Description: The Governor’s budget assumes that the University of California and the California State University will enact fee increases of 7 percent and 10 percent for resident students at their respective campuses. We recommend lower fee increases of 2.4 percent for both systems. The 2.4 percent fee increase would match the increase in overall costs experienced by the segments due to inflation, and would ensure that students continued to pay the same share of their educational cost as they are paying in the current year. We also recommend that the Legislature not “buy out” any portion of the Governor’s proposed fee increase because such an approach confuses the role of fees and undermines the Legislature’s role in budgeting. We do not recommend any change to the Governor’s proposed fee level for the community colleges, which would maintain the $20 per unit fee that went into effect in January 2007.