The state Senate on Thursday passed their proposed operating budget, Senate Bill 6002, off the floor with a vote of 41-8 and on Friday passed their proposed capital budget, Senate Bill 6020, with a vote of 31-18.
WSU’s top operating and top capital budget requests were funded in the Senate proposals:
- $750,000 to WSU, $500,000 of which would be ongoing funding annually, to provide a match for grant funding WSU will receive as part of its recent designation by the Federal Aviation Administration as a Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuel and the Environment. The money would be routed through the state’s Office of Financial Management and would be subject to the Office of the State Auditor executing a contract with a private firm to conduct a 10-year audit of various funds at Washington’s six public baccalaureate institutions.
Securing the matching funds is the university’s top legislative priority because of the federal and private research funds they would leverage.
- $5.3 million for WSU to design a new facility for the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. The funding was not included in the original version of the proposal but was added in the Ways and Means Committee. 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 others. Caseloads have grown fivefold since existing facilities opened in 1978 and accreditors have warned that new facilities are needed.
The full House will vote on its proposed operating and capital budgets in the coming days. Once passed, budget writers will begin negotiations on a final compromise budget.