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With about 30 hours left until the Legislature’s
deadline (midnight, March 11) to complete business in
this 2010 Regular Legislative Session, speculation of a
necessary Special Session has changed from “potential”
to “appears certain.” Speculation now turns to
when a Special Session will be called. We will keep you
apprised.
So, what’s the hang-up? Of course, the major
issues continue to be an agreement between the House and
Senate on a compromise 2010 Supplemental Operating
Budget and an agreement on a tax package to fund a final
budget. There are three major components that need
agreement:
- The total amount of spending (and on what) in
the budget. The House budget allocates approximately
$31.07 billion compared to the Senate’s proposed
$30.52 billion;
- The total amount of new revenue (and from what
taxes) to fund the budget. The House revenue plan
would raise $680 million from eliminating tax
loopholes and exemptions and a menu of tax changes,
increases or extensions. The Senate plan would raise
$890 million from similar tax loophole and tax
exemption repeals and a three-tenths of a cent
increase in the state sales tax.
- The total amount of money left in an ending fund
balance.
It has been very difficult to reach agreement WITHIN
each house in order to garner the majority votes
necessary (50 in the House; 25 in the Senate) to adopt
budgets and tax packages. The job of reaching agreement
BETWEEN the two houses has been even more difficult —
and apparently will force the Legislature into an
overtime session.
Disagreement about policy issues continue to slow
down legislators as well, including two major education
issues,
SB 6696 (Race To The Top) and
HB 2776 (prototypical school model). The House has
rejected Senate amendments to HB 2776 and the Senate has
rejected House amendments to SB 6696 (which includes
language from HB 2776). House members have cautioned
that both bills need to be passed — or neither bill will
pass. Senate members have stated they support both
bills, but want them to be debated and voted on
separately. The House wants bill language that will
commit additional funding to K-12 education, including
the reduction of class sizes and additional funding for
maintenance, supplies and operating costs (formerly
known as Non-Employee Related Costs or NERCS). The
Senate says that before additional funding can be
committed, the state needs to find a new dedicated
source of money for public schools.
The dispute about SB 6696 and HB 2776 appears to be
great enough that both bills could die. A major
proponent of SB 6696, however, is Gov. Gregoire. In the
past two days, she has reiterated her strong support for
the passage of a bill and has essentially threatened a
Special Session just to deal with this issue. She has
called SB 6696 a “go home” issue and has clearly stated
adoption of the education reform bill is “an essential
piece before anyone goes home.”
Other important action in the past few days:
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SB 6604 (education flexibility) – The Senate
refused to concur with House amendments to SB 6604.
Remember, SB 6604 is the bill that would repeal,
suspend or amend a series of education unfunded
mandates. As adopted by the House, only two issues
remain in the bill: limiting the current Student
Learning Plan requirement to eighth grade students
who have not successfully passed state assessments;
and making some of the current “Becca” truancy
provisions optional. Becca is a hot-button issue for
several senators and it is presumed the added
truancy provisions are the hang-up.
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SB 6702 (juveniles in adult jails) – The bill
would provide for a program of education for
juveniles confined in adult jail facilities. The
Senate concurred with House amendments and the bill
will be sent to the governor for her action.
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SB 6381 (transportation budget) – SB 6381 is the
2010 Supplemental Transportation Budget.
Occasionally there is education-related funding in
the transportation budget; however, there are no
changes for K-12 education in this package.
Yesterday, the Senate concurred with House
amendments and the amended budget will be sent to
the governor for action. While this budget does not
impact K-12 education this year, it is one of three
budgets that legislators need to act upon and final
action is an important piece to closing the
Legislative Session.
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SB 6364 (capital budget) – SB 6364 is the second
of the three budgets legislators will act upon. This
afternoon, the Senate adopted its budget proposal
and sent the bill to the House for its action. There
are K-12 education reductions in the budget;
however, the largest cuts (made to the School
Construction Assistance Grant program) are not
intended to reduce or eliminate any school
construction projects currently in the pipeline.
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