Special thanks to Michelle Delaney in the WSU Budget Office
for preparing House budget information
for distribution Friday evening.
House Republican leaders unveiled this budget proposal at a press conference Friday morning. House Democratic leaders are expected to disclose their budget positions on Monday or Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats have a 49-49 tie in the Legislature and each have co-chairs of the Appropriations Committee. Under normal legislative protocol, a budget is supposed to begin its legislative journey in the House this year and move to the state Senate. The final House budget apparently will be the result of negotiations between the two political caucuses.
House Republican Budget Cuts Salary Funds & ATI
Deals Devastating Reductions to WSU Tri-Cities
Nearly one-third of the existing budget for WSU Tri-Cities would be slashed under a proposed new state budget scheme announced by House Republican leaders Friday. The proposed House GOP budget would have negative impacts on many programs throughout the Washington State University system but dealt WSU Tri-Cities an especially crippling $1.45 million cut.
Also reduced in the GOP budget proposal was funding for WSU Pullman ($1.476 million), WSU Spokane ($378,000) and WSU Vancouver ($430,000). In addition, $450,000 in funding was proposed to be reduced for WSU`s role in the Advanced Technology Initiative, an innovative research program just approved by the Legislature last year.
Salaries throughout the WSU system were mandated for a $288,000 reduction, eliminating the second year of a WSU faculty recruitment and retention pool approved last year.
None of these reductions were proposed in the budget delivered to the Legislature by Gov. Gary Locke and all exceeded voluntary enrollment target reductions of $1.5 million made this week by WSU.
Unlike the voluntary WSU reductions, the House GOP cuts would affect current budgets at all WSU campuses, not simply reduce planned budgets for next Fall.
Proposal Cuts WSU Tri-Cities` Current Funding 28 Percent:
$1.453 million.
WSU President Sam Smith has already appealed to House Appropriations Chair Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor, to reconsider any cuts to WSU Tri-Cities. The branch campus operates in a community that has lost nearly 10,000 of its 19,000 Hanford jobs during the last three years.
Republican leaders were apparently unhappy that WSU Tri-Cities has slipped 158 students below the contract enrollment level of 754 students. But Smith argues that Tri-Cities has received only $5.1 million in state funding, which is not sufficient to support 754 students. If you divide the total WSU Tri-Cities budget by the 596 students that are actually enrolled, it comes to a state expense of $8,650 per full-time student. That is exactly the average funding per budgeted branch campus student at WSU Vancouver, UW Tacoma, and UW Bothell.
WSU has protested that the House GOP budget presumes funding per FTE of $6,809 per student. Yet inexplicably, the House Republican budget imposed its cuts at a rate of about $9,100 per student...for a total WSU Tri-Cities penalty of $1.45 million.
WSU Tri-Cities Dean Larry James was stunned by the proposal. "The proposed cut would start a downward spiral of programs and enrollment that would be difficult to reverse at a time when the region`s economy and Columbia Basin College`s enrollment are on the upswing," James said.
Funding Cuts Also Proposed
for WSU Pullman, WSU Spokane, and WSU Vancouver.
WSU had already suggested a smaller growth rate for the WSU Pullman campus for next year, a $464,000 reduction in funding provided in the current biennial budget. But the House GOP budget went much further and reduced current funding by $1.476 million because the Pullman campus was 288 students short of its enrollment target. This cut comes to the current WSU budget, since WSU has already committed all enrollment funding, mostly for faculty and staff.
The proposal is indicative of an intolerance by some legislators for universities dropping below enrollment targets, even if its just 288 students on a base of 16,985 in Pullman. Past Legislatures have usually tolerated a two percent band for the Pullman campus and up to 10 percent at the branch campuses. WSU Spokane, which was 40 students down from its 472-student target was cut $378,000. WSU Vancouver, which was 51 students down from its target of 1,021 students, was cut $430,000. None of the cuts were recommended by the governor.
House GOP Calls for $288,000 Salary Cuts,
Ends Funding for the Advanced Technology Initiative.
The 1999 Legislature funded $288,000 for each year of the biennium for salaries to recruit or retain critical faculty members. This salary funding was awarded WSU faculty in the first year of the biennium and, of course, the higher salaries were to be continued for these same individuals in the second year of the biennium. The House GOP proposal poses a problem for WSU by unexpectedly eliminating the second year of funding. That is a cut to WSU`s budget of $288,000 at a time when the university already trails average salaries for similar institutions across the country by an average of $10,000 per faculty member.
Despite Cuts, House Republicans Fund
New WSU Health Sciences Initiative
and Pullman Power Plant Repairs
Nearly lost among the bad news delivered to WSU by the House GOP budget, were some recommendations for new funding for the university.
House Republicans are proposing $3.6 million in needed emergency repairs to the WSU power plant, which would result in the permanent installation of a back-up boiler that was installed to assure that the Pullman campus would be heated through the winter.
The news from the House GOP budget for the proposed revamping of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) was mixed. Like the governor, the budget provided $600,000 for development of a Cancer Research Institute at SIRTI provided by WSU and establishment of a biotechnology coordinator. However, House Republicans did not fund a request from the SIRTI Board of Directors for $425,000. WSU has maintained that both packages are necessary to make SIRTI a success at the Spokane Riverpoint campus.
This update is shared by fax and electronic mail to friends of Washington State University as state government developments occur regarding the 2000 Legislative Session. Contact Karen Fischer, 509/335-6665 to receive a copy. Call Larry Ganders at 360/956-2165 or send him a short pager message via e-mail to 3607863527@page.metrocall.com. From WSU Campuses, Dial 8-2165. e-mail: Ganders@energy.wsu.edu. Call Jane Yung in Olympia at 360/956-2164 or pager her at 360-956-8500. For bill status and other info, visit our web page at www.olympia.wsu.edu.
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