In order to establish a clearer sense of what California community colleges are expected to accomplish, to insure adequate resources to accomplish those tasks, and to provide a sounder basis for the assessment of the return of public investment in community colleges, the Board of Governors and the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges developed a long-range finance plan. The plan incorporates a new process of establishing state objectives for the colleges, asking local districts to plan each year for new and revised programs within the annual state budget process. It envisions a continuation of state fiscal support, through statute, to meet the costs of inflation and enrollment changes. It will expand current state concerns with serving particular student populations to a more comprehensive concern with staff development, student support services, administrative improvement, development of high priority curricula, and affirmative action. The plan is presented in seven parts, which provide background to and a summary of the plan, along with a discussion of those principles already secured in legislation, and which present a series of principles and their rationales in the areas of philosophy, goals, and priorities; support techniques; sources of support; accountability; and resources. (Author/AYC)