The budget has been signed. The bad news is for our students: enrollment fees are going up to $26 a unit. The good news (if it can be called that), is that Cuesta will have no cuts to its budget this year, and will actually gain new revenues.

One last hour setback came from Governor Arnold, who vetoed $31.4 million (14%) from the Partnership for Excellence (PFE) program, reducing statewide funding in the program to $193.6 million. What does this mean for Cuesta? A loss of $230,153 for 2004/2005. The rationale was to reduce the total spending level for community colleges and because the Legislature rejected district-level accountability measures proposed by the Governor.