Tag Archives: Senate Ways & Means

Appropriation Committee Hears Higher Education Legislation

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This afternoon the Senate Ways & Means Committee held a series of public hearings in a marathon session. The Senate and House face another major deadline tomorrow when all bills before the appropriation committees must have moved to their respective floors for further consideration.

Of the forty-five bills scheduled for a public hearing before Senate Ways & Means the Committee heard three higher education related bills.

The Committee held a public hearing on legislation to implement greater efficiencies for the public, baccalaureate institutions (SB 6362). The legislation would make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. Among the changes proposed is permissive authority to prorate paychecks for faculty on nine-month appointments, to change payroll frequency from semi-monthly to biweekly and changes to existing reporting requirements. The University of Washington and Central Washington University testified on behalf of the public, baccalaureate institutions in favor of the bill.

The Committee also heard about legislation to establish an incentive funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (SB 6042). The Council of Presidents (COP) testified on this bill earlier in the session in the Senate Higher Education Committee citing support for performance funding and general support for the bill with the caveat that additional conversations with the institution was necessary to identify further details with regard to distribution of funds and metrics. COP echoed its earlier testimony before the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

Finally the Committee held a public hearing on legislation to require the display of branch campus information on the statewide public four-year dashboard (SB 6482).

Washington Senate Committee Moves Higher Education Legislation

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Today the Washington Senate Ways & Means Committee took action on two higher education bills.

Senate Bill 5941 would reduce tuition by 3% for undergraduate resident students for the 2013-15 biennium at the public baccalaureate institutions and community and technical colleges. Beginning in 2015-16 through 2018-19 the public baccalaureates and the community and technical colleges could not raise resident, undergraduate tuition cannot exceed inflation.

The bill also allows for the following exception if SB 5942 passes. If the Legislature does not provide sufficient funding to meet baseline funding levels then the institutions can increase resident undergraduate tuition for the following academic year necessary to achieve the baseline funding levels.

Senate Bill 5942 would create a baseline level of funding beginning in 2014 that is equal to the maintenance level appropriations in the 2013-15 budget expressed as a per-resident student rate based on a three-year average of the number of actual FTE enrolled resident students. The per-resident student is also required to increase each fiscal year by the rate of inflation.

Also in 2014 any funds available after meeting the baseline levels or increases to higher education would be required to be distributed based on performance to institutions. The funds would be distributed on a proportional basis and for the public four-years based on a three-year average performance on five metrics.

  1. Average time to degree for undergraduate students
  2. Number of undergraduate high-demand degrees produced
  3. Freshman retention
  4. Low-income populations
  5. Space utilization

Finally the bill would establish a work group to review the per-resident student rates utilized to establish baseline funding and make recommendations for achieving equal funding for similar institutions by the 2017-19 biennium.

Three amendments were offered to SB 5942, though none of the amendments were passed.

  • Would strike the entire bill and replace it with language to direct the Office of Financial Management to convene a technical incentive funding model task force to design an incentive funding model to provide new incentive funding to four-year institutions of higher education that demonstrate improvement on existing performance measures and to control resident undergraduate tuition growth.
  • Would make students who are enrolled or accepted for enrollment for at least three-quarter credits or the equivalent semester hours, in a qualifying higher education program, eligible for the State Need Grant program.
  • Would require the State Auditor to conduct a comprehensive financial audit of UW and WSU.

Both bills were moved out of committee and to the Senate floor for further consideration.

 

Washington Senate Moves Operating Budget Bill Out of Committee

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This afternoon the House Ways & Means Committee took action on the proposed biennial operating budget.  The Committee passed the budget to the floor.

The Senate’s proposed budget reduces state funding to higher education by $617.5 million. Of the total reduction to higher education, state funding for community and technical colleges is $200.3 million (14.4 percent) below the maintenance level and state funding for the four-year, public institutions is $417.3 million (29.8%) lower.

Under this proposed budget state funding for Evergreen is reduced by $14.28 million over the biennium. The reductions to Evergreen’s state funding were offset in part by tuition increases for the 2011-13 biennium as stated in the budget. As a result, the net cut to state funding for Evergreen is $5.78 million (-5.5%).

The budget now goes to the Senate floor – as soon as Monday – for further consideration.

Despite the Snow Appropriation Committees Plow Ahead

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While much of Olympia was quiet and covered in snow, the Capitol was busy hearing and moving bills through the process. Both the Senate and House Ways & Means Committees held marathon public hearings and executive sessions as Friday’s deadline looms.

Senate Ways & Means

The Senate Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on two bills of particular interest to higher education – Senate Bill 5136 and Senate Bill 5182.

Senate Bill 5136 provides provisions of the state’s intent to partner with the Washington Governors University (WGU)  to establish Western Governors University-Washington and provide enhanced access to postsecondary education for all Washington students.  The Evergreen State College testified, on behalf of the Council of Presidents, with concerns with regard to the potential impact to state financial aid programs but took no position on the bill.

Senate Bill 5182 eliminates the Higher Education Coordinating Board and creates the Council forPerformance and Accountability in Higher Education. The purpose of the Council is to develop performance-based measures and goals for each state university, regional university, and the state college, linked to the role, mission, and strategic plan of the institution of higher education including (a) indicators and goals that measure outcomes concerning cost, quality, and timeliness of student progress toward degrees and certifications; (b) benchmarks and goals for long-term degree production, including discrete benchmarks and goals in particular fields of study; (c) the level of resources necessary to meet the performance outcomes, benchmarks, and goals, subject to legislative appropriation; (d) indicators and goals that measure outcomes concerning recruitment, retention, and success of students from diverse, underrepresented communities; and (e) a system of consequences for exceeding or for failing to achieve the goals or benchmarks.

The Evergreen State College testified in support of the bill and on behalf of the Council of Presidents. Evergreen stated that state government reform, including reform of higher education, is an important issue this session and SB 5182 offers an effective and efficient structure for higher education that is worth further consideration. 

House Ways & Means

The House Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on three bills of interest to higher education.

House Bill 1666 would implement the recommendations from the Governor’s Higher Education Task Force. The legislation heard by the Committee this afternoon introduced substitute language to change the bill passed out of House Higher Education last week.

The second substitute would make the following changes and remove all other sections:

  • Add intent language that recognized the work of the Governor’s HigherEducation Task Force, the need to build on those recommendations, andthe need for the state’s citizens to achieve much higher levels of educational attainment
  • Require the Higher Education Coordinating Board in collaboration with a broad range of higher education stakeholders to review state achievement goals and capacity to meet those goals, including a consideration of socioeconomic status, and provide a preliminary assessment to the Legislature by August 15, 2011.
  • Make technical changes to the existing language regarding the Washington pledge endowment fund to accrue its own interest
  • Retain  degree targets and higher education institution action plans to achieve those targets

House Bill 1795 would establish the Higher Education Opportunity Act. The legislation heard by the Committee this afternoon introduced substitute language to change the bill passed out of House Higher Education last week.

The second substitute would make the following changes and remove all other sections:

  • Adds a requirement that beginning in the 2015-16 academic year, reductions or  
  • Clarifies that tuition setting authority is for four years, beginning in the 2011 academic year through the end of the 2014 academic year
  • Adds a requirement that beginning in the 2015-16 academic year, reductions or increases in tuition must be provided in the appropriations act when responsibility for setting tuition setting reverts to the Legislature.
  • Adds transfer provisions in addition to requiring higher education institutions to publish transferrable courses on their websites: 1) requiring that students who have earned direct transfer agreements associate degrees have junior standing at the receiving four-year higher education institution; and 2) requiring that institutions of higher education develop a one year certificate of general education requirements that is transferrable to any other public higher education institution.  

House Bill 1981 would alter existing retire/rehire policies for higher education institutions. In particular the bill would eliminate Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) Plan 1 provisions permitting retirees to receive benefits while employed in retirement system-covered positions for up to 1,500 hours per year.

In addition the bill would add positions covered by a Higher Education Retirement Plan (HERP) to those included in the postretirement employment pension restrictions for PERS, TRS, the School Employees’ Retirement System, and the Public Safety Employees’ Retirement System.

Finally the bill would imit the employees to which state institutions of higher education may offer the HERP, instead of PERS Plans 2 or 3, to faculty and senior academic administrator employees; eliminate the HERP Supplemental Benefit for employees that enter the plan July 1, 2011, and provides the new employees the option of joining the TRS Plan 3 or PERS Plan 3;  require higher education institutions responsible for payment of HERP Supplemental Benefits to contract with and provide data to the Office of the State Actuary for periodic actuarial valuations and experience studies of the HERP plans; and limit state funding for the HERP plans to 6 percent of salary.

Appropriation Committees Continue to Hear Legislation that Would Impact Higher Education

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The appropriation committees in the Washington House and Senate were alive with activity this afternoon.  Both the House and Senate Ways & Means Committees heard numerous bills in preparation for the looming fiscal deadline this Friday.

House Ways & Means

The House Ways & Means Committee took up three bills that would impact higher education – House Bill 1663, 1792, and 1841.

  • House Bill 1663 removes higher education institutions from the requirement to seek an exemption from the Office of Financial Management with regards to purchasing from the Department of Corrections.
  • House Bill 1792 directs Washington State University to complete a strategic plan to establish a branch campus at Everett with the collaboration of the University Center at Everett Community College and the baccalaureate institutions that provide programs at the University Center at Everett Community College.
  • House Bill 1841 creates the Office of the Chief Information Officer (Office of the CIO) within the Office of Financial Management and an Information Technology Advisory Board to advise the Office of the CIO on information technology issues. Eliminates the Information Services Board.

Senate Ways & Means

The Senate Ways & Means Committee considered Senate Bill 5795. Senate Bill 5795 would use $250,000 of unclaimed prize money for FY11-12 and FY12-13 for the four-year Student Child Care in Higher Education Account.

Fiscal Committees Move Legislation

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This Friday marks the second major deadline of the session. All bills referred to fiscal committees in both chambers must have moved to the floor by end of day on February 25.

In preparation for this looming deadline all of the appropriation committees in the Senate and the House were busy today hearing and moving bills forward in the process.

House Higher Education Appropriations

The House Higher Education Appropriations Committee took action on two bills that would impact higher education.

House Bill 1849 creates the Washington State Education Council (Council). The overall mission of th Council is to: provide strategic oversight and advocacy of public education, including early learning, K-12 education in the common schools, and postsecondary education; and recommend policies and strategies to make the public education system student-focused and able to provide seamless service delivery across all sectors.

The substitute bill passed by the Committee revises the mission of the Council to focus on recommending policies, strategies and a governance structure for the public education system and makes the Council temporary, expiring the provision on  June 30, 2013. 

 In addition, the substitute revises the Legislative intent that guides the Council’s Transition Plan: to establish a primary strategic oversight and advocacy board for the public education system and consolidate supervision over matters pertaining to the public education system within a primary state agency.

House Bill 1808 requires all public high schools in the state to work toward the goal of offering a sufficient number of high school courses to give students the opportunity to earn the equivalent of one year’s worth of postsecondary credit and must inform students and their families about these opportunities. In addition, the bill requires institutions of higher education to develop a master list of postsecondary courses that can be fulfilled, for lower division general education requirements, by achieving an agreed-upon score on Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or other recognized college-level proficiency exams or by meeting demonstrated competencies.

The substitute bill passed by the Committee clarifies language to include career and technical education and provides language to ensure institutions of higher education who provide an alternative approach to teaching and learning are encompassed.

Senate Ways & Means

The Senate Ways & Means Committee took action on two bills that would provide for regulatory relief for institutions of higher education.

Senate Bill 5268 would remove the exisiting requirement for approval by the Director of the Office of Financial Management with regard to meetings of members in any of the five classification groups associated with part-time boards and commissions affiliated with institutions of higher education. In addition, the bill would exempt institutions of higher education from the restrictions on personal service contracts, equipment acquisition, travel, and employment.

Senate Bill 5519 modifies public contracting limits and procedures.

Both Senate Bill 5519 and 5268 now move to Senate Rules.

Budget Committees Focus on Issues that Impact Higher Education

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On Thursday the Budget Committees took up a range of issues that impact higher education.

Capital Budget
The House Capital Budget Committee held a public hearing on the Governor’s proposed capital budget for 2011-13. 

 The Governor’s proposed budget woud provide $17.2 million in new state funding for the Communications Laboratory Building Renovation, the Science Center Lab I Second Floor Renovation and Life Safety Code Compliance. Additionally, the Governor appropriates $8.2 million of Evergreen’s building account funds in the capital budget for a variety preventative maintence and building repairs.

John Hurley, Vice President for Finance and Administration testified for The Evergreen State College.

House Ways & Means
The House Ways & Means Committee held a work session on the Governor’s proposed biennial budget for higher education.

The Governor’s proposed biennial budget reduces state funding for Evergreen by 26.3% for the 2011-13 biennium. In addition, the proposed tuition revenue generated leaves Evergreen’s General Operating Fund budget in deficit. The Governor’s budget does not take into account costs associated with over-enrollments and assumes greater  tuition revenue raising capacity. Under this proposal tuition revenue represents 63% Evergreen’s budget compared to 57% last biennium.

Senate Ways & Means
The Senate Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on Senate Bill 5162 which would alter the current retire/rehire practices at higher education institutions in Washington.

Tuition, Accountability and Budget Topics of Discussion

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Higher education advocates, inlcuding the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) and the Council of Presidents (COP), spoke to the critical links between state funding, tuition, and financial aid and the role of accountability/performance metrics at the January 18 Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee’s work session.

Chair Rodney Tom focused the two-hour work session on the relationship between tuition, state funding, and accountability and the impact on student access. The work session provided the opportunity for higher education institutions to provide testimony and answer questions from policymakers.

Following informative presentations by the HECB , legislative staff, and COP institutions were provided the opportunity to share their thoughts.  The comments provided by representatives of the public, four-year higher education sector included the impacts of reductions to date, the importance of flexibility, and ideas about accountability and performance metrics.

In the afternoon, the presidents of all six public, baccalaureate institutions engaged the Senate Ways & Means Committee regarding state funding and the impacts of the Governor’s proposed 2011-13 biennial budget.

Chair Ed Murray focused the work session on higher education, including both two- and four-year institutions. 

Kicking off the discussion with an overview, the Council of Presidents highlighted the recent impacts to state funding for higher education and the potential impact of the Governor’s proposed budget. 

The presidents then spoke to the challenges they share with policymakers in funding services and programs for their constituents in a difficult fiscal climate.  The presidents acknowledged the difficult fiscal climate in their comments and asked for the flexibility and the opportunity to work with members to make strategic decisions that will allow institutions to steer through the storm.

Senate Ways and Means Hears Biomass Bill

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The Senate Ways & Means Committee met early this Saturday morning to hear a variety of bills and take action on several more.

The deadline for the Committee to consider House bills with a fiscal impact is end of day Monday, March 1.

As  a part of the public hearing process this morning , Evergreen testified in support of House Bill 2481. HB 2481 is a bill discussed often on this blog, but is worth further discussion because it looks different at this stage in the legislative process than it did earlier on. The bill would:

 
  • Allow Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to enter into contract terms up to 15 years when an entity plans and commits to a capital investment of at least $50 million prior to the contract and completes that investment before removal of biomass under the contract;
  • Allow DNR to include provisions in the agreement that are periodically adjusted for market conditions;
  • Require the contract to include provisions that allow DNR, when it is in the best interest of the trust beneficiaries, to maintain access to existing users of biomass;
  • Ensure that biomass volume conveyed under this act will not be counted toward DNR’s sustainable harvest target, except that appraised timber sold in a conventional timber sale will count toward the target whether individual trees are ultimately used by that purchaser for timber or biomass energy;
  • Remove wood from old growth forests from the definition of what is not included in forest biomass; and
  • Require DNR to conduct a survey of scientific literature regarding the carbon neutrality of forest biomass and report to the Legislature by December 15, 2010.

Evergreen believes that the passage of House Bill 2481 would provide the Washington Department of Natural Resources with the tools necessary to be a viable player in the emerging biomass industry and a potential partner with Evergreen as we move forward to construct our Biomass Gasification Project.

The Committee took no further action on the bill.