The House and Senate unveiled their Capital Budget proposals on Monday, both were heard yesterday in their respective committees and neither fully fund WSU’s capital priorities for 2025.
Both budgets include full funding for the Integrated Sciences Building design, construction, and demolition, which will begin the replacement of Heald Hall on the Pullman campus, totaling $25 million. They also included the design and construction of a new plant growth facility at the Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, for $10 million.
The House budget provides $37 million out of the requested $58 million to construct the Team Health Education Building in Spokane that was fully funded in the governor’s proposal and not included at all in the Senate.
The Senate did not include WSU Vancouver’s $3 million Chiller Plant upgrade, while the House did. The same can be said for the $5 million Clean Buildings Energy Upgrades request, which was included in both the governor’s and House budget proposals but not in the Senate proposal. The Senate proposal included full funding for the $3 million WADDL facility replacement in Puyallup, but the House did not. Funding to study a new dairy in Pullman was included in the Senate’s proposed budget and not included House proposal.
None of the proposals included funding for university requests for general classroom modifications, wireless internet upgrades across the WSU system, and repairs to the East Building lab at WSU Tri-Cities.
The Pullman campus is considered a covered entity under the cap-and-invest decarbonization law, which was passed by the Legislature in 2021. The Governor’s budget proposal included $17 million, however neither the House nor the Senate proposals funding to help move toward compliance.
You can find WSU’s testimony on the proposed Senate capital budget below:
You can find WSU’s testimony on the proposed House capital budget below: