Valerie Ettenhofer
Staff Writer

It’s likely impossible to find a state budget that fits the interests of all groups, but this year college students in particular are facing a double-edged sword.

The budget for next year will be formed out of proposals negotiated by the state Senate, House of Representatives and Governor Jay Inslee. This year, each budget proposal leaves a different amount of room for higher education.

As it stands, Governor Inslee has proposed that tuition stay the same, while the Senate is pushing a bill that would decrease tuition by three percent. The House budget includes a three percent increase in tuition.

The Senate is proposing to cut local tuition by three percent, which may be a good deal for many students. However, this also means that Pierce College would lose three percent of its income, leading to budget cuts within the school.

According to faculty union president Beth Norman, programs such as the CTC Link project, which is meant to make transferring credits more efficiently, take their funding from tuition and could be affected by a decrease.

In a recent Student Government meeting, it was pointed out that any change will be better than last year’s 12% jump in tuition.

Under the Senate’s proposed budget, a student taking 15 credits would save about $40 per quarter. This is a nice chunk of change, but with thousands of students paying less, the lower rates will also likely lead to visible penny-pinching within the school’s budget.

Inversely, a tuition increase like that proposed by the House would likely cause a drop in enrollment. Recent skyrocketing tuition has already made community college prices more comparable to former prices of state universities.

The American Federation of Teachers released a statement on April 4, calling the Senate’s budget “unrealistic, unsustainable and unfair” and stating that “if the Senate Republican budget goes forward, it will wipe out any other so-called increases in higher education funding. The per-student funding for higher education in this state will drop from second to the last place in the nation. Quality and access are suffering at a time when our business community is begging for people with college degrees and certificates. “

The Senate did propose to add an additional $300 million increase to preserving higher education, and pledged $1.5 billion to K-12 education. Some of this will go toward a system of “momentum points,” a reward system of funding that gives schools a proportion of money based on the amount of students enrolled who are reaching specific benchmarks of success.

The House budget also includes this type of performance funding, though it is offering to divert 10 million dollars toward that effort in comparison to the Senate’s 36 million dollars.

However, the Senate also proposed cuts to community colleges. A statement from Joann Wiszmann, Vice President of Administrative services, explained that “over two years, the Senate would cut 11.6 million dollars” from community colleges across the state, with Pierce expected to take on about four percent of that cut.

On the other hand, House Democrats proposed a budget that would increase overall spending by ten percent compared to the Senate’s seven. This would include eliminating tax breaks to funnel money toward education; this may cause a rise or extension in taxes on beer, businesses and nonresident shoppers.

On the other hand, the House budget includes a three percent jump in tuition, which would increase potential revenue to the college, but could also push potential and returning students away from enrolling due to cost.

$1.9 billion dollars of the House proposal would go toward educational funding, much of it as a direct response to a state Supreme Court ruling that concluded that the state isn’t “adequately funding basic education,” according to “The News Tribune.”

Governor Inslee proposed a plan that is similar to and in support of the House budget. Under his plan tuition would stay the same while several tax breaks would end.

Each plan does include clear-cut benefits to community colleges, including new funding for nursing, aerospace and STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] programs, though it hasn’t been determined how much of these budget allocations Pierce College would receive.

There are high points for teachers as well, who will see an end to the three percent salary reduction that is currently in effect regardless of which budget plan is implemented.

Government budget negotiations are planned to continue in the upcoming weeks.