Legislature's failure to pass a budget will not result in a shutdown or layoffs at WWU

The Washington State Legislature is in its second 30-day special session and has yet to finalize a budget for the 2017-19 biennium.  As you may have heard from media reports, failure of the Legislature to pass a budget by the end of the fiscal year on June 30 could result in a shutdown of some operations in state government.   Should that happen, there will be no shut down of operations at Western Washington University and no employee layoffs.  Western’s administration has made contingency plans to rely on other financial resources that will enable continuation of normal operations.

The Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) expects an operating budget to be passed by June 30; however, they are implementing contingency planning in the event a budget is not approved before the end of the current fiscal year.   It is prudent that Western do the same.  At the June WWU Board of Trustees meeting next week, the Board will be asked to approve a motion authorizing Western to continue operations with non-state funds should a state budget not be passed by June 30.

Western, like OFM, remains optimistic that a budget resolution will be achieved soon.  Each day that passes creates more difficulty for our students and their families and for the University in planning for the upcoming academic year. 

Campus budget meetings and a special Board of Trustees meeting are tentatively scheduled to allow swift turnaround if the Legislature passes a budget by the end of June (see calendar here.)  If a Legislative budget is not approved by June 30, the planning calendar will be revised and distributed to campus.