The first afternoon of the 2014 session the House Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on Governor Inslee’s proposed 2014 supplemental budget.

Evergreen, along with other higher education stakeholders, testified to the impact of the supplemental budget on institutions and students.

Evergreen thanked the Legislature for the investment in higher education in the biennial budget and shared with the Committee Evergreen’s commitment to not increase tuition in either academic year of the biennium.  In addition, the College shared its support for the investment in the College Bound program and expressed concern that no investment was made to serve the 32,400 unserved, eligible students in the State Need Grant program.

In mid-December Governor Inslee released his proposed 2014 Supplemental Operating budget.

Inslee’s proposal would boost the state’s $33.6 billion dollar budget by approximately $200 million. The majority of the increase goes to “mandatory costs” including increased enrollments in public schools and more inmates in prison. Approximately a quarter of the increase ($55 million) is focused on new programs including $3 million for teacher mentoring, $7 million to deal with prison capacity, and $13 million for technology upgrades.

With regard to higher education, the supplemental budget proposed by Governor Inslee supports the investment made in higher education in the 2013-15 biennial budget and provides a good starting point for budget discussions for the 2015-17 biennium.

The budget makes a handful of investments in higher education including STEM programs for underrepresented students at the community and technical colleges ($410,000) and funds to meet the obligations for the College Bound Scholarship program ($7.2 million).  In addition the budget includes funds focused on advanced manufacturing programs and research at the University of Washington and Washington State University ($1 million).

The budget also maintains the ability for public baccalaureate institutions to raise tuition beyond appropriated tuition levels for the 2014-15 academic year. The budget includes clarifying language that underscores the requirement that institutions that raise tuition beyond appropriated levels must mitigate the impact to students with additional financial aid.

The Senate Ways & Means Committee will hold a public hearing on the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget on Wednesday.