Western officials have plans for 83 facilities-related projects in the next six years, but it could be two years before officials can move forward on any of them.

On Oct. 30, the Board of Regents approved a six-year capital plan that lists plans for construction, renovation and other projects through 2016.

But last week, President Gary Ransdell said it’s unlikely that the state legislature will fund any of them in its session this spring because other colleges are competing for state money, and the state’s budget is already tight.

That means the earliest the projects could progress is the 2012 budget cycle, when Western will again submit a capital plan to legislators, Ransdell said.

Western’s top priority is renovating Thompson Complex Central Wing. Other projects include a new building for the Gordon Ford College of Business and improving the electrical infrastructure of campus.

Western submits a capital plan that lists Western’s priorities for future construction projects every two years, said Bryan Russell, director of Planning, Design and Construction.

“It’s a long-term plan of what we’d like to do for the university,” he said.

Planning, Design and Construction works with faculty and staff to see which projects they would like to have done, Russell said.

For example, there might be a program that has grown so much that it needs a new building, as is the case for the business college, he said.

Western’s list of construction priorities is submitted to the Council on Postsecondary Education first, which takes the project requests from all state colleges and ranks them, Ransdell said. CPE’s recommendation is taken to the state legislature for approval.

“The general assembly trusts the CPE to be objective,” Ransdell said. “It takes the institutional politics out of it more.”

There will never be a time when all of the projects Western submits will be funded, and usually a project must be submitted several times before it’s funded by the state, said Robbin Taylor, vice president for Public Affairs, in an e-mail.

But it’s important to present the projects to the state as early as possible, because all capital projects that cost more than $600,000 must be approved by state legislators, Taylor said.

Western ranks the capital construction projects by balancing the likelihood of getting the money with how much Western needs the projects, Ransdell said.

Officials rearrange priorities based on where projects are on CPE’s list, he said.

For example, the new business college construction ranked high on CPE’s list, so it was moved up on Western’s priority list.

CPE approved its recommendation on Friday, and the council’s list will be submitted to the legislature in January, Ransdell said.

CPE’s list of facilities projects for state colleges includes three projects from Western’s Six-Year Capital Plan, according to CPE’s budget reccomendation on capital investments. Number two on CPE’s list is the Owensboro Technology Center, which is a joint project between Western and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Thompson Complex’s renovation is ranked number five on CPE’s list, and the business college is number 13.

Western officials will know in April if any of the university’s projects will receive funding.