Olympia Updates

GOV. GARY LOCKE ORDERS 5% OPERATING BUDGET CUT EXERCISE TO STAY UNDER INITIATIVE 601 LIMITS

In one of his first actions as governor, Gary Locke has directed state agencies including Washington State University to prepare options for 5 percent budget cuts to existing programs within seven days (ending tomorrow). Locke`s budget office has directed higher education institutions to exempt student enrollments and financial aid from the cut scenario but the exercise will force WSU to offer up approximately $8.93 million in current programs for potential reductions. Locke emphasized that his request for reduction options does not mean that every agency`s budget will be cut by five percent but said the reduction is necessary to prove "flexibility" in finding more funding for targeted public education programs, likely including higher education instruction, under the limits set by Initiative 601. While WSU officials expressed relief that Locke exempted some higher education instructional programs, they note that "nearly all of our programs support and are essential to instruction." Preliminary indications are that the WSU reductions could slow the growth of the extended degree program, branch campuses and restructuring the university curriculum. Categories of funding that are particularly vulnerable in the Governor`s exercise include plant operations and maintenance, student service programs, computing, Cooperative Extension, Agricultural Research, and libraries.

While Gov. Gary Locke works to put together his budgets for the upcoming biennium, concern is building over the treatment of branch campuses in the construction budget request prepared by outgoing Gov. Mike Lowry, including the University of Washington branch campus at Tacoma. All three WSU branch campus deans jointly met with legislators in many meetings in Olympia last week to discuss critical construction projects.

WSU Tri-Cities: The Lowry Budget provided no funding for new WSU Tri-Cities construction projects.

Tri-Cities legislators are working to see that $232,000 is included in the capital budget for a proposed Science Education Center. The funding would simply provide preliminary design work on the project, assuring that it would be ready for final architectural design work in the 1999-2001 biennium. The predesign work could ultimately lead to construction of a 51,350-square foot building to provide classroom and instructional laboratory space. It will house biology, chemistry, environmental science, and science teacher education programs. It will also offer opportunities for Tri-Cities K-12 science teachers to interact with university and Hanford scientists in simulated classroom environments. Also unfunded in the Lowry budget is a $4.8 million request to construct a "Center for Agricultural Systems Evaluation (CASE)", an innovative teaching facility on 300 acres of Horn Rapids land donated to the university by the City of Richland. A classroom, laboratory, and greenhouses would be constructed on the site that will allow students to study a variety of crops being grown on previously unfarmed land. Numerous agricultural corporations are pledging to assist in funding of the project which will draw on the expertise of the nearby WSU research station at Prosser and the Food & Environmental Quality Laboratory at WSU Tri-Cities.

WSU Vancouver: New documents released last week show that the Lowry capital budget intends for design to begin on the proposed Engineering Building but at a funding level about $500,000 less than the $2.836 million requested. That casts some uncertainty over the building which could begin construction in the 1999-2001 biennium. The Lowry budget documents also indicate that $1.6 million for design of a new classroom building is not funded, deferring the construction project for at least 4-6 years. University requests for additional roads and utilities were dramatically reduced and a request by Clark Community College for a co-located building on the WSU Vancouver campus were also deferred by the Lowry budget.

WSU Spokane: The Spokane Joint Center for Higher Education continues to press for construction of a $29.4 million Health Sciences Building at Riverpoint. More than three-fourths of the space requested for the building is expected to go to Washington State University programs, the first step toward getting much of WSU`s programs in Spokane out of temporary leased space. The Lowry budget reduced the request to about $20 million, apparently deleting many WSU instructional laboratories from the request. Eastern Washington University also shares space in the facility. The joint center is also seeking authority to acquire a "Riverpoint One" office building to house WSU, EWU and other programs.