Archive – Page 4 – Planning & Budgeting

New OPB Brief on Activity Based Budgeting (ABB) Trends

Posted on November 16, 2017May 7, 2025

OPB has released a that provides an overview of Activity Based Budgeting (ABB) distribution principles and trends at the 91探花in Seattle. This brief updates , adding the most recent year鈥檚 data. It compares the ABB budgets of Seattle academic units to those of Seattle administrative units over the last seven years (FY12-FY18). The brief also describes a change in the distribution methodology of net tuition operating fee revenue that became effective in FY18.

A few noteworthy trends described in the brief include:

Every academic unit鈥檚 ABB budget has increased since FY12.
Academic units continue to experience more budget growth than administrative units, both in terms of real dollars and in terms of proportionate growth.
Of the 34 percent total combined ABB budget growth for Seattle academic and administrative units, 73 percent occurred in academic units, while the remaining 27 percent occurred in administrative units.

The brief also touches on ABB’s future at UW. OPB is working with stakeholders to address emergent issues identified since ABB’s implementation, such as potentially duplicative courses and degrees, the distribution of supplement funds (e.g. permanent base budgets), and summer quarter revenue from programs run by the Continuum College.

September Revenue Forecast Indicates Moderate Increase in Projected Revenue

Posted on October 24, 2017May 7, 2025

Last month, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) released their , the first forecast of the current fiscal year. The forecast increased projected General Fund-State (GF-S) collections by $279 million for the current 2017-19 biennium and $243 million for the upcoming 2019-21 biennium. These increases are on top of increases projected in the .

Here is a quick summary of the total projected GF-S revenue for each biennium:

$38.311 billion for the 2015-17 biennium, 13.8 percent more than the 2013-15 biennium
$43.262 billion for the 2017-19 biennium, 12.9 percent more than the 2015-17 biennium
$47.396 billion for the 2019-21 biennium, 9.6 percent more than the 2017-19 biennium

Behind the numbers:

The forecast is similar to the June forecast, but with slightly higher revenue projections. Most of the extra collections are projected to occur in the current biennium, which began on July 1, 2017.
The forecast attributes most changes in revenue to legislation that was passed in 2017 session, after the June forecast. The largest increases came from an increase to the state property tax levy for basic education and from an extension of retail sales and B&O tax liability to more categories of online sales. The legislature also repealed a sales tax exemption for bottled water. These legislative changes accounted for an additional $2.4 billion in the current biennium.
Similar to the June forecast, concerns cited in this forecast include slow U.S. economic growth, weak labor productivity growth, and international trade concerns.

As a reminder, there will be one more forecast in November, on which the Governor will base his proposed 2018 supplemental budget (amending the enacted 2017-19 biennial budget).

Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates on revenue forecasts and the upcoming 2018 legislative session.

OPBlog: Introduction

Posted on October 23, 2017May 7, 2025

Hi! I am Lauren Hatchett, and I am the 2017-18 Legislative and Policy Analysis Intern with the Office of Planning & Budgeting. I am also a graduate student in the Masters in Education Policy Program in the College of Education. Before moving to Seattle and starting my program, I worked for an education initiative in Louisville, KY that is focused on changing the college-going culture at the city level. I am excited to join the OPB team and am looking forward to diving into the world of higher education policy. I will update this blog throughout the year with posts related to trends in higher education, federal and state legislative issues, and UW-specific policy initiatives.

Please feel free to provide feedback along the way. I can be contacted at lehatch@uw.edu. Thanks for reading!

Two New Rankings List the 91探花among Top Universities

Posted on September 12, 2017May 7, 2025

The 91探花 is ranked #25 in this year鈥檚 Times Higher Education (THE) . While other top U.S. universities have slipped in the rankings, the 91探花maintains its #25 position for the second year in a row. For the first time in the history of the THE rankings, neither of the top two universities are in the U.S.

The THE World University Rankings were first published in 2004. This year鈥檚 rankings list 1,000 universities around the world.

Five categories contribute to a university鈥檚 ranking score. Of these, teaching (measured by reputation survey, student-faculty ratio, and number of doctoral degrees), research (measured by reputation survey, research income, and publication count), and citations combine to account for 90 percent of the score. The 91探花scores particularly highly in the citation category, measured as the number of times a university鈥檚 researchers are cited by other scholars. The UW鈥檚 #17 ranking in citations, with a score of 99.0 out of 100, contributes to its high overall score. In contrast, the UW鈥檚 scores in international outlook and industry income鈥攚hich together account for 10 percent of the overall ranking鈥攁re lower in comparison with other top universities.

More information about the Times Higher Ed is available on their website.

The 91探花is also ranked highly on this year鈥檚 U.S. News & World Report , coming in at #56 among national universities and #18 among public universities. While this represents a slight drop from last year鈥檚 #16 ranking among public universities, it continues a long run of being listed among the top 20.

The U.S. News rankings are calculated using seven categories of data: graduation and retention rates; assessment surveys of academic peers and high school guidance counselors; faculty resources; admissions selectivity; per-student spending; performance relative to predicted graduation rate; and alumni donations. Along with the overall university rankings, U.S. News also calculates several more specific lists. The 91探花ranked highly for undergraduate engineering programs (#11 among doctorate-granting public universities), best colleges for veterans (#11 among public universities), and undergraduate business programs (#14 among public universities).

More information about the U.S. News is available on their website.

The UW鈥檚 recognition in these rankings follows the (which ranked the 91探花#13 in the world) and the (which gave the 91探花top-10 rankings in 45 subject categories), both published earlier in 2017.

New Ranking Lists the 91探花among Top Global Universities

Posted on August 22, 2017May 7, 2025

The 91探花 is ranked #13 among world universities on the (ARWU). While the 91探花has consistently ranked among the top 20 universities each year since the ARWU was first published, this year鈥檚 ranking is the highest it has achieved to date.

The ARWU was first published in 2003 by Shanghai Jiao Tong University鈥檚 Center for World-Class Universities. Since 2009, the ranking has been published by the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, which is not affiliated with any university. This year, the ARWU ranked 1300 universities around the world, and published the list of the top 500.

Like the recently-published , the ARWU calculates its rankings based on a university鈥檚 external recognition. The components of the ARWU ranking include: total number of alumni and faculty winning major awards; number of highly-cited researchers employed; and counts the number of papers published and cited. The 91探花scores especially highly in the number of faculty-authored articles indexed in major science and social-science citation indices. In contrast, the number of 91探花alumni awarded Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals is lower when compared with other top universities. More information about the ARWU鈥檚 methodology is available on their .

In addition to their overall rankings, the ARWU also publishes in a number of fields in the natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences. The UW鈥檚 highest subject rankings in 2017 include: public health (#3 in the world), dentistry and oral sciences (#3), biological sciences (#5), and biomedical engineering (#5).

More information about the UW鈥檚 past rankings in the ARWU is available .

OPB Briefs: 2017 Legislative Session Bill and Fiscal Note Summaries Now Available

Posted on August 9, 2017May 7, 2025

OPB has posted two summaries concerning the 2017 legislative session to the听Briefs听tab of our website:

The听听lists the bills OPB tracked during session that were听passed by the legislature. Links to veto messages are provided for bills that were vetoed or partially vetoed by the Governor. OPB tracked over 460 bills in the 2017 legislative session, 69 of which听passed into law.

The听听lists the fiscal notes鈥攅valuations of the fiscal impact of a bill proposal鈥攖hat OPB completed on behalf of the 91探花(with the help of subject matter experts across the University) during the 2017 session. All fiscal notes are requested by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) in Olympia to guide legislative decision-making. This session, OPB completed 111 fiscal notes.

The Princeton Review 2018 Best Colleges

Posted on August 4, 2017May 7, 2025

The Princeton Review has released its Best 382 Colleges, , with the 91探花 earning a spot among the top 382, including ranking highly on both the (#11) and (#10). The 91探花also appears on two unranked lists: (one of 209 listed) and the (one of 127 listed).

The methodology to produce the Top Green Colleges ratings and rankings includes a combination of school-reported data and student opinion survey questions measuring a school’s performance on environment and sustainability. This year, the 91探花earned a Green Rating of 99/99 (based on administrators鈥� responses and data provided) and a Top 50 Green College Ranking of #10 (by student survey responses).

Similarly, the UW鈥檚 #11 ranking on the 鈥淭op Schools for Entrepreneurship: Undergraduate鈥� list comes from survey responses regarding college entrepreneurship offerings. These surveys include questions on entrepreneurship programs and degrees; student and faculty participation in entrepreneurship; alumni ventures; competitions; and scholarships and aid. Seattle鈥檚 , Startup 91探花(a student club dedicated to entrepreneurship), and likely contribute to the high marks in this category.

In addition, the 91探花 was recognized by The Princeton Review on their lists of Best Western Colleges (a regional list of institutions), and Colleges that Pay You Back. Colleges That Pay You Back is a list of the top colleges based on a combination of academic strength, affordability and graduates鈥� career prospects.

The Princeton Review first published a list of The Top Colleges in 1992. Updated annually, The Princeton Review collects data on more than 2,000 institutions each year for analysis. Approximately 15% of the country鈥檚 2,500 four-year institutions appear on the list. For more information, please visit .

2017 Legislative Session: OPB Brief on 2017-19 Compromise Operating and Capital Budgets

Posted on July 5, 2017May 7, 2025

Leadership in the House and Senate released a 2017-19 compromise state operating budget on June 30, 2017 in the form of . The Governor signed the budget less than an hour before midnight, narrowly avoiding a partial state government shutdown.听Lawmakers also passed a partial听capital budget that reappropriates unspent capital funding from the 2015-17 biennium, which allows previously authorized projects to continue into the new biennium, but does not make new appropriations for 2017-19.

A听听from the听Office of Planning & Budgeting provides a detailed听overview of the final compromise operating budget and partial capital budget. We expect that a compromise 2017-19 capital budget will be released within a couple weeks, and will update the brief at that time.

The final compromise operating budget represents a middle ground between budget proposals released by the Governor, House and Senate earlier this session. The budget maintains current tuition policy, allowing for a 2.2 percent resident undergraduate tuition increase in FY18. Lawmakers made significant investments to maintain and expand state programs, especially in K-12 education. As a reminder, this budget cycle largely focused on meeting the state鈥檚 K-12 funding obligations, due to the state Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling in McCleary v. State of Washington.

Investments directed at the 91探花include funding for employee compensation, medical education, STEM enrollments, and several research initiatives across academic disciplines.听However, lawmakers also reduced the UW’s state funding and assumed an offsetting听reduction in tuition waived for graduate students. They also instituted a new charge to state agencies for services provided by the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM), which will result in the 91探花having to use $3 million in student tuition revenue over the biennium to support OFM instead of the University’s academic mission.

Please contact Jed Bradley if you have any questions.

June Revenue Forecast Predicts Slight Growth

Posted on June 20, 2017May 7, 2025

Earlier today, the听Economic and Revenue Forecast Council听(ERFC) released its听, which increased projected General Fund-State (GF-S) collections by $81 million for the current 2015-17 biennium and by $87 million for the upcoming 2017-19 biennium. These increases are on top of the more significant increases projected in the .

Here is a quick summary of the total projected GF-S revenue for each biennium:

$38.308 billion for the 2015-17 biennium, 13.8 percent more than the 2013-15 biennium
$40.903 billion for the 2017-19 biennium, 6.8 percent more than the 2015-17 biennium
$43.875 billion for the 2019-21 biennium, 7.3 percent more than the 2017-19 biennium

Behind the numbers:

The forecast is similar to the March forecast, but with slightly higher revenue projections.
The forecast attributes these changes to slightly lower personal income growth but slightly higher residential building permits.
Similar to the March forecast, concerns cited in this forecast include slow U.S. economic growth, weak labor productivity growth, and international trade concerns.

This is the final revenue forecast before the end of the biennium. The legislature will soon enter the third special session of the year, and budget negotiators in the Senate and House will use this updated forecast of 2017-19 revenues as a baseline for their final budget compromise.

If state lawmakers are unable to pass an operating budget by June 30, the state government will enter a shutdown. The 91探花 is preparing for this possibility and has been in touch with the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) regarding contingency planning and possible implications for university operations. All agency contingency plans, including the UW鈥檚, are available on the OFM website .

Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates on the final budget compromise when that is available.

Two New OPB Briefs: Resident Undergraduate Tuition Trends and Net Price

Posted on June 7, 2017May 7, 2025

OPB has released two new briefs.

The focuses on trends in Resident Undergraduate (RUG) tuition rates and state funding environments across the United States, based on the most recent 鈥�鈥� report, which is released by the College Board each year. The report identifies Washington as the only state to have lower RUG tuition and fee rates than it did five years ago.

The report serves as a basis for a deep dive into the funding environments of some other case studies. The brief looks at Louisiana, Florida and Ohio as comparisons to Washington, as they are the three other states whose legislatures retain RUG tuition setting authority. Despite this fact, each state has had a variety of outcomes regarding tuition policy. California and Maine are also highlighted as case study comparisons because they are the only two other states to show a decrease in tuition over the past five years, though theirs are due to inflation-adjusted tuition freezes.

The is an updated version of previous 鈥淧ublished Price vs. Net Price鈥� briefs, which reflects the newest available data. The brief includes sector-wide data on increases in published price and net price for public and private four-year colleges, a description of how declining state investment in higher education has spurred tuition increases, and a table comparing the UW鈥檚 net price net price for resident undergraduates receiving grant or scholarship aid to its U.S. News & World Report top 25 research university peers.

Finally, it is with subdued excited that to announce that听these two briefs and blog post will be my last contribution to OPB as an intern.听I am graduating tomorrow听from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance,听while taking a job down at the State Capitol in Olympia. Thanks to all for reading!