Earlier this week, leadership in the House and Senate released their 2020 supplemental state budget proposals, which include technical corrections and other changes to the enacted 2019-21 biennial budgets.
An OPB brief outlining these proposals is available on the OPB Briefs page. We will update the brief in the event that proposals are amended, and will release another brief when legislative compromise budgets are released in the coming days. The legislative session is slated to end March 12.
On Wednesday, Governor Jay Inslee released his proposed 2019- 21 supplemental operating and capital budgets. The budgets include corrections and technical changes to the 2019-21 biennial budgets passed in April 2019. For a detailed analysis and summary of the Governor’s proposals, or to look back at OPB’s brief on the biennial budgets, please see OPB’s briefs on this page.
Overall, the Governor’s operating budget does not make significant changes to the enacted biennial budget. The largest change in the higher education sector was a transfer of nearly $28 million to the Workforce Education Investment Account (WEIA) to ensure that the fund would not go into deficit in the 2019-21 biennium, given the forecasted caseload for the Washington College Grant. The most significant adjustments for the UW are:
As for the capital budget, the University received $1 million for its request for predesign to study a multi-phased approach to renovate or replace portions of the Magnuson Health Sciences Center. New space will accommodate the growing demands of education space for the health sciences schools, including space for interdisciplinary innovation and collaboration.
The release of the Governor’s budget proposals represents the first step in the supplemental budget process. Lawmakers in the Senate and the House will release their own proposals throughout the upcoming 2020 legislative session, beginning on January 13.
For more information regarding the UW’s current requests for state funding, please see OPB’s 2020 operating and capital request submissions on the State Budget Information page.
Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates during the 2020 legislative session!
On Sunday, April 28, leadership in the legislature reached a compromise on the state’s 2019-21 biennial operating and capital budgets. The Governor is expected to approve these budgets, but has line-item veto power. As part of the compromise budget package, the legislature passed HB 2158, which creates a dedicated source of funding for higher education through an increase to Business and Occupation (B&O) taxes on professional services.
For a detailed analysis and comparison of the proposals, see OPB’s newest brief on this page.
The outcomes of the state operating budget will be incorporated into the UW’s Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) operating budget, which will be presented to the Board of Regents as an information item in May and as an action item in June.
Operating Budget
Some noteworthy items in the final operating budget include:
Capital Budget
The compromise capital budget appropriates $167.7 million in new state funding, $94.3 million from the UW Building Account, and $1.8 million from the Model Toxics Control Account. The final capital budget provides significant new state funding for capital projects seeking to advance state and University priorities, including STEM, behavioral and mental health, and health sciences education.
Overall, the final budget fully funds multiple UW requests and provides a substantial amount of new funding for key projects that will benefit both the UW and Washington state as a whole.
Stay tuned to the OPBlog for more updates!
Last week, leadership in the House and Senate released their 2019-21 state biennial operating and capital budget proposals.
The House Appropriations committee released their initial operating and capital budget proposals on March 25. The Senate Ways & Means committee released their capital budget proposal on March 27 and their operating budget proposal on March 29. As a reminder, Governor Jay Inslee released his proposals in December.
For a detailed analysis and comparison of the proposals, see OPB’s newest brief on this page.
Operating Budget
Some noteworthy items in the operating budget proposals include:
The House and Senate operating budget proposals assume revenue projections provided in the March revenue forecast from the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. All three operating budget proposals rely on significant new revenue from these forecasts as well as new revenue proposals. This includes increasing B&O taxes on professional services, instituting capital gains taxes, and/or increasing real estate excise taxes.
Capital Budget
The House’s capital budget would appropriate almost $167.7 million in new state funding for capital projects, along with $94.3 million from the UW Building Account and $1 million from the State Toxics Control Account. The Senate’s capital budget would appropriate almost $135 million in new state funding, $92.3 million from the UW Building Account, $1.8 million from the Model Toxics Control Account, and $1 million from the Community Behavioral Health Account. Governor Inslee’s capital budget proposed $72 million, $88.3 million, and $1 million, respectively.
Overall, the House and Senate proposals would fully fund multiple UW requests, but differ in their proposed funding mechanisms, amounts, and priorities. Both budgets would over-utilize the UW Building Account while providing significant new investments through state funds.
Stay tuned to the OPBlog for more updates as the proposed budgets move forward.
Note: The information in this post and the brief cover legislative versions as of April 1. For operating budget proposals, this means the House proposal after committee and floor amendments and the Senate proposal as originally proposed by the Senate Ways & Means chair. For capital budget proposals, the brief covers the House proposal with committee amendments and the Senate proposal as originally proposed by the Senate Ways & Means chair. Changes to the brief to reflect committee and floor changes in the Senate will be forthcoming.
On Thursday, Governor Jay Inslee released his proposed 2019-21 biennial operating and capital budgets. For a detailed analysis and summary of the Governor’s proposals, please see OPB’s brief on this page.
The Governor’s operating budget assumes significant new revenue from the creation of a capital gains tax, increasing the business and occupation tax rate for professional services, and modifying the real estate excise tax.
His proposed biennial operating budget would significantly increase appropriations to higher education institutions and student financial aid. The Governor’s budgets also invest heavily in the state’s behavioral health system—including planning a partnership with UW’s health science schools to expand the workforce and clinical care through telemedicine and new clinical facilities, recovery efforts for Southern Resident Killer Whales, and steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The release of the Governor’s budget proposals represents the first step in a lengthy budget process. Lawmakers in the Senate and the House will have the opportunity to release their own budget proposals over the course of the 2019 legislative session – set to begin on Monday, January 14, 2019.
For more information regarding the UW’s current requests for state funding, please see OPB’s 2019-21 operating and capital request submissions on the State Budget Information page.
Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates during the 2019 legislative session!
On June 7, the Board of Regents adopted the UW’s Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Operating Budget. The budget includes final 2018-19 tuition rates and expected revenue and proposed expenditures by budget area. Annual and quarterly tuition and fee schedules have been posted. Supplementary documents can be found on OPB’s Annual Budgets page.
In conjunction with the FY19 Operating Budget, OPB has updated the estimated 2018-19 cost of attendance for 1st year UW undergraduates with estimated student expenses across UW’s three campuses for: tuition, mandatory student fees, room & board, books, personal expenses, and transportation. A PDF version is also available. Please note that students often pay far less than the amounts shown after accounting for grant and scholarship aid. Please visit the Office of Student Financial Aid website for more information regarding student budgets and net price.
Leadership in the state House and Senate released their compromise 2018 supplemental budget proposals earlier this week—the capital proposal came out on Tuesday evening and the operating proposal on Wednesday evening. With the release of these budgets, and with their subsequent passage by the legislature, lawmakers ended the legislative session on time, for the first time since 2014.
The compromise budgets make changes to the recently approved 2017-19 biennial capital budget, as well as the 2017-19 biennial operating budget, which was approved last June. An OPB brief comparing the compromise budgets to prior proposals from the House, Senate, and Governor is now available in the full brief.
In the coming weeks, OPB will post summaries of approved legislative proposals that were tracked by the University, as well as fiscal notes (objective estimates of a bill proposal’s fiscal impact on the University) that were completed during the 2018 session. Those will be posted on the OPB briefs page.
On Monday, leadership in the Senate released their 2018 supplemental operating and capital budget proposals. On Tuesday and Wednesday, leadership in the House followed with the release of their 2018 supplemental operating and capital budget proposals. The supplemental proposals include technical corrections and minor appropriation changes to the recently approved 2017-19 biennial capital budget, as well as the 2017-19 biennial operating budget, which was approved last June. They also build off Governor Jay Inslee’s proposals, which he released in December.
Please see this OPB brief for a detailed comparison of the supplemental budget proposals released thus far.
As a reminder, now that the House and the Senate have offered competing proposals, lawmakers will work toward negotiating and passing compromise budgets by the scheduled end of session, on March 8, 2018. Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates during the remainder of the 2018 legislative session.
A proposed state capital budget, SB 6090, passed out of the Senate Committee on Ways & Means with substitutes and may be voted on soon. Last session, lawmakers came to a compromise on a proposed capital budget, but it was ultimately not passed due to a disagreement over a rural water rights issue. This proposal is the same as that proposed compromise, except it includes language proposed by the Governor before this session that would allow the UW and other agencies to be reimbursed for capital expenditures that occurred on or after July 1, 2017 in the absence of an approved capital budget last year. A similar process is occurring in the House with HB 1075. OPB will monitor any changes that occur on the House or Senate floor on passage of the budget(s).
Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates on the legislative session, including the capital budget.
Governor Jay Inslee released supplemental operating and capital budget proposals on Thursday. For more information, please see OPB’s brief. The Governor’s operating budget proposal includes technical corrections and minor appropriation changes to the current 2017-19 biennial budget (fiscal years 2018 and 2019). Because the legislature did not pass a capital budget in 2017, the Governor’s capital budget is a two-year budget covering the entire biennium.
Despite moderate growth predicted in the November Revenue Forecast, lawmakers in Olympia face significant challenges. Most notably, the Washington State Supreme Court recently ruled that the legislature has still not met its obligations to fully fund K-12 education required by their ruling in McCleary v. State of Washington. Governor Inslee’s proposal reflects this budgetary reality, proposing increases for K-12 education but only minor changes in overall funding for higher education institutions compared to the enacted 2017-19 biennial budget. New investments directed at the UW include additional funding for computer science enrollments.
On the capital side, the Governor’s proposal is similar to the proposed final capital budget that was negotiated, but ultimately not approved, in the 2017 session. That budget was not passed due to a disagreement over a fix to a different Washington Supreme Court decision regarding water rights (Whatcom County v. Hirst).
The Governor’s budget release marks the first step of the 2018 legislative session – set to begin on Monday, January 8, 2018. As a reminder, the House and the Senate will propose their own budgets throughout this short 60-day session as they work toward compromise supplemental budgets.
Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates during the 2018 legislative session.