BILL REQ. #:  H-2989.2 

Read first time 01/15/14.   Referred to Committee on Higher Education.

     AN ACT Relating to increasing transparency in higher education by requiring certain departmental budget detail to be available online; adding a new section to chapter 28B.10 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that transparency in higher education budgeting is essential to the maintenance of public trust in the higher education system. Such transparency is not only an appropriate check on future higher education cost increases, it should also counteract any perception that public institutions are not adequately accountable for student and taxpayer dollars. Therefore, to ensure general accessibility to meaningful budget information and to improve public confidence in the system, the legislature intends to require that departmental budgets of higher education institutions be posted on their respective web sites.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 28B.10 RCW to read as follows:
     Institutions of higher education shall post departmental budgets on their web sites within sixty days of an institution's approval of its budget as a whole. The budgets posted online must align with general higher education budgeting principles and with the departmental budgets approved by the institution of higher education's boards of regents or trustees.