Impact of Gov. Locke’s Proposed 2005-2007 Budget Plan on WSU

On Dec. 16, Gov. Gary Locke released recommendations for the state budget. Recommendations for Washington State University are as follows:

Operating Budget

·        The budget includes no reductions for higher education.

·        Salary increases averaging 3.2 percent in the 2005-2006 fiscal year and 1.6 percent in the 2006-2007 fiscal year are provided for most higher education employees.  No salary increase funding is provided for classified staff employees who are represented in collective bargaining and who had not approved a contract by Oct. 1.  WSU police are included for increases of 3.2 percent in 2005-2006 and 2.9 percent in 2006-2007.

·        The budget provides $1.5 million to help attract or retain federal research grants, expand research opportunities for students and increase economic development.

·        The budget includes $2 million needed for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program to offset the elimination of support from Oregon state.

·        Under the budget, the HECB pool to fund high-demand enrollment would grow by $26 million, enough to fund an additional 1,600 full-time-equivalent students at $11,000 per student.  WSU would apply for a portion of this pool.   However, no additional general enrollments are funded for any of the WSU campuses or the campuses of the University of Washington.

·        Annual tuition increases of between 5 percent and 9 percent would be authorized and funding could be used to support quality improvements. Financial aid programs would receive additional funding to offset 5 percent tuition increases for aid recipients.  Institutions would be required to provide additional financial aid if tuition were increased by more than 5 percent.

Capital Budget

·        The budget recommends funding higher education facilities priorities in the order requested by the institutions.  But the level of capital funding is relatively low.  The governor’s budget would address preservation of current buildings and infrastructure but fund only a few major projects.

·        At WSU, funding is provided for the Biotechnology Life Sciences building on the Pullman campus.  The governor identifies $45 million of the $57.1 million needed to construct this building.

·        Preservation of existing assets and minor works are funded in the governor’s budget, with $30 million for buildings, $7 million for infrastructure, $7 million for telecommunications infrastructure (WSUnet), $8 million for facilities improvements, $8.5 million for equipment and $2 million for safety improvements.

·        The wastewater reclamation project in Pullman, the Tri-Cities bioproducts building, design of the biomedical sciences building, the Spokane Riverpoint Nursing Center and major utility upgrades are not funded in the governor’s budget.