Olympia Update No.
7 for the 2004 Legislative Session
March 11, 2004
From: Larry Ganders,
Assistant to the President
925 Plum St. SE - Building 4, P.O. Box 43165, Olympia, WA 98504-3165
House-Senate Budget
Compromise Provides
Additional Students at Washington State University
At
least 191 additional students will now have the opportunity to attend at WSU
campuses next year under a House-Senate supplemental operating budget that is
expected to pass the Legislature today, the final day of the 2004 legislative
session. Like most other universities in the state, WSU has been over-enrolled
and needs to cut back on the size of its entering freshman class in order to
have the funding to provide a college education to existing students. That
reduction is eased by the supplemental budget’s $1 million provision to provide
funding for an additional 191 students at $5,453 per FTE. The final compromise
is less than the governor’s recommendation for 288 students and the House
recommendation of 298 students. However, the Senate had recommended no new
dedicated enrollment for WSU and the final budget compromise uses the House’s
funding formula, rather than the $4,906 per student provided by the governor.
House Appropriations Chair Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, is generally credited with
securing the additional enrollment funding in the final budget.
In addition to
these “general” enrollment increases earmarked for WSU, the university will also
have the opportunity to compete with other public and private institutions for
$3.6 million in additional “high-demand” enrollments. The Legislature assumes
that 324 student FTEs will be created at an average cost of $11,000 per student,
enough money to cover some higher-cost programs such as computer science that is
being demanded by businesses.
No Expansion of
“Mad Cow” Research, House
Asparagus Funding Adopted
There was a lot of legislative discussion over the
outbreak of “Mad Cow” disease in the state but the final legislative budget
provides no addition funding to expand current programs at WSU. The House had
provided $270,000 for the research but the Senate did not recommend any funding.
In the end, the final budget contained no funding. However, the House language
to provide $330,000 to the state Department of Agriculture to contract with WSU
for research and development of asparagus harvesting and automation technology
was provided.
WSU
Lands Tie Up Final Capital Construction Budget Passage
In an
unusual twist in the final day of the 2004 Legislative session, an issue
involving WSU is the final item holding up legislative passage of the capital
construction budget and likely adjournment of the Legislature.
Late
Thursday night, lawmakers unveiled a House-Senate construction budget compromise
that included 31.6 million for the Spokane Academic Center and $3.4 million for
the Pullman Wastewater Reclamation Project. WSUNet, which was funded in the
Senate version of the construction budget, was not funded in the House-Senate
agreement.
The issue
that still divides the two houses involves the transfer of 160 acres of land at
Buckley (part of about 750 acres at the former dairy site that is in the control
of WSU but owned by the Department of Social and Health Services.) In exchange
for this ownership transfer, WSU has agreed to retain 22 acres of pasture land
at the Puyallup station (part of 40 acres that the university has identified for
sale.) It was an agreement put together with WSU support at the urging of Rep.
Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup.
WSU has
suggested that the Buckley site could provide the location for an Extension
Education Center, including a forested area for 4-H activities and retreats.
Negotiators between the House and the Senate reached an agreement yesterday on
the capital budget that included the land transfer.
The
Senate, most of whose members are committed to eventually giving much of the 750
Buckley acres to a trust for the developmentally disabled, changed the final
capital budget agreement to delete the Buckley-Puyallup provisions from the
capital budget. It then passed the bill, presuming it would be the final Senate
vote on the capital budget. A bill to create the trust for the developmentally
disabled has been blocked by the House because of objections from public
employee unions.
Late last
night the House narrowly refused to concur in the Senate amendments to the
capital budget. House Capital Budget Chair Hans Dunshee said the Senate had
violated the negotiated amendment by refusing the WSU land transfer and urged
House Democrats to reject the Senate’s bill and support the compromise which had
been advocated by Morrell.
Discussions are continuing on how to resolve the differences in the final hours
of the session.
