Olympia
Update No. 17 • April 22, 2007
Conference
operating budget
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
Printable Adobe PDF Version
Final budget puzzle solved
with $508.6 million for WSU
Legislative leaders believe they have solved the puzzle of the operating budget
and the solution is expected to boost Washington State University’s operating
budget 17.9 percent in the next two years.
It will
likely pass the Washington Legislature Sunday when both houses convene at 11
a.m. on the final scheduled day of the 105-day session. Lawmakers hope to adjourn on
time today. Then, it will be up to the university to make the pieces fit.
Student enrollments will increase at all campuses for a WSU total of 850 new
slots, agricultural research
funding will be boosted by $5.3 million, and salaries will increase by an
average of 3.2 percent Sept. 1 through the new $508.6 million compromise
operating budget for WSU.
The
first state appropriations for medical education programs in Spokane, a WSU PhD
program in nursing, a new Spokane Applied Sciences Laboratory, a new engineering
program at WSU Vancouver, and WSU Small Business Development Centers are just
some of the items contained in the final resolution of House-Senate budget
differences. The new striking amendment to the state operating budget bill,
Substitute House Bill 1128, was unveiled Saturday by negotiators.
The
budget for WSU might have seemed to negotiators like solving a Rubik’s Cube.
The often-conflicting Senate, Governor, and House budgets created dozens, maybe
hundreds, of options for legislators to include in the final university budget.
In making the compromises, negotiators even spun in some options of their own
like a surprise cut in the state subsidy for graduate students who are not
Washington residents.
All in
all, House-Senate leaders decided to fund a multitude of new programs at WSU
that were parts of all other budget plans, including portions of each of the
major budget items requested by the university’s Board of Regents last
September. But the legislative solution could lead to some puzzled looks among
those at the university that will implement the programs. In an apparent effort
to fund as many programs as possible, funding for many were trimmed from their
original requests.
The
compromise budget, comparable to the Senate funding level for WSU, provides more
money than the $504 million budget by Governor Christine Gregoire endorsed by
WSU. But it is well below the $515 million proposed by the House.
Nevertheless, the compromise budget makes significant improvement over the
Senate budget and addresses the major areas of concern identified by WSU to
budget negotiators from each house:
-
Tuition revenues
retained by WSU.
The final compromise budget increases undergraduate tuition up to 7 percent
and supports the House’s position of providing all tuition revenues for
distribution by the students’ institution. The Senate had used much of the
WSU tuition revenue ($10.5 million) for costs historically provided by the
state general fund, potentially putting the university in the position of
cutting some existing programs supported by tuition and losing its
flexibility to address unexpected academic challenges like bottleneck
courses.
-
Building maintenance
provided. The
compromise budget supports the Senate position of funding maintenance &
operations costs for new academic buildings that were constructed to serve
the interests of the state. Utility costs increases, however, were not
funded in the conference budget.
-
Agriculture research.
The budget
provides more funding for the Unified Agriculture Initiative than provided
by the Senate or the governor. The total appropriation for the
request is $5.3 million of the $10.8 million requested by WSU on behalf of
the industry. There is at least partial funding for two competitive grant
pools, including one in organic or “biologically intensive” agriculture. It
also provides for new positions in areas from making wine to livestock
management. The final compromise contrasts with the governor that funded $3
million -- the House proposed $9.5 million -- and the Senate advocated $2.8
million. Some of the appropriation could also be used for core support at research
stations that had been provided by the governor and requested as part of the
package.
-
Mount Vernon
Station The
compromise budget is the first legislative proposal to fund maintenance and
operation of the Mount Vernon research station. Both House and Senate
budgets provided zero funding for Mount Vernon. The compromise budget
provided $734,000 for maintenance and operation for new Mount Vernon
facilities. .
“Fueling
Washington” with Bioproducts moves forward.
Negotiators provided $4 million (the House and governor levels) for the
comprehensive research program to generate fuels made from plants grown and
processed in the state. A portion of the request will provide five state
researchers to complete at 10-person team at WSU Tri-Cities. The Senate had
provided $5.6 million. However, WSU may be able to recover part of the
difference as $2.3 million is provided for “star researchers” at UW or WSU that
will be awarded through the Higher Education Coordinating Board.
In,
addition $800,000 is provided to WSU for analyzing options for market incentives
to encourage biofuels production. This is part of a “Cleaner Energy” bill pushed
by an environmental coalition in the Legislature as Substitute House Bill 1303.
The bill passed the Legislature Friday and is headed for the governor’s desk.
Reduced
Funding for Doctors, Dentists for the Inland Northwest
The
innovative Spokane program to educate more doctors and dentists for Eastern
Washington got the green light from the conference but will have a
slimmer budget than anticipated. The
request level was reduced by approximately $600,000 for the University of
Washington and about $1 million for WSU.
The WSU portion of the doctor
education request, $7.353 million, was reduced to $6.36 million in the final
budget after the Senate raised concerns that too much money was being provided
for start-up of the program.
The
program was fully-funded to WSU in the House and governor budgets. The program
is a partnership between WSU, Eastern Washington University and UW. It would be
the first major expansion of the UW Medical School and the School of Dentistry
to resident students in decades.
$2.35 million
for PhD, Master’s Level and Undergraduate Nursing
The
Eastern Washington nursing component
provides funding for the first nursing PhD program offered by WSU, It does the
baccalaureate, master’s and PhD programs funded by the House and the governor,
but also boosts nursing education at WSU Tri-Cities by 20 students in 2008 and
five students in 2009.
The
funding will provide 20 master’s degree in nursing students, 15 PhDs in nursing,
and 25 baccalaureate students in Spokane and Yakima.
WSU System
Enrollments to grow by 850 to 22,250
More
Enrollments from the Senate.
The conference budget did provide more funding for WSU enrollments than any of
the budgets, though often at lower funding rates per student than than the
governor or the House provided. It will put $8.8 million into general and non-medical
high demand enrollments, more than the governor or House and just below the $9.4
million provided by the Senate.
There are 590 new general enrollments ($5.3 million) for the WSU system.
It provides 80 enrollments over the biennium for Pullman-Spokane, 110 for WSU
Tri-Cities, and 400 new enrollments for WSU Vancouver.
There are 155 new enrollments in non-medial high demand fields
in the conference budget. There is $2 million for startup of an electrical
engineering program at WSU Vancouver but no funding for electrical engineering
at WSU Tri-Cities.
Math
& Science Augmented funding for 100 more existing students.
The conference budget did fund WSU’s innovative “augmented enrollments,” which
upgrade 100 existing enrollments to slots with a high-demand math and science
focus. No other institution received this kind of funding.
Applied
Sciences Laboratory
Spokane Applied
Sciences Laboratory (ASL)
The conference budget
provided $3 million of the $3.5 million that the Senate requested for a a
Spokane Applied Sciences Laboratory. WSU Shock Physics scientist Yogi Gupta has
played a key role in this program, though it was not a WSU budget request.
The governor and the House
has provided no funding. The laboratory will emphasize applied research,
technology transfer, and the development of spin-off companies in the physical
sciences and engineering. Funding would be used to recruit and retrain three
senior scientists, business development and administrative personnel, and to
establish and equip facilities for computational modeling and for materials and
optical characterization.
Taking Care of
Business: Landmark SBDC funding
Small Business Development Centers:
The conference budget fully-funded WSU’s proposal for “Small Business
Development Centers” No funding was provided by the House for the WSU request,
though it did invest in a specific research program at Western Washington
University SBDC. The conference budget funded both the WSU and the WWU
proposals. Senate and governor’s budgets provide $757,000 to WSU to
expand small business counseling services. The request provides funding for SBDC
offices for Southeast Washington, Kelso-Longview, Aberdeen-Shelton, Olympic
College in Bremerton, and Highline Community College in Des Moines. In addition,
WSU will create masters of business administration internships at SBDC
locations.
About
$700,000 is provided to the WWU SBDC, much of the funding is to be divided
evenly between 25-50 small business development centers and underserved economic
development councils with research support.
Student Retention and Completion Programs.
The conference budget
provides $500,000 to expand mentoring and academic support services that have
proven effective in helping at-risk students complete their college degrees. The
Senate’s proposal for another $830,000 for math and science retention was not
funded.
Retaining the
Best: The compromise on compensation.
Salary Increases and Benefits The
conference budget provided $31 million for
Salary increases averaging
3.2% on September 1, 2007, and 2.0% on September 1, 2008, for most WSU
employees. The original Senate budget had salary increases taking effect in
July. The compromise budget provides $1.45 million less than the cost of the
increase by excluding from the salary base increases that were funded with
non-general fund appropriations. That provision was not in previous budgets.
Partial Funding of Graduate Assistant Health Benefits.
$244,000 of the nearly $1 million requested is provided to cover projected
increases in the cost of health insurance benefits for teaching and research
assistants. No funding was provided in the House budget.
Maintenance and Operations for New Facilities
Two major new construction projects are approved in the conference capital
construction budget. But the unavoidable maintenance and operation costs must be
funded in the operating budget. While they were omitted from the House-passed
budget, they are now included in the conference budget:
-
Life
Sciences Building.
The Governor’s budget and the Senate provides $821,000 for
maintenance and operation for this new project. This construction
project is funded in the House and Senate capital budgets. The building
will open in Fall, 2008.
-
Vancouver
Undergraduate Classroom Building.
The Governor’s budget provides $168,000 for maintenance and
operation of this new building. The construction project is funded in
the House & Senate capital budgets.. The building will open in Spring,
2009. However, the maintenance and operation funds are not provided in
the House budget.
UW-WSU Policy
Consensus Center The
compromise budget funds $225,000 at WSU for the William D. Ruckelshaus Center to
identify issues that have led to conflict around land use requirements and
property rights, and explore practical and effective ways to resolve or reduce
that conflict. It represents a 50 percent increase in state support for the
center.
Washington Academy of Sciences
The conference budget funds
$170,000, half the funding provided by the governor’s budget and the House
budget for the Washington Academy of Sciences.
Appointed by the presidents
of the University of Washington and Washington State University, this panel of
recognized scientific leaders from industry, the universities, and government
will render opinions or develop and carry out research related to the major
issues facing the state. Funding is provided in the budgets for both research
universities. An additional $60,000 one-time appropriation is provided for the
academy to assist on Puget Sound clean-up issues.
Grizzly Bear Research.
This was not a WSU budget
request but is funded in the conference budget. At the urging of Sen. Erik
Poulsen, the Senate provided $150,000 to help the Pullman based research
program. This was not funded by the House or the governor.
Renewable Energy Program.
$150,000 is provided in the
compromise budget to allow the WSU energy program to assist the state on wind
and solar power issues.
Local government training.
The state Department of
Community, Trade and Economic Development budget contains $850,000 to the
Washington Association of Counties to train local government officials. The
counties indicate they are considering Washington State University as the
contractor to do the training.
Not funded
-
Unexpected cut to
Graduate Education.
Although there was no
legislative discussion publicly throughout the session, the conference
budget unexpectedly cut $1.6 million from graduate programs, dictating that
the state subsidy for students who are not Washington residents must be
reduced.
-
No Research to Products
Funding Both
House and Governor’s budgets provide $500,000 each to UW and WSU that would
be used for turning new research discoveries into marketable products. The
Senate did not recommend funding, which prevailed in the final budget.
-
No Utility Cost
Reimbursement
$4.3 million in new
state money was provided by the Senate to help with utility cost increases
at WSU campuses. The impact of such increases has been particularly
significant on the Pullman campus due to its conversion in 2005 from coal to
natural gas.
-
No Faculty Recruitment
and Retention Funding.
$3.9 million was provided in the Senate budget to assist WSU in recruiting
and retaining highly-talented faculty in fields for which current
compensation levels are insufficiently competititve. No specific funding is
provided in the conference budget.
Olympia
Update is produced for persons interested in state government developments
impacting Washington State University. For more information, go to
www.olympia.wsu.edu. Contacts: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President,
360-956-2165. From WSU campuses, dial 8-2165. If you wish to subscribe to
Olympia Update directly by email, send a completely blank message from your
e-mail account (no signatures or footers please) to:
subscribe-olympia_update@listserv.energy.wsu.edu
