SB 5460 would freeze state most hiring, purchasing, travel, salaries, and contracting in an effort to address the state’s budget shortfall. Changes made in the Senate to exempt federal and patient revenues improved the bill, but we continued to have significant concerns, particularly with our ability to retain faculty and exempt staff. The Council of Presidents has spelled out this concern in a letter to legislative leaders. Here is the text of the letter, which was signed by the Presidents of all of the state’s four-year schools:
We are writing to reiterate our collective concerns about certain aspects of Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5460. We appreciate and understand the underlying premise of the bill that limits expenditure growth during the extreme financial situation we face. Each of us accepts our institution’s part in finding a solution to this unique problem – one that looks not only at the state’s serious short-term budget challenges, but also at the key role higher education plays in any recovery strategy.
However, we believe that this bill has unintended consequences, that, if not corrected, will have grave impact on our institutions’ ability to be responsive to the state’s educational missions. Further, this bill, if enacted, would have the very real effect of reducing job opportunities at a time when they are becoming increasingly scarce.
Our concern relates to sections 1-5 of the bill that prohibit us to provide any salary or wage increase to our faculty and other exempt staff. We understand the need for restraint and prudence in salary decisions during this difficult time. However, this bill provides us with no ability to be flexible in meeting the real-time challenges we all face when addressing outside offers of employment offered to our highest caliber faculty and staff. Most simply, we have no recourse to retain faculty that receive outside offers from competing institutions.
The loss of faculty to other institutions has a direct impact on our ability to meet our collective missions. Members of our community that receive outside recruitment offers are often our top producers in instruction and research. Their loss has a direct impact on our students and their educational pursuits.
Additionally, when faculty is recruited away, not only do they depart; their entire research portfolio departs with them. At the University of Washington, for instance, there are several faculty members who manage multi-million dollar research enterprises. These activities not only fulfill the research mission, but they provide critical jobs for the citizens of the state of Washington. As a specific example, at the University of Washington there is one research center that provides over 60 full-time positions. If the professor who leads the center were to be recruited by another institution, we would have no ability to retain that individual, and as a result, the state would see a loss of an additional 60 jobs at a time when we can ill afford any further job losses.
We strongly suggest that you provide an amendment to sections 1-5 of ESB 5460 that provide us with the minimal flexibility to address these situations of retention as they arise across our institutions over the next 12 months.
We are hopeful that lawmakers will add the additional flexibility we need to address the retention problem as the bill moves towards a final vote.