Just three days after the Washington state Senate and House of Representatives first released plans for drastically decreased operating budgets, they came out with what Senate Capital Chairwoman Karen Fraser, D-Olympia, called the happy budget.

“Monday we heard about the sad budget, so today we introduced the happy budget,” she said according to a WSU news release Thursday.

Fraser was referring to WSU’s capital budget, which primarily funds construction.

As with the plans for the operating budget, the Senate’s was much more optimistic than those of the House, providing initial funds for four buildings, while the House plan would fund only one of WSU’s four major construction projects, according to the news release.

Under Proposed Substitute Senate Bill 5222, WSU could begin construction this summer on a $43.5 million WSU-Vancouver building and a $35 million WSU-Pullman Global Animal Health building. The House did not approve funding for the WSU-Vancouver building and provided less funding for the Global Animal Health Building.

According to the release, the Vancouver building is a top priority for WSU.

The Senate proposal also provides funds for the design stage of two future construction projects. The projects include the Riverpoint Biomedical and Health Sciences Building at WSU-Spokane and the Veterinary Medical Research Building in Pullman. In the Senate’s plan, $4.34 million and $7.4 million would be allocated for planning the two buildings, which will cost about $45 million and $88 million, respectively.

Under the House plan, there would be no design funding for either of the buildings.

If approved, the Senate’s capital construction budget would total $115.7 million, while the House budget would provide just more than half as much funding, at $58.1 million.

The prospective Biomedical and Health Sciences Building in Spokane will also house research programs for Eastern Washington University.

According to the news release, WSU praised the creativity of Proposed Senate Bill 5222.

In addition, the plans of the House and Senate both provide $27.6 million for critical minor works, such as repairing leaky roofs on existing buildings and installing fire-suppression systems, among other things.

WSU would receive an additional $17.5 million for minor works under the Senate plan for improvements including disability access and resizing classrooms. The House plan provides $9 million for the same improvements.