Washington State University’s 2014 legislative agenda seeks new money to support research for aviation biofuels, academic expansion at the University Center of North Puget Sound and replacing the state’s aging animal disease diagnostic lab. You can find the agenda document here.
The three budget priorities in the four-point agenda are deliberately modest in nature reflecting the supplemental budget year the state is entering. Two year operating and capital budgets are written in odd numbered years and rewritten in even numbered years to reflect needed changes. Relatively few significant additions are typically included in the supplemental operating budget.
Two of WSU’s operating budget requests appear on the four-point agenda. The university is requesting $750,000, with $500,000 of it being ongoing annually, to provide a match for grant funding WSU will receive as a part of its Federal Aviation Administration designation as a Center of Excellence for Aviation Jet Fuel and the Environment.
Also included is WSU’s $1 million request to bring software engineering and agriculture and food systems programs to the expanding University Center of North Puget Sound in Everett.
The university’s supplemental capital budget request for $5.3 million to design a new facility for the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab also is included. The lab is on the front lines of the state’s efforts to protect human health and the animal agriculture economy against zoonotic diseases such as West Nile Virus, Mad Cow Disease, Avian Flu and the like.
The lone policy item to make the university’s list of top four priorities is legislation to allow minors to taste but not consume alcohol in courses related to enology, viticulture, the culinary arts and related fields. Similar legislation was approved this year for community colleges.
The 2014 legislative session commences Jan. 13.