Since my last post, I acquired a new laptop and finally am able to post an update to the blog. So what has happened in the last two weeks??? Not much!
Here is a recap of the slow moving special session.
Governor Signs Education Bills
A week ago, Governor Gregoire returned to her high school alma mater, Auburn High School, to sign four education bills PSE worked on:
- PSE's crosswalk safety bill, SSB 6363
- the school levy bill, SHB 2893
- the education funding reform bill, SHB 2776, and,
- the race to the top bill, E2SSB 6696.
House and Senate Unable to Reach Agreement on Revenue Package
So far, they have reached agreement that they will pass additional revenue of $800 million. Of that amount, they agree on the taxes to get $600 million of that amount. The remaining $200 million is hung up by the Senate's wish to have a 0.001% increase to the state sales tax, and the House's complete rejection of any sales tax increase. There are other disagreements over smaller tax increases but it is hard to see that these disagreements will result in them not reaching a final agreement by April 13 (the last day of the special session).
Operating Budget Negotiations Taking Back Seat to Revenue Negotiations
Though there has been some verbal statements from a variety of House and Senate leaders, it appears that they want to tackle the revenue agreement before moving on to the spending agreements. PSE's K 12 priorities for the special session are:
- fully fund K - 4 class-size
- continue funding of the classified employee ratio enhancement (58.75:1)
- continue funding all day kindergarten
- fund levy equalization, the enhanced levy equalization from SHB 2893, and the per pupil inflator at 4%.
PSE's higher education priority is to reduce and/or eliminate the impact of the furlough bill and the House and Senate's efforts to have state and higher education employees pay more for insurance benefits.