The 2023 legislative session ended on time yesterday after the House and Senate passed the state’s biennial operating, capital, and transportation budgets. The budgets will now be delivered to the Governor for his consideration and signature.
Major investments for the UW in the operating budget include:
- $30.4M for nonrepresented employee compensation increases of 4% in fiscal year 2024 and 3% in FY25
- $6.5M for state approved CBAs for represented employees
- $17.6M to improve the state portion of the compensation fund split to 60% (up from 58% in the previous biennium)
- $10.55M to grow a local, more diverse STEM workforce at all three UW campuses:
- $6M for the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering to increase enrollment, and $250,000 in one-time money for the Startup program
- $1.7M for the UW Bothell School of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics to develop a program modeled after STARS to support 75 pre-major students in accessing and graduating with computer science degrees, and $362,000 in additional support for the STARS program in Seattle
- $2.85M for the UW Tacoma School of Engineering & Technology to increase enrollment
- $1.4M for student support services at UW Tacoma
- $8.5M in maintenance and operations for UW Bothell’s STEM4 building, the UW Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, and the Behavioral Health Teaching Facility
- $3M to develop a clean energy transformation strategy that transitions the Seattle campus energy infrastructure to 100% clean energy
Investments for UW Medicine include:
- $150M in one-time funding for UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center so they can continue serving as the state’s safety-net and workforce training hospitals
- $4.9M in one-time funding for the Behavioral Health Teaching Facility for physician support and facilities fees, and $7.5M in one-time funding for costs associated with opening the facility
- $2M for the Family Medicine Residency Network, which trains high quality family medicine physicians in the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) region
- $1M to create a UW Center for Indigenous Health
- $1M to continue firearm injury research
Overall, the University’s section of the operating budget included funding for 54 new provisos and legislation.
Additionally, the capital budget makes significant investments in the UW:
- $58M for phase 2 of the Magnuson Health Sciences Center renovation and replacement. The Center is the primary teaching space for the UW’s six health science schools and new facilities will promote innovative, multidisciplinary learning.
- $28.65M to design and renovate Anderson Hall, which was constructed in 1925 and has an antiquated learning environment that lacks adequate classroom and collaborative spaces for the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
- $9M to design and construct phase 2 of wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ– Intellectual House. wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ is a learning and gathering place for the UW’s American Indian and Alaskan Native students, faculty, and staff and a center for sharing the knowledge of Northwest Indigenous peoples.
- $13M for the behavioral health renovation of UW Medical Center-Northwest. This project provides an additional 25 90/180-day long term civil-commitment beds to help meet the state’s behavioral health care needs.
- $7.7M for land acquisition at UW Tacoma to accommodate future growth.
- $15M from the state Climate Commitment Account for infrastructure renewal, which has historically been funded from the UW Building Account.
- $7.5M for the UW Clean Energy Testbedsto continue to accelerate the development and adoption of new sustainable technologies.
- $6M for the Rainier Valley Early Learning Center, which expands access to affordable, high-quality childcare and preschool in the vibrant Rainier Valley neighborhoods.
- $3M to restore and renovate the historic ASUW Shell House.
For a comprehensive summary of the budgets, see the UW Office of Planning & Budgeting’s brief.