SF State officials said they have mixed feeling regarding Tuesday’s state budget passing. On the one hand, it’s a relief to finally have a spending plan, but the nearly $3 billion slotted for the CSU system will not be enough to prevent setbacks such as closed sections.

Leroy Morishita, vice president and chief financial officer of administration and finance at SF State said the current spending plan, revised last May, is more generous than the January one, but the schools in the CSU system “didn’t get the funds we need for enrollment, compensation and other mandatory costs.”

“We’re going to have to make cuts,” Morishita said. “In terms of services [we’ll have to] hold back on hiring staff.”

“It’s unfortunate that there are several cuts to higher education,” said Adam Keigwin, communications director in the capitol office for Senator Leland Yee. “This is by far the worst budget situation we’ve ever had.”

The budget passing is good news for Cal Grant B recipients, however.
“I’m glad,” Barbara Hubler, director of financial aid at SF State said in regard to the budget’s passing. “I’m very, very happy about it.”

The [X]press reported last week that if the budget hadn’t passed by the end of this month $71 million would be withheld from the students for the month of September. Now that the budget passed, Hubler said the accounting office is in the process of getting the grants together this week.

“By next week all Cal Grant students should have their money,” she said.

Keigwin said the only way to get around cutting programs in the future is to raise taxes, something, he said, the Republicans don’t want to do. Keigwin believes this will create spending problems for the future.

“We’re already facing a significant hole going forward,” he said, adding that the last thing that they would want to have happen is to raise student fees again.