Earlier today Governor Inslee shared with policymakers that he would call a special session to begin on April 29.
The focus of the 30 day special session will be to complete major work that was left undone during the regular session. This includes completion of a biennial operating, capital and transportation budget.
The regular session officially ends on Sunday evening. The Governor is expected to issue a formal proclamation for the special session tomorrow.
On Thursday Governor Inslee released his proposed 2015-17 Operating and Capital budgets. The budget – Book 2- reflects the Governor’s focus that “after more than a decade of cutting vital services and neglecting obligations,… it is time to start reinvesting in Washington”. The budget proposes a mix of spending cuts, new revenue and reserves to pay for education and services.
The Governor also submitted, as required by law, a budget – Book 1 – that would provide for a balanced budget within existing revenues.
Governor’s Proposed Biennial Operating Budget
The Governor’s proposed budget – Book 2 – invests $2.3 billion in education. Under his proposal the budget would provide funding to reduce class sizes statewide for kindergarten through third grade, meet the state’s commitment to fully fund basic education, make major investments in early learning, target investments to increase student success and boost graduation rates and freeze resident undergraduate tuition.
The budget also makes a number of other investments:
The budget proposes tax and revenue changes ($1.4 billion) in combination with reserves and reductions to support the biennial operating budget. The budget uses $450 million from reserves and includes $211 million in General Fund spending reductions. Finally the proposal maximizes federal funds and shifts general fund costs to other fund sources to save an additional $212 million.
Among the tax and revenue changes is a new capital gains tax ($798 million) on the sale of stocks, bonds, and other assets to increase the share of state taxes paid by the wealthiest taxpayers, new revenue from a market-based carbon pollution reduction plan ($380 million), and a repeal of a sales tax exemption for trade-ins valued over $10,000 ($105 million).
Higher Education
The Governor’s proposed budget freezes tuition for undergraduate, resident students for the biennium. No additional dollars are provided to offset the tuition freeze. The Governor will also introduce legislation to: (1) return tuition setting authority to the budget, (2) eliminate differential tuition, (3) repeal negotiation of Higher Education performance plans, (4) repeal publication of the 60th percentile global challenge states comparisons, and (5) amend financial aid mitigation provided with tuition setting authority so that any institution that exercised tuition setting authority above levels assumed by the legislature in 2011-13 and 2013-15 will continue to provide the financial aid mitigation.
In addition the budget makes an investment in math and science for each of the public baccalaureate institutions and the CCTCs and provides compensation at 3% and 1.8% for classified, professional, and faculty employees. The proposed funding only recognize the general fund portion. The remaining funding to support the compensation request is presumed to come from tuition but the budget prohibits increases in resident undergraduate tuition. This is also reflected in the health benefit increase. The budget also makes a handful of specific investments in other programs including the health professions, ocean acidification, and renewable energy.
Finally the budget maintains current funding for the State Need Grant and increases funding for the College Bound Scholarship program to recognize caseload increases.
It is worth noting that the Governor’s proposed budget without new revenues would result in a 10% reduction to higher education.
Evergreen
Under the Governor’s budget tuition would be frozen for undergraduate, resident students for the biennium at Evergreen. No additional investments are made to the College to offset the tuition freeze.
In addition the budget invests in math and science at Evergreen and provides compensation at 3% and 1.8% for classified, professional and faculty employees. The funding levels for compensation only recognizes the general fund portion, or just over a third of the cost. The remaining funding to support the compensation request is presumed to come from tuition but the budget prohibits increases in resident undergraduate tuition. This would require institutions to fund the rest from institutional dollars. For Evergreen this is $1.82 million. This split is also reflected in the health benefit increase. Evergreen would need to provide an estimated $169k.
Finally the budget requires Evergreen to report on STEM outcome measures, provides funding for several Washington State Institute for Public Policy studies in Evergreen’s allocation, and retains budget language in support of the Longhouse.
It is worth noting that the Governor’s proposed budget without new revenues would result in a 10% reduction to higher education, this would be a reduction of $2.13 million annually to Evergreen.
Capital Budget
Governor Inslee also proposed a biennial capital budget for higher education. The Governor provided 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.
Next Steps
The Governor’s budget is the first of many budgets that will be released to address the 2015-17 biennium. While the Governor’s budget is the first step in the budget development process, there will be at least four more legislative budgets to review as the legislative session progresses.
The Washington Legislature will convene on January 12 to begin its work to develop a biennial budget. Over the next 105 days, the House and Senate will hold work sessions and public hearings on the gubernatorial proposed budgets as well as the budgets put forth by each chamber before finalizing a conference budget.
Late yesterday Governor Inslee released his plan for education for the 2015-17 biennium. The plan, which extends across the continuum including early learning, K-12 and higher education, provides a $2.3 billion investment in the success of students from preschool to college.
In a statewide virtual town hall this evening, Governor Inslee shared the slate of education proposals. The Governor’s budget would expand the state’s preschool program and provide $1.3 billion for basic education funding. With regard to higher education, the Governor’s proposal:
The overview is part of a week long rollout of the Governor’s 2015-17 biennial budget. On Tuesday the Governor will release details regarding transportation followed by climate change on Wednesday. The full budget will be released on Thursday morning.
Next week the Governor will roll out his biennial budgets over several days.
The week will kick-off with education. The Governor will make public his plans to make investments in education including early learning, K-12, and higher education.
Each following day the Governor will release additional parts of his proposed budget – Tuesday – transportation, Wednesday – climate change, and Thursday – the entire proposed biennial budget.
Reports suggest there are some things to watch for:
Stay tuned…
This afternoon Governor Inslee signed into law two pieces of legislation that will ease the transition from military service to higher education.
Senate Bill 5318 removes the one-year waiting period for veterans or active members of the military for purposes of eligibility for resident tuition and Senate Bill 5969 provides for awarding academic credit for military training.
This afternoon Governor Inslee signed into law legislation to make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions and community and technical colleges (HB 2613).
The bill provides higher education institutions permissive authority to prorate paychecks for faculty on nine-month appointments and change payroll frequency from semi-monthly to biweekly and makes changes to existing reporting requirements.
The Governor will also sign a series of education-related bills later this week including legislation to place in statute the education attainment goals in the Washington Student Achievement Council’s ten-year roadmap (HB 2626) and create a legislative work group to ensure the College Bound program is viable, productive and effective (HB 6436).
Yesterday Governor Inslee released his plan to raise money for K-12 schools to respond to the Washington State Supreme Court decision to fund basic education.
The heart of Governor Inslee’s plan focuses on closing seven tax exemptions to provide for $200 million additional funds to support basic education.
The plan would target the additional funds towards two specific areas within basic education:
The funds would come from closing seven tax exemptions that the Governor proposed to close in 2013. The plan would repeal or refund:
The Governor’s plan will now go to the Legislature for consideration.
Today Governor Inslee addressed a joint session of the Legislature and Washingtonians in his first State of the State Address.
The Governor focused on a call to action to invest in education, finish work on a transportation package, and increase the minimum wage.
Inslee, on the heels of the Supreme Court order that the State did not meet the constitutional obligation in the biennial budget to adequately fund education, stated that he will release a proposal this week to make an additional investment of at least $200 million in K-12 funding, including school operations and voter-approved teacher COLAs. The Governor indicated his proposal would be offset by closing tax breaks.
In addition the Governor continued his push for a transportation package and committed to working with legislators, business, and stakeholders to increase the minimum wage.
Finally the Governor signaled forthcoming proposals to provide B&O tax relief to small businesses; health care initiatives focused on children’s health, the quality and cost of health care services, and improving mental health services; and continue efforts around climate change.
Today Governor Inslee released a proposed 2014 Supplemental Operating and Capital budget.
The Governor’s proposal would boost the state’s $33.6 billion dollar budget by approximately $200 million. The majority of the increase goes to maintaining current services. The major changes to maintenance level include mandatory caseload and K-12 enrollment adjustments, College Bound Scholarship program adjustments, and funds to cover wildlife costs, prison capacity problems, and a legal settlement requiring the state to significantly expand mental health services for children.
The budget also makes a handful of investments across state programs.
Higher Education
The supplemental budget proposed by Governor Inslee supports the investment made in higher education in the 2013-15 biennial budget.
The budget makes a handful of investments in higher education including $7.2 million to accommodate higher costs for the College Bound Scholarship program and $1 million to support advanced manufacturing programs and research at the University of Washington and Washington State University.
The budget also maintains the ability for public baccalaureate institutions to raise tuition beyond appropriated tuition levels for the 2014-15 academic year. The budget includes clarifying language that underscores the requirement that institutions that raise tuition beyond appropriated levels must mitigate the impact to students with additional financial aid.
Capital Budget
The Governor also proposed a supplemental capital budget for higher education. The Governor provided funding for a small number of projects across higher education. This includes authority for Evergreen to enter into a certificate of participation to purchase the existing facility in Tacoma for the College’s Tacoma program; $2 million to remove, clean and dispose of two underground diesel oil tanks at Central Washington University; and $5 million to renovate the Carver Academic Center at Western Washington University.
Yesterday the Washington Legislature convened for the third special session since the adjournment of the 2013 regular session in April. Governor Inslee called lawmakers back to Olympia, with 48 hours notice, to move through legislation designed to retain Boeing in Washington.
The legislation would continue current tax incentives for the airplane manufacturer through 2040 at a cost to the state of approximately $8.7 billion in loss revenue and a second bill would make additional investments in the community and technical college system for aerospace related training and education. The state would also agree to fast-tracking aircraft-factory permits and working to find a balanced plan for more stringent water quality standards under consideration by the Washington Department of Ecology.
In return Boeing has agreed to keep the manufacturer of the 777x in Washington from which the state hopes to gain jobs and additional economic benefit.
The announcement of another special session also gave new life to the potential consideration of a transportation package. The proposed transportation package in the regular session ultimately was a casualty as lawmakers sought to strike a deal in the second special session and adjourn a very long session. However the chances of a transportation package moving this special session is increasingly unlikely as the Senate is expected to vote on the Boeing related legislation and then adjourn tomorrow without considering a transportation package.