Category: 2008 Interim

Back from a quick family vacation and during the drive home yesterday, I realized that I missed updating all of you on an important staff change in the Governor’s policy office.

In late February, Debora Merle (who has served as the Governor’s higher education policy advisor since the beginning of her administration), left Olympia to become Executive Director of the California State Board of Education.  As someone who came from California to Olympia many years ago, I joked that she was literally jumping from one frying pan into another, and in Sacramento, it gets so hot in the summer it is both figuratively and literally like a frying pan.  Moreover, their sessions go on forever, but Deb was undeterred and ready for a new challenge.  We wish her the best of luck.

Recently, the Governor’s policy office announced the hiring of Chris Alejano as the Governor’s new higher education policy advisor.  Chris is a doctoral student at the UW in educational policy and leadership and was a member of the Washington Learns Higher Education Advisory Committee.  He also recently served as a research analyst during the 2007 session on the House Early Learning and Children’s Services Committee.  Chris started work on April 1 and all of us in the higher education community are looking forward to working with Chris as we move forward in developing our 2009 policy agendas.

I’m off this week for a little R & R with the family.  We’ll check in later.

Just got a chance to review the Governor’s veto message on the 2008 supplemental capital budget and there are no changes that impact the University.  On the positive side, this means the $3 million for the UW Tacoma campus land acquisition and soils remediation project remains intact and $300,000 to conduct a pre-design study for a future expansion of the Burke Museum is preserved.

On the negative side, the UW’s request for a gubernatorial veto of the legislative cut to the four year institution’s cost allocation pool was not granted.  This means there is no funding remaining in that pool to allocate to the Playhouse Theater renovation project which is $1.3 million overbudget.

With the Governor’s signature on the operating and capital budgets and all remaining legislation yesterday, the 2008 session is now officially over.

Governor Gregoire took action today on the 2008 supplemental budget.  As expected before signing the bill into law, she exercised her veto power to eliminate about $15 million in state general fund spending from the legislatively enacted budget, increasing the size of the state’s total budget reserves from $835 million to $850 million.  Few agencies were spared and the UW and higher education were definitely impacted.

For the University of Washington, the Governor vetoed $488,000 in new legislative budget enhancements.  These include:

• $88,000 for one additional mental health counselor position (the Governor vetoed similar funding in all public baccalaureate institutional budgets).
• $200,000 for a study of the low dissolved oxygen content in Hood Canal.
• $135,000 for undergraduate and graduate fellowships in overseas trade offices.
• $65,000 for the state climatologist.

Other UW operating budget items — including $1 million for the new eScience Institute — were spared the budget axe.

In a somewhat surprising move, the Governor vetoed $1 million in new funding for additional childcare funding for students in the two-year and four-year institutions which was the top 2008 legislative priority for the Washington Student Lobby.  The funds were split evenly between the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

As of this evening, details on the Governor’s vetoes in the supplemental capital budget were not yet available.  Hope to have those summarized tomorrow.

Just got word this morning that the Governor will take action on the 2008 supplemental operating and capital budgets tomorrow, April 1, at 2:00 p.m.  Apparently the Governor has been working her way line-by-line through both budgets and some vetoes of new legislative spending items are expected.  The UW is also watching the capital budget to see if the Governor will veto the legislative reduction in the four year institution’s cost allocation pool which was taken this session.  These funds are needed to help with cost overruns on the Playhouse Theater project.

Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon for more supplemental budget news.

Here’s a link to a nice profile of Rep. Helen Sommers (D-Seattle) in Sunday’s Seattle Times written by Andrew Garber.