At midnight last night the Washington Legislature ended the 2012 supplemental legislative session. The session ended without the passage of an operating or a capital budget or several policy bills that would be necessary to implement any of the budgets proposed this session.
As a result, soon after the supplemental session was called Governor Gregoire announced the beginning of a special session. The Legislature will return to Olympia on Monday at noon to work on a budget compromise.
Early this evening the Washington House took action on the Senate-passed operating budget.
In a vote of 53-45 the House passed a striking amendment to the budget. The striker replaces the Senate Republican language adopted late last week when Republicans took control of the budget on the Senate floor.
This new budget looks much the same as the Senate Democratic budget introduced early last week in that there are no additional cuts to higher education. However, there is language in the bill that requires Evergreen to use $639,000 of its own appropriations solely for the expansion in enrollments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). There are no cuts to financial aid.
The House-passed bill now moves back to the Senate for further consideration.
In another turn of events, Democrats in the Washington House of Representatives introduced a new budget this morning.
The House Democrats introduced a striking amendment to the Senate supplemental budget. This striker, if passed on the House floor, will replace the Senate Republican language adopted late last week when Republicans took control of the budget on the Senate floor. If passed in the House, it will move back to the Senate where Democrats must find one additional vote to move it forward.
This new budget looks much the same as the Senate Democratic budget introduced early last week in that there are no additional cuts to higher education. However, there is language in the bill that requires Evergreen to use $639,000 of its own appropriations solely for the expansion in enrollments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). There are no cuts to financial aid.
Last week Gubernatorial Candidate Rob McKenna released his plan to take higher education in a “new direction” in Washington if elected Governor. McKenna, currently Washington’s Attorney General and the Republican front-runner for the office, declared on his campaign website “It is time to end the cuts, rebuild state support for our schools, and give Washington families an affordable path to college graduation.”
McKenna notes the discrepancy between the “rhetoric from our state capitol” and “leaders’ actions” when it comes to funding higher education. As Governor, McKenna argues he will be the “champion” needed in Olympia.
He lays out several goals, challenges, opportunities and reforms needed in the higher education sector. Among his goals for the four year public baccalaureate sector, McKenna asks to:
When it comes to challenges he sees an increased demand for a college-educated workforce in the state and an acknowledgment that higher education has “borne the brunt of state budget reductions.” He also notes that inconsistent funding has lead to tuition increases and a recognition that Washington is struggling with enrolling students per capita compared to other states in the nation.
In terms of opportunities McKenna sees the need for higher education growing. With this in mind, he argues “we can improve our higher education system and address access, funding, degree attainment, workforce needs, and reforms,” and as a candidate that recognizes these facts, he can get us there if elected Governor. Among them are:
Finally, McKenna argues that reforms will need to be made. Among these he asks for:
This week represents the ninth week of the 2012 supplemental session and the final week.
March 8 marks the end of the supplemental session and sine die. The focus for both the House and Senate is primarily on floor action in an effort to move bills to the Governor’s desk prior to the end of the session.
This week would normally be focused on passing a supplemental budget and any policy bills necessary to implement the budget. However given the events of Friday evening it is unclear if the Legislature will be able to find agreement on the budget prior to the March 8 deadline.
As both chambers continue to meet to discuss a potential budget agreement, committees – both policy and fiscal committees – are holding some hearings to focus on interim planning which are posted on the Legislature’s website.
On Friday Senate Republicans took control of the Senate floor early in the evening. The Senate Republicans along with three Democrats voted together to bring an alternative budget proposal to the floor.
Though Senate Democrats made a series of procedural motions, these efforts failed to keep the Governor’s supplemental operating budget from being moved to the Senate floor for consideration. The Senate Republicans and three Democrats then moved to amend the Governor’s budget bill with the Senate Republican budget proposal and passed the budget proposal to the House for further consideration on a 25-24 vote.
The Senate Republican budget proposal reduces funding for higher education by $30.4 million compared to the Senate Democrat budget proposal which makes no cuts to higher education.
The reductions to higher education in the Senate Republican budget are focused on institutions. The proposed budget makes no reductions to the State Need Grant program or Work Study programs. The proposal does restore awards to students who attend for-profit institutions from the 50% award reduction passed as part of the 2011-13 biennial budget.
Under the Senate Republican proposal the the maximum level of authority to waive tuition is reduced for the public baccalaureate institutions and community and technical colleges. The impact to Evergreen is a reduction of $332,000 in the second year of the biennium.
Some of the public baccalaureate institutions are further reduced to reflect update revenue projections as a result of non-resident undergraduate tuition increases implemented by an institution. Evergreen did not see a reduction for changes in revenue for non-resident undergraduate tuition increases.
The House Higher Education Committee conducted a work session on interim planning this morning, Thursday, March 1. Chairman Representative Larry Seaquist lead a panel discussion with legislators and stakeholders on next steps in higher education planning, specifically addressing the question, “what is the important problem in higher education that the legislature should address next?”
Invited to present were three separate panels consisting of students, faculty and the business community.
The first panel saw two students from the University of Washington and one from the community college sector. Adam Sherman, a law student at the University of Washington, spoke to the importance of a dedicated funding source for higher education. Representative Larry Springer noted that within the legislature, specifically on the House Ways & Means committee, there is finally an emerging dialogue and acknowledgement that a dedicated funding source is crucial to higher education. Representative Larry Seaquist followed Springer’s statement with a larger question on what sort of “system” Washington wants in terms of higher education offerings and what a dedicated funding source would go towards. He noted that this question will need to be tackled during the interim and in future legislative sessions.
Following the student panel, faculty were invited to present. Dr. Bernal Baca of the community college sector, and Dr. Jim Fridley, a faculty member at the University of Washington, shared their perspectives on the next important steps. Bernal touched on recruitment issues, specifically in a time when adjunct faculty are becoming more and more of the norm in times of budget distress. Representative Chris Reykdal noted that we are reaching a point with the use of adjuncts where “quality” is becoming a very large issue.
Dr. Jim Fridley followed Dr. Baca asking the members to remember why we are all here. He talked about the three “big things” educators do.
With these three in mind he asked the legislature to look at three important areas where work will need to be done:
The final panelist to present was Mike Hudson from the Association of Washington Business. Hudson noted the skills gap that exists for businesses and argued that it is not a quality issue, but instead a “pipeline” issue. He urged the legislature to focus on the problem of getting students at a young age exposed and interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In closing, Representative Seaquist let the committee and audience know that this conversation would be extended into the next work session (next week) with members of the Council of Presidents and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges sharing their perspectives on the issue.