Olympia Update No.
12 for the 2002 Legislative Session
March 15, 2002
From: Larry Ganders,
Assistant to the President
925 Plum St. SE - Building 4, P.O. Box 43165, Olympia, WA 98504-3165
Click Here, For the latest status of legislation affecting WSU
Sine Die:
WSU capital and operating
budgets approved;
Gov. Locke threatens veto for more reductions.
The Legislature completed work on the necessary budgets for Washington State University to operate during the 2002-2003 school year, and wrapped up its scheduled 60-day session almost precisely on time at the stroke of midnight Thursday night. House members burst into applause as
they approved a new transportation proposal that will be submitted to voters. The vote came just seconds before midnight. Lawmakers adjourned "sine die" with the drop of simultaneous gavels from each house at about 1 a.m. today.
The university fared as well as expected in the final crucial hours of the legislative session, re-securing all of more than $100 million in construction and maintenance projects approved by the Legislature last year.
Most of those capital projects, such as the Pullman Shock Physics Building and
the Vancouver Multimedia Building are well underway. But those projects
have been sometimes considered in jeopardy as revenues and debt limits were squeezed by a deteriorating state economy.
The supplemental operating budget for WSU
contained approximately a 7 percent reduction. That is a $14.5 million cut in overall programs
and compensation. It received final legislative approval with a Senate vote Thursday morning.
The final legislative budget was much closer to the WSU-supported House version sponsored by House Appropriations Chair Helen Sommers, D-Seattle,
than the rival Senate proposal. The Sommers plan cut $11.8 million from WSU.
The Senate plan reduced WSU's base budget by $19.5 million and was far more
detailed and specific in how the university must take those cuts.
More reductions?
The budget ax set in motion by a sluggish state economy may not be done swinging, however. The Legislature left proposals for
$40 million of liquor tax increases on the table. Office of Financial Management Director Marty Brown notified WSU immediately Thursday that the governor was considering a veto of recruitment and retention funds that the Legislature had provided for faculty and staff because of the hole left in the budget from the unsuccessful liquor tax increase bill.
That would be a loss of $1.7 million to WSU. There were other reports that
some health benefits for state employees that were restored on the House floor
Wednesday night may also fall victim to the governor's veto pen.
The final legislative budget contained no cost-of-living increases for any university employees, so the retention funds were provided to keep the university competitive for some selected positions.
Proponents said that if the liquor tax proposal had gone to a vote on the
floor of the House, that it was two votes short of the necessary 50-vote House majority.
Tuition policy lasts only one year
Also left unfinished at the end of the legislative session was a proposal for statutory changes in tuition legislation. Proponents said they believe the measure, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5770 did have the votes necessary for
passage. But the plan simply ran out of time as lawmakers consumed the final hours with resolving a deadlock on transportation issues. The bill limited resident graduate and professional tuition increases to up to 10 percent per year in the future. Proponents planned to make that tuition-setting authority unlimited before passage. Final passage of the bill would have required approval on the House floor and a second vote on the Senate floor to concur with House amendments. Neither vote was taken on the final day of session.
So without a permanent tuition policy in statute, tuition will be guided by the new supplemental operating budget that was passed by the Legislature, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6387. That policy will only apply to the upcoming academic year that begins this fall. For that year, the WSU Board of Regents may implement up to a 16 percent tuition increase to try to offset some of the cuts in the budget. There is no limit on graduate and professional students.
Trust lands issues addressed in budget
Language was added late in the budget process directing the state Department of Natural Resources to prepare a plan to diversify at least ten percent of the university's trust lands out of commercial forest within the next ten years. The budget requires a
plan to be delivered to the Legislature by December 1, 2002. DNR, which had independently committed to taking some critical steps in that direction, did not oppose the proviso language.
WSU has been concerned that too much of its trust remains in forest. The state Senate had called for 10 percent of the
agricultural trust lands to be sold, a proposal seen as too drastic by some House members. Appropriations Vice Chair Mark Doumit and House Speaker Frank Chopp were involved in crafting the final bill. Other attempts to improve incomes off of the university trust lands by changing timber bidding rules continued through the final hours of the legislative session but were unsuccessful.
Half of the WSU Economic Stimulus Package funded
A proposal adding $3 million of the $6 million requested by Gov. Gary Locke for new job-creating capital construction
WSU infrastructure projects received the necessary votes from the House and Senate on the final day of the session. Critical to passage of this measure was House approval of a $87 million bonds bill (Senate Bill 6818) which required a 60 percent vote of the state House of Representatives.
With Democrats securing only a 50-48 majority, Republican support was necessary for passage
but their vote count was constantly shifting. House GOP members, arguing that this was not the time to put the state into more debt, made the outcome of the vote
very uncertain. However, in the end, the measure squeaked by on a 63-35 vote, four votes more than the 59 required for passage. The subsequent capital construction budget that detailed the eligible WSU programs racked up 80 votes (Senate Bill 6396.)
Faculty
collective bargaining bill passes to the governor.
Legislation
providing for faculty collective bargaining has passed
with the requirement that a university must abolish its faculty senate before
bargaining can take place. The governor has reportedly been asked to veto the
requirement. Some proponents say that the balance of the bill would provide
adequate enabling legislation once the sections containing the requirement are
deleted.
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. To send
Larry an e-mail page at the capitol, write to Ganders@My2way.com.
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.
