To the WSU Community:

On Sunday, the Washington Legislature completed work on the state's operating and capital budgets, giving us the details we need to plan WSU's 2009-2011 budgets. The Legislature's budgets are now being advanced to Governor Gregoire.

As I mentioned in my letter on Friday, we are analyzing the operating budget as we prepare to release our preliminary budget plan on May 1. As a reminder, here are the key points of the operating budget:

• The budget includes a biennial reduction of 21.5 percent in our state allocation, equivalent to $112.3 million;
• The budget assumes a 14 percent tuition increase for resident undergraduates for each of the two years of the biennium. This equates to about $42.4 million in additional revenue for the university over the biennium; and
• With the addition of tuition and one-time federal stimulus money, the net overall budget reduction for WSU equates to 10.38 percent or $54.2 million over the biennium. On an annualized basis, this means we must reduce our budget by about $27 million for each of the next two years.

We are all painfully aware of the economic difficulties facing our state and nation. Under those fiscal conditions, the Legislature did the best it possibly could do to protect higher education.

There is, however, good news in the capital budget with support for four new buildings on three WSU campuses. The capital budget includes the following:

• $36.7 million for construction of the Vancouver Applied Technology Classroom Building;
• $6.2 million of a $10 million match necessary to begin construction of the Global Animal Health building, Phase I, on the Pullman campus; and
• Design funds to enable construction to begin in two years or less on the $96 million Pullman Veterinary Medical Research Building and the $45 million Riverpoint Biomedical and Health Sciences Building at WSU Spokane.

Following release of our preliminary budget plan on May 1, we will gather input on that plan through the month of May, with a goal of finalizing it around June 1. We will have a Budget Forum at noon on May 4 at the CUB for your input. Comments and suggestions can also be submitted via the University Budget Committee's Web site beginning May 1.

Once again, thank you for all you do for WSU and for your patience as we work through this complex process.

Sincerely,

Elson S. Floyd, Ph.D.
President