Budget looking less bleak

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

Following Gov. Graves’ State of the State address, in which he outlined his budget proposal, things look a little less bleak for WSU’s budget.

Graves restored several items to his budget request being forwarded to the Legislature that the state budget office had not included in its earlier recom-mendations.

Restored items are:

• no base budget reductions for fiscal year 2001. The 1 percent reduction for FY 2000 was restored, meaning WSU should receive nearly $62.1 million.
  
  
• the approximate 2.5 percent step increase for classified employees and continuation of the longevity bonuses for classified employees.
  
  
• a 2.5 percent merit increase for unclassified employees and a similar increase for the budget base for student salaries.
  
  
• funding for the bill which reorganized higher education. The bill included $8.4 million for faculty salary increases. Combined with the 2.5 percent merit increase for unclassified employees, teaching and research faculty will be eligible for an average 5.9 percent salary increase in FY 2001.
  
  
• funding of tuition equity, which for WSU means a $158,000 increase in FY 2001. (Tuition equity means WSU gets an increase in state funds equal to 25 percent of the revenue generated from tuition increases.)
  
  
• authorizing a $1 per credit hour fee increase for libraries, but the state match was not recommended.

No increase was recommended for OOE (other operating expenditures).

Mary Herrin, associate vice president for administration and finance, and Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs Peter Zoller noted in the Jan. 24 Faculty Senate meeting that WSU still has to deal with the tuition shortfall issue. It will be reevaluated after the official 20th day of classes, when enrollment figures are reported.

WSU had been down 100 non-resident students in the fall, leaving a deficit of $440,000. Non-residents pay about 4.3 times more in tuition than residents.

Zoller said that while he couldn’t release enrollment figures until the official 20th day of classes (Feb. 14), administrators were "cautiously optimistic" that the tuition shortfall for FY 2000 won’t be as high as the originally projected $1.1 million deficit.

For legislative updates, check WSU’s governmental relations home page at www.twsu.edu/~relation/