WAWG
By Diana Carlen
WAWG Lobbyist
Last Friday marked the end of the third week of the legislative session. The first legislative deadline is fast approaching. All policy bills must make it out of their policy committee of house of origin (i.e. Senate bills must pass out of their Senate policy committee and House bills must pass out of their House policy committee) by Feb. 5, 2016. Any policy bills that have not moved out of their original committee by this Friday will be dead for this session. This will drastically reduce the list of bills that are likely to move this session. The only legislation that this deadline does not apply to are budgets and fiscal bills necessary to implement the budget. In addition, initiative measures before the Legislature (i.e. the carbon tax initiative) are not subject to the deadlines and can be brought up at any time.
While there have been a lot of public hearings on bills this year, expectations are low that much will be accomplished this session. Last week, the Governor’s Chief of Staff and Legislative Policy Director spoke at AWB’s Power Lunch. They said the most successful people this session will be those that are not asking for anything legislatively. One of the biggest issues before the Legislature is paying for the $180 million in costs accrued fighting the historic wildfires last summer in our state. The Governor’s Office said this may need to be paid out of the state’s rainy day fund since there is not an appetite to raise taxes or cut programs. The Governor wants any remaining money in the supplemental budget to go towards mental health funding, including staffing at Western State Hospital.
The most dominating issue before the Legislature this session has been education funding. In 2012, the Washington State Supreme Court held in the McCleary case that the state had violated the state constitution by underfunding public schools. Last August, the Court found the Legislature in contempt for failing to provide a plan for how it will adequately fund basic education. Since August, the Supreme Court has imposed fines of $100,000 per day until the Legislature provides a full funding plan for the McCleary decision.
Earlier last week, the House passed an education funding plan bill that matches recommendations from a bipartisan task force created last interim by the Governor to comply with the contempt ruling. That bill requires the 2017 Legislature to come up with a way to end the state’s overreliance on local school levies, but does not say how this will be accomplished. The bill also directs collection of data on teacher compensation and local levies and creates a task force to continue working on the issue before the 2017 Legislature convenes. The bill passed with a vote of 64-34.
Last Thursday, the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee voted to advance an education funding bill that has a later deadline of a year (2018) than the House version. The Senate bill passed out of committee by a vote of 5-4 vote, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The bill now moves to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
It is unclear if either the Senate or House proposals — each dubbed a “plan for a final plan” by the media — will satisfy the Washington Supreme Court and remove the contempt finding.