The Washington State House Democrats unveiled their 2012 Supplemental Operating budget proposal this morning. In an effort to keep higher education accessible, the House proposes significantly less reductions than Governor Gregoire’s proposed budget from December.  The higher education sector took a total reduction of $65 million. Of the $65 million, the four year public baccalaureates were cut $30 million, while the community colleges took $35 million of the cuts. In addition to the $65 million, an additional $10 million was cut from the state need grant program. No money was cut from the work study program.

The University of Washington and Washington State University did receive some funding for science and technology degrees, leaving a net cut of $51 million for the higher education sector.

What this means for Evergreen:

The reduction to Evergreen is roughly 3% or around $1.1 million in operating revenue for the biennium. Keep in mind, this is on top of the back-to-back budget cuts Evergreen has seen over the past 5 years. Any reduction will result in continued negative impacts to the institution. However, these proposed reductions are much less than the $160 million cut to the higher education sector Governor Gregoire proposed back in December.

One area where the State achieved savings, but where impacts will be felt, is in health care.  According to the Olympian, “like the GOP, the Democrats propose cutting the $850 per employee monthly allocation for health and other insurance benefits to $800. Gregoire proposed $825.”   Both the Republican and Democratic House plans cut the state contribution to the Public Employee Benefits Board by about $33 million, but the Democrats do not call for the 24-day furloughs that the GOP did.

We are continuing to sift through the fine details of the budget to ensure additional cuts were not taken in other sections of the budget and will report back when we know more.