Olympia Update No. 6
Olympia Update No. 6 • March 7, 2006
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
Final
compromise budgets:
Lawmakers
Start WSU Life Sciences Construction
Late-session budget logjams have broken to begin the Pullman biotechnology
building and the plan to admit freshmen students to WSU Tri-Cities. Eighty new
enrollments in high-demand fields at multiple WSU campuses, funding for Ag
Weathernet and BioAg are among other highlights of the compromise budgets.
Work on the four-story
Life Sciences building in Pullman could begin this summer under a legislative
compromise capital budget proposal announced by House and Senate leaders today
as they prepare to finish up the 2006 Legislative session as early as tomorrow.
Budget writers have indicated it is their assumption that the balance of the
appropriation will be made by the 2007 Legislature, virtually assuring
completion of the $70 million building next biennium and breaking a political
stalemate in the capital budget discussions for two legislative sessions.
The state Senate and Gov.
Christine Gregoire had authorized WSU to use revenues from its trust lands
holdings to begin $63 million worth of construction to complete the building
this year. The House initially proposed no construction this year and later
amended its budget to the final phased compromise using state bonds that has met with
agreement from the governor, WSU, and now the Senate.
The compromise is detailed
in the final striking amendment to the supplemental capital construction budget,
Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6384, which
the Legislature appears poised to pass soon. The proposal appropriates $10
million this year from a state bond issue originally proposed by two former
governors, Dan Evans and Booth Gardner. WSU has said it will be able to begin
site preparation, drive pilings and pour concrete basement walls and foundation
for the building, perhaps beginning work this summer.
“We are extremely excited
that it is going to get underway,” said Rep. Fred Jarrett, R-Mercer Island, who
pushed consistently during the last two years for the building in the House as
the chief capital budget negotiator for the Republican caucus. House Capital
Chair Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, initially had advocated waiting until next year
to fund the building. However, many members of his caucus, especially House Democratic Caucus Chair Bill Grant, D-Walla Walla, and House Economic Development
Chair Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, strongly supported the position by WSU, the
governor and the Senate. Most, if not all members of the House Republican caucus
supported the building, led there by Jarrett and Reps. Don Cox, R-Colfax, and
David Buri, R-Colfax. At times it looked like the building’s fate would come
down to a very close House floor vote with Dunshee leading the opposition. Instead, Dunshee and WSU agreed to what became the final
legislative compromise to begin construction in this budget and completing it
with an appropriation in the budget next year. While a pause in construction
next year has added to the project cost, most legislators appear pleased with
the compromise.
Sen. Karen Fraser, the
chief capital negotiator for the Senate Democrats, listed the building and a
Nanotechnology facility for the University of Washington among the major
education accomplishments of the capital budget during a press conference
announcing the compromise today. Fraser, D-Olympia, had traveled to Pullman
during the interim to learn more about the building and became a Senate advocate
along with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane; Sen. Mark Doumit,
D-Cathlamet; Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Bellingham, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, and others.
Compromise
operating budget prepares WSU Tri-Cities to admit freshmen students
WSU Tri-cities is
appropriated $250,000 “solely to assist the Washington State University
Tri-Cities in planning the transition from a branch campus serving
upper-division students to a four-year campus serving freshmen, sophomores…”
The appropriation in the compromise supplemental operating budget (Engrossed
Substitute Senate Bill 6386) is to develop curricula, recruit new faculty and expand
student services. WSU intends to coordinate its efforts with Columbia Basin
College. Despite the emphasis on four-year programs in the bills, the effective
(2 + 2) transfer program with CBC students continuing at WSU Tri-Cities will
continue and grow.
The appropriation was
initially supported by the House but was not included in the Senate version of
the budget. The acceptance of the Senate to the House Appropriation, and passage
of an accompanying statutory bill means that WSU Tri-Cities will be ready to
request student funding in the next legislative session for admitting freshmen
students in the fall of 2007.
Legislative approval was
remarkable given that the Tri-Cities area is represented predominately by
minority Republican lawmakers and that the House and Senate are dominated by
Democrats who granted similar authority and funding to other campuses last year.
This year, community leaders rallied around the proposal and many Tri-Citians
attended hearings on the bills and spoke to the needs. Sen. Jerome Delvin,
R-Kennewick, and Senate Education Chair Rosemary McAuliffe played a key role in
shepherding the House bill through the Senate in the late days of the session.
Gov. Christine Gregoire
has supported the efforts to create four-year programs in Tri-Cities and is
expected to be in Richland on March 22nd to sign the statutory
legislation into law (Substitute House Bill 2867.)
Rep.
Sommers’ Prevails for $1.17 million in WSU High-Demand Enrollments
An effort by House
Appropriations Chair Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, to secure high demand enrollment
slots for students at the University of Washington and WSU has been approved by
House-Senate negotiators in the compromise supplemental operating budget. For
WSU, that means $1.17 million for about 80 new high-cost student slots in high-demand
fields like nursing, engineering, construction management and neuroscience. It
is expected that these enrollments will be distributed to multiple WSU campuses.
Funding for nursing is provided at both the baccalaureate and at the master’s
program levels.
The state Senate also
provided high-demand enrollment money in its initial budget, but required
institutions like WSU to apply for them through the Higher Education
Coordinating Board. The Senate also provided less money per student that did not
accommodate programs like those funded for WSU in the ultimate compromise
budget. It also provided less funding overall for the universities.
First major
state funding appropriated for Bio Ag
The House and Senate have
reached a compromise to appropriate $400,000 for the Center for Sustaining
Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. Founded years
ago by the Legislature, no expressed state funding has ever been appropriated.
House efforts were championed by Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, who secured
$800,000 in the House budget but no funding was recommended initially by the
Senate or Gov. Gregoire. The compromise budget provides $400,000 for the center,
splitting the difference between the two houses. The center supports research in
such areas as organic farming and biologically-intensive agricultural practices.
Supporters included small farmers, environmentalists, food cooperatives, and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Other highlights of the
compromise operating budget include:
- $800,000 to complete
the Ag WeatherNet, a system predicting the movement of airborne particulates
and weather conditions. The network has stations throughout the state and is
based at WSU Prosser.
- $716,000 to address
escalating energy costs at WSU, particularly due to increases in natural gas
heating costs. The Senate had provided more than $1 million and WSU had
requested more.
- $1 million is
provided for Life Sciences Research in Spokane through the Institute for
Systems Medicine. The effort is a cooperative venture of WSU, Spokane hospitals, and Gonzaga University.
- No funding was
recommended in the WSU budget for the WSU-UW Technology Transfer Program or for the Policy
Consensus Center. The governor and the house had recommended $100,000 of the
$450,000 sought by WSU. However, the Senate position of no funding
prevailed. Separate funding was provided for the state Office of Financial
Management to do projects with the Policy Consensus Center.
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.
