Brief Description: Increasing the operating fee waiver authority for Central Washington University.

Sponsors: Senators Shin, Mulliken, Keiser, Carrell, Kohl-Welles and Benson.

Hearing Date: 2/21/06

Staff: Sarah Ream (786-7303).

Background:

The Legislature grants higher education institutions authority to waive all or a portion of tuition for certain types of students and for various purposes. Current waiver authority can be divided into three broad categories: state-supported waivers; discretionary waivers; and space-available
waivers.

When an institution grants a state-supported waiver, the state assumes that state General Fund dollars in the institution's base budget make up for lost tuition revenue. Institutions are limited, however, in the percentage of total tuition revenue they may waive in the state-supported category. These percentage caps were created in statute in 1992 based on the amount of tuition revenue each institution was waiving at that time. The caps for state-supported waivers are:

• 21 percent University of Washington;
• 20 percent Washington State University;
• 8 percent Central Washington University;
• 11 percent Eastern Washington University;
• 10 percent Western Washington University;
• 6 percent The Evergreen State College; and
• 35 percent community and technical college system.

More than 25 different state-supported waivers are authorized in statute. Within its overall cap, each institution decides how to apportion its total state-supported waiver authority between the various waivers permitted. Institutions are required to report state-supported waiver activity each biennium. For the 2004 fiscal year, $131 million was waived for 188,859 students in the state supported waiver category.

Summary of Bill:

Central Washington University's authority to waive operating fees revenue is increased from 8 percent to11 percent.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect on July 1, 2007.