News & Updates

Exactly a week since the November 3 election and I’m now just getting around to discussing the state issues of importance but that’s still the occupational hazard of holding down two jobs.  Things are moving forward with the  process of hiring a new Director of State Relations and I hope to have some information to share in the next week or so.

By now you know the results of the statewide measures.  Initiative 1033 which would have imposed a cap on state and local property tax revenues was defeated, and Referendum 71, which has been termed the “everything but marriage” measure related to domestic partnerships was passed.

There were, however, three special elections for state representatives which were the result of the recent death of two members and the resignation of another.  First, in the 16th district, appointed incumbent Laura Grant-Herriott (D) was defeated by Terry Nealey (R) to fill out the term of Rep. Bill Grant (D) who died last winter.  Grant-Herriott was the daughter of the late House Democratic Caucus Chair.  Second, in the 9th district, Republican Susan Fagen defeated Pat Hailey (R) for the seat previously held by Rep. Steve Hailey who also passed away last year.  Former Representative Don Cox (R) held the seat during the 2009 session but decided not to run this November to fill the unexpired term.  Finally, in the 15th district, Representative David Taylor (R) defeated Democratic challenger John Gotts in the race to fill the unexpired term of former Representative Dan Newhouse who was appointed director of the state Department of Agriculture last winter.

The net result of the three state House races is that the Democratic majority dropped by one seat from 62-36 to 61-37.

I recently received a chart from the Council of President’s (COP) office that kind of left me speechless. No matter how close you are to budget issues, etc. it’s important every now and then to take a look at the bigger picture. The problem in this case, is that the bigger picture is pretty depressing.

If you wanted one image that was illustrative of the state of higher education in Washington State today, this chart from the COP would be my nominee.  What it shows is that during the past decade, while “overall” state budget funding for higher education has increased, when you look at the three major sectors of higher education — community colleges, Higher Education Coordinating Board (mostly financial aid), and four year institutions — state funding has actually decreased for the public baccalaureates during this time compared to increases for two year schools (28%) and student financial aid (102%).

If anyone is wondering why Washington lags the rest of the nation in the production of baccalaureate and graduate and professional degrees, despite having one of the most efficient and productive four year systems in the nation, I think the answer may lie in the old adage “you get what you pay for.”

It’s two weeks to election day, I’ve got way too many dead leaves on my lawn and it’s cold at night. Must be the beginning of another budget season in Olympia.

While the Governor’s supplemental budget is not due until the middle of December, given the state’s looming budget shortfall (estimate range from $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion), Office of Financial Management staff must surely be hard at work developing another round of difficult budget reduction ideas for the Governor’s consideration.

Today in Olympia, the Governor met with what’s left of the capitol press corps and thankfully, The Olympian’s Brad Shannon was there to write about it.  Here’s a post from his blog that provides a glimpse into the difficulties of finding savings in the state budget.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle has now posted two extremely thought provoking posts on his blog about the future of higher education in the state — what’s wrong, what needs to change, and how to make things better. Anyone who cares about higher education funding and our relationship with state government should take the time to read his thoughts. It’s not often that an elected official will speak so frankly and passionately in this type of forum.

Here’s the link to his blog.

The United Faculty of Washington which represents faculty at the four-year regional universities has recently debuted a new higher education blog.

The most recent post discusses why Washington citizens are at a disadvantage in the competition for the state’s best jobs.

Governor Gregoire has chosen a replacement for Cindy Zehnder who announced in August her plans to step down as chief of staff in the Governor’s office.  Jay Manning, who has been serving as director of the Department of Ecology will replace Zehnder effective October 19.

Manning has lead the Department of Ecology since February 2005.  He previously worked as an attorney in private practice and is also a former assistant attorney general.  He’s a Washington native who earned a B.A. in political science from Eastern Washington University and a law degree from the University of Oregon.

Here’s the official announcement from the Governor’s office.

During legislative debate on tuition increases this past session, the state’s public baccalaureate system took some pointed criticism from many corners about not being efficient or effective enough with state taxpayer dollars or student tuition dollars.   At the time, we didn’t have enough concrete information from a national comparative perspective to prove otherwise and as part of the deal to permit institutions to raise tuition to 14% per year, a performance audit of the four year system is going to be conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee.

So, I’m pleased to report that the Council of Presidents staff has pulled together some remarkable information that I have recently posted to the state relations website that paints a very favorable national picture of Washington four year insitutions.  If you look under the “Resources” section to the right, you will see two new Investment Reports, one on degree productivity and one on system design that all of us in the the public baccalaureate system hope will begin to help restore legisalative confidence in the efficiency and effectiveness of all six four year institutions.

Students, faculty and staff at the University of California’s 10 campuses aren’t taking their significant budget cuts lying down. Today, rallies and job actions are planned throughout the state to protest legislative budget cuts, furloughts and tuition increases.

Here’s the story from today’s The New York Times.

The state economic and revenue forecast council met in Olympia this morning to adopt the most recent forecast of state general fund revenues.  The new forecast shows projected tax collections down $238 million for the remainder of the 2009-11 biennium.

Dr. Arun Raha, the state’s chief forecaster, indicated that the state’s economy has likely bottomed out and will soon be on the mend.  Because consumers continue to pay down debt and are guarded about spending for large ticket items (houses, cars, etc.) Washington State’s recovery will take more time than the rest of the nation.

Coupled with the decline in state revenues forecast in June, the September revenue forecast puts the state’s budget balance sheet in a $185 million negative position (even when including the use of the $245 million budget stabilization account balance).  Together with mandatory supplemental spending needs and the need to rebuild the state’s budget reserves, a number of Olympia budget officials have alluded to a 2010 supplemental budget “problem” of about $1 billion.

Governor Gregoire stated today that she will be preparing a supplemental budget for the next legislative session that accounts for the revenue shortfalls which have occured since the Legislature adjourned last spring and stated that additional spending cuts would be needed to bring the budget back into balance.

I don’t know about you but I’m still not quite fully adjusted to the fact that our primary election was held in mid-August.  I’m so conditioned to thinking about mid to late September as primary season, which of course starts me thinking about the upcoming November election.

This is an off-year election for state races as you know, although there are plenty of interesting city and county contests to follow.  There are two issues of state significance on the November ballot, however, that bear some attention.  The first is Referendum 71, which seeks to overturn a bill (E2SSB 5688) passed by the Legislature during the 2009 session related to domestic partnerships.  Voters who support the domestic partnership legislation passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor would vote to “Approve” Referendum 71.  Votes who oppose the bill would vote to “Reject” Referendum 71.

The other statewide ballot measure is Initiative 1033 which would limit the annual growth of state, city and county general fund revenue to the rate of inflation and population growth.  General fund revenues exceeding this limit must be used to reduce the following year’s state, city or county general fund property tax levy.

According to an analysis prepared by the state Office of Financial Management, I-1033 would reduce state general fund revenues by a total of $5.9 billion, county revenues by $694 million and city revenues by $2.1 billion over the next six years.  The initiative is set on a calendar year basis and if passed, would go into effect in 2011 where the loss to the state general fund budget is estimated to be $676 million.