May 3, 2007
Legislative news best in 20 years
Okay, you can uncross your fingers now. The legislative session has adjourned, and the news for the UW and higher education is good — probably the best news in nearly two decades.
The Legislature voted to increase the state-funded portion of the UW’s operating budget for 2007-09 by 15 percent, an increase not achieved since 1989-91 (not adjusted for inflation). Gov. Gregoire is expected to sign the bill during the week of May 7.
In understated fashion, Randy Hodgins, director of state relations, termed the results of the session “not bad at all.” Indeed, the increases put the UW on a path to close the per-student funding gap to the 50th percentile with Global Challenge states within seven years. (The Global Challenge institutions are the UW’s new peer comparison group developed in the governor’s Washington Learns report.)
The budget sets salary increases for faculty and professional staff at an average of 3.2 percent this year and 2 percent next year, as a minimum. The University may choose to supplement these increases by using local operating revenues. The budget also fully funds the collective bargaining agreements with represented staff that were approved earlier by the Board of Regents.
The operating budget calls for nearly 10,000 new enrollments in higher education statewide, including 1,750 at the UW on its three campuses. The enrollments, while “not as richly funded as was proposed in the governor’s budget and the House budget, are nevertheless not funded poorly,” Hodgins says. The budget earmarks 500 new undergraduate enrollments in high-demand fields. In addition to 920 general new undergraduate enrollments, the budget permits 330 new graduate enrollments over the next two years.
The UW will be allowed to increase resident undergraduate tuition up to 7 percent in each year of the biennium. State financial aid was increased in several ways. First, eligibility for the State Need Grant was expanded to take into account tuition increases and new state-funded enrollments; eligibility was expanded from 65 percent of state median income to 70 percent. In addition, following the recommendations of Washington Learns, the state initiated a new package of scholarship programs for targeted groups of students.
The UW received $6.3 million in state funding for the Department of Global Health. UW Tower operations and maintenance received $3.9 million, permitting more administrative units to move from campus to this facility.
One of the few disappointments was that funds to expand WWAMI, the regional medical education program, to a first-year site in Spokane, and to establish a site in Spokane for the Regional Initiative in Dental Education program were provided below requested levels.
In addition, other funds appropriated were targeted to specific programs including:
- Expanding participation in international learning opportunities, especially to those students who otherwise would not have the opportunity;
- Expanded mentoring and academic support services that help at-risk students finish their degrees; n Sustained state funding for the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, a joint UW-WSU center to resolve difficult social, economic and environmental issues in Washington;
- A statewide program to attract 10 significant entrepreneurial researchers to Washington over the next decade;
- Permanent support for the Washington Academy of Sciences, a joint effort of UW and WSU;
- Permanent funds for the Office of the State Climatologist;
- A one-time appropriation of state matching funds for a UW Law School loan repayment program for students who choose public service careers;
- Funds for the Burke Museum to create new traveling exhibits and programs;
- Support for the UW’s Autism Center and for the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences;
- One-time funding for the establishment of a “best practices” center at the School of Social Work to study factors affecting the well-being of foster children;
- Funding of a review of existing research on the potential environmental impact of geoduck aquaculture.
The capital budget is one of the most favorable in over a decade, with most of the money allocated for improvements to core buildings on the Seattle campus, including Savery and Clark halls, the Playhouse Theater and the Magnuson H-Wing.
The state capital budget also authorizes the UW to govern and operate a branch campus to be located in the Snohomish, Island and Skagit county area. The UW and the governor’s office must complete a report by Nov. 15 on this new facility’s location. No date is set in law for the opening of this campus, but there is a directive that it should emphasize science and technology programs. For now, the chancellor of UW Bothell will be the chief academic officer.
Among other legislation of interest to the UW, the legislature approved the issuance of debt by UW or WSU to be paid by locally controlled fees and revenues. This will permit a lower cost option for the long-term financing of the recently-purchased UW Tower. Another bill will prohibit certain kinds of private development within the boundaries of the UW Tacoma master plan that would qualify for a special property tax exemption.
One bill that passed that has significant policy implications commits the legislature to using the Global Challenge states as the official benchmark for per-student funding comparisons, and sets the goal of bringing the UW and other institutions to at least the 60th percentile of peer schools within a decade. The bill also caps tuition increases at 7 percent a year over the decade.
Another bill calls for mediation among all parties, including the UW, on a design for SR 520 expansion. This will be occurring in parallel with planning for high capacity transportation in the SR 520 corridor. The deadline for conclusion of this mediation effort is October, in advance of a transportation package set to appear on the November ballot.
