Conference Operating Budget
Olympia Update No.
11 for the 2003 Legislative Session
June 26, 2003
From: Larry Ganders,
Assistant to the President
925 Plum St. SE - Building 4, P.O. Box 43165, Olympia, WA 98504-3165
With four days to spare....
New
WSU Biennial Budgets
Are
signed into law
A $375.2 million
biennial operating budget and a new $118 million capital construction budget for
Washington State University were signed into law today by Gov. Gary Locke, just
in time for the beginning of the new biennium next Tuesday. Many pundits thought
this would be a year in which the Legislature and the governor go right up
against the July 1 deadline to take action. They were right.
Washington State’s
constitution does not allow the “continuing resolutions” that Congress uses to
keep government going without a budget, so the July 1 state deadline is viewed
as very real. This budget was very painful for all of state government and WSU
was no exception. WSU’s operating budget was cut by nearly $20 million or about
5.2 percent. The final budget - that provides $6.8 million less for WSU than the
House originally adopted and $12.4 million more than the Senate version - solves
a $2.6 billion state funding crisis with no new taxes.
Governor makes vetoes favorably
impacting WSU. The governor
exercised his partial veto authority to delete two key sections from Engrossed
Substitute Senate Bill 5404, the biennial operating budget measure. The two
vetoes may save WSU about $270,000 in cuts. One veto affected section 717, which
requires reductions in travel, equipment and personal contract expenditures. The
governor said the cut was difficult for small and medium agencies to absorb
without directly affecting client services. He also complained that the cuts
were not applied fairly to higher education institutions and other agencies that
support travel, equipment and contracts with tuition or other non-state funds.
The governor also vetoed Section 724 that deleted state general funds that
supported legislative liaison positions in all state agencies, including higher
education. The governor indicated it would unduly limit the ability of agencies
to respond to legislative inquiries and he noted that these positions also
perform other functions.
No changes in Legislative Capital
Construction budget. The
governor signed all sections of Substitute Senate Bill 5401, the 2003-2005
capital construction budget. In terms of major projects, the governor indicated
he found very few differences between the legislative capital budget for WSU
that passed June 6 and the original budget he proposed back in September. The
budget provides $35.2 million for construction of the Johnson Hall – Plant
Biosciences Addition. The start date on that construction is subject to release
of funding from the governor’s Office of Financial Management. WSU will seek
immediate release of the funds so that construction can begin within days.
Construction dollars are also provided for the long-delayed $11.16 million
addition to Cleveland Hall for the College of Education in Pullman.
Construction should begin this fall. The budget provided for one of the
first state-funded buildings at a WSU experiment station in many years, a $1.5
million multi-purpose building for WSU Prosser. It also provides $4.3 million in
infrastructure construction at WSU Vancouver that will allow for co-location of
a community college building on the campus that will house Clark College
programs.
Four major WSU buildings ready for
construction in 2005 based on this legislative proposal.
The bottom line is that the new 2003-2005 capital construction budget creates
expectations for 2005-2007 for a WSU capital construction budget that would be
double the construction budget that was just adopted.
The $35 million Spokane
Academic Center, the library and classroom building proposed by WSU for
construction this year, was delayed by the Legislature until 2005. Also ready
for 2005 construction, the final capital budget signed today provides for design
funding for a new $55 million Pullman Biotechnology/Life Sciences building,
$13.1 million in state funds for a $30-plus million Tri-Cities Bio-products and
Sciences Building, and a new $31.5 million Nursing Building at Riverpoint to
replace the Magnuson Building near Spokane Falls Community College.
All are popular
buildings with significant support from legislative leaders. However, the state
projects total more than $130 million. The $130 million does not include about
$46 million in minor works funds provided in the 2003-2005 budget, a $10.6
million Vancouver Student Services Building, a $10.7 million Pullman Wastewater
Treatment project funded by the House but not in the final budget, a $20 million
renovation to Holland Library, and so forth. As WSU proponents look toward the
next budget two years from now, there are very high expectations that will be
difficult for the Legislature to meet.
Legislative
leaders did use ideas from the proposed 10-year bonding proposal advanced by
former Governors Dan Evans and Booth Gardner to fashion a six-year program that
may provide additional capital construction dollars for higher education.
However, legislators will have to balance the pressures on WSU with the needs at
other places like the University of Washington, community college campuses
across the state, K-12 schools, prisons, etc.
Jane Dennie
Joins Attorney General's Office.
Jane Yung Dennie, who for more than six years has worked on WSU government
relations causes, accepted a position after the legislative session as an
assistant attorney general assigned to the University of Washington Medical
Center. She will be missed but we know she’ll remain a Coug.
