This evening the Washington Senate released its proposed biennial operating and capital budgets along with a supplemental budget for the current fiscal year.
2011-2103 Operating Budget
The proposed biennial budget makes approximately $4.8 billion in total reductions. The budget reduces funding for higher education by $617.5 million. Of this amount, state funding for community and technical colleges is $200.3 million (14.4 percent) below the maintenance level and state funding for the four-year, public institutions is $417.3 million (29.8%) lower. The Evergreen State College is reduced by $12.152 million and authorized to increase tuition by 14% per year for the biennium.
In addition to the reductions to higher education the proposed budget makes the following reductions to achieve a total savings of $4.8 billion.
- $861 million – Elimination of Initiative 728
- $212 million – Elimination of K-4 class enhancement
- $95 million – Implementation of average daily attendance in K-12 public schools
- $361 million – End automatic COLAs for PERS Plan 1 and TERS Plan 1
- $428 million – 3% salary reduction to state, higher education, and K-12 employees
- $184 millin – Reform to the Disability Lifeline cash program
- $122 million – Reduction to Basic Health Plan
- $110 million – Reduction in Hospital payments
- $98 million – Reduction of 10% to Medicaid personal care hours
- $51 million – Reduction to Disability Lifeline-Medical program
The Senate’s proposed budget also makes $455 milion in transfers from various accounts to maximize the General Fund state resources. In addition the budget assumes a net increase of $32 million in new revenues through a combination of legislation reducing revenue and legislative/budget actions increasing revenue.
2011-13 Capital Budget
The Senate’s proposed capital budget provides for $1.23 billion in bond-supported capital budget capacity for the state. The proposed capital budget is 21% smaller than the current 2009-11 biennim in total funds and a third smaller in bond funded projects.
The Senate’s proposed capital budget provides $590 million for higher education facilities. Over half of the funds go to the four-year institutions. This includes funding for Evergreen’s Communications Building and science lab renovation.