UW News

January 9, 2003

Locke offers difficult budget plan

True to expectations in this time of extreme budgetary constraints, the recently released budget from Gov. Gary Locke offers a difficult balancing proposition for the 2003-05 budget.

The governor released a budget proposal on Dec. 17 that called for no tax increases, a $2.4 billion spending cut to the state budget and the elimination of funding for three voter-approved initiatives. Although his budget does not provide for any general pay increases for faculty and staff, he does provide a small amount of funding for salary increases via recruitment and retention funding.

“The governor’s budget is still a step backward for the UW,” said Vice Provost for Planning and Budgeting Harlan Patterson. “Per-student funding would go down more than $600 even before considering inflation. In addition, by proposing no general salary increase for the next two years, it makes things very difficult. This proposal is not acceptable if we want to retain and attract the best faculty and staff.”

Locke’s proposal is the first step in a biennial budgeting process that will likely continue into April and possibly into one or more special sessions as the state’s lawmakers gather Monday to begin what will clearly be a difficult session. The House and Senate will issue proposals as well, probably sometime in March. The UW, in the meantime, is faced with the prospect of fighting an uphill battle in Olympia.

The administration’s core funding request addresses the institution’s goal of increasing the state’s per-student funding. That number has dropped dramatically during the last 10 years, to the point where the UW is 21 percent behind the average funding of peer institutions.

Officials point to UCLA for comparison. Total per-student funding at the UW is $16,734. At UCLA it’s $26,573. If the UW had similar support from the state of Washington it would yield an additional $350 million per year. Without that money the institution is faced with the prospect of losing top faculty and students and the research funding they generate.

In fact, faculty salaries on this campus are 9.1 percent lower than the average of faculty at peer institutions. That number could jump to more than 12 percent in the next year since no general pay raises were provided during the 2002-03 budget year. The governor did earmark $4.6 million in his budget proposal for recruitment and retention of top faculty and staff at the UW, but it may not be enough, according to Patterson.

“The governor’s proposal continues the clear trend of reducing state investment in both higher education overall and in the UW,” he said.

Over the past six months, the Regents and administration of the UW have identified two critically important themes in the budget request to the Legislature: increased funding for the core educational missions and new dollars for the core renovations of facilities of the University.

To address those goals the UW is requesting $20 million in 2003-04 and an additional $40 million in 2004-05. But the governor’s proposal called for a cut of $61.5 million in the biennium. He proposed to make up a portion of that cut with increased tuition, but it would not be possible to eliminate the entire cuts through tuition increases.

One strong point that the Regents have made publicly is that because the UW’s per-student funding is so far behind that of its peers, new enrollments cannot be accepted until the state provides additional funding.

Thirty-one percent of the capital projects on campus are considered urgent, according to the request UW officials will take to Olympia. Fifteen buildings — including Denny Hall, Clark Hall, Lewis Hall, Architecture Hall, Savery Hall, the Harris Hydraulics Lab, Guggenheim Hall and Johnson Hall — are in need of total renovation. In fact, piped drinking water is no longer available in Johnson, which was built in 1930.

During a typical quarter the 15 buildings in greatest need of repair serve 7,000 students. The capital request is for a total of $150 million.

While the governor’s proposal is far less than UW officials had hoped for, the most controversial component of his budget involves the three initiatives. Initiatives can be amended by a majority vote of the Legislature two years after being approved by voters.

Education initiatives 728 and 732, which would reduce class sizes and guarantee annual cost-of-living raises for schoolteachers, passed in November 2000 and would be overturned under Locke’s proposal. The third initiative, 773, increased the cigarette tax to extend health coverage to more of the state’s low-income residents. It passed in 2001 and the governor wants to use the money to pay for those currently enrolled rather than adding people to the health plan as the initiative specified.

“The Legislature, as well as the University and all agencies, are facing an extremely challenging session this year,” noted Dick Thompson, Director of Government Relations. “A strong phalanx of our Regents, Interim President Huntsman, and our colleagues at WSU have made an articulate case to the public and to the press throughout the autumn, and now we must press whatever advantage we have in Olympia.”