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2015-17 Senate Chair Operating Budget

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On Tuesday, Leadership in the Senate Ways & Means Committee released its operating budget proposal, which makes significant changes to the and differs significantly from听the.听 Under the Senate proposal, the 91探花would receive $674.39 million of Near General Fund State across the biennium.

Here are some of the key points from the Senate Budget proposal:

  • Tuition affordability program 鈥� The Senate budget reduces the operating fee portion of resident undergraduate tuition to 18 percent of the state鈥檚 average wage in FY16 and 14 percent of the state鈥檚 average wage in FY17 onward. It provides $96 million over the biennium to offset the reduction in operating fees, which we believe falls short by $1.2 million in FY16 and $2.8 million in FY17.
  • WWAMI 鈥� The Senate budget provides $1.25 million per year for continued operations of the WWAMI program.
  • O&M Funding 鈥� Like the House budget, the Senate provides $1.762 million over the biennium to cover the operation and maintenance costs of 91探花Bothell Discovery Hall.
  • STEM Investments 鈥� The Senate proposal 听provides $2 million per year to increase bachelor鈥檚 degrees in Science, Technology, engineering and Math fields.
  • Compensation Increase 鈥� The Senate bill rejects state-funded contracts with classified staff. Instead, the Senate Chair budget would fund wage increases at $1,000 per employee and require that the University either renegotiate contracts to match this funding level or locally fund the difference in perpetuity. The Senate budget provides funds for faculty and staff wage increases at $1,000 per employee and allows the 91探花to deviate from this assumption with local funds.

The Senate capital budget is expected to be released next week听.听 For more information, please see the .

 

2015-17 House Chair Operating and Capital Budgets

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Leadership in the House Appropriations Committee released their 2015-17 operating budget proposal on Friday – . The proposal provides $3.48 billion of Near General Fund听State听for higher education which is a slight increase over the total higher education appropriations in the Governor’s budget.

On the operating side, the 91探花would receive $595.6 million of Near General Fund State across the biennium 鈥� $95 million more than we听received in 2013-15.

Here are some of the key points from the House听operating budget proposal:

  • Tuition freeze for resident undergraduate students over the biennium.
  • $50 million in biennial funding to offset tuition freeze and fund compensation increases.
  • $8 million in FY17 to support Computer Science engineering enrollment.
  • $3 million in FY17 for additional medical residencies in Washington State.
  • $4.68 million transfer from WSU to the 91探花in both FY16 and FY17 to support the WWAMI program.
  • $1.7 million over the biennium to cover operation and maintenance costs for 91探花Bothell Discovery Hall.
  • $1 million for an ungulate predation study — $600,000 of which would pass through to another state agency.
  • No funding for Climates Impacts Group, although the Governor鈥檚 funding had provided$1 million provided for this purpose.

Overall, the 91探花fared well in the House operating budget compared to the Governor budget.

On the capital side, the 91探花would receive $41.156 million in new funding from the State Building Construction Account. This is significantly less than the Governor鈥檚 proposed budget of $86.2 million, with less funding for the CSE Expansion ($6.033 million of the $40 million requested) and no funding to support the completion of the phased renovation of Lewis Hall. It does however propose a greater amount of funding for the Burke Museum ($26 million), but is still less than the Burke鈥檚 requested $46 million.

The Senate will release its proposed operating and capital budgets in the coming weeks.听 For an analysis and summary of the operating and capital budgets, please review the听.

 

February 2015 State Revenue Forecast Update

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General Fund-State (GF-S) has been increased by $107 million for the 2013-2015 biennium and by $129 million for 2015-2017.

  • GF-S revenue for the 2013-2015 biennium is now $33.547 billion (9.4% higher than collections in the 2011-13 biennium) and
  • The forecasted GF-S revenue for the 2015-2017 biennium is now $36.449 billion (8.7% higher than collections in the 2013-15 biennium)

Revenue collections through February 10th were $69 M (1.5%) higher than forecasted. Of this amount, $52 M came from Revenue Act Sources (retail sales, business and occupation, public utility and tobacco products taxes).

A few additional highlights from the update:

  • Oil Prices have declined further since November forecast.
  • Sales tax growth is strong and is driven by sales in construction, autos and building materials.
  • Real estate excise tax since November forecast came in $11 M higher than forecasted.
  • Average monthly increase of 7,000 net new jobs in Washington. Seattle area employment is growing much faster than the rest of the state.

Note: Caseload forecast Council will release their report this afternoon at 1.30PM

 

UW’s Annual Economic Impact on Washington State

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In May 2014,听Tripp Umbach, a national leader in economic impact analysis, was retained by the 91探花to update its 2010 analysis of the economic, employment and government revenue impacts of operations and research of all of its campuses.听 The updated听reveals that 91探花’s annual economic impact on the state of Washington is now $12.5 billion听an increase from $9.1 billion just five years ago.

An听article regarding this is posted on听听as well.

A Growing Student Loan Crisis? Maybe Not

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A new report from the Brookings Institution concludes that student loan borrowers may not be in such a dire situation as media reports commonly suggest.听 The report, , finds that while student debt levels have risen along with college tuition over the past two decades, college graduates鈥� incomes have kept pace.听 The authors analyze data on student borrowers over the period 1989-2010.听 They conclude that education debt has not become a greater burden on borrowing households.

  • Education debt increased most among households with higher levels of educational attainment.听 Roughly one-quarter of the increase in student debt can be explained by an increase in the number of households with college degrees, especially graduate degrees.听 Since 1989, student borrowers with graduate degrees saw their average debt level increase from about $10,000 to about $40,000.听 Over the same time, the debt level for borrowers with bachelor鈥檚 degrees increased by a smaller margin, from $6,000 to $16,000.
  • On average, student borrowers鈥� incomes more than kept pace with increases in student debt.听 While average household debt increased by about $18,000 between 1992 and 2010, average annual household income for borrowers increased by about $7,400 over that same period.听 The average increase in earnings would pay for the increase in debt incurred in just 2.4 years.
  • The ratio of monthly debt payments to monthly income has held steady.听 Between 1992 and 2010, the median borrowing household consistently paid between three and four percent of monthly income toward student debt.听 The mean monthly payment decreased from 15 percent to 7 percent of income over that period.

Student debt levels have increased over the past two decades.听 The authors conclude that this is largely driven by tuition increases over that time.听 However, higher levels of student borrowing also partly reflect an investment in higher levels of education.听 For the average borrower, that investment pays off in higher incomes.

Governor Inslee’s 2015-17 Operating and Capital Budgets

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The Governor released operating and capital budgets yesterday morning. Though the 91探花fared well in the capital budget, we believe the operating budget, as currently proposed, presents challenges. Please note that the Governor鈥檚 budgets will be taken up by the Legislature in January; we are many months away from a final legislative compromise. As usual, we will be sending out budget briefing documents throughout legislative session to keep you updated.

For an analysis and summary of the operating and capital budgets, please review the听.

Average Debt for Graduates Continues to Rise

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Overall student debt levels of recent bachelor鈥檚 degree recipients continue to rise according to , a new report from the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). 听The report includes 2013 state- and college-level debt data for graduates from colleges that opt to disclose their graduates鈥� debt. However, since very few for-profit colleges choose to disclose debt data, the report鈥檚 figures represent only public and nonprofit colleges.

  • At the national level, 69 percent of graduating seniors had student loans and those that borrowed had an average debt of $28,400 鈥� a 2 percent increase over 2012. For comparison, in 2013, 50 percent of 91探花undergraduates graduated with debt, and those that borrowed graduated with an average debt load of $21,471.
  • At the state level, borrowers鈥� average debt at graduation ranged from $18,656 to $32,795, and the likelihood of graduating with debt ranged from 43 to 76 percent. In six states, average debt was greater than $30,000; in one state, it was under $20,000. Nearly all the highest debt states were in the Northeast and Midwest, with the lowest debt states in the West and South. In Washington, 58 percent of graduates had debt, and those that borrowed had an average of $24,418 in loans. Debbie Cochrane, research director at TICAS and coauthor of the report, says, 鈥淭he importance of state policy and investment cannot be overstated when it comes to student debt levels.鈥�
  • At the college level, borrowers鈥� average debt at graduation varied widely 鈥� ranging from less than $2,500 to more than $71,000 鈥� and the likelihood of graduating with debt also varied 鈥� running from 10 percent to 100 percent. At nearly one in five (18%) colleges, average debt rose at least 10 percent, while at 7 percent of colleges, average debt decreased by at least 10 percent. In general, colleges with higher costs had higher average debt at graduation, although that wasn鈥檛 always the case.

The authors note that the report鈥檚 data have significant limitations, primarily because colleges are not required to report debt levels for their graduates. Only 57 percent of public and nonprofit bachelor鈥檚 degree-granting colleges provided data, representing 83 percent of graduates in those sectors. And , as mentioned, were excluded because hardly any chose to disclose their graduates鈥� debt.[1] Even colleges that do provide data may understate graduates鈥� debt loads because they do not include transfer students and are often not aware of all private loans.

Thus, the report鈥檚 main recommendation is to get better debt data via federal collection of cumulative student debt data for all schools. The report also makes recommendations about reducing students鈥� need to borrow, helping students make better-informed college decisions, and simplifying .

See the report or TICAS鈥� for more information.

[1] for 2012 graduates of for-profit. four-year colleges show that the vast majority (88%) took out student loans and that borrowers graduated with an average of $39,950 in debt鈥�43 percent more than bachelor鈥檚 recipients in the other sectors. In addition, students at for-profits tend to much more frequently than students in other sectors.

New OPB Brief on Graduates’ Earnings Report

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Washington State’s Education Research & Data Center (ERDC) recently published the , which provides earnings information for graduates from the state’s public institutions. OPB’s latest describes where the data for the report came from, discusses some of its limitations, and warns against relying on the report in choosing a program of study.