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Support for research universities appeared to collapse in the state Senate Tuesday under the weight of a $1.6 billion budget deficit. Senate Ways and Means Chair Lisa Brown, herself a former Eastern Washington University faculty member, unveiled a budget (Proposed Substitute Senate Bill 6387) that made $90 million in cuts to higher education with some of the toughest reductions coming to the University of Washington and Washington State University. 

The cuts sliced far deeper into the WSU budget than the 5 percent, $10.5 million reductions proposed to the Legislature by Gov. Gary Locke.

 The Senate proposal reduced $14.9 million in student tuition waiver funding ($2 million for WSU) and suggested large increases in non-resident graduate tuition up to total more than $17,000 per year (intended to save another $1.9 million.) Administrators and students from WSU and the University of Washington immediately criticized the graduate tuition and waiver hikes as unrealistic but they were not called to testify during a 3 1/2-hour hearing on the budget Tuesday in front of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

 WSU submitted a letter in writing Tuesday night to Sen. Brown stating that if the proposed cuts were implemented, WSU would not achieve them through the Senate plan of hiking out-of-state graduate student tuition and eliminating many of its tuition waivers. While Sen. Brown was suggesting a tuition level of $17,000 per year for non-resident graduate students, WSU noted that other land grant institutions across the country were charging an average of $12,000 per year. WSU argued that it simply couldn't compete for top graduate students, a situation that would cripple efforts to secure top notch teaching and research assistants. The problems this would create would be expected to ripple throughout the quality of university research, extension and instruction programs. WSU had supported scheduled graduate tuition rate increases of 3.5 percent. Resident undergraduate tuition is allowed to go up 14 percent in the Senate plan.

 WSU has indicated that if the cuts are of the magnitude proposed by the Senate, a 14 percent resident undergraduate tuition hike will be inadequate to substantially soften the blows of cuts to the university. The Senate budget offered a stark contrast to the Governor's budget. If the WSU Board of Regents chose to use tuition authority provided by the Senate for realistic increases, the minimum cut would end up being about 4.7 percent to WSU programs. That is nearly up to the 5 percent cut recommended by the governor before the imposition of any tuition increases.

The Senate budget is expected to pass out of committee later this week and could soon get a vote before the full Senate. A House version of the budget, hoped to be more beneficial to research universities, could be made public Wednesday or Thursday. As unlikely as it sounds, some legislative leaders are still intending to pass the supplemental budget and adjourn on March 14.

 The original budget passed by the Legislature last year had provided for a 2.6 percent increase to university employees. However, many community college and K-12 instructors continue to benefit from the passage of Initiative 732 and will receive substantially higher pay raises of 3.6 percent. WSU has expressed concern about the damage it does to research university recruitment and retention to be paying larger increases to other state educators. The Senate budget also made reductions to state employee health benefits. Employees are now expected to pay an average of 19.8 percent of their monthly health premium costs in 2003, compared to 8.4 percent now. The budget also directs the authority to develop a plan for employees to pay premiums according to salary Co-payment for doctor's office visits will increase from $10 to $15 per visit, Uniform Medical Plan will require 15 percent of the allowed charges to be paid by the employee, up from 10 percent. .

The Senate budget also includes an unusual proviso for WSU. The proviso states that, "Cooperative extension service programs may receive less state support during fiscal year 2003 but such reductions shall not be made out-of-proportion to the change in state general fund appropriations to the entire university..." On principle, WSU has expressed opposition to the proviso. While there are no plans for any reductions of that magnitude, the university continues to be strongly opposed to any language which limits it flexibility to make the most prudent reductions under the terms of the budget.

This latest proviso is a new twist. Senate budget in previous years have sought to limit other areas to cuts such as instruction, branch campuses, or experiment stations. The American Electronics Association is currently lobbying to limit the cuts that the university can make to engineering programs. WSU is urging legislators to give it maximum flexibility in managing the cuts and opposes all of these kinds of provisos. 

The Senate budget provides for 10 percent of WSU's Agricultural Trust Lands to be sold. Another unusual proviso buried on page 136 of the 300-page budget document, appears to work to WSU advantage. The Senate is suggesting that 10 percent of WSU's Agricultural trust be sold for cash which would be deposited in the permanent fund. That is apparently some type of pilot effort to allow WSU to try to diversify its portfolio, which is currently dominated by timber lands investments given to the university at statehood. That could increase the capital construction dollars available to the university.