The state’s looming budget shortfall got bigger Friday after the release of a new report by the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council showed declines fueled by slowing economic activity of $427 million for the two-year budget cycle that ends next June and $450 million for the one that begins next July. That’s out of […]
As many as 300 producers and other observers descended upon WSU’s research farm in Othello for the country’s largest annual potato field day. Raj Khosla, dean of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, gave a welcome before potato growers were turned loose on the fields at the 427-acre site. More than 100 […]
Budget writers in the House and Senate unveiled operating budget proposals Monday that would yield new reductions for WSU. Though both proposals rely on substantial tax packages to narrow this year’s budget gap, the two chambers took different approaches to higher education funding. The Senate plan ultimately includes about $11.8 million in general appropriation reductions […]
WSU’s new collective bargaining agreement with academic student employees is partially funded under an operating budget proposal introduced in the state House on Monday but not funded in a Senate proposal released over the weekend. The budgets were austere given modest tax collections in recent months, increasing caseloads on current state programs like the Washington […]
In its January monthly update, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council announced last week that tax collections from the months of December and January came in $62.2 million or one percent above what was forecasted in November. For the month of January, collections decreased by 4.1 percent or $99.1 million due to lower […]
State tax collections continued to climb higher than anticipated last month, according to a revenue update released yesterday by the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. Collections for the period of July 11 to August 10 came in $81.2 million or 3.6 percent above the previous forecast, released in June, according to the report. Combined […]
WSU Professor Margaret Wild presented before the Cowlitz County commissioners yesterday evening in the final installment of a three day series of community presentations throughout western Washington, where she shared her research team’s investigation into a wildlife disease that can render elk lame and often lead to death. Treponeme-associated hoof disease (TAHD) or elk hoof […]
Gov. Jay Inslee and First Spouse Trudi Inslee stopped in for a tour of the WSU Bee Program in Othello on Tuesday afternoon, meeting with WSU researchers to discuss challenges facing pollinators which in some cases has led to colony collapse disorder and the strategies being organized to aid them. Honey bees are relied on […]
The state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council adopted an updated revenue outlook last Tuesday, which projects an increase of $341 million to the state’s 2021-23 biennial budget and an increase of $327 million to the 2023-25 biennial budget. The underlying budget for the 2023-25 biennium is now projected to be $66 billion. The increase is […]
On Saturday, June 10th Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, visited WSU’s Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, where the Cosmic Crisp apple and WA-64 apple were created. Their visit to the to R&E Center was to see first-hand the needs of the nearly 70-year-old […]