The House of Representatives released its versions of the operating, capital and transportation budgets today in Olympia. As expected, they were pretty lean and mostly devoid of new spending initiatives for the UW and the other four year institutions. Briefly, here is a summary of how the University fared.
OPERATING BUDGET
The House budget provides a total of $582,000 of new operating resources for the UW. Most all of these items were not requested by the University. They are:
- $88,000 for one new mental health counselor position.
- $100,000 to continue academic planning activities related to a UW North Sound campus.
- $125,000 for a land use study to be conducted by the Ruckelshaus Center.
- $119,000 for a patient safety study to be conducted by the Ruckelshaus Center.
- $150,000 for the Institute for the Study of the Brain (ILABS).
CAPITAL BUDGET
The House capital budget includes a total of $3.3 million in new funding for the UW for two items. They are:
A total of $3 million for land acquisition ($2 million) and soils remediation ($1 million) for the UW Tacoma. The University had requested a total of $7.4 million, $5.5 for land acquisition and $1.9 million for soils remediation.
- $300,000 to conduct a pre-design study for a future expansion of the Burke Museum.
A public hearing on the House operating budget was held this afternoon and the House Capital Budget committee will take public testimony tomorrow morning. The Senate budgets are expected to be released early next week.