Budget Office releases summaries of state budget proposals

Western Today staff

June 14, 2013

The Washington State Legislature started a second 30-day special session on June 12 after reaching the end of the first special session with no budget consensus. Over the past two weeks, each legislative body passed new budgets, which are summarized below and in the Western Washington University Budget Office's customary chart.

House Proposed Budget (as compared to original proposal)

  • Decreased tuition increase from 5 percent to 3 percent each year
  • Maintained campus authority to set tuition rate with requirement to increase financial aid
  • Maintained additional appropriation of $934,000 for computer science; and proviso that $5,958,000 of state funding be used solely for expansion of computer science and engineering
  • Additional tax bill which would provide added dollars to Western for STEM

Senate Proposed Budget (as compared to original proposal)

  • No change to tuition increase – stays at 0 percent
  • Maintained campus authority to set tuition rate with requirement to increase financial aid
  • Withdrew language regarding administrative efficiencies, and decreased addition to base funding by $742,000 to effectively keep the appropriation level of new funding to $4,516,000
  • Maintained the foreign student surcharge
  • Maintained one-time performance funding of $2,485,000

Western President Shepard, the vice presidents and the deans met this week to review and evaluate budget scenarios based on the latest legislative proposals. The budget office has revised the budget planning calendar to move swiftly once an approved budget is announced by Olympia. The plan allows for continuing our open and transparent planning process culminating in a campus comment period before the president recommends the final fiscal year 2013-14 budget to the Board of Trustees at a special public board meeting tentatively scheduled for mid-July. This timeline is predicated on a legislative budget being approved by the end of June. If a budget is not approved through the Legislature by the end of June, a revised schedule will be developed and distributed to campus.