Legislators in both the state House and Senate have released updated budget proposals over the past several days that, for WSU, largely reflect proposals they introduced previously. WSU testified in support of both the original House and Senate budgets.
A key change in the Senate’s new proposal is to escalate the full implementation of a 28 percent tuition reduction to this coming fiscal year and fully backfill the revenue loss with new state funding. It also authorizes larger compensation increases of 3 percent and 1.8 percent over the next two years — just like the House — but doesn’t fully fund them, leaving a funding gap of about $10 million.
Otherwise, the Senate plan continues to provide partial funding to establish four new academic programs at the Everett University Center, $4 million to increase enrollments in STEM disciplines and $2.5 million in one time funding to help establish a WSU medical school.
The new House budget is virtually unchanged from an earlier version as far as WSU is concerned. It fully funds compensation increases, leaves WSU with a net loss of $2.61 million after a funding transfer from WSU to the University of Washington to support UW’s medical education program is partially backfilled with new funding for a WSU medical school, fully funds the establishment of three new academic programs at Everett and provides $1 million to stand up an electrical engineering program at Olympic College in Bremerton.
Lawmakers are now in their second special session with the end of the current two year budget cycle looming June 30 and the start of the next one beginning July 1.