ENERGY PLANT, MURROW ADDITION, VANCOUVER, AND SHOCK PHYSICS
FUNDED IN HOUSE & SENATE;
FUNDING FOR WSU SPOKANE ACADEMIC BUILDING
CONTINUES TO BE IN JEOPARDY, ICNE IN DISPUTE
Proposals for a new Pullman Energy Plant, a $10.9 million Addition to Murrow Communications Building, a $15.9 million Multi-media building at WSU Vancouver, and a $10.6 million Shock Physics Building near Webster Hall have been proposed in the 2001-2003 $2.5 Billion State Capital Construction budget approved by the state House of Representatives.
The House budget is slightly larger than the Senate proposal for the state overall, and just above the current $2.42 billion spending level for this biennium. About 47 percent of the construction dollars went to higher education. Successful funding of the Vancouver building came as a relief to Southwest Washington supporters who had heard rumors that the project was missing from early drafts of the House Republican Capital Budget. The final House budget included the construction project as well as design for a new student services building at Vancouver and the Johnson Hall Addition in Pullman.
Those design projects, the power plant, Murrow, Shock Physics and Vancouver projects were also recommended by Gov. Gary Locke and the state Senate, making it likely although not certain, that the projects will be in a final House-Senate compromise budget that is currently being negotiated. Like other budget bills, it is uncertain just how many days the Legislature, now entering its second week in special session, need to resolve disputes between the two houses.
WSU Continues To Urge Negotiators to Fund Spokane Academic Building,
Including a New Riverpoint Library.
As its top capital budget unmet need at this stage in deliberations, WSU is continuing to work with House and Senate negotiators to restore funding for design of the Spokane Academic Building at Riverpoint. The governor recommended $2.27 million to design the project. The Senate did not fund the proposal. The House reportedly had it in the budget several days before its release but it was taken out of the budget when it reportedly became uncertain whether there would be capacity for construction dollars in the 2003-2005 biennium.
The Spokane building, which WSU intends to be completed in the 2003-2005 biennium, will be the centerpiece of the Riverpoint campus, uniting WSU`s programs except nursing at a single location. It will give the campus its first permanent library, a collection that contains more than 10,000 books and journals. It will get WSU out of its leased space at the Metropolitan Mortgage Building, more than a half-mile from most of WSU`s student classrooms at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park, just east of Division Street along the Spokane River.
Student services, which are located in the Metropolitan Building, will also move to the new building, where students can easily access it. But all of those plans are in jeopardy if the negotiators do not insert the design funding in the budget for the 2001-2003 biennium. Failure to fund a capital construction project in both House and Senate budgets is usually a fatal blow to the project.
However, key legislators in the negotiating process have indicated that the issue will be raised, and could still be funded, in the House-Senate talks that lie ahead. Complicating the issue, is that the Spokane community is seeking a number of capital projects this session and support from the community for the Riverpoint facility has been divided with the other projects.
House and Senate Spend Similar Amounts of Funding for WSU...but there are differences.
The overall House total for Washington State University is $100.93 million for the upcoming biennium. The Senate comes in at about $100.90 million.
() The Senate budget provides $1.036 million to design a new nursing addition in Spokane for WSU`s College of Nursing. The college provides the faculty for nursing programs conducted jointly with other institutions in the Spokane area. However, the addition was not funded in the House budget.
() The House, in part responding to concerns from veterinarians across the state, boosted the Senate equipment funding level at $6 million. The Senate budget had provided only $4 million of the $8 million recommended by the governor to an omnibus equipment appropriation. Veterinarians are concerned that the College of Veterinary Medicine lacks at least $1 million in major diagnostic and research equipment at its Animal Disease Biotechnology Facility. The omnibus appropriation at $4 million was not seen by the university as adequate to address those needs and the requests from other colleges at the university. The governor $8 million proposal would have met many of the critical needs at WSU, including the equipment sought by the veterinarians.
Cleveland Hall Project Delayed.
The House and the Senate did not fund the construction of the $10.2 million addition to Pullman`s Cleveland Hall. The project suffered from a low ranking on the Higher Education Coordinating Board`s priority list and was also not recommended in the governor`s budget. This will result in at least a two-year delay for the project, which was scheduled to be constructed in the upcoming biennium.
This update is shared by broadcast fax and electronic mail to friends of Washington State University as government developments occur. Contact Michelle Delaney, WSU Government Relations, 509/335-6292 to be added to the list. Call Larry Ganders at 360/956-2165; From WSU Campuses, Dial 8-2165. e-mail: Ganders@energy.wsu.edu. Contact Jane Yung Dennie in Olympia at 360/956/2164. For federal issues, contact Kristi Growdon at 206/219/2424. For state bill status and other government info, visit our improved web page at www.olympia.wsu.edu.
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