The budget, the governor’s first, which plans for a surplus as opposed to a deficit, slates an additional $250 million each to the California State University and UC systems.

You read that correctly. After years of budget cuts and tuition hikes, the governor has come up with a budget plan that gives more (read: not less) money to higher education in the state.

To be fair, $125 million (half) of the “new” money for UC and CSU schools had actually already been promised to the systems in exchange for administrators keeping tuition levels the same as last year. A 2012–2013 tuition increase-free school year is a much needed respite for the nearly 10 years of annual increases that we’ve just witnessed. We appreciate that tuition has remained the same, but we’re not convinced that our worries are over.

Perhaps unbeknownst to most students is the governor’s hopes that UC and CSU schools will continue to cut spending while generating more revenue. UC and CSU will continue to find increasingly more stable footing by building a larger safety net of funds, before reinvestment can begin. This seems to have been Brown’s plan for the state as a whole, spending his first two years (of this term) cutting spending and attempting to raise new revenues — mainly through renewed sales taxes and increases on the wealthy.

The difference between the “cut and tax” approach on California and students is that students, even wealthy ones, do not have the same capability to fill in budget gaps that wealthy taxpayers do. In a recent statement, UC Vice President of Budget and Capital Resources Patrick Lenz said that around half of UC students pay no tuition. Understanding that “tuition” only refers to costs related to academics (as opposed to student fees or RIMAC fees), this number is significant because it demonstrates a UC commitment to lower-income students. However, tuition increases affect students disproportionately, with the hardest hit being students in the middle class. Middle-class students are affected much more by fee hikes than rich Californians are by taxes.

Rising costs make it hard for many of us to be here to begin with. However, further cuts to our libraries, teachers, resources and services will make it harder for us to get the most out of our time here. The governor’s “cut and tax” approach might work for the state, but it takes a serious toll on students who struggle to pay for classes or find resources to supplement education.

The UC Board of Regents wraps up its first meeting of 2013 today. It may be too soon to tell if we are in the clear in regards to 2014 tuition hikes and cuts, but we hope that the regents and Gov. Brown put students first when making financial plans for this year. California is up to “Don’t Buy” but with the right fiscal decisions, can be on its way to “Risky.”