Yesterday, the Washington State Economic Revenue and Forecast Council released a troubling update for 2011-13 state general fund revenue. Overall, the over $730 million dollars held in reserve in the recently signed budget is now projected to be only $163 million.
If this trend continues, mid-year and supplemental session cuts may be likely. Please see our for a summary of this revenue report.
While the House and Senate have yet to finish sine die today, both capital and operating budgets are close to final.
The UW’s operating budget cut is $207 million over the biennium. UW’s cuts are comprised of “higher education reductions” and a mandatory 3 percent, general fund state聽compensation reduction ($12 million per year). Compensation reductions, while mandatory, are not imposed on individual salaries at the colleges and universities but rather, are required compensation savings targets that the University must meet over each fiscal year.
The final operating budget includes a 16 percent resident undergraduate tuition rate cap but provisions from (tuition setting authority bill) are included. The 91探花Regents will meet June 9, 2011 to discuss tuition setting authority.
The capital budget provides $26.3 million in state bonds for projects like Odegaard Undergraduate Learning Center and minor capital repairs. Additionally, a separate capital budget bill appropriates $53.6 million in 91探花Building Fees for preventative maintenance and building repairs as well as minor capital repairs.
Please review the OPB’s which聽assumes that the operating and capital budgets are signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate in their current forms. We will notify campus of any major amendments once the Governor has reviewed the operating and capital budgets.
The Washington State Senate passed last night after adopting two floor amendments. The budget cuts, compensation reductions, and聽policy issues were not amended in any substantive way in the engrossed budget passed by the Senate last night. Find out more about the evolution of the House and Senate versions and .
Regular session is scheduled to end this Sunday, but legislators will not be in Olympia over the weekend due to Easter. A will likely be called after the holiday and聽reaching agreement on a would be at the top of the agenda. For more information, TVW’s Capital Record blog provides an excellent summary of .
Senate Ways & Means leadership released聽their last night after a 7PM press conference. and the are targeted to K12 education, higher education,聽聽employee compensation across all sectors of state government, and basic health.
The UW’s general fund appropriation is cut more in the Senate budget ($217 million) than the House engrossed budget, but the Board of Regents would be authorized to increase resident undergraduate聽tuition higher (16% per year). BEFORE tuition increases, the Senate budget cut would be a 34.2% reduction from our maintenance level.
The Senate budget contains two compensation related cuts, which are limited to employees paid from state general fund (GOF), the medical account, and the accident account (the latter two provide critical funds for Public Health).
A is available for review.
After considering numerous floor amendments last Friday evening, the House passed their on Saturday afternoon. The House budget聽appropriates $32.2 billion in general fund state聽operating funds and makes significant cuts to health and human services, K-12 education, and higher education.
Like the House Ways & Means chair budget, the engrossed budget cuts $204 million from the UW’s state general fund appropriation over two fiscal years. However, that reduction is somewhat mitigated by the fact that all 91探花units took part of these cuts in November 2010 permanently. As a result, (before tuition revenue) that would be implemented in Seattle should the House budget ultimately pass after negotiations between the chambers.
The engrossed budget contained an extremely important amendment which exempts聽university and college employees from individual salary reductions of 3%. However, institutions will still need to come up with requisite “savings” (read: cuts) of 3% from all appropriated funds, which for the UW, are general fund state聽and the medical aid and accident accounts.
The Senate is expected to this evening. After the Senate passes its budget, leadership in each chamber will begin negotiations toward a conference budget.
The House released operating and capital budgets yesterday for the upcoming biennium (FY12 & FY13). This budget is an important next step in the budget development process in Olympia but we are far from having a final compromise budget.
The House operating budget proposal:
The House capital budget:
Please read our about the budgets and please post any questions or comments to the blog.
When the , House fiscal leadership indicated that their operating budget would be delayed. We hoped to see a budget on March 21st and then on March 29th. Tomorrow is April 1 and聽your analysts at OPBlog anticipate having neither budget drafts to write about nor fantastic prank ideas to implement.
indicate that we may see the House Ways and Means Operating Budget next week. Meanwhile, Senate Ways and Means chair Ed Murray, D-Seattle, is on record saying that the .
We’ll offer full analysis of the budgets as they are released. Stay tuned!
You might notice links for a new website, , popping up on 91探花homepages (including OPB and right here on the blog).
OPB worked with Web Communications staff to develop one website that would consolidate many sources of information relating to the state budget and how it has and is expected to continue affecting the University. You will find links to blogs (the absolute best way to get the most up to the date and timely notices) and other 91探花and non- 91探花websites, as well as many educational documents, messages about the budget from 91探花leadership, videos about the current funding situation, and information about related 91探花initiatives.
We have found sites such as this very helpful in keeping up to date with our peer institutions, and we hope that our page will be as useful for anyone interested in keeping up on the latest developments.
So, visit the page often and we will work hard to keep it updated!
State Economic Forecast Council Director Dr. Arun Raha released the today. This forecast serves as the revenue basis for the Legislature鈥檚 general fund budget in the 2011-13 biennium (FY12 and FY13).
2009-11 Biennium (FY10 & FY11)
While many economic indicators used in his analysis show tentative growth in 2011, revenue collections through March 10, 2011 were $85 million below expectations and growth through the next quarter will continue to lag expectations, contributing to an additional $80 million deficit in the 2009-11 biennium. Legislative leadership confirmed that an additional (fourth) supplemental budget will be needed to reconcile . The timing of that budget is unknown.
2011-13 (FY12 & FY13)
Weaker growth in several key sectors over the last three months prompted Dr. Raha to increase the projected deficit for the . 聽The Legislature will use a $31.9 billion revenue base for the General Fund State. For comparison, the Governor鈥檚 December budget was based on a $32.1 billion general fund state budget.
While we anticipate the House will release their operating budget proposal next week, House leadership did not commit to a date.
The March forecast includes new data about the downside risks to our economy including the . Further, Dr. Raha states that the most significant threat to economic growth is the . 聽He fears escalating gas prices will continue to erode consumer confidence, regardless of job growth. These downside risk factors overwhelm any upside risks (employment growth, consumer confidence, and commodity prices) by 10 percent.
Please check this blog regularly for state budget updates as they become available.
Last week, Senate and House Fiscal and Higher Education Committee leadership and the community and technical colleges to identify specific budget reductions at three levels for 2011-13. For the UW, those cut intervals聽were: 聽The Governor’s proposed $189.8 million cut, a $218 million cut (Governor鈥檚 cut + 15%), and a $246 million cut (Governor鈥檚 cut + 30%). For scale, the 91探花received $627 million in state funds for the 2009-11 biennium (Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011).
Potential reductions identified by the 91探花and , although President Wise pointed out in correspondence to campus leadership that some of the examples in the letter, 聽“…may come to pass, but only as a result of the strategic budget process currently underway, not because of reference in the letter.”
Neither the House nor the Senate Fiscal Committee has submitted their budget proposal for the 2011-13 biennium yet and we do not know how each committee will ultimately handle the UW’s state appropriation. While we have the Governor’s proposed budget in hand, the appropriations process is far from being over. We will continue to post state budget updates to this blog as they develop.
Media coverage of our submission to the Legislature is available , , and .