WAWG
By Diana Carlen
WAWG lobbyist
Today marks the 44th day of the 2018 Legislative Session. Last Wednesday, the legislature reached a milestone—the deadline to pass bills out of the house of origin. Bills that did not meet that deadline are ineligible to move forward this year unless considered necessary to implement the budget. It is important to note, bills are never truly “dead” because their content can be amended into other legislation or rare procedural moves can occur to keep them “alive.”
Policy committees are busy hearing bills passed by the opposite chamber. The next legislative deadline is Feb. 23 in which all bills must pass out of the opposite chamber’s policy committees to remain alive.
Revenue forecast
Four times a year, the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council adopts a bipartisan revenue forecast that is then used to build the state operating budget. Washington enacts budgets on a two-year cycle, beginning July 1 of each odd-numbered year. In even-numbered years, they enact a supplemental operating budget that generally makes minor tweaks to the biennial budget.
The state received good news last Thursday about the revenue forecast as budget writers finalize their supplemental operating budget. The numbers showed that since the last revenue forecast in November, overall state revenues increased by nearly $628 million for the current two-year budget that ends mid-2019. The projections for the next two-year budget that ends in mid-2021 also increase, by nearly $660 million, pushing the state budget up to $49.1 billion.
Democrats release their proposed supplemental operating budgets
With more than $1.3 billion in new revenues expected over the next four years, budget writers had an easier task writing budgets this year than in previous years.
The Senate went first and released their proposed supplemental operating budget on Monday. The Senate budget responds to the Washington State Supreme Court’s recent order that the state needed to speed up funding education by providing an additional $1 billion for teacher and staff salaries. The Senate budget proposal also provides a temporary $403 million property tax cut for 2019, or a $.31 drop per $1,000 of assessed value (state’s property tax rate will go from $2.70 to $2.39 for 2019 only).
On Tuesday, the House released their proposed supplemental operating budget. While the House budget provides funding for basic education, it does not respond to the Supreme Court order to speed up funding by fully funding teacher and staff salaries this year. The House proposed budget also provides temporary property tax relief by cutting the tax rate by $.34 in 2019 and an additional $.06 in 2020. Both the Senate and House plans propose tapping the rainy day fund to reduce property taxes which requires approval from 60 percent of the legislature.
Budget leads from the House and Senate will work over the remaining days of the legislative session to resolve differences in the two budget proposals.