California Stem Cell Agency: 5 Percent Budget Increase for Coming Fiscal Year

As usual, the agency tries to portray
its budget as a decrease in spending. Directors were told that it
represented a 3 percent decline from the current year. However, the
comparison is not made to actual spending for this year. Instead, the
staff compares the 2013-14 budget to budget figures proposed last
May, which are now no more than time-worn ephemera.

Most of the budget goes for salaries
and benefits ($12.2 million ) with outside contracting running next
($2 million). (See here for details.) The budget projects 59 employees for next year
compared to 57 currently. CIRM staff said the number of employees is expected to remain about
the same until 2017 or so when its workload is projected to diminish.

The agency is expected to run out of
money for new grants in 2017, but it is working on a plan to develop
a combination of private and public funding to continue its work.

The spending plan reflects the cost of
overseeing about $1.8 billion in nearly 600 grants and loans plus
developing new research proposals that are likely to be funded in the
next few years. The operational budget is capped by law at 6 percent
of the amount of funds the agency distributes over its lifetime.