State House and Senate budgets could be released next week
Olympia Update No.
3 for the 2004 Legislative Session
February 20, 2004
From: Larry Ganders,
Assistant to the President
925 Plum St. SE - Building 4, P.O. Box 43165, Olympia, WA 98504-3165
State House and Senate
budgets could be released next week.
Its crunch time in Olympia .Non-budget bills must scrape through each house in
some form by Friday Feb. 27 to avoid being crushed by legislative rules. Each
house is chewing on a version of the budget. A slight increase in the state
revenue forecast appears to give legislators the funding they need to avoid any
additional cuts to higher education this year. Just a mid-biennium tune-up to
the two year budget passed last year the budgets nevertheless encompass a
significant amount of issues including WSU’s highest priority, beginning
construction on the Spokane Academic Center building. The building has been a
matter of considerable discussion between key House and Senate leaders, and it
may be that the two houses take substantially different approaches when they
release their supplemental capital budgets (HB 2573). On the operating budget
side, more enrollments are still under consideration.
State Senate Memorial
calls for more federal “Mad Cow” Research, Testing at WSU.
The Washington State Senate voted
unanimously this week to petition Congress to authorize Washington State
University to administer a regional testing program for bovine spongiform
encephalopathy or “BSE” -- the so-called “Mad Cow” disease. The Memorial also
requested federal funds for a $25 million WSU research biocontainment laboratory
and $2 million more in additional research facilities. Senate Joint Memorial
8050, sponsored by state Sen. Larry Sheahan, R-Spokane, stated that the recent
discovery of the disease near Mabton brought BSE to public attention. The
memorial described WSU as “having been on the cutting edge of research…over a
wide gamut” of BSE and similar diseases. The memorial noted that WSU developed
the only commercially-available diagnostic test for scrapie. And it noted WSU
did preliminary research leading to the only commercially-available test to
chronic wasting disease. And in regards to cattle, WSU has collaborated with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop an assay for BSE testing that has been
used in Canada and the United States. Some legislators are seeking state funding
during the 2004 legislative session to increase WSU research. However, the
university is concerned that those efforts could hinder the College of
Veterinary Medicine if they lead to unfunded mandates in the state budget.
Branch Campus Bill passes
House, begins moving through the Senate.
House Bill 2707, a rewrite of branch campus enabling legislation appears to be
moving ahead in the Legislature. Early versions of the bill were opposed by the
university but the bill that passed the house has been endorsed by WSU in
testimony before the Senate Higher Education Committee this week. It will remove
the “branch” designation for WSU Spokane, thus acknowledging in statute that
those operations are part of the main campus, historically considered to be just
Pullman. Study language is provided for the remaining branches, giving Vancouver
and Tri-Cities communities the chance to shape their own destinies. The other
significant branch campus bill, creating a new four-year university from the
University of Washington at Bothell appears dead in the House Rules Committee
but language that would move that campus toward that result might show up in the
House budget. A bill studying options for WSU Vancouver has passed the Senate
and is also supported by WSU.
Performance contract bill
stalled, but still alive.
Governor-backed legislation (HB 2681) that would provide for a new funding
mechanism for higher education institutions could still pass in this legislative
session, proponents say. The proposal would allow pilot institutions the
authority to negotiate with the Legislature and the Governor on contracts
governing their operation and outcomes. However, legislators have been
concentrating making the pilot project apply to only one research university,
which they expect to be the University of Washington.
Bill blocking Buckley 4-H
facility moves through the Legislature.
A bill that will end WSU’s 23-year history at the former Buckley Dairy property
in Pierce County has passed the state Senate and is under consideration by the
House Capital Budget Committee. About 750 acres that has been managed by WSU
would be turned over for use to benefit the developmentally disabled. WSU, which
has considered using the site for an Extension Education Center, has asked to
continue to use the property, which was managed as part of the WSU Puyallup
station. The issue was the subject of a hearing in the House Capital Budget
Committee this week. House Capital Chair Hans Dunshee said he was seeking ways
to continue WSU management of some of the property but he said Senate leaders
have not been agreeable.
Governor’s Technology Bill
Signed Legislation that could
provide a sales tax reduction to Washington State University research building
construction projects that are in partnership with the private sector has been
signed into law by the governor. The bill (ESHB 2546) extends the sales tax
exemption to state universities.
Student Conduct Bill
Moving.
A bill requiring university student conduct
codes to apply to incidents in the surrounding community has passed the House
and will be considered next week in the Senate Higher Education Committee. WSU
complies with the proposed legislation (ESHB 2807.)
