Welcome to Western’s state relations blog!

This blog is intended to help keep you informed about WWU’s 2015 state legislative agenda and news from the State Legislature affecting Western’s priorities and higher education in Washington State.

The legislative session is scheduled to begin next week, so let’s begin with an overview of the Washington State Legislature and the state’s biennial legislative process.

The Legislature consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are a total of 49 Legislative Districts (LD’s) in Washington State, with one senator and two representatives being elected from each district. Bellingham is located in both the 40th LD and the 42nd LD. You can learn more about the elected officials that represent these districts by clicking here.

Legislative sessions in Washington are defined by the two-year period in which bills are considered, known as the biennium. The first year occurs in odd-numbered years and lasts 105 calendar days, while the legislative session during even-numbered years lasts 60 calendar days. Each session begins on the second Monday in January, with the 2015 legislative session being scheduled to begin on January 12th and conclude on April 26th.

The Legislature is tasked with approving a biennial budget during odd-numbered years. This process begins with the Governor releasing a proposed budget to the Legislature and concludes with both the House and the Senate voting to approve an identical budget. Passing the state’s budget is one of the most important tasks of the Legislature. In odd-numbered years three budgets are passed that together make up the state’s biennial budget: Operating, Capital, and Transportation.

On December 18th, Governor Jay Inslee released his proposed operating and capital budgets. For higher education in general, the Governor proposes to freeze tuition rates for undergraduate resident students for the 2015-17 biennium and to increase compensation for represented and non-represented higher education employees by 3% in FY 2015 and by 1.8% in FY 2016. His operating budget also includes $100 million for the Opportunity Scholarship, $25.5 million for the College Bound Scholarship, and targeted increases for STEM degrees, job training and basic education.

For Western, the Governor’s budget includes some promising recommendations, but presents difficult budgetary challenges as well.  Western is strongly committed to keeping higher education affordable for students and families, and we welcome the Governor’s proposed freeze on undergraduate, resident tuition for this reason.  But unless tuition freezes are backfilled with adequate state funding, the end result is a net cut to Western’s budget. This is the case with the Governor’s budget proposal.

Here are some useful links for more information about the state budget process and the legislative process in Washington State, and for information about House and Senate committee memberships for the 2015 legislative session.

Thank you for following Western’s state relations blog. We look forward to providing you with updates from the Legislature and information regarding Western’s priorities all session long.