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After yesterday’s Update was prepared, the House
acted on one bill of interest,
HB 1418. HB 1418 is a reintroduced bill from last
session which would create a statewide dropout
reengagement system for youth aged 16 to 21 who have
dropped out of school or are not expected to graduate by
age 21. The bill passed the full House with a vote of
96-2 and now moves to the Senate for its action.
This afternoon, the Senate adopted
SB 6533. SB 6533 would allow high school credits to
be provided for physical education, visual and
performing arts, and elective requirements for
educational experiences selected by parents and
students. The bill passed the Senate with no dissenting
votes and moves to the House. It has been scheduled for
a public hearing in the House Education Committee on
Friday, Feb. 19.
Today is another cut-off day. Bills that have not
passed from their “house of origin” (that is, House
bills from the House and Senate bills from the Senate)
by tonight’s deadline are technically dead for the
session. Of course, budget bills and bills considered
“necessary to implement the budget” continue to be
exempt from these early deadlines. Beginning tomorrow
morning, the action returns to legislative committees.
All committees will have full agendas as they try to
quickly hear and move opposite house bills before the
next series of
cut-off dates. All Senate policy bills must be out
of their assigned House policy committees by Tuesday,
Feb. 23 in order remain alive. All Senate fiscal-related
bills must be out of House appropriations committees by
Thursday, Feb. 25 in order to remain alive. Friday, Feb.
26 is the last day for House policy bills to be adopted
by Senate policy committees. Fiscal bills then have
until Monday, March 1, to be adopted by the Senate Way &
Means, House Ways & Means and House Capital Budget
Committees.
We continue to await news of a Senate budget. Several
days ago we had heard that the Senate would release its
version of a 2010 Supplemental Operating Budget
tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 17. Recently, we have received
signals that release date may be pushed back to
Thursday, Feb. 18 — and now there are rumblings that a
Senate proposal may not be unveiled until next week.
Regardless of the release date, there remain concerns
about how harsh the plan will be to K-12 education, as
we continue to hear that “everything is on the table.”
Revenue solutions continue to be very elusive as well.
The Legislature has moved
SB 6130, which suspends Initiative 960’s hurdles to
adopting taxes. Last week the full Senate adopted the
bill and the House Finance Committee moved the bill from
Committee on Saturday. After the full House takes action
on the bill (adoption is a near-certainty), the path
will be cleared for a legislatively approved tax
package. What that tax package may look like is still
anybody’s guess, as it remains very difficult to find 50
votes in the House and 25 votes in the Senate for any
plan that will raise sufficient revenue to avoid many of
the potential devastating budget cuts being discussed.
Revenue bills include plans to: close tax loopholes and
eliminate tax exemptions; temporarily increase the state
sales tax; increase the state estate tax on “high wage
earners;” and extend the sales tax to candy and gum.
Gov. Gregoire was rumored to be releasing her proposal
for a tax package today; however, that never
materialized. Senate leadership had requested that she
not unveil her plans at the same time they planned to
release a budget. It is unclear if she simply has
postponed the release of her plan or if she has changed
her mind about introducing her own tax package. Of
course, we’ll provide information on all of these budget
issues as soon as we have information to pass along.
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