In the past, Washington state funding made up two-thirds of the University of Washington’s total revenue, but was cut in half during the 2008 economic recession. Funding decreased by $132 million, a higher cut than any other college in Washington state. In recent years, UW administration’s advocacy for increases redirected these numbers back to nearly pre-recession levels.
Today, state funding reaches 1990 levels while UW enrolls 10,000 more students than it did 30 years ago, according to UW Impact.
Joe Dacca, director of state relations at UW, explained the past two decades of UW state funding history.
“It was generally viewed that the UW had a greater capacity — essentially, a greater market — to raise tuition to make up for those cuts,” Dacca said. “So we raised tuition higher than other places, and it started this trend of a reliance on tuition revenue. I think in the abstract, that made sense at that time.”
In 2025, goals for UW administration in Olympia could bring parts of state funding back to pre-recession levels. This would impact the direction of resident undergraduate tuition raises and retainment of university professors. House Bill 2158, passed in 2019, also made for a new streamline of higher education funding, impacting college students across Washington state.
When Dacca stepped into his position in 2016, UW increasingly pushed legislation to raise funding with Dacca as part of the leading force.
There has been an increase in state funding since, and currently it is solely in the area of compensation raises — the annual increase in salaries for all levels of staff.
In 2018, per UW administration request, state funding increased to cover 50% of “state-authorized expenses” from what at the time was one-third state coverage.
According to 2018 records requesting the increase, the one-third funding caused UW to “draw down emergency reserves and divert major resources” to fulfill the 2% raise for faculty and professional staff for that year.
During the most recent biennium proposed budget for 2023-25, Gov. Jay Inslee proposed $26.9 million to increase the state funding of this bucket to two-thirds of the total.
“Our top agenda item for this coming legislative session is to get the state to cover the entire cost of those raises, which is essentially what they did before the Great Recession,” Dacca said. “[Then], the goal is to keep it there.”
Dacca explained that full state funding for compensation raises would help UW retain its professors and hire more as retirement spots open — as the cost of living in Seattle continues to rise, salary offers must also rise in order to be competitive with other universities.
Student tuition would not be lowered. The increased funding is solely for compensation raises, and tuition largely funds staff compensation as a whole, as well as other fees.
“It would keep us away from those huge spikes,” Dacca said. “Further state support keeps the cost predictable, no matter what your income or your family income is.”
When Washington state funding to universities was cut back in 2008, families saw double-digit percentage increases in tuition to make up for some of the lost money. Today, legislation keeps annual tuition raises for resident undergraduates capped at 2-3%, determined annually by the average of Washington’s median hourly wage over the past 14 years. The challenge is that while UW received larger cuts than other universities in 2008, the same tuition cap for other universities still applies.
“Why has this hung around this way for so long?” Dacca said. “Number one, they have a lot of needs that they have to fund. The other thing is, compensation for higher education employees is not, like, the sexiest thing. This is a long issue that’s really important to us, and people have listened, really helped us on it, championed it and been great, but it’s never going to be anybody’s top priority on their session newsletter.”
Funding to higher education saw major state-wide action in 2019, when the Workforce Education Investment Act passed. The bill set up scholarships for financial aid specifically to grow high-demand professional programs in health care, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The bill also expanded the preexisting State Need Grant, guaranteeing 110,000 eligible resident students under the median family income coverage of full or partial tuition.
Democratic 43rd Legislative Rep. Frank Chopp sponsored the 2019 House Bill 2158.
“We feel really proud about it, because it met the needs of students and the economy together,” Chopp said.
The bill will distribute $1 billion within the next four years to community colleges and four-year universities across the state, according to UW Impact, who advocated for the bill.
Democratic 43rd Legislative Rep. Jamie Pedersen has been in legislative leadership since his election in 2013, working closely with the Washington state budget.
“We are facing a roughly $10 billion shortfall in the operating budget over the next four years, and about an $8 billion shortfall in the transportation budget over the next 10 years,” Pedersen said. “I would not count on this being a year for major new investments in higher education.”
Pedersen highlighted that the state investments made to higher education are discretionary. They come from a general fund and depend on whether or not there is budget surplus.
Three initiatives that were on the General Election ballot this fall affect the state budget.
“The capital gains tax [No. 2109], the climate commitment act [No. 2117], and the long-term care tax [No. 2124] — although they’re not directly about higher education, they absolutely have an effect on higher education,” Pedersen said.
The 2025 Washington state legislative session begins Jan. 13, 2025.
Reach reporter Annika Hauer at [email protected]. X:@annika_hauer
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