91̽»¨

The Washington State Legislature is quickly approaching the end of the 2026 Legislative Session, scheduled to conclude on March 12th. Both chambers of the Legislature recently released budget proposals.

Impacts on UW

Both the Senate and House budget proposals reduce state funding for 91̽»¨by $85.6 million. The proposals then backfill that with 91̽»¨Building account funds, which are backfilled by state bonds. It basically shifts funding from the state’s capital budget to the operating budget. This is expected to be a one-time shift.

To fund the operating budget of the new Center for Behavioral Health and Learning, 91̽»¨requested $18.34 million, as the State had previously committed to full funding of the civil commitment beds. The Senate proposal includes $15 million in ongoing support, while the House provides $15 million in one-time funding.

The House capital budget proposal would use Climate Commitment Account funds for Phase 1 of the Power Plant Electrification and Campus Hot Water Loop project. The Senate’s budget proposal would not.
Both budgets would increase the amount that other State agencies could charge UW, including Workers’ Compensation and the Office of Financial Management.

Compensation and Benefits

The State currently only covers a portion of salary increases, and only for state-funded employees. This budget proposal does not modify the 2% increase authorized in the underlying biennial budget. These increases present funding challenges given across-the-board cuts in the underlying budget, additional smaller reductions, and the cost to non-state-funded positions.

The monthly employer health care contribution caps would go down from the current $1,350 in both budget proposals. The caps would drop to $1,337 under the House proposal and $1,334 under the Senate proposal.

For more information, please visit the Policy, Planning, and State Operations Brief on the budget proposals at:

 

 

Today (1/27/22), Governor Inslee announced that he has approved an 18-month delay for the long-term care payroll tax known as WA Cares. Last week, the House passed , which delays the implementation of the tax for 18 months. The bill changes the start date from January 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023. Yesterday, the Senate passed HB 1732, which was then delivered to the Governor’s Office.

With the Legislature nearing the end of its regular session on April 25th, the 91̽»¨Office of State Relations will host a session recap on Friday, April 30th at 1:00 PM PDT. State Relations Director Joe Dacca will share highlights from session, review the budgets, and answer questions.

To register for the meeting, ( 91̽»¨NetID is required). Due to the expected number of attendees, questions are encouraged to be submitted in advance to extrnaff@uw.edu.

Both the House and Senate recently released their budget proposals.

The Office of Planning & Budgeting released a policy brief analyzing both, while State Relations posted a blog entry on the budget proposals, which points out that neither included furloughs.

2021 Legislative Update
Week 11: Budget proposals and their potential impact
NEW DATE: APRIL 2, 2021
Time: 1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Register to join:
91̽»¨NetID required to participate.

Join the Office of State Relations on Friday, April 2nd for a quick update on the 2021 legislative session. State Relations Director Joe Dacca will share the latest news from Olympia and answer your questions. In addition to reviewing the status of current budget proposals, he will provide an update on several bills the State Relations team is monitoring, including . You are invited to submit your questions in advance of the meeting to extrnaff@uw.edu.