Benefits have been increasing at much higher rates, mostly due to health insurance cost increases. While CWU benefits from the state’s large employee pool, the rates have been fairly unpredictable recently. On average, the health insurance rates passed on to CWU by the state have averaged 4.0-6.0 percent annual growth. As stated before, these wage-and-benefit increases place an implicit lien on future revenues. FY21 saw a 3.0 percent COLA for classified staff only, and the FY22 budget includes the same 3.0 percent COLA for faculty and exempt staff. The following chart shows total operating expense per student headcount, note the significant decrease in FY21 as expenses were trimmed due to fewer students overall and specifically fewer students on campus. The increase in FY22 is exacerbated by the resumption of activities on campus as well as an expected decline in students overall.
Total Operating Expenses per Student
4. The FY 2022 Operating Budget Taking into consideration the drivers discussed earlier, along with the anticipated state allotment, below is the FY22 operating budget compared to the preceding three years (FY19 and FY20 are actuals, FY21 is forecasted, FY22 is Budget). This data represents all operating fund groups and is portrayed as revenues and functional expenses.
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