget Recommendations

This memo transmits the budget recommendations of the 2022-23 Resource Planning Process (RPP) Task Force. While final campus allocations will not be known until later this summer, the RPP Task Force believes it is important to communicate budgetary plans to the campus based on the preliminary state budget.

The Governor’s budget plan includes a funding compact with the CSU for the five-year period beginning 2022-23 and ending with the 2026-27 fiscal year. As part of the compact, the CSU will receive a 5% general fund base increase each year and 5% enrollment growth over 5 years. In turn, the CSU will close equity gaps and promote student success; expand access to the CSU – including for transfer students; increase the affordability of a CSU education, including addressing non-tuition costs; increase intersegmental collaboration; support workforce preparedness and high-demand career pipelines; and provide access to online courses. 

The May Revision did not include any new base budget increases for the CSU.

Executive Summary

The following summarizes our understanding of the current budget situation:

Base Budget Increases

  • The governor’s budget includes $211,126,000 in additional unallocated funding for the CSU. This is 5% of the 2021-22 general fund budget, per the compact agreement.
  • $81 million for enrollment growth of 9,434 FTES systemwide.
  • $12 million to support foster youth programs.

One-time Allocations

  • $100 million for deferred maintenance systemwide.
  • $277 million in earmarks for various campuses across the system. No earmarks were included for CSULB.

2022-23 Preliminary Budget for CSULB

  • Preliminary General Fund Budget Allocations were shared with campuses on March 9, 2022
  • CSULB’s allocation of $22,834,000 includes:
    • $15,689,000 - Compensation Increases, including salary related benefits. Unit 3 (CFA) and Unit 11 (TAs/GAs) retro-active increases in 2021-22, and planned increases in 2022-23.
    • $681,000 for changes in mandatory costs including retirement and health benefits rate changes.
    • $9,388,000 for enrollment growth of 1,100 FTES.
    • ($2,874,000) preliminary 5% reduction to the SUG pool. This preliminary number reflects a reduction in both revenue and expenses and will be updated with a new total SUG expectation for CSULB in the final budget allocation in mid-July.
  • In addition, CSULB is projecting a small change in tuition revenue of $474,000. This increase in revenue will help to fund the 20% increases in our insurance premiums, paid centrally from the University Wide budget.

Still Unknown

  • Compensation agreements for the remaining 8 bargaining units and non-bargaining unit employees.
  • Results of the Mercer Compensation Study for employees in CSUEU indicated significant salary lag, but no new funding has been added to the CSU budget at this time to help fund the gaps identified.
  • New base budget investments for Graduation Initiative or Capital and Infrastructure projects.

RPP Budget Planning

The RPP task force met on May 10 to discuss the current budget assumptions for the CSU and CSULB. There was hope that the May revision would include new base funding for the CSU which could result in an RPP task for meeting in early June. While the Governor’s May revision did add some one-time funding earmarks for a few campuses, no new money was added to the CSU base budget. There is still optimism that new base budget allocations will be made to the CSU in the final state budget, signed before the end of June. Assumptions are that any new base budget increases would go to cover specific items such as salary and related benefits increases. If additional funding for GI 2025 or any other unallocated increases are included in the final budget, further discussion with RPP could be warranted. Barring any new unallocated adjustments, the campus budget allocations in August 2022 for the 2022-23 fiscal year will follow the assumptions discussed by RPP and detailed below.

Status of Compensation Increases

Only two bargaining units have settled for compensation purposes for fiscal year 2022-23. While bargaining is ongoing, it is unlikely that final agreements will be reached before the state budget is signed. If agreements are not in place by the time CSU prepares the final budget allocation in Mid-July, the CSU Chancellor’s Office will hold any funding available for compensation pools until they can allocate based on each bargaining agreement. Additionally, decisions about non-represented employee GSI pools could be postponed until collective bargaining is complete. Based on the 5% unallocated general fund increase, and after other mandatory cost obligations have been met, the CSU has $86 million that can be allocated for all remaining employee compensation pools. This should cover up to a 4.5% increase for all employee groups, however, bargaining units are likely to settle at amounts closer to the 4% + 3% GSIs that the California Faculty Association (CFA) and CSU agreed to earlier this year. This leaves 2.5% potentially unfunded, for which campuses would be responsible unless the final budget includes additional funding dedicated to compensation. The joint legislative budget committee is recommending an additional $100 million for compensation. This would trigger an additional 1% increase for CFA members per their bargaining agreement.

Enrollment Funding

CSULB received an 1,110 FTES and $9.3 million increase to our funded enrollment target for 2022-23. This will cover unfunded enrollment the campus has balanced for the past two years in an effort to enroll all eligible applicants and honor the Long Beach Promise programs. The campus plans to welcome its largest freshman class in Fall 2022 while watching transfer enrollment closely as applications dropped significantly during the pandemic. Allocation of $9.3 million was discussed at RPP, and each division presented their plans. The first $1 million would fund several campus wide priorities managed by each division including Title IX programs ($371,744) in the office of equity and diversity; ADA program staff ($240,080) in Human Resources, Faculty Affairs, and BMAC to manage increasing demand for accommodations from faculty, staff, and students; Facilities Maintenance and transition of salaries for the management and upkeep of the Japanese Garden ($210,962); and an additional systems manager in DOIT ($144,000) to handle increased campus needs. The remaining $33,014 will be transferred to the benefits pool to cover a small portion of the increased benefits associated with new staff for the above priorities.

The remaining $8.3 million was allocated pro-rata to each division based on their share of the university budget, as follows:

Division FY 2021-22 Base Budget Percent of Divisional Operating Budgets Allocation of Enrollment Funding
Academic Affairs $191,527,183 72.66% $6,058,422
Administration & Finance $33,708,451 12.79% $1,066,272
Student Affairs $18,713,171 7.10% $591,938
Information Technology $6,399,151 2.43% $202,419
University Relations & Development $6,062,680 2.30% $191,776
Athletics $5,356,772 2.03% $169,446
President's Office $1,824,920 0.69% $57,726
Total $263,592,328 100.00% $8,338,000

Academic Affairs - $6,058,422; to hire new tenure track faculty and fund positions critical to achieving GI 2025 graduation rate and equity gap targets.

Administration and Finance - $1,066,272; for salary equity adjustments, department reorganizations, and new operating expenses across the division.

Student Affairs - $591,938; to hire three Assistant Directors in the Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs; a Director of Communications; and for equity salary adjustments across the division.

Information Technology - $202,419; for salary adjustments for additional duties/equity/retention; and one new IT project manager.  

University Relations & Development – $191,776 to establish the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations including hiring a Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations.

Athletics - $169,446; to permanently fund positions that were hired with temporary funding whose roles are to keep student athlete health and wellness as a top priority within the department.

President’s Office - $57,726; to partially fund a confidential project specialist working with presidential commissions that is currently funded with one-time dollars.

The RPP task force heard the above division priorities presented by each Vice President and engaged in discussion about the details. There were no objections to the planned priorities and investments.  

CSULB Budget Outlook

Increased funding for CSULB in 2022-23 is welcome news after 3 years of tight budgets and stalled hiring decisions. Enrollment growth funding, shared across all divisions on a pro-rata basis allows for critical hiring, necessary salary equity adjustments for long-time employees, and reorganization of duties to best meet the needs of the CSULB community. Additionally, making permanent investments for ADA accommodations, Title IX staffing, IT systems support, and the management and maintenance of the Earl Burns Miller Japanese garden will ensure CSULB is ready to serve the campus and the greater Long Beach community, with an emphasis on equity and integrity across all campus divisions.

The CSU and all its constituents and partners across the state continue to advocate for additional funding for compensation, Graduation Initiative 2025, deferred maintenance, and capital infrastructure projects. The joint legislative budget proposal includes increased funding for the CSU in most of these areas, however, final budget decisions will not be known until sometime in late June. The most critical budget pressure for CSULB in 2022-23 will be related to funding for bargained compensation increases, as well as the determined salary increases for non-represented management and confidential staff. As final budgets are signed, and the CSU budget is allocated to campuses, additional information will be provided to the executive team, the RPP Task Force and the campus community.