Wash. state lawmakers shopping for cash for education
SEATTLE (AP) - Lawmakers are making their holiday school funding wish list and it's a short one: please send cash.
They need the money to give every child free all-day kindergarten, to pay for bus service for about a million school children and to take the pressure off local tax levies that help pay for basic education.
A down payment on all of that will cost at least a billion dollars in the next biennium to answer the Supreme Court's orders to pay for the Legislature's own education reform plans by 2018.
The court's January decision in the so-called McCleary case - that the state is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to amply pay for basic public education - will shape nearly every action of the Legislature this year and for years to come.
The school funding lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts, education and community groups as well as parents sought to force the government to fulfill its obligations to the state's schools.
In the past decade, education spending has gone from close to 50 percent to just above 40 percent of the state budget, despite the fact that some education spending is protected by the constitution.
With the court decision hanging over them, lawmakers will face an even greater conundrum when they convene in January on how to pay for all those things while trying to fill yet another year of budget deficits.
State lawmakers have in recent years been dealing with large budget deficits, and earlier this year they cut $300 million in state funding.
They'll face another deficit of at least $900 million in January, and the state economic forecasters say yearly deficits should be expected to hang around for the foreseeable future.
A committee of lawmakers has been meeting since summer to discuss their options for responding to the ruling. The Joint Task Force on Education Funding basically has two choices: cut state spending or raise taxes or fees.
The long list of possible cuts include some options that are controversial. Those include cuts to the state higher education system, supervision of all parolees or preschool or health insurance for poor children.
"Most of this stuff is not going to happen. It just doesn't make sense," says Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina and the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
He acknowledged, however, that some of these ideas may end up in early budgets from the Legislature and the governor's office to generate discussion.
Hunter has a few other ideas - like eliminating the three-strikes sentencing rule and releasing enough inmates to close a prison - but none would bring enough money into the state treasury this year to make a dent in the total estimate of at least $4 billion to pay for the reforms required in the McCleary decision.
He said Gov. Chris Gregoire is right: the Legislature isn't going to find a way to fully fund basic education without new tax money.
Another way to potentially bring in more money while solving another of the court's complaints is the "levy swap," which governor-elect Jay Inslee criticized during the campaign as a tax increase.
The plan would replace some local property taxes with a statewide education property tax and essentially take tax money from property rich taxpayers and distribute it to areas with schools in greater need.
As the idea was presented last year by Hunter, the levy swap would likely raise taxes on some homeowners, but it would also make the state property tax system fairer by distributing the cost for education more evenly.
The school finance committee is looking at a number of ways to increase state tax revenue, including increasing the state sales, property or business taxes or eliminating loop holes or starting a state income tax.
Inslee has said he expects an improved economy, combined with more efficient state government would take care of most of the dollars needed to increase education spending.
Hunter said neither of the plans presented by the gubernatorial candidates is going to be enough to solve this year's budget problems. "We've made most of the cuts that you can make. We're facing an environment with very constrained choices," he said.
Meanwhile, Gregoire is deep into her own budget process. She, not the Legislature and not governor-elect Inslee, will write the first draft of the budget for the 2013-15 biennium.
Gregoire's aides said she will address the McCleary question, but how she will do that is still being discussed, said the governor's spokesman Cory Curtis and Ralph Thomas from the state Office of Financial Management.
They need the money to give every child free all-day kindergarten, to pay for bus service for about a million school children and to take the pressure off local tax levies that help pay for basic education.
A down payment on all of that will cost at least a billion dollars in the next biennium to answer the Supreme Court's orders to pay for the Legislature's own education reform plans by 2018.
The court's January decision in the so-called McCleary case - that the state is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to amply pay for basic public education - will shape nearly every action of the Legislature this year and for years to come.
The school funding lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts, education and community groups as well as parents sought to force the government to fulfill its obligations to the state's schools.
In the past decade, education spending has gone from close to 50 percent to just above 40 percent of the state budget, despite the fact that some education spending is protected by the constitution.
With the court decision hanging over them, lawmakers will face an even greater conundrum when they convene in January on how to pay for all those things while trying to fill yet another year of budget deficits.
State lawmakers have in recent years been dealing with large budget deficits, and earlier this year they cut $300 million in state funding.
They'll face another deficit of at least $900 million in January, and the state economic forecasters say yearly deficits should be expected to hang around for the foreseeable future.
A committee of lawmakers has been meeting since summer to discuss their options for responding to the ruling. The Joint Task Force on Education Funding basically has two choices: cut state spending or raise taxes or fees.
The long list of possible cuts include some options that are controversial. Those include cuts to the state higher education system, supervision of all parolees or preschool or health insurance for poor children.
"Most of this stuff is not going to happen. It just doesn't make sense," says Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina and the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
He acknowledged, however, that some of these ideas may end up in early budgets from the Legislature and the governor's office to generate discussion.
Hunter has a few other ideas - like eliminating the three-strikes sentencing rule and releasing enough inmates to close a prison - but none would bring enough money into the state treasury this year to make a dent in the total estimate of at least $4 billion to pay for the reforms required in the McCleary decision.
He said Gov. Chris Gregoire is right: the Legislature isn't going to find a way to fully fund basic education without new tax money.
Another way to potentially bring in more money while solving another of the court's complaints is the "levy swap," which governor-elect Jay Inslee criticized during the campaign as a tax increase.
The plan would replace some local property taxes with a statewide education property tax and essentially take tax money from property rich taxpayers and distribute it to areas with schools in greater need.
As the idea was presented last year by Hunter, the levy swap would likely raise taxes on some homeowners, but it would also make the state property tax system fairer by distributing the cost for education more evenly.
The school finance committee is looking at a number of ways to increase state tax revenue, including increasing the state sales, property or business taxes or eliminating loop holes or starting a state income tax.
Inslee has said he expects an improved economy, combined with more efficient state government would take care of most of the dollars needed to increase education spending.
Hunter said neither of the plans presented by the gubernatorial candidates is going to be enough to solve this year's budget problems. "We've made most of the cuts that you can make. We're facing an environment with very constrained choices," he said.
Meanwhile, Gregoire is deep into her own budget process. She, not the Legislature and not governor-elect Inslee, will write the first draft of the budget for the 2013-15 biennium.
Gregoire's aides said she will address the McCleary question, but how she will do that is still being discussed, said the governor's spokesman Cory Curtis and Ralph Thomas from the state Office of Financial Management.
HERE IT COMES....ANOTHER Â "It's For The Children" Campaign....
Â
(BTW: Not ONE CHILD will ever touch ONE PENNY of the funding)
Want to save the education system in Washington State? STOP immediately paying the exorbitant salaries of education administrators and STOP giving them bonuses and the other perks that are handed out freely while teachers are overlooked. Some of these "administrators" are running the school system into the ground and taking home HUGE salaries. Do we really need them? NO. Plain and simple.
This is the governments way of softening you up for a tax hike. Do it for "The Children"....
Can you guys please stop using all the dashes in your articles? Â It's really poor grammar and sets a bad example. Â Some people still care about things like basic grammar and proper writing, even if it is local news websites. Â
 @lakeview Are you the INTERNET GRAMMAR POLICE? People can write how ever they want to; how about YOU get hipper & learn to understand other types of writing styles!
Â
I have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM getting through spelling, punctuation, and idiom usage from other people's writings....
They're talking agout a sales tax on anything bought over the internet.
I love this stuff. Governments scrambling for money. I can only hope it continues for decades.
In this case. I get to sit it out as I have no dog in the fight.
Get over your selves up there in Olympia and take a Pay Cut! or we the voters will vote you in to one.
the money's been there, it's just been pulled off to fund other projects. Â How's about cutting the other projects first, spending the school money on SCHOOLS and then see where the budget stands? Â
Oh yeah... I forgot! Â It's so much more effective to blackmail the taxpayer with "our schools are suffering."
No one would vote for more boondoggle BS which is where the school money went!!!!!!Â
Cut out the free bus service.
 @bOB then people in Rural areas would have no schools, we would need to build Schools, and that would cost more money. Any other bright Ideas? HUD has already had a 10 percent Cut n there funding from Feds, so in 3-4 years there maybe no more HUD. States will have to re-divert cash to help other areas. And will have to boost cash to food subsidies program and when that is stressed.
Inf act all of the older programs that have been positive anchors for our communities are losing funding and guess what you think homeliness is bad now wait until everything runs out of money. Guess what..Were not in a recession any more were in a depression.
Just be thank full that that not every American has been placed on a Voucher for food, gas and other rations and that very well could become case if things do not shape up.
 @lee986321  @bOB They could always be home-schooled.
 @Jamie  @bOB The state could take a paycheck cut.
 @Jamie  @bOB I take it though you never been in the country at where the buses service. There are also kids t this day that still live on farms and such.
 @Jamie  @bOB Oh and Linux has a lot of "Free" educational software to. Edubuntu has a great deal in the way of resources.
Or we could take the entire educational system online. Still students would gather for science and other projects at a general assembly if need be. Now that People can even access the web through satellite systems education online could be done. or parents could hire a private tutor.
 @Jamie  @bOB Perhaps all should be home schooled them we would not have this mess.I fact home schooling could place those not home schooled at a disadvantage.