Olympia
Update No. 12 • March 22, 2007
House
operating budget ready for floor vote
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
Printable Adobe PDF Version
Unified Agriculture Initiative
Grows in House budget
A new
operating budget bill that boosts new funding for WSU agricultural research from
the governor’s level of $3 million to $9.5 million has sprouted from the full
House Appropriations Committee.
The new House operating budget proposal (Proposed Substitute House Bill 1128)
totals $515 million
in state funding for Washington State University, a 19.3 percent increase over
the current biennial budget. As WSU had urged, the House budget is largely based
on the governor’s excellent budget proposal. However, the House proposes
investing an additional $10 million in WSU next biennium. The House boosts
enrollment at WSU Tri-Cities and WSU Vancouver over that recommended by the
governor, provides start-up for a new Electrical Engineering Program in
Vancouver, and fully funds the WSU proposal to educate more doctors, dentists
and nurses for the Inland Northwest.
The
$9.5 million House Appropriations funding level is the result of lobbying
efforts by the dozens of agricultural groups that combined with WSU to write the
industry-based request during the past year. If approved by the Legislature, it
would be the largest new appropriation for state agriculture research in decades
and will assure that most of the new research programs recommended by
agricultural industry leaders would be funded. The governor provided delayed
second-year funding in the biennium for competitive grant programs benefiting
emerging agriculture research and organic farming. Her funding also bolstered
funding for experiment stations in locations like Prosser, Wenatchee, Puyallup,
and Mount Vernon.
But the
House’s decision to boost that number to $9.5 million will now provide funding
for more than 20 new faculty positions plus support staff that have not been
funded in any previous legislative budget proposals.
Successful efforts for the Unified Agriculture Initiative in the House Appropriations Committee were led by House General Government-Appropriations
Subcommittee Chair Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, and House Caucus Chair Bill
Grant, D-Walla Walla.
Those WSU faculty positions sought by the agricultural organizations include an
enology and viticulture program leader for the state’s wine industry, a new
cherry breeder, a new food technologist position to develop new products for
wheat and other grains, a new tree fruit breeder that could produce apple
varieties for the Northwest, six faculty positions for dairy, beef, sheep and
other livestock producers, a Mount Vernon-based hydrologist to work on water
quality issues, Puyallup-based urban and environmental horticulturalist, and two
value-added agribusiness development positions.
The
House budget, Substitute House Bill 1128, provides many of the higher education
programs and student slots recommended by the governor but charges less tuition.
WSU students
would pay a 5 percent increase next fall, a number recommended by the
Appropriations-Education Subcommittee. That compares to the seven percent
increase recommended by the governor. The House budget provides $4 million to
WSU to make up the difference between the tuition levels of the two budgets.
The
House budget contains funding for every major WSU budget request except for
Small Business Development Centers, a $757,000 proposal that was fully-funded by
the governor.
The
House floor is expected to vote to approve this new operating budget soon. The
capital construction bill passed out of the House Capital Budget Committee today
without amendments and is also nearly ready for a floor vote.
The
final piece in the budget puzzle for this session should unfold Tuesday, with
the release of the Senate version of the operating and capital budgets. Then, it
will be up to House-Senate negotiators to decide the final operating and capital
budgets for the university subject to the governor’s signature. The Legislature
is in the 74th day of a scheduled 105-day session.
Unexpected Reductions.
The House budget, in general, improves on the governor’s proposed budget.
However, it makes some unexpected reductions in funding to WSU. Linville and
House Appropriations-Education Subcommittee Chair Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton,
reportedly led efforts in closed committee caucus to restore the WSU reductions.
However, they were not successful. WSU will continue to urge that the following
reductions to its base budget are corrected in the Senate budget:
1.
Purchasing Cuts The House Appropriations Committee budget does not fund the $302,000
reimbursement for purchasing cuts made by previous Legislatures to WSU. The
House Appropriations Committee budget provided the funding for other agencies
and all other higher education institutions, but no funding for WSU. This was
funded by the House Appropriations-Education Subcommittee and the governor.
2.
Maintenance and Operations for New Facilities
Maintenance and operating costs are unavoidable expenses of new buildings that
are omitted from the House Appropriations Committee budget:
-
Life
Sciences Building
- The Governor’s budget provides $821,000 for M&O for this project. This
construction project is funded in the House Capital Budget. The building will
open in Fall, 2008. This was funded by the House Appropriations-Education
Subcommittee.
-
Vancouver
Undergraduate Classroom Building
- The Governor’s budget provides $168,000 for M&O for this project. This
construction project is funded in the House Capital Budget. The building will
open in Spring, 2009. The maintenance and operation money was funded by the
House Appropriations-Education Subcommittee.
-
Mount Vernon
Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center
- The total cost of M&O is $734,000. The Governor’s budget provides
$557,000 in maintenance and operations money that would be used for the new
facility in Mount Vernon. This building recently opened.
Other
highlights of the House Appropriations Committee Budget:
Increased Enrollment for WSU Vancouver, WSU Tri-Cites and high-demand fields.
The House budget funds a total of 110 new freshmen in Tri-Cities and 400 new
freshmen in Vancouver. The Governor’s proposal funded 60 and 350 respectively.
The House budget also provides $1.1 million to start-up a new electrical
engineering program at WSU Vancouver.
More
Doctors & Nurses for Spokane and the Inland Northwest The
proposed budgets of both the House and the Governor would invest more than $15
million in health education at the WSU Spokane Riverpoint campus through WSU,
the University of Washington, and Eastern Washington University. These programs
will increase the supply of doctors, dentists and nurses for the state,
especially for Eastern Washington. WSU’s share of the funding, about $9.5
million, is included in both the House and Governor budgets. It includes WSU
partnerships in producing medical students, undergraduate nursing degrees,
masters in nursing and a new PhD program in nursing. The House budget did
underfund the University of Washington’s share of the project by $1 million. WSU
publicly expressed concern about the decision during the House Appropriations
Committee hearing on the budget this week.
Retention and Completion Programs
The Governor and House
budgets provide $500,000 to expand mentoring and academic support services that
have proven effective in helping at-risk students complete their college
degrees.
Fueling Washington with Bio-products
Both budgets provide $4
million for WSU to work with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories to
investigate new products and commodities to be developed from processed
agricultural waste. This item will fund five full-time research scientists who
will have a joint appointment at WSU Tri-Cities and PNNL with funding for an
additional five researchers to be matched by PNNL. WSU and WSDA jointly
requested $6.7 million for bio-products. Other bills in the Legislature may
provide additional funding.
Research to Products Funding
Both budgets provide
$500,000 each to UW and WSU to assist researchers in turning new discoveries
into marketable products.
UW-WSU Policy
Consensus Center Both
budgets fund $225,000 at WSU for the William D. Ruckelshaus Center to identify
issues that have led to conflict around land use requirements and property
rights, and explore practical and effective ways to resolve or reduce that
conflict. Funding includes operating support for the Center.
Washington Academy of Sciences
Both budgets provide funds
to establish the Washington Academy of Sciences. Appointed by the presidents of
the University of Washington and Washington State University, this panel of
recognized scientific leaders from industry, the universities, and government
will render opinions or develop and carry out research related to the major
issues facing the state. Funding is provided in the budgets for both research
universities.
Retaining the Best: Salary Increases and Benefits Salary
increases averaging 3.2% on September 1, 2007, and 2.0% on September 1, 2008,
are provided for most WSU employees.
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 by email, send a blank message from
your e-mail account (no signatures or footers please) to:
subscribe-olympia_update@listserv.energy.wsu.edu
