Leadership in the House and Senate released a 2017-19 compromise state operating budget on June 30, 2017 in the form of . The Governor signed the budget less than an hour before midnight, narrowly avoiding a partial state government shutdown.ÌýLawmakers also passed a partialÌýcapital budget that reappropriates unspent capital funding from the 2015-17 biennium, which allows previously authorized projects to continue into the new biennium, but does not make new appropriations for 2017-19.
´¡ÌýÌýfrom theÌýOffice of Planning & Budgeting provides a detailedÌýoverview of the final compromise operating budget and partial capital budget. We expect that a compromise 2017-19 capital budget will be released within a couple weeks, and will update the brief at that time.
The final compromise operating budget represents a middle ground between budget proposals released by the Governor, House and Senate earlier this session. The budget maintains current tuition policy, allowing for a 2.2 percent resident undergraduate tuition increase in FY18. Lawmakers made significant investments to maintain and expand state programs, especially in K-12 education. As a reminder, this budget cycle largely focused on meeting the state’s K-12 funding obligations, due to the state Supreme Court’s ruling in McCleary v. State of Washington.
Investments directed at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ include funding for employee compensation, medical education, STEM enrollments, and several research initiatives across academic disciplines.ÌýHowever, lawmakers also reduced the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ’s state funding and assumed an offsettingÌýreduction in tuition waived for graduate students. They also instituted a new charge to state agencies for services provided by the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM), which will result in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ having to use $3 million in student tuition revenue over the biennium to support OFM instead of the University’s academic mission.
Please contact Jed Bradley if you have any questions.