UWeek Vol.16, No.22 April 8, 1999

Salary hikes gain support in House budget proposals

Training topic: It’s Your Move

The biggest problem in youth sports: Mom and Dad

Group behaviors can determine survival in tough conditions

European cinema and ethnicity focus of film conference

Friendship is key to a successful marriage

Islamic scholar speaks on immigrants, new religions in lectures

Women in Leadership Roundtable set for April 29

Salary hikes gain support in House budget proposals

Two budget proposals recently released from the State House of Representatives include increased funding for the UW compared with the Gov. Gary Locke’s recommendations proposed last fall. House Republicans and Democrats presented their budgets separately this legislative session after disagreement on the level of spending in the supplemental budget created a stalemate on budget discussions in the evenly split House. Both parties came to an agreement on a joint capital budget last week that includes all the UW’s major capital project requests at various levels of funding.

Highlights of the House Republican and Democratic operating budgets include:

Salaries: The House Republican budget proposes a 3 percent annual increase for faculty and librarians and a 2 percent annual increase for professional and classified staff; the House Democratic budget includes a 3 percent annual increase for all state employees; the governor’s proposal recommends a 2 percent increase per year for all state employees.

Recruitment and Retention: The House Republican budget contains a $4.2 million recruitment and retention pool for the UW; the Democratic budget includes an $8.5 million UW recruitment and retention fund; the governor proposes $3.7 million for the UW pool with one-half of that amount funded by a tuition match.

Tuition: Both parties have proposed a tuition increase of 4 percent the first year and 3.2 percent the second with local authority to raise or lower tuition by an additional 2 percent each year. However, the House Republicans would allow tuition revenue to be used for an additional 1 percent annual salary increase for faculty and professional staff—the Democratic budget does not allow the use of any tuition revenue to fund salary increases. The governor proposes a tuition increase for undergraduate residents of up to 5 percent per year, set locally.

Enrollment: Both House budgets include 1,304 fully-funded FTE enrollments for the UW: 739 at Seattle, 241 at Bothell and 324 at Tacoma. The governor’s budget includes marginal funding for the same number of enrollments.

Technology: Both House budgets contain $3.9 million for the Gigapop (the high-speed hub that will connect the Northwest to the Next Generation Internet) and $3 million for Internet Connectivity (the cost of connecting the entire Pacific Northwest to the Internet backbone through the UW—formerly supported by federal grant funding.) The Advanced Technology Initiative (ATI) was funded in both budgets at different levels; $1 million in the Republican budget and $4 million in the Democratic budget for the UW. The governor did not recommend funding for the ATI.

“The Republican budget contains a lower recruitment and retention fund, but includes the ability to use tuition revenue to supplement salary increases. The Democratic budget does not allow us to use tuition revenue for salary increases, but gives us a substantial recruitment and retention pool,” commented Sherry Burkey, associate vice president for University Relations and director of Government Relations. “This is evidence that both parties have heard our message and recognize we have a salary problem and are trying to find ways to make some progress on reducing the salary disparity with our peers.”

The House Democrats funded several projects in conjunction with their theme “Investing in the New Washington Economy.” The ATI is part of their package. The House Democrats would allocate $4 million to the UW and $2 million to WSU to “create jobs and spin-off firms for the new economy and create benefits for precision agriculture and genetic forestry engineering.” The ATI has been part of the UW and WSU’s budget request for three years, and this is the first session it has been recognized in both Republican and Democratic budgets.

“We’re pleased House members recognize the exciting opportunities our ATI proposal can create,” said Kevin Evanto, associate director of Government Relations and Alumni Outreach. “We’re also grateful to the high-tech industry leaders who have been so supportive of this proposal which will enhance economic development in the state. Our WSU colleagues also have been excellent collaborators on this effort.”

Although House Democrats and Republicans released separate operating budget proposals, they came to an agreement on a capital budget, which passed unanimously out of committee and out of the House with only two dissenting votes. The House proposes funding for the following UW projects:

Suzzallo Library Renovation: $29.2 million (UW Request: $41.2 million). The House budget provides state funds for Suzzallo, but it is about $12 million below the UW request. The capital budget bill gives the UW authority to bond the remainder of the cost using local funds to pay the debt service.

Law School Building: The capital budget gives the UW authority to fund the $46 million needed for the Law School Building through local bonding (UW Request: $46 million in state funds, in addition to the $23 million in UW private contributions, for a total of $69 million).

Life Sciences I: $5.1 million in design funding (UW Request: $5.1 million)

UW Bothell Phase 2A: $43.5 million (UW Request: $53.5 million)

UW Tacoma Phase 2A: $34.4 million (UW Request: $76.4 million for both Phase 2A & 2B)

UW Tacoma Phase 3 Predesign: $500,000 (UW Request: $500,000)

Although the House capital budget gives the UW authority to bond the Law School Building and the remainder of the cost of Suzzallo with local bonding, the UW cannot locally bond both.

“The House capital budget includes all our major projects, but we’ve got some work to do on the details of the funding,” Burkey said. “We’re appreciative, however, that the House recognized the importance of all our major projects.”

The Senate’s operating and capital budgets are expected to be released sometime this week. ¶

Peggy O’Boyle Fine, Government Relations

University Week
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April 8, 1999