Olympia Update No
Olympia Update No. 7 •
December 20, 2006
Gov. Christine Gregoire's Proposed
Biennial Budgets
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
Printable Adobe PDF Version
Gregoire proposes historic
higher education budget
A 2007-2009 biennial budget proposed
Tuesday by Gov. Christine Gregoire would deliver Washington State University its best operating
budget package in years and the most state construction funding in WSU history.
The operating budget proposal
funds 640 more students at all WSU campuses,
creates new Spokane opportunities for 85 dental, nursing, and medical students,
provides more freshmen at WSU Tri-Cities and WSU Vancouver, improves funding
for agricultural experiment stations, and funds the research partnership in
alternatives to petroleum fuels with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Adjusted for carry-forward
costs, the operating budget proposal would represent a 12.5 percent increase in
the university’s state-funded operating budget. It caps student tuition
increases at 7 percent per year and keeps tuition revenues for use at the
student’s institution.
The Gregoire plan touched all
major parts of the university’s budget request from high demand enrollments in
engineering and math to additional capacity for liberal arts students. It
recommends the first state appropriation in the history of WSU Small Business Development Centers and critical operations dollars to university research
stations at Puyallup, Mount Vernon, Wenatchee, and Prosser.
Topping Gregoire’s $176 million WSU construction
budget proposal is $58 million to complete the four-story Life Sciences Building in Pullman to house researchers in National Institute of Health-sponsored
projects.
It funds a pedestrian mall and
utility improvements that is now Library Road on the Pullman Campus. While the
operating proposal funds 375 more lower-division enrollments for WSU Vancouver,
the capital construction budget provides $24.35 million undergraduate classroom
building at that campus.
The Gregoire proposal funds
at least a portion of each major WSU budget request that was submitted to her
in September.
These WSU proposals were all virtually funded in total:
- $9.5 million in more doctor, dentist and nursing students for WSU Spokane in cooperation with the University of
Washington and Eastern Washington University.
- An innovative “augmented” funding allowing 50 existing students per year funded at general enrollments to
move into high-demand fields such as engineering or nursing.
- Funding for Small Business Development Centers in Southeast Washington, Kelso-Longview, Aberdeen-Shelton, Des Moines, Bremerton and Bellingham.
These WSU proposals were all virtually funded in total:
-
$4.1 million in 425 general enrollment
increases at all WSU campuses.
WSU Vancouver received 150 new enrollments for Fall 2007, 50 less than
requested.
- 200,000
each to the University of Washington and WSU for the William D. Ruckelshaus
Policy Consensus Center. Also, $50,000 was provided for each institution so that the center could
work on property rights issues. In addition, the center was funded $500,000
operating and $500,000 capital for implementation of the "Ag Pilots"
project.
- $340,000 each to UW and
WSU for the Washington Academy of Sciences.
Significantly, the Gregoire proposal contained
new major ideas for university research including $500,000 for “research to
products.” It would help identify faculty that have research projects that
could produce products for the marketplace. However, the institution’s research
requests were not fully funded.The governor
decided to provide just $3 million of the $10.8 million requested for the
Unified Agriculture Initiative. She funded these two provisions of the request:
-
Competitive Agriculture
Grant Funds. She delayed by one
year the implementation of $1.4 million in competitive grant pools to enable
greater responsiveness to emerging agricultural research needs. One of the
grant pools provides $400,000 annually for refining research in organic and
sustainable production systems in competitive grants for Biological Intensive
and Organic Agriculture. The other fund provides $1 million annually for interdisciplinary,
outcome oriented programs to assure that research results have an immediate
impact on the state. To assure
that funds are allocated to issues of greatest relevance to the state,
priorities for this internal grant competitions would be established by an
advisory board comprised of representatives from the food and agriculture
industry (e.g., producers, agribusiness representatives, consumers).
-
Operating
support for the university’s research and extension centers located
throughout the state. Research and extension
centers include the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center located in Prosser, the Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, the Northwest Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon , and the Puyallup Research and Extension Center. Six additional research
farms, as well as the Pullman Research Station, are located in eastern Washington. A total of $1.2 million is recommended by the governor to support operation and
maintenance of these facilities.
In the area of
Bioproducts, the governor provided $4 million of the $6.7 million requested by
WSU in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the
Washington State Department of Agriculture. She funded these major
provisions of the request:
- $2
million in state funds to complete a team of ten scientists that would
have joint WSU/PNNL appointments at the new Bioproducts, Science and
Engineering Laboratory at WSU Tri-Cities.
- $2
million for targeting Washington-grown crops that coulde be used for
biofuels and other bioproducts.
Salary increases for
WSU faculty and non-representative staff are provided at 3.2 percent on Sept. 1, 2007 and 2 percent in 2008.
Click here, for the Governor's
state-wide budget highlights.
Olympia Update is produced for persons interested in state
government developments affecting Washington State University. For more
information call: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President, 360-956-2165. From
WSU campuses, dial 8-2165. If you wish to subscribe to Olympia Update directly
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