News and Updates

While the Washington State legislature adjourned their 2008 session more than a month ago, many state legislatures are still meeting, with most of the hard work remaining over the next couple of months.

In California, the budget deficit appears to be getting worse with most of the revenue shortfall coming from lower corporate income taxes.  We have mentioned previously that Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget called for 10% across the board cuts to all state agencies, including higher education.  While the state legislature has criticized those cuts, there have been no alternatives presented yet, such as tax increases or alternative reductions.

Today, more than 1,000 students from California’s colleges and universities are expected to descend on Sacramento for a 10:30 a.m. rally on the north steps of the State Capitol building.  They are expected to be joined by former state legislature and current Lt. Governor John Garamendi and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles).  Similar student rallies are scheduled in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Santa Barbara.

It was about three years ago this month that the Governor’s proposal to direct the state’s tobacco settlement bonus dollars into a new Life Sciences Discovery Fund to advance state research efforts in health sciences passed the state legislature.  The bill was a major victory for the Governor in the 2005 session and something the UW and many others worked hard to help get passed.

Well, here we are in 2008 and the first flow of monies from those bonus payments resulting from the Master Tobacco Settlement are coming into the aforementioned life sciences discovery fund.  Yesterday, the Life Sciences Discovery Fund announced a total of $22 million in research awards from the fund to five research projects, three of which will go to researchers at or associated with the University of Washington and on the other two awards, the UW is a collaborating organization.

The five grant awardees and their projects descriptions are:

• Gail Jarvik, UW.  An award of $5.3 million to build a new infrastructure that will enable clinical investigation using rapid, high volume analysis of genomic data in the area of medical genetics.  Collaborating organization include Group Health Cooperative, Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center.
• Patricia Kuhl, UW.  An award of $4.0 million to establish a regional child brain imaging center to utilize the latest in brain imaging technology to measure the young brain in action and explore the basic mechanisms, and the potential underlying problems, the drive early learning and lay the foundation for life-long learning.
• Martin Cheever, Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program.  An award of $2.2 million to develop a phase 1 cancer clinical trials program for accelerating the development of new cancer fighting drugs.  Collaborating organizations include Wenatchee Valley Medical Center, Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, Skagit Valley Hospital and Clinic Cancer Care in Great Falls, Montana.
• Richard Smith, Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  An award of $4.8 million to develop a new proteomics technology and apply it in search of blood biomarkers for liver disease and in subsequent use as a powerful tool in the study of cancer, diabetes and other conditions.  The University of Washington is a collaborating organization.
• Gerald Nepom, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason.  An award of $5.6 million to apply genetic and immunologic discoveries to benefit people with autoimmune diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS) and lupus.  The University of Washington is a collaborating organization.

In their press release, the Fund states that these five projects were selected by the board from a total of 75 submissions that were evaluated by national experts convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Although this is the first research competition to be funded from tobacco settlement funds, the Fund held an inaugural round last fall using private donor funds.  Another $7 million in grant awards will be made this July.

Dave Ammons, the “Dean” of state political reporters in Olympia and a 37-year veteran state government correspondent for the Associated Press is stepping down.  After almost four decades covering the state legislature, Governor’s office and state government in general, Ammons (a UW Communications grad) will become a state employee himself, as he assumes the job of chief spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed.

As the senior reporter for the AP news service in Olympia, Dave’s stories and columns have been picked up by a large percentage of the newspapers and radio stations in the state.  In an era where only the largest daily newspapers can afford to hire their own Olympia correspondents, Ammons has essentially been the journalistic voice of Olympia for much of Washington State.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Olympia that doesn’t admire, respect and plain like the guy.  As both a legislative staffer and lobbyist, I always found Dave to be fair, balanced, inquisitive, discrete, and a gentleman through and through.  His longevity also gives him some institutional memory and perspective that is beginning to be a dangerously diminishing commodity in the state capitol.  Over the past few years, he has also found a niche as resident host of the TVW program “Inside Olympia” where he has proved to be a patient and capable interviewer of both prominent elected and appointed government officials.

Here’s a really nice piece about Dave written seven years ago by David Postman, chief political reporter for the Seattle Times.

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.