Washington State University
Washington
State University
2003
– 2005 Biennial Operating Budget Request
House
Appropriations Committee Budget
Summary
provided by WSU Planning and Budget
Watch
for an Olympia Update Later Today
- General
Approach
The House Appropriations Committee budget is far better for WSU than the
Senate budget. The House would appropriate $391.4 million in general
funds and $1 million in special appropriations. This 0.9% less than the
2001-2003 budget. The House
budget is $28.6 million better than the 8.3% cut in the Senate budget.
(Adjusting for the capital budget offset in the Senate budget, the
House version is $21.6 million better.)
Overall the House Budget assumes $653 million in new state revenue.
- State
Fund Budget Cuts
The House budget is cut is straight-forward (unlike the Senate budget that
included several different reductions).
The House budget would cut the state appropriation by $14 million,
or 3.6%. The House assumes
tuition for all categories of students will be raised by 5% per year to
offset part of the state fund cut. (The Senate assumed cuts totaling $31.3
million, plus $7 million transferred the capital budget.)
- Tuition
Setting Authority
The appropriations bill would allow governing boards to increase tuition for
resident undergraduates by up to 5% per year.
The percentage limits would be the same for all types of
institutions. (The Senate limit
was 9%.) The budget bill would
grant full tuition-setting authority to governing boards for all other
categories of students.
- Veterinary
Medicine Program
The House would provide $1.5 million toward the loss of funding as
OSU withdraws from the DVM consortium.
Two-thirds of this amount comes from a new student achievement fund
funded with Keno lottery revenue. This
is for 16 replacement student FTE in 2003-04 and 32 replacement student FTE
in 2004-05. (WSU has requested
$2.6 million, the Senate budget offered $979,000.)
- Salary
Increases
University employees would receive only a single general salary increase
of 2% in September 2004. The
last increase was in July 2001. K-12 teachers and community colleges employees would
receive increases of 2% in 2004 and 1.9% in
2005. (The Senate budget
provides no general salary for any state employees).
A small recruitment and retention pool of $2.9 million is funded.
This is the same as the Governor and Senate budgets
- Health
Benefits
The House provides $3 million more than the Senate for health benefits, but
employees would still be required to pick up some of the increased cost of
health services.
Maintenance of New Facilities
The House budget would provide $1.1 million to
fully fund the utilities and maintenance of recently completed buildings
($600,000 more than the Senate).
