News and Updates

In a relatively rare Saturday morning session, the Senate passed their versions of the operating, capital and transportation budgets.  There were no changes in any of the budgets affecting appropriations for the University.

During debate on the Senate transportation budget, Senator Rosemary McAuliffe (D-Bothell) offered an amendment to provide an additional $6.2 million in funding for the Bothell/Cascadia CC offramp project which has experienced an increased construction inflation estimate.  Unfortunately, the amendment was defeated.

House and Senate fiscal committee leaders should begin to work out the differences in their respective spending proposals this week.  The 2007 legislative session is scheduled to adjourn on April 22.

Last night the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed both their operating and capital budgets in preparation for floor action on Saturday March 31.  Of the more than 70 amendments considered by the committee, one change sponsored by Senator Craig Pridemore (D-Vancouver) increased the appropriation for the UW Department of Global Health from $2.5 million to $6.3 million which is identical to the amount included in the Governor and House proposed budgets.  The change was made by shifting $3 million in funding for advanced technology initiatives and adding another $800,000 in state funding.

This level of funding for the Department of Global Health is significant because the University is in the process of recruiting key researchers from Harvard University who will help establish a “health metrics institute” with considerable financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The institute would specialize in measuring and evaluating the health of people in the world’s poorest countries.

OVERVIEW

Eight days after House Democrats unveiled their 2007-09 spending proposal, Senate Democrats today released the details of their operating and capital budgets to the public.  While the Senate operating budget does allow the University to make real progress on addressing its per student funding goals, the overall amount of funding provided is less than both the House and Governor’s budget proposals.  In addition, funding for compensation and global health are major concerns as detailed below.  The Senate capital budget is virtually identical to the Governor and House proposals which were very strong for the University.  One significant problem is lack of design funding for the UW Bothell Phase 3 project.

SENATE OPERATING BUDGET

New general fund appropriations of $66.7 million combined with $32.6 million from the Education Legacy Trust Account and an estimated $88.8 million in total net tuition revenue (assumes 7% for all students) provides a total of $188 million in new operating budget resources for the UW in the 2007-09 biennium.  This is about $10 million less than provided in the Governor’s budget and $13 million less than included in the House budget.

With this level of funding, we estimate the Senate 2007-09 budget is “on-track” to close the UW’s per student funding gap to the 60th percentile of Global Challenge State institutions within 10 years as prescribed in SSB 5806.  This is somewhat slower progress towards closing the gap than is achieved in both the House and Governor budgets.

Compensation:  $36.5 million is provided for compensation funding.  This amount is $17.3 million less than what was included for overall compensation items in both the Governor and House budgets.  The Senate does include $6.5 million in state funding for faculty recruitment and retention.  However, even with this additional funding, the Senate budget results in a net reduction of $10.8 million overall for compensation increases compared to the Governor and the House.  To cover this shortfall, the Senate budget would shift this cost to UW tuition revenues.  This means that the University will have less tuition revenue available to address other important campus priorities.

One significant difference between the Senate budget and both the Governor and House budgets is the start date for the 2007-09 salary increases.  The Senate budget salary increases would be effective July 1 of each fiscal year for both represented and non-represented staff.  Both the Governor and House budgets provided for July 1 starting date for represented staff and a September 1 starting date for non-represented staff.

Enrollments:  $22.7 million is provided for 1,750 new enrollments during the next two academic years.  This includes 500 new undergraduate enrollments (250 per year) for math, science, engineering and other high demand fields; 330 new graduate enrollments (165 per year); 920 new general undergraduate enrollments (460 per year).  The UW may allocate the enrollments at either the Seattle, Bothell or Tacoma campuses.

Research:  $5.5 million is provided in new funding for research initiatives.  This includes $2.5 million for the Department of Global Health which is $3.8 million less than included in the Governor and House budgets, and $3.0 million for interdisciplinary research support (advanced technology initiatives).  No funding is included for operations and maintenance funding for the Research and Technology Building or for the Research to Products initiative.

UW Tower:  The Senate budget provides $3.9 million for partial funding of the UW’s request for operations and maintenance support for the newly acquired UW Tower.  There is no funding in the Governor or House budgets for this item.

International Programs and Opportunities:  The Senate budget fully funds the University’s $1.5 million request to expand international programs and opportunities for students.  There is no funding in the Governor or House budgets for this item.

WWAMI/RIDE: $3.8 million is provided in the Senate’s UW operating budget for the medical and dental school expansion in Spokane.  This is $676,000 less than requested by the University and included in the Governor’s Budget.  

William Ruckelshaus Center:  $225,000 is included in the UW budget (and an additional $225,000 in the WSU budget) to provide permanent funding for the Ruckelshaus Center (policy consensus center).  In addition, $500,000 is included in the budget for the Office of Financial Management to contract with the Ruckelshaus center for an Agricultural Pilot Project and $50,000 is provided in the 2007 supplemental budget proposal ($25,000 in UW and $25,000 in WSU) for a project related to land use and property rights.

Other Budget Items:  Other items included in the Senate proposal for the UW include $500,000 to improve retention rates for low income and first generation students; $170,000 to support the Washington Academy of Sciences which is only one half the amount provided in the Governor and House budgets; $168,000 for support of the UW State Climatologist; $125,000 to improve autism training and parental support; and $50,000 for the Olympic Natural Resources Center.

Expand State Need Grant:  The Senate budget significant expands eligibility for the state need grant.  Specifically, $19 million is provided to increase eligibility from 65 percent to 75 percent of state median income.  For a family of four, 75 percent of the state median income is about $54,000 per year.

SENATE CAPITAL BUDGET

The 2007-09 Senate capital budget generally follows the Governor and House proposed capital budget recommendations for the University of Washington.  With this level of state capital funding, the Senate budget dramatically reverses a multi-year trend of reduced state support for the University’s building program.
 
The proposed capital spending plan includes $143 million in new state funding for UW construction projects. This is almost twice the total amount of state capital support the University received in the current biennial capital budget and represents the highest level of support for UW capital in ten years.

Restore the Core: The UW’s “Restore the Core” package of requests to renovate historic capital buildings on the Seattle campus is funded with $94 million in new state capital appropriations. This includes full funding of construction for Savery Hall, Clark Hall, Playhouse Theater and Magnuson H-Wing (also received $3.0 million from local funds). In addition, full funding for planning and design is provided for the next phase of restoration projects including Balmer Hall, Lewis Hall and Denny Hall.
 
Data Center: The budget provides $25.0 million to construct a new primary Data Center in the UW Tower and to provide ongoing campus computing and communications infrastructure and connectivity.

Interdisciplinary Academic Building: $5.0 million is provided for pre-design and design for a new facility that will enable significant advances in the UW’s molecular engineering program.

UW Tacoma Phase 3: $6.2 million is provided for pre-design and design for major renovation of the Joy Building, including the addition of a fourth floor. This will provide nearly 70,000 square feet of additional classroom and faculty office space.

UW Bothell Phase 3: One significant concern in the Senate capital budget proposal is the decision to fund only $150,000 for pre-design for the UW Bothell Phase 3 expansion for a multi-purpose academic building to accommodate a capacity increase of at least 600 student FTE’s.  Design funding of $4.85 million was eliminated and would instead be funded in the 2009-11 biennium.

Intermediate Student Service and Classroom Improvements: The Senate capital budget provides $13.3 million to continue renovation of general assignment classrooms on the Seattle campus, consolidate and modernize space for Student Services programs and provide classroom space for the WWAMI/RIDE medical and dental expansion.  This is $1.7 million less than the UW request and the amount provided in the House budget, but $5 million more than provided for in the Governor’s budget.

Minor Works Threshold:  The Senate Capital Budget increases the threshold for higher education minor works projects from $1 million to $2 million.  Higher education institutions had sought an increase in the threshold to $3 million but the proposed language in the Senate budget is an improvement over the current limit.

Space Utilization Study:  The Senate capital budget calls for a new study of higher education space utilization that should provide a more balanced way of measuring the efficiency of space use across the many different kinds of higher education institutions in the state.

Cost Allocation Pools:  A total of $5 million is provided to the Office of Financial Management to assist colleges and universities with unanticipated cost escalation on construction projects during the 2007-09 biennium.  Funds must be matched from non-state resources up to $750,000.

The House version of the Governor’s Washington Learns bill finally passed the House Approprations Committee today on a unanimous voice vote.  The version which moved is identical to the bill that passed out of the House Higher Education Committee several weeks ago minus three provisions related to new financial aid programs which have already passed the House in separate pieces of legislation.

Included in the version passed is the controversial provision originally included by Rep. Jim McIntire (D-Seattle) which would grant the governing boards of higher education institutions limited ability to raise tuition rates if the state failed to appropriate sufficient monies in the state budget for schools achieve their per student funding goals.

Floor action on the measure could be scheduled as early as this Friday.

At the beginning of the 2007 legislative session, the Governor’s office introduced her Washington Learns bill for higher education in both the Senate and the House.  SB 5806 and HB 1882 were intended to be the vehicles for establishing both a state tuition policy for resident undergraduates and a policy of benchmarking per student funding for institutions of higher education at the 60th percentile of global challenge state peer schools.  Passage of one of these measures is one of the University’s major priorities for the 2007 session.

Majority Democrats in the Senate took the somewhat unorthodoxed approach of having Republican Senator Mark Schoesler (D-Ritzville) be the prime sponsor of SB 5806.  Generally, members of the majority party sponsor Governor request legislation and more than a few eyebrows were raised when Schoesler’s name appeared as prime sponsor.  However, SB 5806 virtually sailed through the Senate with relatively minor amendments and is now sitting in the House Higher Education Committee having passed the full Senate unanimously.

In the House of Representatives, however, the Governor’s Washington Learns higher education legislation has faced a much bumpier ride.  First, the original Governor request bill ended up being quickly replaced by a separate number (1882) and title introduced by House Higher Education Committee chair Rep. Deb Wallace (D-Vancouver).  Then, before executive action was taken in committee on February 26, much of the Governor’s policy related to the global challenge states was removed in a substitute bill drafted by the chair because of her interest in conducting a cost study of higher education before establishing per student funding goals and peer groups.

During the committee hearing, however, a separate amendment offered by Rep. Jim McIntire (D-Seattle) ended up passing with both Democrat and Republican support that reinstated all of the Governor’s tuition and global challenge state policy.  In addition, Rep. McIntire’s amendment also permitted the governing boards of higher education institutions to go above the bill’s 7 percent tuition cap IF the legislature failed to provide sufficient state appropriations to keep the universitities on target to achieve the 60th percentile per student funding goals within the 10 year timeframe.

HB 1882 was sent to the House Appropriations Committee in this form and a public hearing was held a week ago last Monday at which President Mark Emmert testified in strong support on behalf of all six public baccalaureate institutions.  Yesterday afternoon, the committee attempted to take executive action on the proposal.  Before the members was an even newer version of the bill which removed the controversial McIntire tuition-setting provision as well as a number of additional amendments by Rep. Glenn Anderson (R-Issaquah) that would have added new requirements to the higher education cost studies, removed reference to the global challenge state institutions, and reduced the per student funding goals from the 60th to the 50th percentile of “similar” institutions.

After more than an hour of behind closed door committee caucus meetings, the members returned at 5:00 p.m. and chairwoman Helen Sommers (D-Seattle) announced the committee would not take action on HB 1882 during that meeting.

Today, the House Appropriations Committee will try again to take action on HB 1882 at their 3:30 p.m. meeting.  We’ll post the results of today’s committee meeting in the next blog entry.

The House of Representatives enacted their versions of both the 2007-09 operating and capital budgets during their Monday morning floor session.  The biennial capital budget passed by a vote of 93-4 and there were no amendments to the bill that affected funding for the University.

The operating budget was a more partisan affair, passing by a margin of 62-35, with only Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Roy) crossing over to vote for the budget with most of the majority Democrats.  Rep, Geoff Simpson (D-Covington) voted against his parties’ budget because he felt it lacked sufficient funding for programs related to the elderly and other vulnerable populations.  Again, there were no changes to the budget which would affect funding for the UW.

The Senate is expected to release their budget proposals on Wednesday March 28.

This morning, the House of Represenatives passed the 2007-09 biennial transportation budget.  A floor amendment to the budget offered by Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) will provide some financial assurance for the UW Bothell SR 522 interchange project.  Ranking minority member Rep. Fred Jarrett (R-Mercer Island) also spoke in favor of the amendment which passed unanimously.

Recent cost estimates indicate that the project could be approximately $6 million short of what it will take to complete the new campus access point off of SR 522.  The adopted amendment states that if the 2007-09 state capital budget does not provide any new funding for the project, then related cost increases would be eligible for a transfer from the transportation management reserve.

Action on all three major budgets (operating, capital and transporation) is expected when the House of Representatives convenes this morning at 10:00 a.m.  Members are expected to go to caucus to discuss proposed amendments to the biennial spending plans and then return to the chamber to enact each budget.  Because the House has delayed action on their budget proposals until this morning, the Senate is expected to delay release of their budget until Wednesday this week.

A number of bills important to the University will also be heard this week as policy committees have until Friday to act on bills from the opposite chamber.   HB 1506 which extends authority to use alternative public works mechanisms for another six years is scheduled for a public hearing this morning in the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee.  HB 1882 which is the Governor’s Washington Learns bill that establishes the Global Challenge State per student funding goals for higher education is scheduled for executive session in the House Appropriations Committee this afternoon.

The UW is also watching SB 6099 which establishes a mediator to resolve potential disputes which may arise during the process to plan the design of a new State Highway 520 floating bridge.  The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle) receives a public hearing this afternoon in the House Transportation Committee.

At about 1:00 a.m. this morning, weary members of the House Appropriations Committee passed SHB 1128 — the House Democrats version of the 2007-09 biennial operating budget.  Numerous amendments were considered, debated and passed in the more than nine hours that elapsed from the time committee members convened at 3:30 p.m. the prior afternoon.

There were a few changes affecting the budget for the UW which should be mentioned.  First, Rep. Jeannie Darnielle (D-Tacoma) succeeded in adding $1 million to the University’s general fund appropriation for a law school loan repayment program for students who choose careers in the public service.  This increase was partially offset by a switch in funding sources for the costs to the UW Sea Grant program to implement 2SHB 2280 related to geoduck aquaculture.  Funding was moved from the state general fund to the Geoduck Aquaculture Research Account.  These two changes result in a net increase in the state funds budget for the UW of $200,000.

One other change of note involves a proposed study of higher education long term capital needs.  The committee adopted an amendment to move responsibility for conducting the study from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Instead of considering the operating budget on the floor tomorrow (Friday) as was originally planned, House leaders have indicated that budget will be considered in the full House on Monday March 26.  Senate officials have also indicated that they intend to delay the release of their budget proposals until Wednesday March 28.

The House Capital Budget Committee this morning gave unanimous approval to their version of the 2007-09 biennial capital budget.  On a voice vote, both Democrat and Republican members praised the $4.2 billion total funds spending plan which includes $145 million in state funds for University capital projects.  No substantive amendments were made to the bill, meaning the UW Bothell Phase 3 project is still only funded with pre-design monies.  House floor action on the capital budget is expected early next week.