The amount of deferred maintenance plaguing public institutional facilities nationwide can seem overwhelming, with backlog totals for some organizations in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Then there is the state of California, where the deferred maintenance total for its two public university systems is almost beyond comprehension.
Across the systems, students, faculty and staff are learning and working in aging buildings where HVAC, roofs, plumbing and electrical systems are deteriorating or not functional. Every year, maintenance costs for University of California and California State University campuses total a combined $1.5 billion, according to CalMatters.
But those repairs aren’t always made because there isn’t always enough money to pay for them. State revenue has been sporadic, with hundreds of millions some years and no money in others. The state’s proposed 2025-’26 budget does not include money for deferred maintenance or other infrastructure projects.
Without long-term funding, the deferred maintenance backlog has grown to an estimated $9.1 billion for the University of California and to $8.3 billion for Cal State University as of the 2023-’24 school year for a total of $17.4 billion.
Money is allocated per square feet to pay for ongoing upkeep of buildings. But the cost to eventually replace building components is not included in those building budgets, which is part of the reason backlogs have grown so large. When something needs replacing every couple of decades, there’s no money set aside specifically to pay the replacement costs.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
