UW does well in not so short 'short 'session
The 2000 Legislature finally wrapped up a “short” session - one regular session, two special sessions and countless squabbles after it began - last week with the UW bringing home money on two of three operating budget requests.
The University was awarded $450,000 for graduate student appointee health insurance and $375,000 for Internet connectivity. With uncertainty surrounding a session that was plagued by Initiatives 695 and 601, gridlock in the House, bickering between chambers, and various failed attempts at property-tax reduction, the UW’s effort can be considered a solid victory.
“To have no cuts and gain some additional funding was really significant,” Dick Thompson, director of the Office of Government Relations, said. “This was a grueling session, but we’re very pleased with the outcome. Now we have to start thinking about next year, which, honestly, is going to be even more difficult.”
The money for teaching and research assistants’ health insurance is intended to cover about one half of the increased costs for the package. The University will have to find the funds for the remaining $450,000 needed to cover the rising costs of health benefits.
The Internet connectivity money will help keep the UW on-line. That money comes on the heels of the $1.5 million granted for the same cause a year ago and despite some lawmakers’ objections to any additional funding. In fact, just one caucus - the House Democrats - included partial funding for the request in its initial budget proposal.
The UW had requested $889,000 for diversity outreach and minority student recruitment and, out of the capital construction budget, $3.5 million for design funding for the Life Sciences I and Kincaid Hall remodel projects. Both requests were denied with no one in Olympia including either in a budget proposal.
But Thompson was pleased the University sidestepped proposed cuts in both the budget and policy bills. The House Republican proposal, for example, included a cut of $1 million in the recruitment and retention salary funding. A bill sponsored in the Senate mandated no salary increases for state employees earning more than $40,000 annually. Fortunately for the UW, neither measure survived the session.
Finally, with just one expenditure granted by lawmakers out of the capital construction fund - money for the McNeil Island Correction Center for sexual predators - it was no surprise the UW’s request for design funding was denied.
“We weren’t expecting to receive that large amount of funding for a capital construction project during a supplemental session,” Thompson said of the request for design funding for the Life Sciences project. “But we were able to begin the discussion and hopefully that will help us next year.”
The University did receive authorization to move forward on several capital-improvement projects. The state agreed to provide bonding authority for Housing and Dining System revenues to fund the completion of Ethernet connectivity in the residence halls and to upgrade the food services at the HUB and in residence
halls. Permission was also granted to spend $16 million of Metropolitan Tract revenues on classroom upgrades and minor renovations. As a result, more than 100 classrooms across campus will be upgraded. ¶
Steve Hill