April 28, 2025\u2014Yesterday afternoon the Legislature passed the state\u2019s 2025-27 operating, capital and transportation budgets, sending them to Governor Ferguson for action. In a year when the state faced the largest budget deficit since the Great Recession, the public four-year higher education system came in for a big share of cutbacks in the operating and capital budgets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the operating budget, Evergreen will take a 2% reduction in FY 2026 growing to a 5% reduction in FY 2027. These cuts reflect across-the-board reductions for the state\u2019s four-year sector as well as an Evergreen-specific cut of $2.8 million in the second year. The specific cut is meant to reflect Evergreen\u2019s enrollment losses from 2017 through 2021 and to bring Evergreen\u2019s per-student cost to the state closer to the average of the regional universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the capital budget, Evergreen was awarded $16.3 million. The budget includes money to begin designing a renovation of the third floors of Lab I and II. Evergreen will be able to maintain the college\u2019s infrastructure and keep the renovation of SEM 1 on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amid the austerity of the operating budget, there are some grace notes. The amount of the cut is far less than the 28% initially proposed by the House. Collective bargaining agreements to provide salary increases for represented staff of 3% in FY 2026 and 2% in 2027 were funded. The Legislature did not direct employee furloughs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evergreen\u2019s ground-breaking Shelton Promise scholarship program was fully funded, as well as $1.4 million to maintain work on IT upgrades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Washington College Grant scholarship, which is important for many Evergreen students, remains well funded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the legislative session, support for Evergreen grew in quality and quantity, with alumni effectively mobilized under the banner of the Evergreen Advocates<\/a>. We increased our contacts with legislators and staff and laid the foundation for deeper engagement over critical issues of per-student funding and enrollment growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Governor Ferguson now has 20 days to contemplate whether he will sign, veto, partially veto or just allow the budget to come into effect. A veto would mean bringing the Legislature back for a special session. <\/p>\n\n\n\n College leadership can now begin to weigh budget reduction options. Proposals will be shared by Week 9 of Spring quarter (week of May 26), so that the Evergreen Board of Trustees can consider spending plans in June. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 28, 2025\u2014Yesterday afternoon the Legislature passed the state\u2019s 2025-27 operating, capital and transportation budgets, sending them to Governor Ferguson for action. In a year when the state faced the largest budget deficit since the Great Recession, the public four-year… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5116,"featured_media":54,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}