Olympia
Update No. 16 • April 21, 2007
Conference
capital construction budget
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
Printable Adobe PDF Version
Legislature
poised to pass
record WSU
construction budget
The
waiting is over. Construction dollars are available in the upcoming budget to
finish the Life Sciences Building in Pullman.
And in
the end, it was not even a debatable issue.
It was
the highlight of a record $180.6 million WSU construction budget released by
Senate and House leaders after completing negotiations on the compromise capital
budget. The $58 million appropriation to complete construction of the WSU Life
Sciences Building, $29 million in new funding for the WSU Vancouver campus
including construction of a new classroom building, and $59 million in critical
dollars to improve and preserve existing facilities are in the conference
committee version of the 2007-2009 construction budget released late last night.
Release
of a compromise capital budget (Proposed Substitute House Bill 1092) is one of the important hurdles as legislators
attempt to adjourn by Sunday. The compromise proposal quickly passed the Senate
46-0 Saturday, leaving House ratification Sunday to send the construction budget to the
governor.
Also
remaining for passage is the compromise
operating budget which will make many decisions on differences between House,
Senate and governor versions. The state House of Representatives today passed
the Transportation budget, signaling that lawmakers are still on track for
Sunday adjournment.
The
four-story Life Sciences Building is the latest in a series of new science
research buildings that are the centerpiece of the capital construction strategy
during the seven years of President Lane Rawlins’ presidency. It will be
located next to the Plant Biotechnology Building on the former tennis courts
site across from Martin Stadium. Planned for nearby is a federally-funded
agricultural research building. The Life Sciences, Plant Biotechnology, and ARS
buildings form a new Pullman biotechnology research complex.
When
occupied in 2009, the Life Sciences building will bring together academic
disciplines in innovative laboratory settings in the life sciences,
predominately researchers on National Institute of Health-sponsored projects.
These are many of the researchers that will compete for funding in the
governor’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund proposal.
The
Life Sciences Building sailed calmly through the legislative process this year,
a marked change from the controversy that surrounded it in previous years. The
Life Sciences building was washed out in choppy political waters in 2005 because
legislators preferred funding other WSU projects. In 2006, WSU could only
achieve a late-session appropriation for the $10 million foundation of the
estimated $70 million building. But this year, in Lane Rawlins’ final
legislative session as WSU president, the project moved forward with little
debate or controversy.
When
occupied in 2009, the building will bring together academic disciplines in
innovative laboratory settings in the life sciences, predominately researchers
on National Institute of Health-sponsored projects. These are many of the
researchers that will compete for funding in the governor’s Life Sciences
Discovery Fund proposal.
It’s a budget that will finally put outstanding and productive WSU health
science researchers into modern laboratories, build critical additional capacity
at WSU Vancouver, continue work to improve and expand major pedestrian walkways
in Pullman, and make hundreds of smaller critical repairs and improvements to
existing buildings.
For WSU
projects specifically, there wasn’t much haggling. The House and Senate budget
proposals were virtually identical and largely followed the recommendations of
Gov. Christine Gregoire.
The
Life Sciences building is one of the larger projects in the proposed biennial
state budget but WSU budget construction for the coming two years may be more
unique for the critical issues it addresses on existing buildings and
facilities. In addition to $59 million for improvement and preservation of
existing buildings, the House budget provides $26.5 million for projects that
improve electrical, water and sewer delivery to university facilities.
As WSU
had hoped, the Legislature closely followed the priorities of Gov. Christine
Gregoire’s capital budget released last December.
The
only disappointment in the capital budget was that it did not fund the design
for the Biomedical Building in Pullman, a research building that was slated to
be under construction in 2009-2011 but may now be delayed as it has not been
funded by the governor or House.
There
was one significant difference between the governor’s budget and the legislative
budget. The final budget funds $4.7 million to design a Vancouver Applied
Technology Classroom Building, perhaps accelerating construction to 2009-2011.
Highlights of the proposed construction budget now under consideration by both
houses in the conference committee report on Proposed Substitute House Bill 1092
include:
·
Construction of the $24.4 million WSU Vancouver classroom building
is necessary to provide general classrooms and computer laboratory spaces for
delivery of lower division programs and to accommodate enrollment growth. The
building is WSU’s second highest priority for new building construction.
·
WSU’s $38.9 million minor works preservation project and $17 million minor works
program is in the top tier of the Public Baccalaureate Prioritized List, ahead
of all major construction projects, and fully funded by the compromise budget.
Minor works program money extends the life of existing facilities and
infrastructure, and allows older facilities to be retrofitted for cutting-edge
research and education. Likewise, preservation money extends the life of
buildings by replacement or repair of elevators, roofs, fire alarms,
ventilation, pumps, masonry, windows, flooring, painting, and building network
cabling and electronics. The funding covers health, safety and code projects
needed to protect the lives of students, faculty, staff and visitors and to
comply with occupational/public health, and environmental regulations.
·
The Pullman
Campus is experiencing a critical shortfall in electrical capacity and a deficit
of chilled water production that is solved with an
$11.5 million utilities extension in the conference budget.
This
package is ranked as the fourth project overall by the six public baccalaureate
institutions.
·
Extended service life and greater capacity to underground utility lines is
provided by the $15 million Library Road Project. It is the seventh ranked
project overall by the institutions.
The corridor project also includes accessibility and safety improvements for
enhanced pedestrian movement and decreased vehicular traffic.
·
$8
million is included for utilities, roadway, pedestrian walkways and other
infrastructure issues on WSU campuses.
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
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