January 19, 1995 - OVERALL STATE GENERAL FUND GROWS
AT ABOUT 20 TIMES
THE RATE PROPOSED FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
In testimony before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, House
Higher Education Committee and Senate Higher Education Committee
this week, Washington State University called for legislators
to first consider stabilizing general state funding for higher
education before assessing tuition increases on students.
Voters last November called for a change in state budgeting. Many
persons are cynical about so-called "cuts" often discussed
in state government budgets, which sometimes are expressions of
reductions from agency budget wish lists or generous carry-forward
allowances. Talk show hosts and others have called for a more
honest comparison of state budgeting that simply compares the
actual dollars spent in this current biennium with actual dollars
in a proposed budget.
Such comparisons with the current state budget and the governor's
proposed budget shows that the majority of state government is
growing at a rate ten to twenty times that of higher education.
The governor made substantial changes in his proposed operating
budget which he said made higher education a "priority."
Yet the funding increases proposed in the governor's budget
shows the major areas of the state budget were treated disproportionately:
Human Services 17.1 percent
K-12 Instruction 9.6 percent
Community Colleges - 0.5 percent
Four-year Universities 0.4 percent
Initiative 601 Limit 9.0 percent
The governor's budget provided no funding for salary increases
for higher education alone, forcing institutions to pay for the
mandated increases from student tuition increases and cuts to
existing programs. Even adding in maximum proposed tuition increases
proposed by the governor, higher education's total funding
increases 4.2 percent.
HIGHER EDUCATION CONTINUES TO DECLINE AS A PERCENT OF THE STATE
BUDGET
The share of the state general fund allocated to higher education
has been declining for many biennia. This trend has been characteristic
of budgets proposed by both governors and the Legislatures in
Washington state. In the governor's proposed budget, this
trend continues: Higher education general fund support declines
from 6.4 percent of the state budget to 5.9 percent.
A COST OF UNDERFUNDING HIGHER EDUCATION: ACCESS
Only Florida ranks lower than Washington State in students per
capita that attend public four-year institutions.
In addition, Washington State faces a 50 percent increase in its
high school graduating class by the year 2010.
WSU's Pullman campus is already over-enrolled by 600 students
and is expected to be over-enrolled by 1,500 students by the end
of the next biennium.
