Budget Passed by State Legislature Potentially Devastating to UConn | The Boneyard

Budget Passed by State Legislature Potentially Devastating to UConn

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This is unreal stupid. The state of CT can't get out of its own way
 
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I recently heard that former State employees (police, reps, managers etc) still have their State cell phones and everything they do with them monthly is paid for by the State. When mentioned to people in charge people are told to pipe down.
It's called buying votes. If you vote for Democrats and are not in public service union, you're crazy.
 
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I recently heard that former State employees (police, reps, managers etc) still have their State cell phones and everything they do with them monthly is paid for by the State. When mentioned to people in charge people are told to pipe down.

Don't know if it's the case for UConn, but it's definitely not true for former executive branch employees. An exception might be temporary employees who can work for up to 120 days after retiring.
 

TRest

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I guess spending 161 million to move the West Hartford branch 6 miles didn't make a difference. UConn already is one of the highest tuition state universities in the country, this will make it worse.
 
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She's a liberal. She is always talks about what a great partner Malloy is. She is getting the government she voted for.
I agree. She is just doing what many people do when faced with a reduced budget. She is threatening cutting what most people like and ignored that layers of fat that have been built up over the years. She needs to do her job.
 
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Budget Passed by State Legislature Potentially Devastating to UConn - UConn Today

Herbst very unhappy with tough budget cuts to the school. Talks of cutting multiple athletic programs.

UConn should not be immune to budget cuts. Citing cuts to athletic programs is an easy way to engender public sympathy, but something of a misdirection. The school's salaries dominate state government active employee payroll and retiree payroll, all of which is available online. UConn has 48 of the current 50 highest paid state employees on its payroll, only a very few of whom are coaches. Former Police Chief Hudd earned more in 2011 that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who commanded 49,000 officers.
 
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Restaurant Owners says will shut down because of tax. Liquor store owners say they will shut down cause of tax. noone ever gets a tax or a cut and then says, yeah this will be fine. So it's really tough to tell.

Malloy is going to veto this. But maybe the dems will actually talk with Reps now they can't steam roll a budget through. This is the type of parity that hopefully leads to actually negotiation.
 
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UConn should not be immune to budget cuts. Citing cuts to athletic programs is an easy way to engender public sympathy, but something of a misdirection. The school's salaries dominate state government active employee payroll and retiree payroll, all of which is available online. UConn has 48 of the current 50 highest paid state employees on its payroll, only a very few of whom are coaches. Former Police Chief Hudd earned more in 2011 that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who commanded 49,000 officers.

When we look at the ridiculous spending that's been going on forever, it's hard to feel bad for UConn when it comes to budget cuts. Look at all the towns that are getting destroyed and having a hard time funding their elementary schools. The state is borderline insolvent, because nobody wanted to look at reality and understand that the spending is unsustainable. And, raising taxes is just going to make more people and businesses leave. We need some real cuts.
 
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I recently heard that former State employees (police, reps, managers etc) still have their State cell phones and everything they do with them monthly is paid for by the State. When mentioned to people in charge people are told to pipe down.

Shocker. I used to work at the State House in Mass. If anyone in government ever got serious about actually paying attention and managing state and federal funds we would have money for tons of things we cry about now. Ridiculous
 

shizzle787

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This sounds horrible. Personally, cutting tennis and golf doesn't sound too bad, but the rest is horrible. This is what happens when you negotiate pensions instead of assigning salaries by statute like in Mass and RI.
I'm starting to think we waited on the budget to keep UConn USNWR ranking up...
If we are going to cut majors, they better be woman and gender studies types.
I would rather cut some sports at the state schools than UConn...Central and the other state schools don't
need football.
 
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Oh boy. Govt is inefficient? Who'd a thunk that?
Reminds me of when I lived in Fairfax Virginia during the run up in housing prices in the early 00s. Property values were going up 20% a year, and they were adjusting taxes 20% a year upward as well. Finally, enough was enough and there was a hue and cry to cut the county budget by some embarrassingly small amount. The managing council's response? The said that the cut would necessitate cutting ambulance service.

I remember actually laughing out loud to the point of tears when I heard that on the radio.

End of day,there's always more demand than there is money.
Read a stat recently that 40% of Americans couldn't come up with 1,000 dollars in a pinch. 60% live paycheck to paycheck. Trajectory of those numbers is getting worse. More people on the dole than ever before. More non-working fit men and women. Pay not keeping up with inflation/living costs. Jobs continuing to trend toward lower paying, lower benefit jobs.

The economy has been deteriorating for a long time, but we're getting on with it, aren't we? Around where I live, where it's socioeconomically depressed (in PA, which flipped parties in the last election), most of the good jobs have slowly left. Hammermill, GE. Those were the plum jobs. Jobs where men and women could amass a small fortune over 30 years of work at a good job. Those jobs left the country. What's left is 8-10 dollar an hour jobs working at gas stations, restaurants, and so on. There's a small bump up for working at plastic molding companies, tool and die shops, and the like, but it's all hard work and no benefits. 8-10 an hour. Jesus. I made that when I delivered pizzas in 85 and gas was 79 cents a gallon. If you factor out inflation, 8 bucks an hour today is less than 4 bucks an hour in 1985.

CT? Left Simsbury back in 2005ish and can't imagine moving back, notwithstanding I love the climate in CT, and the New England feel, and many other things (UConn basketball!). One reason was certainly taxes and cost of living.

Regarding UConn's funding, my own preference would always be strong funding of state education. That's the foundation of a strong society. Particularly, I'd want to see strong funding of highly motivated kids without economic resources. But there's a limit, because there has to be. And certainly the school can reduce surfeit and inefficiency.

No negative thoughts about Herbst - it's her job to get as much for UConn as she can. If she had twice the budget she needed, she'd ask for 2.5. That's the nature of the beast and the game it plays.

What to cut? I'd love to have that job. Everybody has his baby. I'd have only one - the point is education. Everything would be valued through that lens. If some minor sport is costing a ton and it cannot be shown to increase the value of the education, then it should be put on the chop block like everything else.

Fund the school to make the school better at educating to improve individual outcomes to improve the collective result for the state. All vectors should point in that direction - cull the ones that don't.

There is only one Sacred Cow.

Never, ever cut the budget for jalapeno bacon mac and cheese. Ever.
 

shizzle787

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Oh boy. Govt is inefficient? Who'd a thunk that?
Reminds me of when I lived in Fairfax Virginia during the run up in housing prices in the early 00s. Property values were going up 20% a year, and they were adjusting taxes 20% a year upward as well. Finally, enough was enough and there was a hue and cry to cut the county budget by some embarrassingly small amount. The managing council's response? The said that the cut would necessitate cutting ambulance service.

I remember actually laughing out loud to the point of tears when I heard that on the radio.

End of day,there's always more demand than there is money.
Read a stat recently that 40% of Americans couldn't come up with 1,000 dollars in a pinch. 60% live paycheck to paycheck. Trajectory of those numbers is getting worse. More people on the dole than ever before. More non-working fit men and women. Pay not keeping up with inflation/living costs. Jobs continuing to trend toward lower paying, lower benefit jobs.

The economy has been deteriorating for a long time, but we're getting on with it, aren't we? Around where I live, where it's socioeconomically depressed (in PA, which flipped parties in the last election), most of the good jobs have slowly left. Hammermill, GE. Those were the plum jobs. Jobs where men and women could amass a small fortune over 30 years of work at a good job. Those jobs left the country. What's left is 8-10 dollar an hour jobs working at gas stations, restaurants, and so on. There's a small bump up for working at plastic molding companies, tool and die shops, and the like, but it's all hard work and no benefits. 8-10 an hour. Jesus. I made that when I delivered pizzas in 85 and gas was 79 cents a gallon. If you factor out inflation, 8 bucks an hour today is less than 4 bucks an hour in 1985.

CT? Left Simsbury back in 2005ish and can't imagine moving back, notwithstanding I love the climate in CT, and the New England feel, and many other things (UConn basketball!). One reason was certainly taxes and cost of living.

Regarding UConn's funding, my own preference would always be strong funding of state education. That's the foundation of a strong society. Particularly, I'd want to see strong funding of highly motivated kids without economic resources. But there's a limit, because there has to be. And certainly the school can reduce surfeit and inefficiency.

No negative thoughts about Herbst - it's her job to get as much for UConn as she can. If she had twice the budget she needed, she'd ask for 2.5. That's the nature of the beast and the game it plays.

What to cut? I'd love to have that job. Everybody has his baby. I'd have only one - the point is education. Everything would be valued through that lens. If some minor sport is costing a ton and it cannot be shown to increase the value of the education, then it should be put on the chop block like everything else.

Fund the school to make the school better at educating to improve individual outcomes to improve the collective result for the state. All vectors should point in that direction - cull the ones that don't.

There is only one Sacred Cow.

Never, ever cut the budget for jalapeno bacon mac and cheese. Ever.
Completely agree. UConn shouldn't be touched except for maybe the golf and tennis tennis teams. State welfare benefits for mentally and physically able men and women without children should be drastically cut. I would also cut some of the sports at the state schools.
 
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Cutting some sports programs will probably happen at some point but tennis and golf for example are pretty cheap. The big cost is football and the other majors. Being part of a conference that isn't geographically based is another big problem.
It used to be that the teams got on a bus for away games and off they went but now it is a charter jet.
 

shizzle787

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Cutting some sports programs will probably happen at some point but tennis and golf for example are pretty cheap. The big cost is football and the other majors. Being part of a conference that isn't geographically based is another big problem.
It used to be that the teams got on a bus for away games and off they went but now it is a charter jet.
They may be but they are unnecessary. We need football for marketing. We are not Yale or the Cal schools. We are trying to catch UNC and Virginia.
 

David 76

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This should probably head to the cesspool. Like every taxpayer we want more spent on our pet program and less spent everywhere else.
 
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For someone who spent a very long time at UConn (I've got 3 degrees from UConn) I cannot even begin to tell you how much waste there is there. To give you just one example, I worked in a small graduate program in a department that had 10 professors. We had our own purchasing "group" for that department which consisted of 4 people. So if you wanted to order a $20 item for research the student had to fill out a form, submit it to the first person who would make sure the form was filled out properly. Person 2 and person 3 had to "approve" the item for purchase and the 4th person actually ordered it. Needless to say, if any of the 4 people were out on vacation (which was basically all the time) you couldn't get anything purchased. It often took 3-4 weeks for a purchase to go through. These people literally all got paid as full time employees and had benefits. I believe last I knew they all still worked there as well. It is time for the state to start cutting back on the waste at UConn as well as the waste with other state run organizations.
 
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She's a liberal. She is always talks about what a great partner Malloy is. She is getting the government she voted for.

Nationally we are defunding higher education. Blame the liberals.
 
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I agree. She is just doing what many people do when faced with a reduced budget. She is threatening cutting what most people like and ignored that layers of fat that have been built up over the years. She needs to do her job.

What layers of fat? Explain.

Recent national studies by business experts show most universities are stripped and efficient.

what fat?
 
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UConn should not be immune to budget cuts. Citing cuts to athletic programs is an easy way to engender public sympathy, but something of a misdirection. The school's salaries dominate state government active employee payroll and retiree payroll, all of which is available online. UConn has 48 of the current 50 highest paid state employees on its payroll, only a very few of whom are coaches. Former Police Chief Hudd earned more in 2011 that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who commanded 49,000 officers.

I'd like to see a breakdown. Presidents and provosts are very highly paid. I definitely see your argument there.

However, if you're talking faculty, the ones making $200k are no doubt bringing a ton of money into the school. This is why they are highly paid, because of the money they are brining in. Otherwise, people are averaging around 70-85k at top state universities.
 
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When we look at the ridiculous spending that's been going on forever, it's hard to feel bad for UConn when it comes to budget cuts. Look at all the towns that are getting destroyed and having a hard time funding their elementary schools. The state is borderline insolvent, because nobody wanted to look at reality and understand that the spending is unsustainable. And, raising taxes is just going to make more people and businesses leave. We need some real cuts.

BUT, Connecticut is in the bottom 20% nationally when it comes to funding a school like UConn.

So, in this case, it seems like high spending elsewhere is being taken out on a school which already receives much less than most schools nationally.

You can't blame UConn for high spending/subsidy when its in the bottom quintile nationally.
 
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This sounds horrible. Personally, cutting tennis and golf doesn't sound too bad, but the rest is horrible. This is what happens when you negotiate pensions instead of assigning salaries by statute like in Mass and RI.
I'm starting to think we waited on the budget to keep UConn USNWR ranking up...
If we are going to cut majors, they better be woman and gender studies types.
I would rather cut some sports at the state schools than UConn...Central and the other state schools don't
need football.

Gender studies is interdisciplinary. In other words, those lines come from other departments to create that major. Plus, those programs are almost always in the black. This is the calculus countries like Canada etc. have already figured out. If you want to major in liberal arts, you pay $6k. If you want engineering, you pay $13k. For most US schools, majors like gender studies subsidize sciences and engineering (i.e. spending per student is much lower than tuition). As some schools have found out when they've eliminated some majors, costs per student went UP.
 
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For someone who spent a very long time at UConn (I've got 3 degrees from UConn) I cannot even begin to tell you how much waste there is there. To give you just one example, I worked in a small graduate program in a department that had 10 professors. We had our own purchasing "group" for that department which consisted of 4 people. So if you wanted to order a $20 item for research the student had to fill out a form, submit it to the first person who would make sure the form was filled out properly. Person 2 and person 3 had to "approve" the item for purchase and the 4th person actually ordered it. Needless to say, if any of the 4 people were out on vacation (which was basically all the time) you couldn't get anything purchased. It often took 3-4 weeks for a purchase to go through. These people literally all got paid as full time employees and had benefits. I believe last I knew they all still worked there as well. It is time for the state to start cutting back on the waste at UConn as well as the waste with other state run organizations.

That is indeed wasteful. And it is something that has increased. Paper work for all sorts of auditing. But I would point out that these procedures were instituted in order to CUT WASTE. They are auditing spending in such a way to reduce spending.

In my experience, it creates a lot of extra work, and a lot of new full-time positions. Paper pushing, form filling, etc.

My favorite example of this at my school is when the state decided we were paying too much for either our travel to events to represent the university or else paying too much for airfare for invited guests. They required we go through a travel agency to do it now. For years, we're spending more going through the agency than I can find online. But they insist this cuts costs. I can see that it doesn't.
 
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