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Category: State Legislature

UW’s 2022 budget priorities shared during Committee Assembly Days

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State legislators virtually convened this week for Committee Assembly Days to hold work sessions and plan for the 2022 legislative session beginning Jan. 10. Throughout the week, UW faculty and staff participated in a variety of hearings to share their expertise on topics including admissions, cannabis research, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

State revenue updates were given in the House and Senate fiscal committees with revenue collections exceeding expectations due to strong growth in the state’s biggest revenue drivers – sales tax, property tax, and business & occupation tax – as well as the Real Estate Excise Tax. The state also sees positive growth in employment, which is not yet back to pre-pandemic levels but is expected to remain robust through 2025. Increasing inflation is the top concern highlighted by revenue forecasters in Washington and across the nation. Inflation is expected to gradually decline after 2021 as supply chain and logistics issues are resolved but will remain top-of-mind in the coming months.

In the higher education committees, legislators received campus and COVID-19 updates from the state’s public four-year baccalaureate institutions, the community and technical colleges, and the Independent Colleges of Washington. They also heard from the Washington Student Achievement Council on financial aid expansion and completion and held work sessions on workforce and career navigators, credentialing, and innovative degree pathways.

During the week, the Office of State Relations had the opportunity to share the UW’s 2022 legislative priorities with elected officials and staff. Recognizing the state continues to face uncertainty due to the pandemic and the 2022 supplemental budget primarily applies fixes to the biennial budget, UW’s operating budget requests are limited, including:

  • $18.45M for salary adjustments for faculty and staff, who are not scheduled to receive wage increases in the current biennial budget and are critical to the continued success of students and the UW.
  • $2M to expand computer science and engineering degrees for underrepresented students by an additional 100 per year to meet high student and employer demand.
  • $505K to create two behavioral health pharmacy residencies housed at the new Behavioral Health Teaching Facility to address the state’s critical behavioral health patient and workforce needs. This request is in partnership with Washington State University, who is requesting additional funds for two pharmacy residents in Eastern Washington.
  • $800K for a three-year research program led by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation in Spokane focused on community health metrics to help proactively address health disparities in rural and tribal communities in Eastern Washington.
  • Maintenance and operation (M&O) funds for Milgard Hall at UW Tacoma, which expects occupancy in Winter 2022-23 instead of mid-2023.

These priorities were determined through an extensive process led by the Office of the President and Office of the Provost. The UW’s 2022 legislative agenda two-pager will be available shortly.

Gov. Jay Inslee kicks off the budget process and is expected to release his supplemental budget proposal in early to mid-December. The House and Senate will form their proposals and adopt a final budget during legislative session.

UW Tacoma welcomes new Chancellor and celebrates Milgard Hall construction

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Yesterday, UW Tacoma welcomed incoming Chancellor Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange and celebrated the start of construction on Milgard Hall.

Dr. Edwards Lange began her appointment as UW Tacoma’s chancellor on Sept. 16 and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in higher education. Edwards Lange previously served as president of Seattle Central College where she championed student success, particularly for traditionally underrepresented students, and helped lead efforts to establish the Seattle Promise, which provides two years of free tuition at the Seattle Colleges to graduates of Seattle Public Schools. Due to her leadership at Seattle Central, Edwards Lange received the Washington Community College CEO of the Year award in 2020 from the Washington State Association of College Trustees, as well as Puget Sound Business Journal’s 2021 Director of the Year award.

Edwards Lange is no stranger to the UW, having served as the UW’s Vice President of Minority Affairs and Diversity from 2007-15 where she led the creation of the University’s first Diversity Blueprint. She also earned her doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies and master’s in public administration from the UW.

In her role as Chancellor, Edwards Lange will provide leadership on all UW Tacoma campus matters, including the construction of Milgard Hall. Scheduled to open ahead of schedule in winter 2022/23, the 55,000 square-foot building will house the fast-growing Milgard School of Business and new high-demand programs in civil and mechanical engineering. It will also allow for the expansion of UW Tacoma’s Global Innovation and Design Lab and a high-impact practices teaching space. The building will provide a flexible learning environment that promotes interdisciplinary innovation and community engagement. It also centers sustainable building resources with the primary structure formed by cross-laminated timber.

The construction of Milgard Hall and the creation of UW Tacoma’s School of Engineering would not have been possible without generous support from the state legislature. In attendance at the celebration was House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, Representatives Kelly Chambers and Mari Leavitt, and Senator T’wina Nobles. Thank you, legislators, for attending the celebration and your continued support of UW Tacoma and its success.

News from Olympia: Legislative Session Day 12

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The 2017 legislative session is in full swing in Olympia. Here are a few highlights from the past twelve days:

New director, Joe Dacca, updated the Senate Higher Education committee about the UW’s legislative priorities.

Joe Dacca presenting to the Senate Higher Education Committee
Joe Dacca presenting to the Senate Higher Education Committee

New associate director, Jillian Kilby, testified in support of HB 1107 to remove the term “branch” as an identifying factor for extension campuses in the House Higher Education Committee.

Jillian Kilby testifying in the House Higher Education Committee
Jillian Kilby testifying in the House Higher Education Committee

Dr. Nephi Stella provided the Senate Commerce, Labor & Sports committee with an update on the new cannabis research center being developed at UW.

Dr. Nephi Stella Cannabis Research
Dr. Nephi Stella presenting to the Senate Commerce, Labor & Sports committee

Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, from the School of Public Health, provided information about opioid addiction treatment options to the Senate and House Health Care committees.

Dr. Caleb Banta-Green presenting to the House Health Care committee

Dr. David Tauben, from UW Medicine, presented to the Senate Health Care committee on pain and opioid addiction.

Dr. David Tauben presenting to the House Health Care committee
Dr. David Tauben presenting to the Senate Health Care committee

To keep up with the latest from Olympia, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have any questions about state topics, please call 206-543-7604.  

UW releases 2017 state legislative agenda

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Just in time for the start of the 2017 legislative session, the University of Washington released its legislative priorities. Here’s an overview of key priorities from the agenda:

Operating Budget Priorities

Competing for excellence:

As a world-class academic and research institution, the UW is dedicated to retaining and attracting the best faculty and staff who provide a world-class educational experience to our students. As a means of investing in talented educators, the UW requests funding for competitive compensation.

Investing in proven strategies to ensure student success:

It is critical that historically underserved students are supported to boost retention, graduation, and career preparation in high demand fields. Delivered through a tri-campus initiative, UW requests $5.1 million to expand programming and bolster support to underserved students.

Additionally, the UW supports full funding of the State Need Grant, which provides financial assistance to low-income students pursuing a higher education in Washington. More than 24,000 students who are eligible for the State Need Grant have not had access due to lack of funding.

Targeted investments to serve the needs of the state:

Washington currently faces severe workforce shortages in areas related to healthcare, computer science, and engineering. To combat this problem, UW is requesting $9.3 million to invest in rural health care professionals and another $16 million to invest in engineering, computer science, and ocean engineering and cyber operations.

Key Capital Investments

Seismic improvements

The safety of our students, faculty, and staff are of paramount importance at the UW. At the Seattle campus, there are masonry buildings in need of major reinforced upgrades to reduce the risk of collapse in case of an earthquake. The UW seeks $25 million to upgrade multiple buildings in critical need of repair.

Population Health sciences

In an effort to support and improve the health and well-being of communities both in Washington and globally, the UW requests $20 million for a Population Health research building. An additional $10 million is requested for the design of a shared Health Sciences classroom facility to replace the Magnuson Health Sciences Teaching Center (T-wing).

Accommodating growth

UW Bothell and UW Tacoma are experiencing rapid student enrollment in high-demand programs. In response to the increasing growth, UW requests $3.5 million in predesign and design funding to accommodate the academic needs of students.

Parrington Hall renovation

Enrollment has doubled in the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Parrington Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus and home of the Evans School, is in need of maintenance and renovation. The UW requests $10 million for construction.

Burke Museum

The Burke Museum provides diverse science and cultural programming to schools, communities, and families. In an effort to increase programming and access, the Burke Museum is in the process of constructing a new facility on campus. To complete construction, $24.2 million is requested by UW.

Washington Competes

The University is committed to partnering with other statewide public baccalaureate institutions, community and technical colleges, and independent colleges to advance a jointly supported agenda focused on increasing investments in higher education to bolster student success. Read more about Washington Competes here.

Update from State Relations: Initial state election results are in

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The State Relations team has been closely monitoring the results of the election for our state-wide and state legislative offices. Here are some of the highlights and things to expect in January 2017:

-Governor Jay Inslee will continue to reside in the Governor’s mansion.

-Five new faces in state-wide office:

Lt. Governor: Cyrus Habib – current State Senator for the 48th legislative district

State Treasurer: Duane Davidson – current Benton County Treasurer

State Auditor: Pat McCarthy – current Pierce County Executive

Commissioner of Public Lands: Hilary Franz – current executive director for Futurewise

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Chris Reykdal – current State Representative for the 22nd legislative district

-The Senate Majority Coalition Caucus lost one seat to Senate Democrats, but will retain control of the chamber by a 25-24 margin. (The Senate Majority Coalition Caucus is comprised of Senate Republicans and one Democrat.)

-The House Democratic Caucus is positioned to maintain its majority with 50 seats accounted for. Depending upon the outcome of close races in the 5th and 19th legislative districts, they could expand their majority to 52-46.

-New senators to be appointed in the 37th, 45th and 48th legislative districts:

With the death of Senator Andy Hill, and the election of Senator Pramila Jayapal to Congress and Senator Cyrus Habib as Lt. Governor, there will be three additional seats to fill when the legislative session begins on January 9.

Update from State Relations: October 2016

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We are officially in Autumn Quarter at the university and things are still bustling for the State Relations team. Here are some highlights from the month so far:

 

On October 7, Governor Inslee issued an executive order to combat the opioid crisis facing our state. The press conference took place in the Hogness Auditorium in the UW Health Sciences Building and featured Dr. David Tauben and Dr. Caleb Banta-Green from UW Medicine. Read a summary of the executive order here and learn more about the Department of Pain Medicine at UW Medicine here.

Governor Inslee announces plan to #ActOnOpioids
Governor Inslee with UW Medicine, legislators and public health leaders.

 

Also on October 7, Senator David Frockt paid a visit to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Led by director Christopher Murray, IHME is an independent global health research center at the UW that provides high-quality data on major world health problems and evaluates strategies used to address them. You can find more information about IHME here.

 

On October 11, UW Medicine hosted the House Health Care & Wellness Committee for an interim work session. The committee received a briefing on IHME from director Christopher Murray and heard from Dean Joel Berg (UW Dentistry), Peggy Odegard (UW Pharmacy), Karen McDonough (UW Medicine) and Dean Sean Sullivan (UW Pharmacy) about interprofessional collaboration and training happening between UW Health Sciences schools.

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Watch the full committee work session on TVW.org

Check out pictures from the hearing on our Facebook page. Materials from the work session are available here.

 

On October 12, the Clean Energy Institute (CEI) welcomed Representative Norma Smith for a briefing and several lab visits, starting with an overview from CEI Director Dan Schwartz. Rep. Smith learned about the printing of solar cell polymers from associate professor Christine Luscombe, the future of solar cell materials from CEI graduate fellow Jessica Kong, and advanced manufacturing and battery materials from associate professor Vince Holmberg. The tour ended with an update from professor Devin MacKenzie on roll-to-roll processing and printed materials as he prepares to open the new Washington Clean Energy Testbeds facility.

You can find pictures from Rep. Smith’s visit on our Facebook page. Learn about CEI here.

 

Coming October 21 – Together UW Day. Register at uw.edu/together. STAY TUNED!

Coming October 26 – Celebration of the new Denny Hall. STAY TUNED!

 

To keep up with the latest from Olympia, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have any questions about state topics, please call 206-543-7604.

 

External Affairs hosts state, city staff for Early Learning Showcase

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On Tuesday, the Office of External Affairs hosted an Early Learning Showcase. Attendees started the day at the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, learning about brain development and language, plus cognition and social understanding. The visit also included a tour of the facility and a discussion about how research can be put into practice.

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Patricia Kuhl, Ph.D., Co-Director of I-LABS
ILABS_03
Andrew Meltzoff, Ph.D., Co-Director of I-LABS

 

The second half of the day was spent in the Magnuson Health Sciences building, where the group heard about early learning research at UW from several leading faculty members and researchers. The first presentation was from Gail Joseph, Ph.D., and Janet Soderberg, Ph.D., providing an overview of the work of the Childcare Quality & Early Learning Center for Research and Professional Development. Drs. Joseph and Soderberg also presented the findings from a recent study of the state’s Early Achievers Standards.

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Gail Joseph, Ph.D. and Janet Soderberg, Ph.D., from CQEL

Next on the agenda was Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, to discuss how early learning experiences affect brain development. Dr. Christakis also provided insight into how certain types of media exposure in young children might adversely affect them later in life.

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Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, from UW School of Medicine

The final speaker of the day was Liliana Lengua, Ph.D. Dr. Lengua’s presentation covered the bioecological model of economic disadvantage and children’s well-being, discussing how early experiences of adversity may have long-term and widespread impacts on developmental outcomes.

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Liliana Lengua, Ph.D., Director of CCFW

 

Materials from the Early Learning Showcase can be found here. View more photos from the event on UWGOV’s Facebook page.

That’s a wrap! 2016 session adjourned

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On day 20 of the special session, just before 11:00 p.m., the legislature adjourned sine die, after passing compromise operating and capital budgets earlier in the day.

Over the past two-plus weeks, budget negotiators worked through a number of outstanding revenue and spending issues, entertaining and then abandoning a number of different tools to generate small amounts of revenue.

In the end, the members didn’t reach consensus on any new revenue components, and so the final supplemental budget made very select new investments and swept other fund sources in order to make a 4-year budget outlook pencil following a grim February forecast.

The University of Washington was successful in bringing home its top priority – backfill for the tuition reduction adopted by the legislature in 2015. Throughout session, students, staff, alumni, regents, and leadership reinforced the same message, that backfilling the tuition cut was critical to preserving access to and the quality of education at the UW.

Aside from the tuition backfill, however, the budget brought little else to celebrate. Unfortunately, the backfill was offset in part by a decision to charge state agencies for administrative functions of the Office of Financial Management. And due to overall limited resources, no new investments came to rural dentistry or computer science, the UW’s other top priorities.

In all, it truly was a supplemental budget, and the table is now set for next session, when higher education priorities will face a steep challenge in maintaining and growing the commitment from the state to access, quality, and opportunity for all students.

For more information about how the supplemental budget affects the university, check out the Office of Planning & Budgeting Brief.

 

To keep up with the latest from Olympia, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have any questions about state topics, please call 206-543-7604.

Budgets are out! Here’s how they stack up on UW priorities

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The most recent state revenue forecast in mid-February dealt a blow to the state and made negotiating a supplemental budget more challenging. The forecast reduced the current biennium’s revenues by $67 million and the next biennium’s by another $442 million. Read more details on the February 17 state revenue forecast here.

Both the House and the Senate released their opening budget proposals last week, and there were notable differences between the two as they impact higher education. Here are some of the highlights for UW:

Tuition Backfill

The Senate funded the tuition backfill for institutions, by and large, and the House did not provide backfill. The Senate’s budget also includes a limitation on enrollment growth that could potentially suppress the numbers of resident undergraduates—we hope that won’t make it into the final compromise budget. As part of her visit last week, President Cauce met with budget leadership in the House, and urged legislators to include backfill in the go-home budget.

Leasehold Excise Tax (LET) fix

Our LET bills, HB 2523 and SB 6462 were heard early in session. While lawmakers of all stripes indicate support the tax policy of allowing us to once again pay only the same LET as private owners pay in property tax, technically the bills are dead, as they did not move out of committee. We hope there might still be a chance to rectify this unintended consequence of a 2013 assessor bill before the current session is out.

RIDE: Rural dentistry in Spokane

We continue to work with the Spokane delegation, as well as other stakeholders, on our request to establish a simulation lab in Spokane and develop greater service-learning clinical rotations. Despite strong support, it was not funded in either budget. We hope that there may still be a chance to include the $200,000 per year that would expand our rotations and expand the RIDE mission to rural and under-served areas on both sides of the mountains.

Computer Science & Engineering Building

The CSE II building was partially funded in the 2015-17 budget, and our request for $15 million in the supplemental budget (to replace the $15 million appropriation from our building fund) has come up against a meager supplemental capital budget: less than $90 million total statewide in last week’s proposals. CSE II was not funded in either budget. We continue to push for at least partial funding in 2016, critical to keeping private fundraising on track for the remaining $70+ million balance.

That’s where the big stuff stands at this moment in time. Stay tuned for more as budget writers get comfortable in their seats around the negotiating table in this final stretch.

2016 Session: It’s been a whirlwind!

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The past seven weeks have flown by, filled with testimony, legislative agendas, and plenty of policy discussion. Here are a few of the things that have been going on while we’ve been here at the capitol.

President Cauce visits Olympia

President Ana Mari Cauce made three trips to Olympia to thank legislators for historic investments in higher education in 2015 and to discuss the university’s priorities for this year. Here are a few of the pictures and behind the scenes video from President Cauce’s visits.

Regents’ visit coincides with Huskies on the Hill, and Harry the Husky says hi!

On February 8, the capitol campus in Olympia could have been mistaken for UW’s Red Square–purple and gold was the theme of the day. Regents, UW Bothell Chancellor Wolf Yeigh, dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, and even Harry the Husky met with members of the House and Senate to advocate for UW. Check out photos from the day on the State Relations Facebook page.

Faculty experts present to legislators

Much like the testimony an expert witness gives in a courtroom, legislators will call on researchers to present on a wide variety of subjects. Quite often, presenters will include members of the UW community. Here are just a few of the faculty and staff who shared their expertise to assist lawmakers during the 2016 legislative session.

  • Tom DeLuca, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, in House Capital Budget and Senate Ways & Means
  • Mark Hallenbeck, UW’s Washington State Transportation Center office, in the House Transportation Committee
  • James Dorsey, Washington MESA, in the Senate Higher Education Committee

Budget update – Moving into the final stretch

By its nature–limited time and limited funds–the supplemental session offers modest opportunities for both policy and budget. The most recent state revenue forecast in mid-February dealt a blow to the state’s spending plans, and has made negotiating a supplemental budget more challenging. The forecast reduced the current biennium’s revenues by $67 million and the upcoming biennium’s by another $442 million.

Last week, both the House and the Senate released their opening budget proposals, and passed them off their respective floors. While these are a good indicator of the two majorities’ policy priorities, a lot will change as the budget writers negotiate details toward a final compromise budget. Read more about the contrasting budget proposals here. Stay tuned for details on higher education budget impacts over the next few days.

 

To keep up with the latest from Olympia, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have any questions about state topics, please call 206-543-7604.