The 2026-27 Budget: California Community Colleges

Mar 5, 2026 - On  average, apportionment funding per student is higher across districts on hold harmless ($9,491) and districts on stability ($9,189), compared to districts receiving their SCFF ‑calculated amounts ($8,882).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5150

The 2026-27 Budget: Higher Education Overview

Feb 5, 2026 - Recommend Holding Enrollment Flat at Universities in 2027 ‑28. Given the sizeable projected deficit in 2027 ‑28, we recommend holding enrollment expectations flat for UC and CSU that year. Setting higher enrollment targets for the segments without providing them funding comes with downsides.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5112

The 2022-23 Budget: Analysis of Major CCC Proposals

Feb 11, 2022 - A better approach would be to have a more gradual reduction, which the Governor is attempting to accomplish with his hold harmless  proposal. Hold Harmless Funding Creates Poor Incentives for Districts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4531

The 2025-26 Budget: Higher Education Overview

Feb 6, 2025 - If no additional General Fund support is provided, we recommend the Legislature hold CSU’s and UC’s enrollment targets flat for one year. This would help maintain the universities’ programmatic quality at existing levels.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4957

The 2024-25 Budget: California Community Colleges

Feb 21, 2024 - In addition, because the hold harmless amount will not grow by COLA each year, the intent is to eventually move all districts off the hold harmless provision and into the regular SCFF formula calculations (whereby districts have incentives to enroll low ‑income students and have good outcomes for all students).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4853

The 2024-25 Budget: University of California

Feb 28, 2024 - UC  indicates that it holds its reserves generally in its Short Term Investment Pool (STIP). STIP holds cash primarily slated for payroll and other common expenses for all UC campuses and medical centers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4862

The 2023-24 Budget: California Community Colleges

Feb 22, 2023 - Through 2024 ‑25, districts funded according to the hold harmless provision receive whatever they generated in 2017 ‑18 under the old formula, plus any subsequent apportionment COLA provided by the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4695

Update on Community College Reserves

Jan 27, 2021 - Colleges Hold Both “Unrestricted ” and “Restricted ” Reserves. In this post, we examine both unrestricted and restricted reserve levels. The bulk of local and state funding supporting the CCC system is unrestricted —meaning that colleges may use the funding for any educational purpose.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4323

The 2025-26 Budget: University of California

Feb 27, 2025 - The Government Finance Officers Association historically has recommended that government agencies hold at least two months of unrestricted budgetary fund balances (though exceptions are considered depending on certain factors such as the size of the agency, its diversification of revenue streams, the volatility of those revenue streams, and overall risk exposure).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4998

The 2025-26 Budget: College of the Law, San Francisco

Mar 10, 2025 - The Government Finance Officers Association historically has recommended that government agencies hold at least two months of unrestricted budgetary fund balances. Spending CLSF ’s Workforce Has Been Growing in Tandem With Enrollment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5014