Committee Memberships Finalized in WA Legislature

Today the House and Senate Republicans announced committee assignments for the 2011 legislative session. This follows the Democrats announcement of chairs and committee membership in December.

Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee

  • Tom, Chair
  • Shin, Vice Chair
  • Hill, Ranking Minority Member
  • Baumgartner
  • Becker
  • Ericksen
  • Kastama
  • Kilmer
  • White

Senate Ways & Means

  • Murray, Chair
  • Kilmer, Vice Chair
  • Zarelli, Ranking Minority Leader
  • Baumgartner
  • Brown
  • Conway
  • Fraser
  • Hatfield
  • Hewitt
  • Honeyford
  • Kastama
  • Keiser
  • Kohl-Welles
  • Parlette
  • Pflug
  • Pridemore
  • Regala
  • Rockefeller
  • Schoesler
  • Tom

House Capital Budget

  • Dunshee, Chair
  • Ormsby, Vice Chair
  • Warnick, Ranking Minority Leader
  • Asay
  • Jacks
  • Jinkins
  • Lytton
  • Pearson
  • Tharinger
  • Zeiger

House Education Appropriations & Oversight

  • Haigh, Chair
  • Probst, Vice Chair
  • Anderson, Ranking Minority Leader
  • Dammeier
  • Dahlquist
  • Fagan
  • Frockt
  • Hargrove
  • Hope
  • Maxwell
  • Nealey
  • Orwall
  • Rekydal
  • Rolfes
  • Santos
  • Sells
  • Smith
  • Stanford

House Higher Education

  • Seaquist, Chair
  • Haler, Ranking Minority Leader
  • Buys
  • Carlyle
  • Crouse
  • Fagan
  • Hasegawa
  • Jacks
  • Parker
  • Probst
  • Reykdal
  • Sells
  • Springer
  • Warnick
  • Zeiger

House Ways & Means

  • Hunter, Chair
  • Darneille, Vice Chair Appropriations
  • Hasegawa, Vice Chair Finance
  • Alexander, Ranking Minority Leader
  • Bailey
  • Carlyle
  • Chandler
  • Cody
  • Dammeier
  • Dickerson
  • Haigh
  • Haler
  • Hinkle
  • Hudgins
  • Hunt
  • Kagi
  • Kenney
  • Orcutt
  • Ormsby
  • Parker
  • Pettigrew
  • Ross
  • Schmick
  • Seaquist
  • Springer
  • Sullivan
  • Wilcox

Washington House Announces Committee Chairs and Members

This week the Washington House of Representatives announced the chairs and committee membership for the 2011 regular session and 2012 supplemental session.

Committee assignments have yet to be announced for the Senate Republicans and House Republicans.

House Capital Budget

  • Rep. Dunshee, Chair
  • Rep. Ormsby, Vice Chair
  • Rep. Jacks
  • Rep. Jinkins
  • Rep. Lytton
  • Rep. Tharinger

House Education Appropriations

  • Rep. Haigh, Chair
  • Rep. Probst, Vice Chair
  • Rep. Frockt
  • Rep. Maxwell
  • Rep. Orwall
  • Rep. Reykdal
  • Rep. Rolfes
  • Rep. Santos
  • Rep. Sells
  • Rep. Stanford

House Higher Education

  • Rep. Seaquist, Chair
  • Rep. Carlyle
  • Rep. Hasegawa
  • Rep. Jacks
  • Rep. Probst
  • Rep. Reykdal
  • Rep. Sells
  • Rep. Springer

House Ways & Means

  • Rep. Hunter, Chair
  • Rep. Darneille, Vice Chair
  • Rep. Hasegawa, Vice Chair
  • Rep. Carlyle
  • Rep. Cody
  • Rep. Dickerson
  • Rep. Haigh
  • Rep. Hudgins
  • Rep. Hunt
  • Rep. Kagi
  • Rep. Kenney
  • Rep. Ormsby
  • Rep. Pettigrew
  • Rep. Seaquist
  • Rep. Springer
  • Rep. Sullivan

Governor Releases Revised Budget for Current Fiscal Year

This morning Governor Gregoire released a supplemental FY11 operating and capital budget to meet the estimated $400 million shortfall that remains in the current fiscal biennium after Saturday’s special session.

The reductions proposed by the Governor in the current fiscal biennium are similar to many of the reductions proposed for the 2011-13 biennium, but will take effect sooner.

Some of the changes proposed in the Governor’s FY11 supplemental budger include:

  • Elimination of additional state funds for kindergarten through 4th grade class size reduction efforts for the entire 2010–11 school year
  • Reduction of levy equalization payments to eligible districts by 6.287 percent for Fiscal Year 2011.
  • A shift of part of the June 2011 apportionment payment to school districts from the last business day of June 2011 to the first business day of July 2011.
  • Elimination of the Basic Health Plan beginning March 1, 2011. All insurance subsidized through the Basic Health Plan will be eliminated, which affects 66,000 individuals
  • Elimination of the Disability Lifeline Grant and Medical programs, saving $43.5 million in GF-S and $22.6 million in federal funds.

In addition, her proposed supplemental budget would make the following changes to the higher education sector:

  • Continue support for K-12, higher education, and early learning programs funed by the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account and Education Legacy Trust Fund.
  • Suspension of the implementation of definitions for college readiness in science and English.
  • Elimination of funding for a consultant to assist the HECB in monitoring and reporting activities and for work associated with an additional Health Sciences and Services Authority (HSSA) designation.  RCW 24.104 requires the HECB to monitor and report to the Legislature biennially on the performance of the HSSA program in Spokane County.
  • Reduction in student financial aid administration costs.
  • Reduction in funds for the Technology Transformation Task Force. In the 2009 legislative session the HECB was directed to convene a higher education technology transformation task force.

No further reductions were made to higher education institutions beyond those implemented during the Saturday special session. In addition, no reductions were made to the State Need Grant program.

Still No Federal Funding Bill; Continuing Resolution Seems to be the Answer

With the end of the lame duck session nearing, Congress has yet to pass a final budget bill for FY2011. 

Currently, the federal government is being funded through a Continuing Resolution that is set to expire at midnight tomorrow (December 18).

Last week the U.S. House passed a new Continuing Resolution that would begin when the current resolution expires and extend funding for the federal government through the entire 2011 fiscal year and provide $5.7 billion to pay off the pending shortfall in the Pell Grant Program.

The U.S. Senate had hoped to take a different approach and pass an omnibus spending bill, which would have combined all twelve appropriations bills and included funding for the Pell Grant shortfall, but efforts to move this approach forward failed.

It is expected that the U.S. Senate will move forward, instead, with a short-term (i.e. 45-day) continuing resolution this weekend. The resolution would then have to go back to the U.S. House for passage.

Congress Passes Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 (S. 3447).

The Act updates the original Post-9/11 GI Bill by addressing current implementation problems and making the policies more relevant to the needs of today’s veterans.

The final bill makes several changes to the current legislation.

  • Implements a benefit cap of $17,500 for beneficiaries who attend a private institution or an out-of-state institution.
  • Extends benefits to those in the National Guard and Reserve
  • Implements a “last-payer” provision which requires GI Benefits to be reduced by other aid that is specifically designated for the sole purpose of tuition and fees.
  • Excludes a “hold harmless” provision that would have protected veterans who are currently in the program.

The Act now goes to the President for his signature.

Education Tax Credits Extended

Last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed the tax and unemployment benefit package – The Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010.  The U.S. Senate passed the bill earlier this week.

The Act includes several financial aid provisions for higher education.

  • An extension of the American Opportunity Tax Credit
  • An extension of the above-the-line tax deduction for qualified education expenses
  • An extension of the expanded Coverdell Education Savings Accounts
  • An extension of the expanded student loan interest deduction
  • An extension of the expanded exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance
  • An extension of the exclusion from income of amounts received under certain scholarship programs.

The Act now goes to the President for his signature.

Governor’s Proposed 2011-13 Budgets: Higher Education

On Wednesday, the Governor released her proposed 2011-13 Operating Budget. The budget proposed by the Governor includes reductions and fund shifts to balance an anticipated $4.6 billion shortfall in the next biennium.

The budget proposed by the Governor is mixed with regard to its impact on higher education. The proposed budget does make an investment in financial aid by maintaining funds for the State Need Grant and provides capital funds to higher education institutions. However, the budget also includes significant reductions to higher education institutions and our employees.

 State Funding and Tuition

  • The Governor’s proposal formalizes the reduction to higher education institutions taken during last Saturday’s special session. As a result, this $777,000 reduction becomes permanent and is carried into each year of the 2011-13) biennium.

    Additional reductions for the current fiscal year are possible in January. The Governor will release her 2009-11 revised budget early next week, which will be the first opportunity higher education will have to view potential additional cuts to the current biennium to balance the remaining $400 million shortfall.

  • In addition to the cuts above, the Governor’s budget reduction proposal for the 2011-13 biennium attempts to replace most of state funding cuts (i.e. General Fund support) with tuition increases. The proposal reduced each higher education institution’s state funding at a level nearly equal to the amount of tuition revenue generated by the Governor’s suggested tuition rate increases.  The Governor established differential tuition rate increases for resident undergraduates at all higher education institutions and the community and technical colleges.
  • The Governor’s proposal would also remove higher education institutions from receiving any Education Legacy Trust Funds and replaces these funds with General Funds. Revenue from the cigarette taxes, which funded this account, would then be diverted to the General Fund and the remaining revenue in the Trust Fund would be appropriated to K-12.

Financial Aid

  • The Governor’s proposal increases funding for the State Need Grant by $91.6 million to account for proposed student tuition rate increases in 2011-2013. Despite the investment in the State Need Grant, it is anticipated that not all eligible students will be served. In the current academic year 22,000 eligible Washington students did not receive a State Need Grant because of funding limitations.
  • The Governor’s proposal maintains some support for State Work Study, but trims the program by nearly 30%, reducing the number of students that will be supported by the program to 5,000 students sector-wide compared to approximately 8,000 students that are currently benefiting from the program.
  • The Governor’s proposal further suspends several smaller state financial aid programs – Washington Scholars, Future Teachers Scholarship and Conditional Loan, Health Professions Conditional Scholarship, Passport to College Program, and WICHE Professional Student Exchange Program. No new awards will be provided in the coming biennium. However, students currently enrolled in these programs will continue to be supported.

Impacts to Employees

  • The proposal assumes that, beginning in 2012, state employees will pay 25% more of their health insurance premiums based on the agreement to permanently increase the employee share from 12% to 15%. 
  • The Governor’s proposed budget assumes a temporary reduction in classified employee salaries of 3% in 2011-13. This represents a cut to Evergreen’s budget by $1.92 million over the biennium. In return, classified employees would be allowed to take a comparable reduction in their work hours.  The reduction will expire at the end of the biennium.
  • The Governor’s proposal would cut Evergreen’s budget by $1.024 million over the biennium through a new policy that would cap the state match for employee retirement plan contributions at a maximum of 6% for those employees on the college’s retirement plan (e.g. TIAA/CREF).  Note: this would not apply to the state PERS, TRS and LEOFF plans.
  • The Governor would end the higher education “retire/re-hire” exemption.  Currently, retirees who are rehired in higher education, and their employers, are not subject to the retire/rehire limitations in place for other public employees.

Other Initiatives

  • The Governor’s proposed budget requires higher education institutions to provide coordinated, “uniform” personnel data for state planning purposes.
  • The proposal provides an additional $5 million for the Higher Education Coordinating Board to establish a Baccalaureate Incentive System to provide additional funds for institutions meeting certain degree, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)   and retention benchmarks.

Capital

  • The Governor’s proposed 2011-13 Capital budget limits projects that are considered in either the pre-design or design phase.
  • The Governor’s proposal would appropriate funds to Evergreen for the Communications Building and Science Center Lab I Second Floor. In addition, the college would receive minor works funds.

The Governor’s budget is the first of many budgets that will be released to address the 2011-13 biennium. While the Governor’s budget is a critical first step in the budget development process, there will be many more budgets to review as the legislative session progresses. The Washington Legislature will convene on January 10 and many suspect that a final operating budget will not be sent to the Governor until the end of April.