Tag Archives: Capital Budget

First Special Session Ends; Second Session Begins with Exchange of New Budget Proposals

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Yesterday the Washington Legislature ended the first special session of the 2015 regular legislative session.  While lawmakers were successful in passing a transportation budget, they did not reach agreement on a biennial operating or capital budget and several policy bills that would be necessary to implement the budgets proposed this session.

Governor Inslee immediately announced a special session to begin this morning.  The Legislature will have 30 days to complete their work. In addition the Governor firmly asked negotiators to move their discussions to his office for face-to-face daily meetings instead of exchanging budgets via paper.

On Thursday afternoon the Senate released a revised operating budget that they argue makes progress on several concerns raised by the House including keeping institutions whole with regard to the proposed tuition reduction, holding private non-profit institutions harmless in the State Need Grant program, and increasing funding for compensation.

The House, who will release their counteroffer on Monday and hold a public hearing on Tuesday, expressed concern about a lack of funding for mental health ($50 million), early learning ($115 million) and support for teacher COLAs ($154 million) in the Senate’s latest proposal.

More Money

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Yesterday the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released revenue projections for the current and upcoming biennia.  Last week the Council met and voted to move the June forecast up to mid-May.

This is the last forecast before the end of the current fiscal year. The forecast predicts the state will collect $106 million more than expected in fees and taxes for the 2013-2015 budget biennium, which ends this June 30. In addition, the state can anticipate $309 million more in taxes and fees than expected for the 2015-2017 budget biennium, which begin this July 1.

The forecast is expected to spur negotiations on the Hill.  Legislative leaders exchanged budget offers last week and plan to continue negotiating and exchanging offers this week.  The current 30-day special session ends May 28.

Next Week: Last Week of Regular Session

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Next week marks the last week of the regular session. The regular session will end on April 26. While there is always hope it seems more and more likely a special session will follow the regular session.

A handful of legislators – leadership and budget writers – will work over the weekend and through the week to negotiate a final biennial operating, capital and transportation budget.

For the rest of the members the week will include a combination of time on the floor and in committee.  While the Senate has little committee work scheduled to date beyond the fiscal committee, the House – in addition to the fiscal work -will hold a series of policy committee meetings throughout the week to discuss interim planning.

On Tuesday morning the House Higher Education will hold an interim planning session.

So where do things stand with regard to getting out of town for good.

The House and Senate have each passed a biennial operating and capital budget proposal. Negotiations between leaders and budget writers began last week and will continue until an agreement has been reached.

The House Appropriations Committee will meet on Monday morning to consider additional legislation. The Senate Ways & Means Committee met this morning to consider legislation to fund basic education in Washington and is scheduled to meet Monday afternoon to consider revenue proposals.  The House Finance and Capital Budget Committees are scheduled to meet next Friday.

Next Week: Floor Action

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Next week the Washington House and Senate will spend long days on the floor.

The first half of the week will be dedicated to advancing policy bills, not necessary to implement the budget, from the floor to the Governor’s desk.  Both chambers have until the end of day on April 15 to move bills.  A word to the wise be cautious what you consider to be a “dead bill”, things can come back to life at anytime.

Once this deadline passes it will be full throttle to the ultimate deadline – sine die.  April 26 marks the end of the regular session.

So where do things stand.

To date, the House has passed a proposed biennial operating budget to the Senate. It is now in Senate Ways & Means.  No further action has taken place on revenue, which underlies the operating budget. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to meet a week from today.  The House also advanced, with a strong bipartisan vote, a biennial capital budget.  The capital budget is now in Senate Ways & Means.

The Senate has passed an operating budget to the House. It is now in House Appropriations. This past week the Senate released and advanced a capital budget proposal. The Senate “gut-n-stuffed” the House’s capital budget (HB 1115/116) with their proposal in committee late this week. It is expected the Senate will take up the bill on the floor next week.

Senate Holds Public Hearing on Biennial Capital Budget

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This afternoon Evergreen testified in support of the Senate’s proposed biennial capital budget.

The Senate’s capital budget provides funding for several projects across higher education. This includes funding for three projects at Evergreen – Lecture Hall Renovation Construction, Lab I Basement Construction funding, and Seminar I Renovation Predesign.  The budget also provides authorization to purchase the Tacoma Campus property.

In addition the budget includes funds to support facilities preservation, minor works, and preventative facility maintenance and building system repairs.

Overall the budget supports Evergreen’s focus and commitment to responsible stewardship of our public facilities and infrastructure to meet current technological needs and demands, and to provide the needed facilities and infrastructure to provide a quality educational experience for students.

The Senate Ways & Means committee will take executive action on the budget tomorrow afternoon in Committee.

Senate Releases Proposed Biennial Capital Budget

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This morning the Washington Senate released a proposed biennial capital budget for higher education. The Senate’s capital budget provides funding for several projects across higher education, authorizing $923.7 million ($558.7 million state bonds) in higher education facilities in the next biennium.

The Senate capital budget provides funding for three key projects at Evergreen – Lecture Hall Renovation Construction, Lab I Basement Construction funding, and Seminar I Renovation Predesign.  The budget also provides authorization to purchase the Tacoma Campus property.

In addition the budget includes funds to support facilities preservation, minor works, and preventative facility maintenance and building system repairs.

Next Steps

The Senate Ways & Means Committee will hold a public hearing on the proposed capital budget this afternoon with action scheduled to move the budget to the Senate floor on tomorrow afternoon.

Next Week: It is All Budget All the Time

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Next week the Legislature kicks into high gear again.  Given the actions of this week the focus will be on advancing key components required to reach a final budget deal.

The House passed a proposed biennial operating budget along party lines on Thursday.  However further action on revenue, which underlies the operating budget, has yet to be scheduled (at the time of this blog).  The House also advanced, with a strong bipartisan vote, a biennial capital budget.  The House operating and capital budgets now go to the Senate for consideration.

The Senate spent nine hours debating a proposed operating budget on Thursday and Friday.  However a final vote was not taken to advance the proposal to the House. It is expected that the Senate will take the operating budget up again next week for a final vote.  The Senate has also not released its proposed biennial capital budget.  It is expected that the Senate’s capital budget will likely be released next week followed by action to advance it to the House.

Within that context both the House and Senate must take action on bills referred to a fiscal committee by the end of day on April 7.  Dozens and dozens of bills await their fate in the fiscal committees.

For higher education this includes legislation to create a task force on mental health and suicide in higher education, remove tuition-setting authority, align state and federal student veteran residency policies, a study of higher education cost drivers, the display of campus data, and recommendations to the College Bound Scholarship program.