With Fourteen Days Left to Go –
No Legislative Operating Budget
Lawmakers are planning to meet through the weekend as the 2002 Legislature winds into its final scheduled two weeks. No legislative operating budget proposal has yet surfaced. Given the time
remaining and the fiscal issues left to negotiate, a special session after the scheduled March 14 adjournment of the 60-day regular session
appear certain. Higher education advocates are betting the Senate budget, which may be made public next week, as likely the worst
proposal of the process.
Senators confirm that it will cut universities substantially deeper than the 5 percent reduction recommended by the
governor. There is speculation the cut could be in the 7-10 percent range with a 14 percent hike for undergraduate residents. The Ways
and Means Committee passed this week Senate Bill 5770, providing unlimited tuition-setting authority for the institutions for all categories
of students except resident undergraduates.
There is still hope that the House version of the operating budget, which should follow in the
week after the Senate release, will be closer to the governor's cut level.
Much of the concern of the Legislature this week has centered on
non-budget legislation, with today being the last day for policy bills to emerge from committees in the opposite house. There appeared to
be a few casualties of that "cut-off" deadline. WSU officials believe the "State Agency Quality Improvement" legislation, Third Substitute
House Bill 1517, duplicated its strategic planning efforts and would have cost about $500,000 to implement. After whisking through the
state House of Representatives on a 97-0 vote, that bill appears to be languishing in the Senate State and Local Government Committee –
an apparent victim of today's cut-off deadline.
Legislation to rename WSU and UW branch campuses in statute – deleting the term
"branch" – met an unexpected death in the House Higher Education Committee after sailing through the full Senate (SB 6504.) A bill to
study the future of branch campuses continues to be alive in the Legislature but may be handled in the operating budget.
Bargaining Bills Continue To Move
Almost ironically, as lawmakers work behind closed doors to slash budgets and benefits, and repeal
previously-authorized salary increases, bills designed to strengthen labor unions in state government are moving ahead. Gov. Gary Locke's
Civil Service Reform Bill, Substitute House Bill 1268, is the center of the discussion. It passed the state House 54-43 on Feb. 13, passed
the Senate Labor Commerce and Financial Institutions Committee, and is now in Senate Ways and Means. The bill provides that, among
other things, the Governor must submit, and the Legislature must approve or reject as a whole, a request for funds to implement a
collective bargaining agreement, including salary increases, for nearly all state classified in employees.
Also arriving to the Ways and
Means Committee is Second Substitute House Bill 2403, providing faculty collective bargaining for faculty at four-year institutions
including Washington State University. WSU has been neutral on enabling legislation for Faculty, however the WSU Faculty Senate voted
against the proposal 14-27 on Feb. 14. Though faculty collective bargaining and the Civil Service Reform bill have been perennial issues
that have failed in the Legislature for many years, both stand a reasonable chance of reaching the governor's desk on a close Senate vote.
Also very much alive in the Legislature is Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2540, providing collective bargaining to teaching and research
assistants at the University of Washington.
Capital Construction bill passes Senate.
The only major budget bill to move thus far for WSU is the supplemental capital construction
budget, which has passed the full Senate 47-2 on Feb. 26 and received a hearing this week in the House Capital Budget Committee. The
Senate-passed budget reaffirms the governor's commitment to maintaining the $103 million 2001-2003 capital construction budget for
WSU that passed the Legislature last year. That means that $23 million is still allocated for a new Energy Plant for Pullman, the $12.65
million Murrow Hall addition and renovation will move forward, that the $12.4 million for Shock Physics is secure, and an $18.5 million
Multi-media Building for WSU Vancouver are all still secure.
But the Senate stunned higher education leaders by deleting the governor's
economic stimulus package for universities. For WSU, that was a $6 million proposal that included infrastructure and safety projects for
WSU facilities in Pullman, Puyallup, Prosser, Mount Vernon, Wenatchee, Royal Slope, Othello, Central Ferry, Lind, and Spokane. WSU
has asked the House Capital Budget Committee to consider including the requests.
Sabotage Legislation, Trust Lands Bill Updates.
WSU worked with Senate Judiciary Chair Adam Kline, D-Seattle, this week on
amendments that could create exceptional sentences for criminals who attack university research projects and facilities. Those are now
incorporated into Second Substitute House Bill 1938, which passed the House in a different form and has now passed the Senate Judiciary
Committee. It is headed for a full vote in the Senate. WSU has also been successful in getting favorable amendments to Senate Bill 5264,
relating to misclassification of employees and Senate Bill 6528 relating to responsible bidders on public works projects. In other
legislation, efforts to pry loose legislation that would allow more eligible bidders on WSU trust land timbers sales have been fruitless. The
bill is being held by House leadership despite more than 60 of 98 lawmakers supporting the Second Substitute House Bill 2307. Bills that
would have provided in-state tuition for children of migrant workers (Senate Bill 6235 and others) garnered unprecedented support in the
Legislature this year but now appear dead.
Senate Transportation Chair
Urges Support for Rural Mobility
Package Could Benefit Pullman Campus Transit Links
Senate Transportation
Chair Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, said her budget will provide a 10-year $250 million boost to rural transit systems in this
state, a position she predicts will not be in the original House transportation budget. Haugen said there are no guarantees, but the mobility
package could provide some temporary one-time relief to Pullman's transit system, which is grappling with cutbacks in public funding.
This update is shared by broadcast fax and electronic mail to friends of Washington State University as government developments occur. Contact Kevin Ketchie, WSU Government Relations specialist, 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
at 360-956-2164. For federal issues, contact Kristi Growdon at 206-219-2424. For state bill status, budget updates, and other government info, visit our web page at
www.olympia.wsu.edu. Improvements have
recently been made in bill status tracking. Just go to our page and click on
"Status" in the left hand column.
