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Olympia Update No. 5 • February
21, 2006
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
Capital Budget Released By Rep. Dunshee:
WSU Life Sciences Building
Not Authorized by House
The $63 million WSU Life
Sciences Building was excluded from the House’s proposed version of the capital
construction budget, unveiled today by House Capital Chairman Hans Dunshee,
D-Snohomish. The development puts in jeopardy a 2006 construction startup for
the Pullman building, which was authorized in the Senate version of the capital
construction budget and was recommended by Gov. Christine Gregoire.
While the House development
is a setback for the research building, it still remains far from a final
decision. Not all House members were pleased with the outcome on the WSU
building and House Republicans were considering running amendments in committee
or on the floor to try to add in the Life Sciences building authorization. If it
remains deleted from a House-passed budget, it still would be the topic of
House-Senate conferences to resolve differences on the capital budget.
Dunshee said he preferred
using general fund bonds to finance the project, which he said he could support
in the 2007 Legislature. WSU is seeking authorization this year to bond against
revenues off of its trust lands. That takes the building out of competition with
other state projects and does not count toward the state’s debt limit.
Dunshee has said that those
funds should be used for preservation and maintenance of buildings, not
construction of the Life Sciences Building. WSU has argued that the $4.3 million
per year required to service the debt on the Life Sciences building will still
allow for an increasing amount of funding that the Legislature can appropriate
for maintenance and preservation.
There were no major
projects funded in the supplemental capital budget for research universities,
though the House earmarks $50,000 of preservation funding to pre-design a WSU dairy
facility upgrade
and provides an additional $5 million for minor works projects. Dunshee will
hold a committee hearing on the capital budget Wednesday morning.
Operating Budget Released by Rep. Sommers
High-Demand
Enrollments
Funded in House Operating
Funding for high-demand
enrollments, start-up of new programs at WSU Tri-Cities, natural biological
systems in farming, and the WSU-UW policy consensus center were highlights of a
proposed House supplemental operating budget that provided nearly $2 million
more to WSU than the proposed Senate budget and $4 million more than Gov.
Christine Gregoire.
WSU praised the House
approach to research university enrollments in testimony today in front of the
House Appropriations Committee chaired by Rep. Helen Sommers.
The House budget
appropriates $1.17 million to WSU for 80 new full-time students. WSU indicated
these enrollments would be used in engineering, nursing, construction
management, and neuroscience. High-demand funding would likely be allocated by
WSU to most or all of its campuses. The Senate budget provides funding through
the Higher Education Coordinating Board, a process that makes it difficult to
hire faculty in time for this fall. The Senate also capped the maximum amount of
funds that can be spent on each student, making it questionable whether it would
adequately funding nursing and engineering.
The House operating budget
proposal for WSU is generally better in every category except reimbursement for
energy cost increases. The proposed House budget provides $716,000 which the
Senate budget provides $1.016 million.
WSU Tri-Cities Funded by House
Separate legislation
authorizing WSU Tri-Cities to offer programs for freshmen and sophomore students
has now cleared each of the House and Senate by overwhelming margins…and has had
committee hearings in opposite houses. However, only the House budget contains
the $250,000 in start-up money necessary to admit new freshmen by Fall, 2007.
The Senate-passed budget contains no funding. WSU has supported by House and
Senate versions of the bill but is strongly urging that the start-up funding be
provided for faculty and curriculum development.
Bio-Ag Funded by House
Also not funded in the
Senate-passed budget is the House’s $800,000 for “Bio-Ag,” fully-funding the WSU
request that benefits such programs as organic farming and natural farming
systems. House Agriculture Chair Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, was among the key
House supporters of the effort.
The $100,000 that the
governor provided for the University of Washington-WSU Policy Consensus Center
is included in the House proposal but was not in the Senate-passed budget.
Not included in the House
budget is a Senate proposal to provide $160,000 to conduct a feasibility
assessment of the economic and technical viability of a solar generating plant.
The House does fund a $98,000 biofuels consumer education program at the WSU
Energy Office that was not included in the Senate budget.
Areas of agreement
Both the House and Senate
budgets provide $800,000 for the expanded Ag Weathernet system. The expanded
system will provide data for weather-dependent agricultural, natural resource,
fire services, and environmental activities throughout the state. Equipment
funding was provided by the Legislature last year but the $800,000 is required
to operate the new equipment.
Like the Senate, the House
provides $1 million for a collaboration in Spokane in Life Sciences Research.
The research will focus on developing and implementing new medical treatment
therapies. The budget designates WSU as the fiscal agent for the collaboration
with Spokane Hospitals and Gonzaga University. No such funding was included in
the governor’s budget.
Both the House and
Senate-passed proposals exclude WSU and other universities from a
governor-proposed cut of $256,000 for “SmartBuy.” The original biennial budget
anticipated $25 million in savings in goods and services which were never
realized. While the governor called on WSU to raise $256,000 toward that $25
million shortfall, the Senate and House made no cuts to WSU for SmartBuy.
Finally, the governor,
House and Senate budget agree on correcting a $501,000 error in last year’s
budget which failed to fund maintenance and operations for Vancouver Student
Services, Prosser Precision Agriculture and the Spokane South Campus Annex.
Olympia
Updates has moved to a listserv distribution method for 2006. For more
information call: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President, 360-956-2165. From
WSU campuses, dial 8-2165.
