CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ADOPTS 9 PERCENT GENERAL FUND INCREASE FOR WSU OPERATING BUDGET
A compromise 1997-99 operating budget for Washington State University has been adopted by Republican members of a joint conference committee, roughly splitting the difference between original House and Senate proposals. The conference committee report is expected to be passed by the Legislature as Senate Bill 6062 and the Governor may have only five days to decide whether to sign all or part of the bill. It is doubtful he would sign the bill completely and some vetoes could keep legislators in Olympia, perhaps beyond the April 27 scheduled adjournment date. While there are required budget cuts to existing programs proposed by both the House and the Senate, the conference proposal will provide WSU with a $339.46 million budget compared to a current budget of $311.1 million. That compares with a $337.8 million budget proposed by the House and a $343 million budget suggested by the Senate. Gov. Locke provided $344.5 million to WSU. WSU has generally reacted favorably to the conference budget, praising negotiators especially for positive outcomes on faculty retention funds and graduate assistant health benefits. Enrollment increases for branch campuses were reduced from House and Senate levels at WSU's request to increase the likelihood that WSU campuses will reach the enrollment targets set by the Legislature. The budget appears to presume a 4 percent tuition increase each year, a level that WSU considered appropriate given other provisions of the compromise budget which allow faculty and professional salary increases of up to 1 percent the first year and 2 percent the second year.
POSITIVE POINTS ABOUT THE CONFERENCE BUDGET:
Graduate Assistant Health Benefits Are Fully Funded -
Thanks in part to an extraordinary lobbying effort led by Oliver Bangera, who just completed his final term as president of the WSU Graduate and Professional Student Association, the Senate position of fully-funding health benefits was adopted by the conference committee. Bangera talked to many legislators and told them of the critical need of providing health insurance benefits for teaching assistants and graduate assistants. The efforts by Bangera and other graduate students probably prevented the loss of $1.4 million in health insurance benefits for WSU students alone.
Faculty Retention Pool of $1.2 million Funded
- The Senate provided $2.1 million for increasing salaries to WSU faculty members who are at a competitive disadvantage to their peers. The House provided just $730,000. The conference committee settled on a $1.2 million fund. Salary increases from these funds will be given to targeted faculty members following established university procedures. For example, if the funds were spread out among 10% of WSU's faculty it would amount to a 6.7% percent increase for this select group of faculty. The conference committee report is particularly significant because it is the first time in recent years that faculty have been singled out for special pay increases in addition to what most state employees receive.
620 New Enrollments for WSU
- The compromise budget provides $4.6 million in enrollment increases for the WSU system, lower than the $6.57 million proposed by the House and the $7.2 million provided by the Senate. The downward adjustment came partially at the request of WSU, which lowered its requests for enrollments in the first year of the biennium and increased its request for the second year. The action was taken by WSU with the hope of freeing up more dollars for faculty retention and graduate health benefits, a move which apparently was productive. It also will increase the likelihood that WSU's campuses will each hit its enrollment target for next year. The Pullman campus, which was over-enrolled by more than 600 students last year, was 551 below its budgeted number this year, giving it adequate capacity to grow without a first-year enrollment increase. The conference budget will provide another 320 enrollments in 1998-99, just as the House had proposed.
WSU Spokane will host fewer Pharmacy students next year as the program goes through a transition but then enrollment for those programs will increase again in 1998-99. The conference committee provided no new enrollments for Spokane in the first year but provided 90 new enrollments for 1998-99. That will allow growth from 364 students to 442 students next biennium.
WSU Tri-Cities' enrollment increase was set by conferees at 30 for next year, with another 60 in the second year. The increases, coupled with current unused capacity, will allow WSU Tri-Cities to grow from about 650 students to 814 students in the next two years.
WSU Vancouver has additional student capacity for next year allocated by the 1996 Legislature but received another 120 FTEs for the second year of the biennium in this conference committee recommendation. That will allow WSU Vancouver to grow from 722 students to 971 next biennium.
DISAPPOINTMENTS IN THE CONFERENCE BUDGET:
Unfortunately, the conference committee adopted the House "accountability standards" which are difficult for a land grant institution like WSU to achieve and could result in financial penalties in the second year of the biennium. The conference budget also does not provide for an enrollment band for the Pullman campus and only 5 percent for the branches, putting a lot of pressure on each campus to exactly hit its targets. WSU had suggested a 2 percent system band and 10 percent for the branches.
