Capitol denizens are having a field day forecasting when and how the budget issues will be resolved. As usual, there is no way to know when progress will result in passage. Since the budget conference report has not been adopted in both houses, the Legislature's final version of the budget is not yet in print. There are 1,175 amendments to the AB 1740 (Ducheny) that are proposed in the Conference Report.

We have reviewed the budget bill amendments and, assuming the negotiations over tax reduction lead to no changes to the current proposed amendments, there are very few changes to the community college budget, as last reflected in the May 30^th amended version of AB 1740. The apportionments item is reduced by a net $64 million, which reflects the elimination of $80 million for human resources, $11 million for transfer centers and $5 million for high cost programs ($10 million remains). These reductions are partially offset by increasing the COLA to 4.17%,($34 million), $5.0 million for part-time faculty office hours ($7.5 million total) and $7.0 million for economic development ($45.1 million total).

The Conference Committee also rejected the Assembly proposal to increase the match for Scheduled Maintenance and Special Repairs to $2 state for $1 local. The language maintains the $1 to $1 match of the past few years.

There were no changes in the facility projects as previously approved and published in the June 2000 CCFC Courier.

TRAILER BILL INCLUDES ADDITIONAL FACILITY PROJECTS — SB 1667 (Alpert) contains many statutory changes needed for implementation of budget programs as well as appropriation of 1999-2000 surplus Proposition 98 funds for one-time purposes. In addition to the general one-time appropriations, it contains a grab bag of miscellaneous appropriations for education that appeared in the Budget Conference Committee as member requests. This measure contains the K-12 and the community college portion of over $300 million in local project requests.

The primary community college item is a $100 million one-time appropriation to be distributed on a per FTES basis for high priority projects for instructional equipment, library materials replacement, technology infrastructure, scheduled maintenance, special repairs, hazardous substance abatement and the removal of architectural barriers. The bill also appropriates $8,576,000 to the Chancellor's Office for allocation to individual districts as follows:

$575,000 to Santa Clarita CCD for pwc for a Welding Technology and Manufacturing Lab renovation and expansion project.

$551,000 to Victor Valley CCD for w for a new computer lab.

$1,000,000 to Compton CCD for pwc for a stadium renovation project.

$1,500,000 to Copper Mountain College for transition and technology costs.

$900,000 to San Francisco CCD for w for the Mission Center project.

$50,000 to San Diego CCD for the Faces of San Diego Project.

$4,000,000 to Los Angeles CCD for site acquisition and development of the Atwater Village Satellite Center.

The Conference Committee included the grab bag list in the conference report virtually without prejudice to any project. It is unlikely that the Governor will take the same view.