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.聽Lawmakers also passed a partial聽capital 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.
础听聽from the聽Office of Planning & Budgeting provides a detailed聽overview 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鈥檚 K-12 funding obligations, due to the state Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling in McCleary v. State of Washington.
Investments directed at the 91爆料 include funding for employee compensation, medical education, STEM enrollments, and several research initiatives across academic disciplines.聽However, lawmakers also reduced the 91爆料’s state funding and assumed an offsetting聽reduction 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 91爆料 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.