Olympia Update No. 5 ● March
31, 2009
House
2009-2011 Operating Budget
From: Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President
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Version With Chart
Click Here for House and Senate budget bills
House shocks WSU
with $151 million reduction
Washington State
University will lose $151.4 million, about 29 percent
of its current state funding base, under a proposed
2009-2011 House budget announced today by Ways and Means Chair Kelli Linville,
D-Bellingham.
“Hard as it
is to imagine, today’s House budget is even more draconian, with a more
devastating impact, than the Senate budget proposed yesterday. Words are
inadequate to describe the havoc this will wreak,” WSU President Elson Floyd
said in a statement issued after the budget was released today.
The House budget
presumes 10 percent per year tuition increases
for WSU students
compared to seven percent in the Senate and governor’s budget.
It also contains more federal stimulus dollars than the Senate. Those
additional tuition revenues and stimulus dollars are intended to offset the $151
million cut. Yet,
the net reductions to WSU programs in the House budget remain a whopping
17.5 percent or $91.2 million. That is nearly 50 percent greater than the 12
percent net cut announced by the Senate yesterday and it triples the six percent
net reduction proposed by Gov. Christine Gregoire.
“The extraordinary cuts to higher education under discussion this week will
deeply impact the very people who will create a recovery for the state of
Washington in the coming years – the college educated,” Floyd said.
Both House and
Senate budget proposals force WSU to make dramatic cuts from which it will
likely not recover for many years. It will be
required to reduce enrollment by 1,500 students per year – at a time when the
demand for a public education is at its peak. The university estimates it will
eliminate at least 400 to 500 employee positions through both layoffs and
unfilled vacancies.
The House cut is not
only far deeper than any legislative proposal this session it contains some
provisions that will be extremely difficult to achieve.
Despite the $91.2 million net reduction, the House budget assumes current WSU
student enrollment levels and locks in the current WSU contract level.
It also disproportionately cuts the
university deeper in 2011, creating huge WSU funding deficits for the 2011-2013
biennium.
The House
budget also sweeps into the general fund $15 million worth of “building fees”
paid by WSU students. This means fees paid by WSU students to support building
improvements, improving campus building safety, and major equipment purchases
will now be spent at the discretion of the Legislature anywhere in state
government.
“Our budget gives the hardest hit to our higher education system even though
this is the wrong time to do so,” said House Appropriations-Education Chair
Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton. But Haigh said she has spoken to faculty and
administrators and believed they are “resourceful” and they will find a way to
make it work.
WSU testified against the House budget
(Proposed Substitute House Bill 1244) in separate hearings today before
the House Ways and Means and House Appropriations-Education Committee. WSU also
indicated it would not support the Senate budget (Senate Bill
5600) in a hearing before the Senate Ways and
Means Committee this afternoon.
The House’s budget starts with a 29 percent general fund reduction for WSU,
capturing nearly one out of three dollars currently appropriated by the state to
the university. It compares with the proposed Senate budget that had a 20
percent reduction or one out of five dollars. The governor proposed a 12 percent
WSU reduction last December. This proposed WSU cut by the House of $151.4
million compares to the Senate’s $104.3 million cut and the governor’s $64
million cut.
Stimulus dollars Unlike the governor, the House and the
Senate had more than $800 million in one-time federal stimulus dollars to offset
state cuts in education statewide. The Senate
allocated $15.8 million to WSU next year to deal with the cuts. The House, with
deeper net cuts, actually allocated more federal stimulus dollars, $19.7
million, to WSU.
Capital Budget Released Soon
Following the
completion of budget hearings this week, negotiations will continue between the
House, led by Speaker Frank Chopp, and
the Senate led by Sen. Lisa Brown
to resolve differences on the operating budget. Capital construction
budgets by the House and Senate are expected to be announced later this week.
The discussion over the budgets will continue to involve the governor who will
have to agree to sign the final budgets into law. The session is scheduled to
adjourn April 26.
Olympia Update is produced for persons interested in state
government developments affecting Washington State University. For more
information, go to
www.olympia.wsu.edu.
Contact: 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 go to
www.olympia.wsu.edu/Update.aspx
