Author Archives: garverj

2012 Special Session Begins

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Today the Washington Legislature convened the 2012 special session. On Friday Governor Gregoire called legislators back to Olympia at noon today to finish work on a supplemental operating and capital budget as well as the necessary policy bills needed to implement the budgets.

The special session is likely to be focused but it remains uncertain if it will go the entire thirty days. Governor Gregoire announced that she reached agreement with lawmakers to remain focused on a limited agenda, including the budgets and potentially a jobs plan that could inject $1.2 billion in state money into school construction, community projects, and environmental cleanups across the state. 

In addition a handful of other policy items may be considered, especially as vote counts are realized. Among these issues include the repeal of Initiative 728, various revenue-raising ideas, and reforms focused on a new way of budgeting and the creation of a new health-insurance pool for K-12 public school employees.

However the time it will take to reach agreement even on this limited agenda is uncertain.

Legislators left late Thursday night after failing to reach agreement on a supplemental operating budget to close the remaining $1 billion budget gap. A primary barrier to resolution during the regular session was the different approaches taken to close the budget gap. The Republicans – with support of three Senate Democrats- support skipping a penion payment and the Democrats support delaying a payment to K-12 schools.  Solving this hurdle along with a multitude of reductions and other policy changes will be the primary order of business this special session and will take time.

Progress is likely to be slow. This week it appears the House is not scheduled to convene and the Senate is scheduled only for pro forma sessions until Wednesday when a possible session is scheduled. In the meantime the Governor has indicated her desire to begin to set up negotiations between the “five corners” – meaning the Governor’s Office and the leaders of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House and Senate.

Sine Die Followed By Special Session

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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.

House Passes Senate Budget with Striking Amendment

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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.

2012 Supplemental Session: Week 9

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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.

Budget Changes Direction Overnight

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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.

House Committee Moves 2012 Supplemental Operating Budget

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On Saturday members of the House Ways & Means Committee took action on the Washington House’s proposed 2012 Supplemental Operating Budget.

The budget, as passed by the Committee, made several changes to multiple parts of the budget. Overall the budget passed by the Committee provides for an additional $54.9 million above the budget originally proposed by the House Democrats.

With regard to higher education, the budget as passed by the Committee makes the following changes:

  • Eliminates funding for the STEM Degree Incentive Program in the Student Achievement Council (the new HECB entity) and redirects the funds by appropriating them directly to Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University, Central Washinton University, and The Evergreen State College. The amendment requires that the funds appropriated to the universities and college are to be used only for direct costs of instruction associated with this enrollment expansion
  • Requires the student achievement council (new HECB entity) to convene the Higher Education Loan Program Work Group. Requires the Work Group to develop methods for funding the loan program in the future as well as recommendations regarding the best loan program structure for providing financial aid to underserved populations. Sets out certain factors that the Work Group must take into account in making their recommendations. Provides a due date for the resulting report of December 1, 2012 and appropriates $50,000 for this purpose.

The House’s proposed 2012 Supplemental Operating Budget will now move to the House Floor for consideration.

2012 Supplemental Session: Week 8

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The eighth week of the 2012 supplemental session comes on the heels of a long week of policy committee meetings.

February 24 marked the final deadline for policy bills to move forward in the budget. Bills, unless necessary to implement the budget, must have moved from the policy committees to the floor or a fiscal committee. 

Following this deadline, the fiscal committees in both the House and Senate kicked-off their work. The House and Senate Ways & Means Committees held long hearings and executive sessions on Friday and worked through the weekend to meet the next deadline in the process.

The House and Senate have until end of day on Monday, February 27, the first day of Week 8, to move bills from a fiscal committee to the Senate or House floor. Both chambers will then have until Friday, March 2 to pass bills not necessary to implement the budget.

So the committees to watch this week are the fiscal committees in the House and Senate. The appropriations committees (i.e. Senate Ways & Means ,  House Ways & Means, House Education Appropriations) will take up the policy bills referred to committee in order to determine what bills will move forward to the floor by the next deadline as well as take action on the supplemental operating and capital budgets.

Washington House Republicans Release 2012 Supplemental Operating Budget

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On Friday, the Washington House Republicans released its proposed supplemental operating  budget for the remainder of the biennium.

2012 Supplemental Operating Budget Proposal
The proposed supplemental budget makes approximately $840 million in state funding reductions. The budget leaves $651 million in reserves and does not put forth a revenue package.

The budget reduces funding for higher education by $105.3 million. Of this amount, state funding for community and technical colleges is reduced by $14.5 million and state funding for the four-year, public institutions is $15 million lower. The Evergreen State College is reduced by $541,000.

The majority of the reductions to higher education come through policy changes to state funded financial aid programs. The State Need Grant program is reduced by $75.8 million. This reduction is achieved by altering eligibilty guidelines in two ways. First awards for students attending baccalaureate institutions are limited to 12 quarters (4 years) and for students attending two-year institutions their awards are limited to 6 quarters (2 years). In addition only those students who file their Federal Application for Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA) by the March 15th deadline would be eligible to receive a State Need Grant.

In addition the proposed budget would restore funding to private, for-profit institutions, previously reduced in the 2011 biennial budget. Finally the proposed budget maintains current funding for the state work study program and eliminates funding for remedial education for those under 20 at community colleges.

The proposed budget would also reduce state employee monthly health benefit funding rates form $850 to $800 ($33.1 million) and institute 24 days of furlough for all state employees, including those at higher education institutions, beginning July 1, 2012 ($91 million). The exception to the furloughs would be any state employees working for critical services such as corrections and hospitals.

In addition to the reductions to higher education the proposed budget makes the following reductions to achieve a total savings of $840 million.

  • Reduces funding to the Department of Ecology by 14%
  • Eliminates all general fund spending for the Puget Sound Partnership
  • Makes $33 million in administrative efficiencies in information technology, goods and services, personal service contracts, travel, equipment and cell phones.
  • Reduces most general government agencies by 5-10%

The House Republican’s budget proposal will be followed by a proposal put forth by the House Democrats on February 21. The Senate’s proposed operating budget is expected to follow next week.

 

2012 Supplemental Session: Week 6 & 7

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The sixth and seventh weeks of the 2012 supplemental session are when everything trades places in Olympia.

Valentine’s Day marked a deadline for both the House and Senate. All bills orignating in the House or Senate must have passed their respective chamber and moved to the opposite chamber. The House had until the end of today to move bills from their respective policy committees to the floor or a fiscal committee. The Senate has until Friday, February 24 to move policy bills out of committee.

This will be followed by marathon fiscal committee meetings beginning February 24 and going through February 27.

This week the focus of the higher education related committees (i.e. House Higher Education and  Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development) will be to move bills forward to the floor or to an appropriation committee.

In the meantime, the appropriations committees (i.e. Senate Ways & Means ,  House Ways & Means, House Education Appropriations) will begin to take up the policy bills referred to committee in order to determine what bills will move forward to the floor by the next deadline – February 27 which marks the date by which bills must move from their respective appropriation committee and to either the Senate or House floor.

Trustees Visit Capitol; Attention Moves to the Floor

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As the week progresses members of both chambers have moved their work to their respective floors. The Senate and House have until February 14 to move bills to the opposite chamber. As a result, both floors are full of activity as legislators move bills forward in the process.

While the Legislature changed focus from committee to the floor, higher education introduced some new faces to policymakers this week to advocate for higher education.

Earlier this week trustees and regents from the public two- and four-year sectors traveled to Olympia to meet with legislators.

The trustees and regents met with several senators and representatives throughout much of the day to advocate on behalf of higher education in Washington. In addition the dialogue with legislators provided insight into the context and next steps around both policy and budgets.