Olympia Update No 8• April 7, 2005
From: Larry Ganders,
Assistant to the President
925 Plum St. SE - Building 4, P.O. Box 43165, Olympia, WA 98504-3165
For
a picture and briefing paper on the proposed Biotech/Life Sciences Bldg, go to
WSU Biotech paper.
For a printer-friendly Microsoft Word version, click
here
Sommers
goes to bat for universities;
House plan beats Senate by $19 million;
Biotechnology/Life Sciences Shut Out
More
enrollments with better funding levels at all campuses and no cuts
or “claw backs” characterize the $438.5 million operating budget for
Washington State University that was unveiled Wednesday by
House Appropriations Chair Helen Sommers, D-Seattle.
Sommers,
clearly going to bat for the universities in the Legislature, took her swipe
at a 2005-2007 operating budget proposal this week that is excepted to come
to a vote in the House Appropriations Committee tonight. It was clearly
a hit with the presidents of the four-year higher education institutions
including WSU President Lane Rawlins. But the reports out of the House on
the WSU capital construction budget were not as good. House Capital Budget
Chair Hans Dunshee pitched his construction budget proposal that was a shut
out for the WSU Pullman campus.
Neither the House nor the Senate versions of the capital construction budget
includes the WSU Biotechnology Life Sciences Building – or any new Pullman
construction project – as Governors Locke and Gregoire had recommended.
That makes WSU 0-2 in the capital budget. But it didn’t strike out completely.
WSU’s two other priority projects, the Spokane Nursing Center and the
$13.1 million Tri-Cities Bioproducts Building, are funded and look like
they will be under construction in the coming year. The $10.6 million Vancouver
student services building is also funded for construction in both budgets.
Good
News For WSU’s Nursing Program…But With A Curious Twist
WSU’s
proposed $31.6 million nursing building at the Riverpoint campus was funded
for construction in the state House capital budget. But if House capital
budget authors have their way, WSU will never handle a penny of it. The
House budget assigns “ownership” of the proposed Riverpoint building to
Eastern Washington University.
There
were many and sometimes conflicting explanations floating around the capitol
as to why a WSU-designed building to house a WSU college on a campus where
WSU is the fiscal agent is proposed to be given to EWU by the House. The
Senate and governor favor WSU ownership. Most explanations had their roots
in WSU’s successful effort last year to secure construction funds for the
Spokane Academic Center, a building now under construction at Riverpoint
that will house the library facilities for EWU and WSU.
The
most common explanations about the House decision were that some lawmakers
were unhappy that the university ranked nursing behind the Biotechnology
Building. They understood that the Academic Center now made a nursing building
feasible at Riverpoint, so they wanted to begin construction on nursing
immediately. So, the House apparently gave the nursing building to EWU
to show their displeasure with WSU’s ranking. The university considered
both buildings among its top three new construction priorities for this
budget and believed all three could be funded. But the university insists
that the Pullman Biotechnology Building is the most pressing of the three,
a position that has proved to be very controversial as it became apparent
that the Legislature was not yet ready to allocate funds for three buildings.
Some
lawmakers noted that WSU had secured the Spokane Academic Center building
in a supplemental budget appropriation last year, and some are against giving
WSU any more buildings. The lead paragraph in a Wednesday Spokesman-Review
article summarized that “House budget writers took a slap at Washington
State University.”
WSU
Continues to Seek Biotechnology Life Sciences Building
But
the blow that by far stung WSU the most was the news on the Pullman Biotechnology/Life
Sciences Buildings. House Republicans on the capital budget committee led
by Rep. Fred Jarrett, R-Mercer Island, and Rep. Don Cox, R-Colfax, said
they will continue to make attempts to amend the House Capital Budget which
is tentatively scheduled for a public hearing next Wednesday in Olympia.
Key Senate Democrats are looking at options to include the building as well
and Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, cast a vote against the entire capital
budget because of its treatment of WSU. Aides to Gov. Christine Gregoire,
including her higher education policy advisor Deborah Merle, indicate the
governor will continue to press for the building which houses teaching and
research laboratories that may assist the governor’s “Life Sciences Discovery”
program.
The
Biotechnology/Life Science Building is to house many of WSU’s most productive
researchers in everything from agriculture to cancer. These are the scientists
who conduct more than $6 million per year in federally sponsored research,
and through whose collaborations with other faculty in Richland, Pullman,
Spokane and elsewhere in the system, enable more than $20 million per year
in federally sponsored research. Ironically, these are the researchers that
will serve as the backbone for developing both the Tri-Cities Bioproducts
Building and the Riverpoint Health Sciences campus, where the WSU Riverpoint
Nursing Center is to be located.
Differences
between the House and the Senate will likely have to be resolved by as “conference
committee” or other negotiation session. The Biotechnology building could
also be considered in those negotiations and WSU intends to continue discussing
the building. Support for the building has also come from the Washington
Association of Wheat Growers, which sees the building as critical to secure
a similar-sized building from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the
Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association.
The
Ugly New Term This Session: A $14 million “Claw Back.”
The
state House operating budget permits the same 7 percent tuition increase
for undergraduate students attending WSU and UW that the Senate used. But
the key difference is something legislative staffers call a “claw back”
or “tuition off-set” that was used by the Senate. WSU students will have
about half of the tuition money they pay under the Senate plan or $14.7
million snatched by state. Sommers rejected that notion in the House budget,
meaning that all increased tuition revenues will be invested in programs
at the institution the student attends. Funding per student and “core funding”
has been a key message in the UW-WSU budget requests, so both institutions
have argued against the “claw back” and for the Sommers approach.
Other
differences between the operating budget that will have to be worked out
by the House and Senate during the final weeks of the legislative session:
-
The House budget has no general cuts for WSU, while the Senate budget
reduces $2.1 million. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is
among those who hopes the cuts to higher education can be avoided.
-
The House provides $1.5 million for the College of Veterinary Medicine
while the Senate and governor provides $2 million.
-
The House budget provides $12.7 million in new enrollment for WSU campuses
compared to $8.3 million by the Senate. WSU Pullman and WSU Spokane would
together receive 256 additional undergraduate students funded at $6,303
each, compared to just $5,500 provided by the Senate. The House also provides
for 44 additional graduate students funded at $15,000 each. WSU Tri-Cities
would receive 25 lower division enrollments for fiscal year 2007 at $6,303
each. WSU Vancouver would receive 150 additional upper-division students
funded at $10,000 each and 200 lower division students at $6,303. Authority
for Tri-Cities and Vancouver to admit freshmen and sophomores contained
in HB 1794 passed the state Senate this afternoon.
-
WSU Vancouver is provided $350,000 in start-up funds to admit freshmen
and sophomores. The Senate provided $500,000.
- The
House budget contains no major research funding. The Senate budget includes
$400,000 for controlling ghost shrimp, a threat to the Willapa Bay oyster
industry.
For more information call: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the
President, 360-956-2165
