Tag Archives: higher education

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.

Fiscal Committees Work Long Days to Meet Deadline

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All policy bills in fiscal committees must move from committee to the floor by the end of today (April 7).

The fiscal committees in both chambers spent long hours yesterday taking testimony on over sixty bills combined.  Today both committees will hold a brief public hearing and then spend the remainder of the day advancing bills from committee to the floor.

A handful of higher education policy bills are on the list to advance to the next step. Many more have already moved directly from the policy committees to the floor. Bills that are expected to advance from fiscal committee to the floor today include:

  • HB 1138: Creates a task force on mental health and suicide prevention in higher education
  • HB 1546: Makes changes to dual credit programs offered by higher education institutions
  • HB 1825: Aligns state residency policies with federal policies
  • HB 2041: Creates a pilot project on performance-based scholarships in the state need grant program
  • SB 5518: Creates procedures to address campus sexual violence
  • SB 5534: Creates the certified public accounting scholarship program
  • SB 5746: Adds Everett Community College as an aerospace training or educational program
  • SB 5851: Concerns recommendations of the college bound scholarship program work group

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.

Senate Budget Proposal Awaits Vote on Floor

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The Washington Senate spent the wee hours of Friday morning on the floor debating a proposed biennial operating budget.  No final vote was taken on the budget.

Over seventy amendments were offered and five were passed.  The debate began with a vote to change the rules. Know as Rule 53, the rule change required a higher vote threshold for amendments to the operating budge.  The change required thirty votes to approve an amendment not a simple majority (25).

After nine hours of debate, a final vote on the budget was blocked.  A Senate procedural rule requires additional time before a bill can be voted on.

A final vote is expected some time next week.

Policy Deadline Passes onto Fiscal Committees and the Floor

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Yesterday marked the deadline for policy bills. All policy bills, unless they are deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB), must have moved from their respective policy committees to either an appropriation committee or the floor in the opposite chamber.

Both the Senate and House higher education committees have spent the last few weeks advancing bills to the next stage in the process.

Below is a brief glimpse of some of the bills that have advanced past today’s deadline.

    • HB 1138: Creating a task force on mental health and suicide prevention in higher education – Senate Ways & Means
    • HB 1696: Returns tuition-setting authority for resident undergraduate students to the operating budget – Senate Ways & Means
    • HB 1825: Aligns state residency policies with federal policies – Senate Ways & Means
    • SB 5133: Creates a review of higher education costs – House Appropriations
    • SB 5328: Changes the dissemination of financial aid information – House Rules
    • SB 5638: Modifies the requirements of the State Need Grant program to make the grant available to students enrolled or accepted for enrollment at a qualifying institution of higher education for at least three quarter credits, or the equivalent semester credits – House Rules

The bills that advanced this week from the policy committees, if moved to a fisacl committee, must move from committee to the floor by the end of the day on April 7.  Stay tuned!

Senate Advances Budget to Floor

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Last night the Senate Ways & Means committee took executive action to advance a proposed biennial operating budget to the Senate floor.

The committee passed a substitute bill which mostly made technical changes to the original bill.  The substitute includes a technical change to reporting language for Evergreen. The original language included reference to engineering, a program that the College does not offer. The substitute reflects this change and focuses the reporting language on computer science.  A correction Evergreen highlighted in testimony.

The Senate’s proposed operating budget now moves to the floor for further consideration.

Senate Takes Public Testimony on Proposed Operating Budget

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This afternoon Evergreen testified before the Senate Ways & Means Committee on the proposed biennial operating budget.

The Senate’s proposed budget reduces resident undergraduate tuition to a percentage of the state average wage. The budget would reduce the research institutions by 18% in 2016 and 14% in 2017 and the comprehensive institutions and Evergreen by 12% in 2016 and 10% in 2017. The budget provides dollars to offset the loss revenue from a tuition reduction for institutions. The budget provides $5.659 million to Evergreen to offset this reduction.

The budget provides $22 million to the Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program for the state’s match. The budget also suspends the Washington Scholars Program, Washington Award for Vocational Excellence, and Future Teachers Loan Repayment and Conditional Scholarship Program.

Finally the budget makes investments in other key areas including medical education; science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); and compensation. The budget appropriates $3 million to increase the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded for STEM and $1.518 million for employee compensation.

Evergreen spoke to the investments for higher education.  In particular Evergreen shared its support for investments that will directly impact and support Evergreen students, including funding to support the tuition reduction policy and recognition for the need to make an investment in employee compensation.

The budget also makes an investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics  for Evergreen. These funds will be used to eliminate the current wait list for computer science at the College.

While Evergreen expressed support for funding for the College Bound Scholarship program and the Opportunity Scholarship, Evergreen expressed strong concern about the lack of investment for the State Need Grant.

Finally, Evergreen asked to work with policymakers regarding policy language in the budget and the impact of proposed LEAN efficiencies.

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