Today marks the final day for many bills with fiscal impact to be reported from the House Appropriations Committee or the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Last Wednesday was the final day for bills to pass out of the policy committee or origin. Despite these cutoffs, most legislation tracked by WSU is still alive in the Washington Legislature.
TRADE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHAIR MAKES PLEA FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
The industry-sponsored "Advanced Technology Research Initiative" bill ranks among the two most important pieces of legislation that House Trade & Economic Development Chairman Steve Van Luven said he has ever been involved with. The veteran Bellevue Republican legislator has sponsored successful legislation from horse racing tracks to stadiums to branch campuses. Van Luven, in an emotional appeal to the House Appropriations Committee, testified that the branch campus legislation of the late 1980s was "the most important," but he added that the ATRI proposal, now before the Washington Legislature, is second. "What we are talking about is the future of the state of Washington," declared Van Luven. "We can either pass this legislation or we can sit back and let the world pass us by," he said. The $9 million proposal would create three "clusters" of scientists at the University of Washington and two at Washington State University to work in partnership with private companies on high-tech projects that promise to "spin off" into new firms and products. Examples of WSU projects that might be at the center of such clusters are the development of special fiber optics that can be used for measuring aircraft performance, genetically-engineered grain that could yield a harvest of insulin for the pharmaceutical industry, and a new wood product that could prove to be a long-lasting building material for commercial docks. Private sector promoters of the legislation include Bill Gates Sr., the Washington Wheat Commission, and Tom Rankin, of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association. Van Luven concedes that one of the early questions of the proposal was why WSU, in addition to UW, had to be involved when UW was a national leader in federal grants and royalties. He said he came to appreciate that WSU's projects were "every bit as important" to economic development as UW. HB 1444 and Senate Bill 5443 are now stalled in the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee. But the issue is likely to get some attention, at least in the House, as the Legislature builds its operating budget proposals.
UW and WSU Agree on "Accountability" Standards - Senate Bill 5927
The two research universities informed the Senate Ways and Means Committee that if adequate funding for their budgets is provided by the Legislature, they were willing to be held accountable - and even return funds to the state if they did not live up to expectations. The research universities proposed specific measures of their performance: graduation efficiency index, which will help measure average student progression toward a degree, students educated by faculty type (such as associate professor, etc.), and student retention rates. WSU and UW have proposed it as an amendment to SB 5927, sponsored by Senate Higher Education Chair Jeannette Wood, R-Woodway. The Wood bill would return 10 percent of new enrollment dollars to the state if an institution did not reach its standards. WSU has strongly supported the concept of the Wood bill which requires state funding support for institutions to increase if tuition rates go up and would limit undergraduate resident tuition increases to 4 percent per year. Thus far, it appears to be the bill that the Legislature will use to set tuition policy. The single major problem with the Wood bill is that it now carries an amendment to increase University of Washington non-resident undergraduate tuition 8.3 percent, which would be a historic decoupling of what has been a single tuition rate for WSU and UW. That action could force WSU to either petition to raise its rate or resign itself to receiving less funding per student than UW. Despite objections from WSU and the Washington Student Lobby, the increased rate for non-residents has been popular with many legislators, especially in the House.
Funding for WSU Trust Lands Still In Doubt - HB 1418 and SB 5385
A meeting between House Speaker Clyde Ballard and President Sam Smith Friday produced no solutions on how money can be repaid to WSU's trust this legislative session. Last August, the state attorney general, responding to the Legislature's request, ruled that the state had been improperly charging WSU's agricultural trust for management fees on up to 25 percent of its income. That means about $17.5 million in fees, about $54 million with interest, have been improperly lost to the trust since the mid-1960s. Substitute House Bill 1418, and Senate Bill 5385, would repeal state laws requiring these charges. But budget writers have not yet indicated any willingness to pay for the management of WSU's trust lands out of other funds, which amounts to approximately $2.5 million per biennium.
WSU Distance Learning Tuition Bill In Trouble
WSU and the state Higher Education Coordinating Board have so far failed to reach agreement on legislation that would provide reduced tuition rates to students involved in distance learning through interstate consortia. The HEC Board has argued the programs should not be state-funded, eliminating most incentive for such programs.
