April 1, 2015

2015-17 Senate Chair Operating Budget

On Tuesday, Leadership in the Senate Ways & Means Committee released its operating budget proposal, Proposed Substitute Senate Bill 5077 which makes significant changes to the Governor’s proposal and differs significantly from the House proposal.  Under the Senate proposal, the UW would receive $674.39 million of Near General Fund State across the biennium.

Here are some of the key points from the Senate Budget proposal:

• Tuition affordability program – The Senate budget reduces the operating fee portion of resident undergraduate tuition to 18 percent of the state’s average wage in FY16 and 14 percent of the state’s average wage in FY17 onwards. It provides $96 million over the biennium to offset the reduction in operating fees, which we believe falls short by $1.2 million in FY16 and $2.8 million in FY17.
• WWAMI – The Senate budget provides $1.25 million per year for continued operations of the WWAMI program.
• O&M Funding – Like the House budget, the Senate provides $1.762 million over the biennium to cover the operation and maintenance costs of UW Bothell Discovery Hall.
• STEM Investments – The Senate proposal  provides $2 million per year to increase bachelor’s degrees in Science, Technology, engineering and Math fields.
• Compensation Increase – The Senate bill rejects state-funded contracts with classified staff. Instead, the Senate Chair budget would fund wage increases at $1,000 per employee and require that the University either renegotiate contracts to match this funding level or locally fund the difference in perpetuity. The Senate budget provides funds for faculty and staff wage increases at $1,000 per employee and allows the UW to deviate from this assumption with local funds.

The Senate capital budget is expected to be released next week .  For more information, please see the OPB Brief.