Tag Archives: Operating Budget

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.

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.

House Advances Operating Budget

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This evening the House Appropriations committee took executive action to advance a proposed biennial operating budget to the House floor.

The committee passed a substitute bill which makes several changes to investments in higher education.  The substitute reallocates funds for Evergreen by reducing the $750,000 appropriated for student success and degree completion appropriations by $300,000 and reallocating these funds to support the computer science program and meet student demand at the College.  The total investment for Evergreen remains $750,000.

The substitute also:

  • Corrects enrollment figures for the community and technical colleges and the University of Washington
  • Reduces appropriations for computer science and engineering enrollments at the University of Washington
  • Increases the amounts for the Family Medical Residency Network
  • Increases the appropriation for the State Need Grant by $1.85 million
  • Provides funds for the Latino Health Center at the University of Washington, and
  • Increases the amount of funding for computer science and engineering at the University of Washington and decreases funding for Washington State University’s medical school.

Finally the substitute bill allows the Department of Corrections to implement postsecondary education degree programs within funding provided in the appropriation for offender change and programming.  Evergreen supported similar policy legislation this session

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

Washington Senate Releases Operating Budget

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This afternoon the Washington Senate released a proposed 2015-17 biennial operating budget.  The budget provides a $4.1 billion increase from current spending levels. The net increase represents policy level additions, savings and transfers. The budget leaves $487 million in the ending fund balance.

The budget makes several investments including funding for K-12 education ($1.3 billion), enhancements for higher education ($300 million), general government compensation increases ($113 million), expanded preschool and funding for the Early Start Act ($95 million),  and mental health related programs ($90 million).

The budget includes savings by maximizing the Hospital Safety net funding mechanism ($190 million), implementing additional LEAN management efforts ($49 million), and reducing state employee health care spousal coverage and lowering the retiree subsidy payment ($53 million).

Higher Education

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 $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:

  • Funding is provided to the Washington State University to establish a medical school in Spokane. Two and half million is appropriated to support the accreditation process and two and half million is appropriated to the University of Washington to support the continued education of medical students enrolled in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) program located in Spokane. Finally $9.4 million is provided to the health professional loan program.
  • Funding is provided to increase the number of bachelor’s degrees in STEM for all six public baccalaureate institutions ($20 million).
  • Funding is provided to expand programs at WSU Everett, including software engineering, sustainable food systems, data analytics, and aviation management ($2.4 million).
  • Funding is provided for higher education compensation.  Each institution is provided with a $1,000 increase in salary each fiscal year of the biennium for full-time employees and proportionately less for part-time employees ($114 million).

Evergreen

The Senate’s budget reduces tuition for undergraduate, resident students for the biennium at Evergreen. The budget provides $5.659 million to Evergreen to offset the tuition reduction.

In addition the budget provides The Evergreen College $3 million to increase the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The budget provides for an increase in employee compensation ($506,000 FY2016 and $1.012 million FY2017).

Finally, the budget does not provide new funds for student support services.

Next Steps

The Senate Ways & Means Committee will continue the public hearing tomorrow, April 1 at 1:00 and take executive action on the bill later in the day.

Public Hearings on Budgets Continue, House Takes Testimony on Operating Biennial Budget

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This afternoon Evergreen testified before the House Appropriations Committee on the proposed  biennial operating budget.

The House’s proposed budget freezes tuition at current rates over the next biennium.  The budget provides dollars to offset the tuition freeze, providing funds to increase compensation and inflationary costs at institutions. The budget appropriates $2.954 million to Evergreen to offset the tuition freeze..

In addition the House increases funding for the State Need Grant by $53 million. The funds are
expected to serve approximately 24 percent of the currently 34,500 unserved students as well as increase private award amounts by 3.5% per year beginning in FY 2017. The budget also provides $60 million to provide the state’s match for the Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program. The budget also suspends the Washington Scholars Program, Washington Award for Vocational Excellence, Community Match Program, Foster Care Endowment, and Future Teachers Loan Repayment and Conditional Scholarship Program.

Finally the budget makes investments in  three other key areas including medical education, computer science, and student support services. Evergreen would receive $750,000 to expand student advising and support services that lead to increased degree completion but no funds to eliminate the student wait list in computer science at Evergreen.

Evergreen spoke to the investments for higher education.  In particular Evergreen shared its support for several investments that will directly impact and support Evergreen students, including funding for the State Need Grant and Opportunity scholarship, funds to support a tuition freeze for resident, undergraduate students, and an investment in compensation for faculty and staff.

The budget also makes an investment in support services for students at Evergreen. These funds will allow Evergreen to continue to be a leader in four-year graduation rates, time to degree and credit efficiency for a diverse student population.

Evergreen expressed strong concern about the lack of support to reduce or eliminate the current wait list for computer science at the College.

The House Appropriations committee will take executive action on the budget tomorrow afternoon in Committee.

House Releases Operating Budget

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Yesterday morning the Washington House released a proposed 2015-17 biennial operating budget.  The budget provides $2.4 billion in policy increases, responds to the $2.4 billion maintenance level shortfall and provides a $341 million ending funding balance.

The budget includes policy increases for increased costs of K-12 health benefits and a COLA ($356 million), enhancements to basic education ($661 million), funding for mental health, ($103 million), and funding for early learning and child care programs ($222 million).

For higher education the budget provides $257 million for financial aid and a tuition freeze and $253 million for state and higher education employee compensation and benefits.

To offset the $5.1 billion in policy increases, maintenance level funding costs, and the ending fund balance, the House proposes $2.6 billion in policy level reductions – the largest of which is modification of I-1351 ($2 billion) – revenue increases of $1.5 billion and additional moneys through fund transfers and reversions.

 Higher Education

The House’s proposed budget freezes tuition at current rates over the next biennium.  The budget provides dollars to offset the tuition freeze, providing funds to increase compensation and inflationary costs at institutions.

In addition the House increases funding for the State Need Grant by $53 million. The funds are
expected to serve approximately 24 percent of the currently 34,500 unserved students as well as increase private award amounts by 3.5% per year beginning in FY 2017. The budget also provides $60 million to provide the state’s match for the Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program. The budget also suspends the Washington Scholars Program, Washington Award for Vocational Excellence, Community Match Program, Foster Care Endowment, and Future Teachers Loan Repayment and Conditional Scholarship Program.

Finally the budget makes investments in  other key areas:

  • Funding is provided to the Washington State University to establish a medical school in Spokane. Two and half million are appropriated to support the accreditation process. The remaining amount will support the education of medical students in the WSU medical school ($8 million).  In addition, $9.4 million is transferred from the Washington State University to the University of Washington to support the continued education of medical students enrolled in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) program located in Spokane. Finally an additional $3 million is provided to the Family Medicine Residency Network located at the University of Washington to expand the number of residency slots in Washington.
  • Funding is provided to computer science. Eight million is provided to the University of Washington to expand computer science and engineering degrees, $2.2 million is provided to Washington State University to establish software engineering and data analytics programs at the University Center in Everett and an electrical engineering program in Bremerton, $910,000 is provided to Western Washington University to establish a computer and information systems security program at Olympic and Peninsula Colleges and $1 million is provided to Bellevue College to create a bachelors of science degree in computer science.
  • Funding is provided to  Western Washington University ($1.2 million), Eastern Washington University ($996,000), The Evergreen State College ($750,000) and Central Washington University ($715,000) to expand student advising and support services that lead to increased degree completion.
  • Funding is provided to support  the collective bargaining agreements and arbitration awards reached between state employees and the Governor or Institutions of Higher Education and to state agencies and institutions of higher education for a general salary increase for employees not represented by a collective bargaining unit.

Evergreen

The House’s budget freezes tuition for undergraduate, resident students for the biennium at Evergreen. The budget provides $2.954 million to offset the tuition freeze, providing funding funds for increased compensation and inflationary costs that institutions.

In addition the budget provides The Evergreen College $750,000 in the second year of the biennium to expand student advising and support services that lead to increased degree completion.

Finally, the budget does not provide funds to eliminate the student backlog in computer science at Evergreen. Currently 50-75 students.

Revenue

The House budget is supported by $1.5 billion in proposed revenue. The proposed revenue package includes a 5% excise tax on capital gains profits. Revenues from this tax would be placed into a new “Student Investment Fund” to be used for K-12 and higher education investments.

For higher education the fund would support the House’s proposed investments for the State Need Grant, funding to support the tuition freeze, investments in computer science and engineering, funding for the WSU medical school and residencies, and investments in innovation including the student services support for the comprehensive institutions and Evergreen.

The package also reinstates the increase on the B&O service tax rate by 0.3% and increases the Small Business B&O Tax Credit for services businesses by nearly double. Finally the package taxes transactions from out-of-state online retailers and repeals and narrows seven tax exemptions.

Next Steps

The House Appropriations Committee will hold a public hearing on the proposed operating budget on Monday, March 30 with action scheduled to move the budget to the House floor on Tuesday afternoon.  The House Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the revenue proposal (HB 2224) on Tuesday morning.

 

Governor’s Budget Released

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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:

  • Increase mental health bed capacity to prevent inappropriate boarding of psychiatric patients
  • Hire more than 100 child protective and child welfare services workers to speed up investigations of abuse and neglect and ensure safe conditions for children in foster care
  • Boost staffing levels at state parks to restore services and catch up on a backlog of maintenance work
  • Implement the Governor’s proposed market-based carbon pollution reduction program
  • Prevent and respond to oil spills along rail lines and reduce toxics in our waters
  • Provide modest pay raises for state employees

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.

Governor Releases Education Plan

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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:

  • Continues the current tuition freeze for resident, undergraduate students
  • Provides funding to meet increased demand for the state’s College Bound Scholarship program
  • Provides funding to meet the state’s contribution to the public-private Opportunity Scholarship program, which offers financial aid to qualified students in the STEM and health care fields
  • Expands advanced computer science and engineering programs at the research universities
  • Increases production of math and science graduates at the regional universities and Evergreen
  • Funds the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program at the community colleges
  • Increases job training and basic education access at the community and technical colleges for adults without a high school diploma
  • Targets industry investments to add aerospace apprenticeships, operate the composite wing incumbent worker training program and offer maritime licensing training program at the community colleges.

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.

Evergreen Submits Biennial Budget

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Late last week Evergreen along with other state agencies and higher education institutions submitted the College’s 2015-17 biennial operating and capital budgets to the Office of Financial Management (OFM). OFM anticipates the arrival of 165 agency budget requests for consideration in the development of the Governor’s biennial budget proposal due in December.

Operating Budget

Evergreen’s operating budget seeks to build on the state’s leadership over the last biennium to support the first investment above maintenance level funding since the beginning of the Great Recession. Evergreen experienced an increase in state funding of 5.2% in the 2013-15 biennium. The investment by the state reduced the financial burden on students and families. Even with the enacted biennial budget, however state funds and tuition remain far below the level of support received prior to the Great Recession.

Within this context Evergreen’s operating budget builds on the 2013-15 biennial budget as a first step in a multi-biennial approach to stabilize funding for students, faculty and staff by supporting higher education. Evergreen is asking the state to maintain the support and investment the College received in the prior biennium. The request focuses on the need to support critical infrastructure for the College including market-rate compensation and maintenance operations. In addition the request asks for additional support to ensure that current programs and services are maintained at a level that recognizes student and state demands.

In particular the request proposes building on Evergreen’s quality STEM undergraduate programs, especially in the area of computer science and current efforts to reach out to underrepresented student populations with a focus on Latina/o students.

Finally, in accordance with OFM instructions, the College submitted a 15% budget reduction, which would more than reverse the gains made in higher education in recent years and dramatically impact Evergreen’s strong performance. After years of budget reductions the college would have very few options for absorbing a cut of this magnitude. At the same time further tuition increases are likely to suppress student demand especially given Evergreen’s commitment to serve low-income students.  To meet this level of reduction Evergreen would make reductions at the expense of current access to higher education.

Capital Budget

Evergreen’s biennial capital budget is consistent with prior submissions and continues to tightly integrate operating and capital budgets.  The request focuses on preservation of the College’s facilities and infrastructure. The request emphasizes the construction of the Lecture Hall Renovation as Evergreen’s top priority.  In addition the request includes funding for the Science Lab I basement construction and Seminar I Renovation predesign and design. The request also asks for authorization to enter into a Certificate of Participation through the Office of the State Treasurer for $12.5 million for the purchase of a permanent site for the Tacoma program. Finally the request includes funds for minor works and facilities preservation.