Proposed Budgets: What We Know

The Senate and the House have released their operating and capital budget proposals as of this week, the week of March 27. How do our lawmakers support access and affordability, high-demand degrees, and quality and excellence at the UW? Here is what we know at first glance:

• Both budgets fund the compensation request, making it easier for the UW to attract and retain world-class faculty.
• Both chambers invested in high-demand degree expansion on all 3 campuses, though the Informatics major expansion request at the Seattle campus was not included.
• The Senate’s capital budget funded all of the UW’s building/infrastructure requests, including $58M for a significant renovation of the Magnuson Health Sciences teaching facility.
• The House capital budget did not fund Phase II of the wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House, while the Senate fully funded this request.
• Both budgets fell significantly short of the request for ongoing support for UW Medicine, following the massive COVID response of the past few years and ongoing regional needs.
• The House funded student support services at UW Tacoma only, but not at the Seattle or Bothell campuses.
• Funding for the RIDE rural dentistry program was missing from the Senate budget and only partially funded in the House.

What comes next? We will continue to analyze the budgets this week and will provide a more detailed assessment once the budget bills have been considered in executive committee and any adjustments have been made. Next week, we’ll be ready to contact our elected officials to both thank them for what’s good in their proposals and to share what we’d like to see in the final compromise budget. Stand by!