New Washington budget cuts college tuition

SEATTLE — The Washington Legislature has passed a budget that will cut tuition for 200,000 college students in the state.

Students at the University of Washington and Washington State University will get at 15% tuition cut over the next two years.

The other four year schools will get a 20 percent cut.

The cuts will be phased-in beginning with a 5 percent reduction this year.

The community and technical colleges will get a 5 percent reduction for the school year starting in 2015.

“It was an absolutely priority this session for Senate Republicans to reduce college tuition, that's never happened anywhere nationally and we were able to win on that issue,” said Republican Senator Mike Baumgartner from Spokane.

Republicans originally proposed a tuition cut of 25 percent, but Democrats said there wasn’t enough money to pay for such a large reduction.

“We are closing some tax loopholes that generates enough revenue to pay for lowering some tuition,” said Democrat Ross Hunter, the House Appropriations Chair.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee staff provided a table that shows how much students will save at each school.

KIRO