News and Updates

As of 7:00 p.m. tonight, House Appropriations Committee members are still behind closed door caucus meetings trying to decide which amendments to offer on the House Democrat’s operating budget proposal which was released yesterday.  Even after that decision is made, committee members must caucus again to insure they know how members will vote on each amendment.

This means we are in for a late evening as the Appropriations Committee works to pass the 2007-09 biennial budget so that it can be considered this Friday on the floor of the House.

The UW is keenly interested in at least two changes to the budget released yesterday.  First, we are hoping the committee will restore $1 million in funding to the WWAMI/RIDE budget request to bring the total allocation back to the $4.5 million originally requested by the University and which was included in the Governor’s budget.

Second, all higher education institutions are seeking a technical change to the compensation section of the budget bill which would insure the ability of higher education entities to have maximum flexibility in using salary funding for faculty and other non-representated employees.  This language has been included in the last several biennial budgets but appears to have been inadvertently left out of the House Appropriations Committee proposed budget bill.

Almost three months to the day Governor Gregoire released her budget recommendations for the 2007-09 biennium, House Democrats in Olympia unveiled their operating budget blueprint for the next two years.  As was the case with the Governor’s proposal, the House budget places a high priority on funding for higher education and overall, represents a very strong budget for the University of Washington.

New general fund appropriations of $77.6 million combined with $42.9 million from the Education Legacy Trust Account and an estimated $80.5 million in total net tuition revenue (assumes 5% for resident undergraduates and 7% for all other) provides a total of $200.9 million in new operating budget resources for the UW in the 2007-09 biennium.

With this level of funding, we estimate the House Democrats 2007-09 budget (like the Governor’s budget) is “on-track” to close the UW’s per student funding gap to the 50th percentile of Global Challenge State institutions within 7 years and to the 60th percentile within 8 years.

Compensation:  $53.8 million is provided for compensation funding.  This amount includes funds to implement all negotiated collective bargaining agreements.  In addition, funds are provided to insure at least a 3.2% and 2.0% cost of living adjustment over the new two years for faculty and other non-represented professional staff, effective September 1 of each fiscal year.  Funds are also included for employee health insurance benefit changes.

Enrollments:  $23.6 million is provided for 1,630 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; 210 new graduate enrollments (105 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: $10.1 million is provided in new funding for research initiatives.  This includes $6.3 million for the Department of Global Health; $3.3 million to support operations and maintenance of the new Benjamin Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building; and $500,000 to enhance the University technology transfer “gap fund” used to help commercialize research discoveries.

WWAMI/RIDE: $3.5 million is provided in the UW operating budget for the medical and dental school expansion in Spokane.  This is $1 million less than requested by the University and included in the Governor’s Budget.

2% UG Resident Tuition Backfill:  The House budget limits tuition increases for resident undergraduate students to 5% per year in the next biennium.  However, additional general fund appropriations are provided to insure the UW receives the total amount of funding which would have been generated by a 7% per year tuition increase for resident undergraduates.

Burke Museum:  $1.5 million is provided to the Burke Museum to create new travelling kits, exhibits, and programs for schools, local museums, tribes and community centers.

SOM Family Practice Residency Program: $1 million is provided to establish a family practice residency program in SE Washington to be associated with the UW medicine residency network.

Partners for Our Children:  The House 2007 Supplemental Budget includes $1 million one-time funding to the DSHS Division of Children and Family Services to assist with the establishment of a “best practices” center at the UW School of Social Work to research factors affecting the well being of foster children.

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 House proposal for the UW include $500,000 to improve retention rates for low income and first generation students; $340,000 to support the Washington Academy of Sciences; $497,000 to partially backfill reductions resulting from the state’s “Smart Buy” purchasing intiative; $168,000 for support of the UW State Climatologist; and $300,000 for the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.

Items Related to Legislation: Funding is included in the University’s budget related to several legislative measures passed by the House of Representatives. This includes $800,000 to implement 2SHB 2220 which directs the UW Sea Grant Program to review existing research on the potential effects of geoduck aquaculture on the environment; $108,000 to implement 2SHB 1242 which authorizes adult family homes to participate in a voluntary certification program through the UW Geriatric Education Center; and $15,000 to implement SHB 1394 which provides grants to School of Medicine faculty or students for research or training projects that focus on improving services to individuals with developmental disabilities.

Higher Education Studies:  The House budget provides funding to conduct three major higher education studies.  Specifically, $200,000 is provided to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) for a higher education cost study to determine the options, strategies, and elements to JLARC for a capital facility technology study which would compare 10-year enrollment projections with capital facility requirements and technology application and hardware capacity.  In addition, the Washington Institute for Public Policy is provided $200,000 to conduct a study to determine state policy options regarding the role of higher education institutions in developing and marketing intellectual property and potential state revenue opportunities.

The 2007-09 capital budget spending plan released by the House of Representatives today in Olympia generally follows Governor Gregoire’s proposed capital budget recommendations for the University of Washington.  With this level of state capital funding, the House budget dramatically reverses a multi-year trend of reduced state support for the University’s building program.

The proposed capital spending plan crafted by committee chairman Rep. Bill Fromhold (D-Vancouver) includes $145 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 disappointment in the House Democrats capital budget proposal was the decsion to fund only 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 House capital budget provides full funding of the University’s $15 million request 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.

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

Members of the Economic Revenue Forecast Council met in Olympia this morning and adopted a new forecast of general fund revenue projections that will give budget writers an additional $126.5 million to write the 2007-09 biennial operating budget.  Dr. Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief revenue forecaster, said that revenue is up due to the overall strength of Washington’s economy, despite a gradual and expected slowdown in real estate activity.

Earlier this week, legislative budget officials received an unexpected windfall of about $200 million due to a drop in caseloads for several state programs such as low income medical care.  Combined with today’s revenue forecast adjustment, the legislature has more than $300 million additional resources to use in crafting their budget proposals.

Rep. Helen Sommers (D-Seattle), chair of the House Appropriations Committee will release her 2007-09 biennial budget proposal next Tuesday March 20.  Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-Renton), chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee intends to unveil her spending plan the following week.

With House and Senate members virtually locked in their respective chambers passing measures with the urgency of a Wednesday March 14 5:00 p.m. deadline looming in their future, much higher education sideline speculation is focused on operating and capital budget proposals which are due to be unveiled within the next couple of weeks.

While transportation officials are understandably fixated on the outcome of Tuesday’s viaduct advisory election in Seattle, other seasoned Olympia observers are more curious about next Thursday morning’s meeting of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council which will adopt the next quarterly forecast of state general fund revenues.  Fiscal insiders expect only a minor upturn in state revenue collections in the 2007-09 biennium which would seem of little consequence on a base of $30 billion in revenues.  But in Olympia where all budgets are won or lost on the margin, even a minor forecast change can spell gloom or doom for budget writers depending on which way the revenue needle is pointing.

Since the Governor’s budget was released in December, many legislators have expressed mild frustration that “the Governor spent all the money” and left little room in the budget for legislative priorities.  Since that time, however, state entitlement program forecasts have continued to trend downward, creating more than $100 million of additional room for legislative budget writers to address the spending priorities of their own members.  An additional $100 million or so of additional revenue in the March 15 forecast update could provide just enough budget breathing space to insure smooth negotiations between the House, Senate and Governor’s office.

The House is tentatively scheduled to release their operating and capital spending proposals the week of March 19.  The Senate should follow with their budget blueprints the week after leaving what should be ample time to negotiate a final budget in time for the April 22 adjournment deadline.

SB 5384, the Senate version of the UW’s request legislation to expand our ability to issue long term debt locally easily cleared the State Senate yesterday 46-0.  There was no debate or opposition to the measure which now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration following floor cut-off next week.  The House version of the debt authority bill (HB 1398) is already in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Monday was the deadline for Senate and House fiscal committees to move bills from their chamber of origin which are not deemed “necessary to implement the budget.”  This means that many of the bills we have been tracking as a University are now considered “dead” for the 2007 legislative session.

To see which bills have survived the cut-off, check out the Bills of Significant Interest link in the Spotlight section.  I have recently updated the status of each piece of legislation along with any revised UW positions on the bills. 

While I don’t have time to go through a complete list of all the bills that didn’t make it out of committee, I will try and highlight some of the more important bills we have been tracking that are no longer viable.

SB 5514 and HB 1875 would have included the UW and other four year schools in a detailed study of compensation and personnel practices tied to the long-standing problems of part-time community and technical college faculty.  These bills did not pass out of their respective policy committees.  Much of the substance of SB 5514 was included in SB 5020 which did pass out of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Research Committee but died Monday in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

SB 5322 which would have required OFM to identify sites and develop programs for a new four year university in Snohomish-Island-Skagit county died in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.  Sen. Jean Berkey, the prime sponsor of the measure has indicated she will try to secure the funding that was included in this bill in the Senate budget which will be unveiled at the end of March.

SB 5013 which would have imposed a limit on all tuition increases of no more than 5.5% died in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.  A bill to establish the Washington Institute of Technology by combining branch campuses in Vancouver, Bothell and Tri-Cities died in the House Higher Education Committee.  Bills to establish preferences for veteran-owned businesses in state contracting did not pass by the established deadlines.

Finally, a bill which would have transferred responsibility for the Wellington Hills property to the Department of General Administration for the purpose of selling the land died in the House Capital Budget Committee.

Yesterday during the cut-off hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senator Joe Zarelli (R-Ridgefield) successfully hung an amendment on a measure which would make a new life sciences research entity in Spokane area potentially eligible for Life Sciences Discovery Fund monies.

SSB 5616 would create a health sciences and services authority in Spokane with the intention of using the Institute for Systems Medicine to expand health sciences research and biotechnology development in the area.  Funding is intended to come from the state general fund in the form of a state tax diversion of approximately $5 to $6 million per year.

The Zarelli amendment would instead permit funding for the authority to come from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund instead of the state general fund.  The problem this creates is that the Fund (which is estimated to be about $35 million per year beginning in 2008), is intended to be competitive and awarded to the most meritorious projects as determined through a peer review process.  The amendment potentially creates ambiguity about whether the Fund would be used to fund the ongoing operational costs of a new research entity as opposed to a being solely available for competitive research proposals.

As a member of the Life Sciences Fund Coalition, the UW is concerned about this amendment to SSB 5616 and will work with other coalition partners to insure that the Life Sciences Discovery Fund remains available for competitive research project funding.

I’m heading out of town for a couple of days to visit some old friends in California so blogging will be sparse until next week.  Have a great weekend.

Today is the 52nd day of the legislative session, the official halfway point for 2007 and the first real cut-off deadline for standing committee action.  After today, Senate and House policy committees cannot take action on measures from their chamber of origin.  This is “parliamentary speak” for “if it isn’t out of a policy committee by today, it’s dead for this session.”

Of particular interest to the UW are progress of the Governor’s higher education Washington Learns bills which are SB 5806 (Schoesler) and HB 1882 (Wallace).  Both of these measures designate the Global Challenge States as the benchmarks for measuring per student funding progress for institutions of higher education and create a multi-year plan for increasing both state appropriations and tuition (up to 7% per year for resident undergraduates) to close competitive funding gaps.  The bills also establish new financial aid scholarship programs and expand eligibility under the State Need Grant program.

SB 5806 easily cleared the Senate Higher Education Committee on February 20 and will be heard in the Senate Ways and Means Committee tomorrow.  HB 1882 passed out of the House Higher Education Committee on Monday of this week, but on a party line vote of 6-3.  It has now been referred to the House Appropriations Committee where it could be scheduled for a hearing this weekend.

The UW has also been working to amend itself out of legislation dealing with the problems of parttime faculty members in higher education — a problem more pronounced in the two year college system.  The House version of this bill, HB 1875 did not pass out of the House Higher Education Committee.  In the Senate, SB 5514 did not pass out of the Senate Higher Education Committee when they ceased meeting last week.  However, the substance of that measure was amended onto SB 5020 and passed out of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Research Committee yesterday afternoon.  The measure was sent to the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the UW continues to oppose the measure.

To keep track of the progress of legislation of interest to the University, check out the link under my website Spotlight section on Bills of Significant Interest.