img:is([sizes=auto i],[sizes^="auto," i]){contain-intrinsic-size:3000px 1500px} /*# sourceURL=wp-img-auto-sizes-contain-inline-css */

91探花

Skip to content
Blog

Tag: budget

Special Session Likely as WA Senate Passes Budget with 6 Days to Spare

Posted on

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 .

WA Senate Budget: Deeper Cuts, Higher Tuition, Compensation Reductions

Posted on

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).

  1. Like the House engrossed budget, the Senate budget includes 3% “compensation savings” reducing our appropriation by $24 million over the biennium. Individual salaries will not be affected, but our general fund, medical aid, and accident聽appropriations would be reduced.
  2. The Senate budget would require , excluding faculty and Harborview personnel. The budget bill does not contain language to this effect but rather, the budget overview indicates that the policy will be included, perhaps in . The would be $10.2 million over two years.

A is available for review.

State House of Reps Passes Operating Budget Saturday

Posted on

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.

Tuition-Setting Authority Coupled with Accountability: Two Bills Propose Reforms

Posted on

Preserving the access to and quality of higher education is paramount in the face of massive budget cuts. Two bills, and , seek to achieve this goal by:

1.聽聽聽聽聽聽 Giving tuition-setting authority to universities

2.聽聽聽聽聽聽 Reforming Financial Aid

3.聽聽聽聽聽聽 Strengthening accountability

Legislators hope this will preserve the quality of higher education while protecting affordability for students and their families. The House Higher Education committee passed a substitute version of in February, while just had its first hearing in the Senate Ways & Means committee on April 6th. While HB 1795 has not been altered since its hearing more than a month ago, the issues that it seeks to address are still relevant, and we anticipate both bills to remain in play. Please click on the table below to see a summary of the similarities and differences between the two bills.


Comparison table summarizing similarities and differences between HB 1795 and SB 5915

Finally, House Operating and Capital Budget Details

Posted on

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:

  • Cuts state funding for the 91探花by $204 million over two years (32% reduction)
  • Authorizes resident undergraduate tuition rate increases of 13% for both years
  • Eliminates the State Work Study Program
  • Increases the State Need Grant to adjust for increased tuition rates
  • Mandates reductions equivalent to a 3% salary reduction

The House capital budget:

  • Authorizes state funds for the Odegaard Undergraduate Learning Center renovation
  • Provides some state funds for some minor capital repairs, the House of Knowledge, 91探花Seattle’s High Voltage Infrastructure Improvement project, and design-phase funding for Anderson Hall

Please read our about the budgets and please post any questions or comments to the blog.

Wherefore art thou, House Operating Budget?

Posted on

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!

Administrator Pay Flat at Public Institutions

Posted on

CUPA-HR salary survey data, , shows that, similar to, median pay for senior and mid-level administrators at public institutions of higher education was flat in 2010.

At private institutions, members of all three categories showed modest gains of between 1 and 2 percent, contributing to a between pay at public and private institutions.

Report Confirms Deep Cuts to Higher Ed Across US

Posted on

The State Higher Education Finance was released last week. Unsurprisingly, it confirms that the same general pattern in Washington of deep state cuts to higher education funding coupled with steep tuition increases is being replicated in states across the US.

Report Highlights: National Trends

Nationally, on average, state support for public high education per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student declined by about 7 percent between 2009 and 2010, and, at $6,454 per student, is at its lowest level in 25 years. The reports notes that average increases in net tuition revenue of 3.4 percent per student partially offset these budget cuts.

These cuts comes at a time when enrollment continues to grow partly due to more citizens seeking out higher education during the economic crisis. Nationally, enrollment grew by 15 percent between 2005 and 2010. Even when state and federal and increased tuition support manage to stay whole or increase, the report notes that increasing enrollments continue to erode per student funding levels over time.

The report highlights the importance that state support continues to play in education related spending by public institutions even as tuition revenue rises. They acknowledge that this importance is sometimes obscured by the complex finances of large institutions that have many other (non-fungible) funding sources.

Ultimately, SHEEO purports that public and policymaker values are consistent with continued public support for higher education, and they are hopeful that investment will rise again once state budgets stabilize and improve.

Report Highlights: Washington State

SHEEO presents the following averages for Washington State higher education for the 2005-2010 period:

  • 12th in increased enrollment in public higher education (19.2%).
  • 30th in appropriations per FTE.
  • 40th in percent of net tuition revenue as percent of total education revenue.
  • 40th in total educational revenue per FTE.

These numbers are a testament to the comparatively low tuition rates enjoyed by WA residents combined with lower than average state appropriations.

Read the full report for more data, analysis, and methodological details.

New 91探花Website Centralizes Budget Information

Posted on

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!

March Revenue Forecast Reduces WA General Fund Budget by $698 million

Posted on

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.