WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

E-news from Rep. Ruth Kagi

clip_image001

March 16, 2012
Legislative Update

Hello Friends,

Thursday, March 8 marked the end of the 2012 regular legislative session.

While there are some important accomplishments I am happy to report below, I am also sorry to say that the House and Senate were not able to agree on a final budget for the state before the clock ran out on this 60-day session. On Monday, March 12, we began a special legislative session to complete our budget work.

Budget update

Over in the House, we passed two different operating budgets during the regular session. The first was our House-drafted budget (HB 2127), and the second was a House-amended version of the Senate’s budget (SB 5963). However, the Senate was unable to get to an agreement and approve either one. This is very disappointing to me, as both of those budgets made no cuts to K-12 education and avoided devastating cuts to our state’s safety net that had been in both the Governor’s proposed budget and the original budget that passed the Senate. By amending the Senate’s budget, we were able to do the following:

  • Make no cuts to K-12 education, including no reductions in levy equalization funding
  • Make no cuts to our higher education system or student financial aid
  • Preserve medical coverage for poor and temporarily disabled patients who aren’t covered by federal funding
  • Maintain adult day health services and child care assistance for parents moving from welfare to work

Of importance to the 32nd District, the House budget also provided funding for the students at Fircrest.

This amended budget cleared the House on a 53-45 vote, but did not get the majority vote needed in the Senate. So, now we are back at work to reach a compromise.

Over the past four years, we have been in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. While there are signs that the economy is finally turning a corner, state revenues have not yet rebounded and we are facing a shortfall in the current state budget.

The budget passed by the House last week helped close this shortfall by utilizing an accounting shift. It moves a payment to school districts by one day – from June 30 to July 1.

If we hadn’t already cut nearly $11 billion from our state general fund, this accounting shift would probably not be advisable or desirable. But we have cut so deeply already that we are eliminating infrastructure that is very expensive to rebuild, and will severely harm critically needed services for many people. It comes down to choices. Do we delay this payment by one day, or cut funding for our classrooms? Delay the payment by one day, or further reduce slots at our public colleges and universities? Delay the payment by one day, or cut child care assistance for poor families so that the parents can work?

For me, delaying the payment to school districts by one day addresses our short-term needs while not losing track of our long-term values as a state. As a final budget is negotiated over the coming days, I will continue to push for one that does not make any further cuts to K-12 and higher education, that preserves child care assistance for families struggling to get back on their feet, and that doesn’t leave our neediest, most vulnerable citizens without a safety net.

Legislative successes

The following pieces of legislation made it through both the House and Senate and are on their way to be signed into law. These bills benefit children and families in Washington state, or make positive reforms to state government during these difficult times.

  • In my last e-newsletter, I mentioned my bill to speed up implementation of a valuable skills inventory for incoming kindergarteners. It has now passed the full Legislature, and soon tens of thousands of children in our state will benefit from this process, called WaKIDS (Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills). WaKIDS involves parents in the assessment process, helping teachers understand the strengths and challenges of the child as they start kindergarten. The $60 million Early Learning Race to the Top grant our state received makes this accelerated implementation schedule possible.
  • In the final hours of the legislative session, a very important piece of legislation sailed unanimously through both the House and Senate. It is a long-overdue restructuring of the relationship between the legislature and executive branch around the appropriation of funds for our state’s welfare-to-work program (known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF). Washington has been unique among the 50 states in that our executive branch – through the state Department of Social and Health Services – was given full authority to administer our federal block grant for TANF programs as it wished. The responsibility for the policies and programs that serve some of our state’s poorest families should be with the legislature, and there have been several bipartisan efforts in the past to make this change. This year, I sponsored the latest effort and am pleased to report it has finally passed.
  • Several bills have cleared the legislature that make evidence-based reforms to our child welfare system. I detailed these proposals in my previous newsletter, and the good news is that three of them are now ready to be signed into law! These reforms:
    • Keep our child welfare funding level, and enable us to reinvest any savings into proven programs that keep families together and children safe
    • Give the state better oversight and accountability over the dollars we spend on private and non-profit child welfare contractors (88 percent of the state Department of Social and Health Services budget goes to pay outside contractors)
    • Provide child welfare caseworkers with the tools and resources to do their jobs more effectively which will keep children safer, strengthen families who may be at risk, and save valuable state dollars that should go to families truly in crisis.

A few other highlights from the session include:

  • We are expanding proven, successful programs that help reduce homelessness in our state, and helping homeowners at risk of foreclosure find alternatives to losing their homes.
  • Families across Washington celebrated when our state became the seventh in the nation to pass marriage equality legislation. I was proud to be one of 55 members of the House who voted yes on this bill, which the governor signed into law on February 13.
  • As a result of much public feedback, the legislature made changes to the Discover Pass program for state parks. The Discover Pass is an annual pass that enables a vehicle to park at state parks and recreation lands. It is a new way of funding our parks – a user fee to replace deep cuts to parks from the state’s general fund. The pass will continue, but it is now more user-friendly, and will hopefully bring in enough revenue to avoid park closures. Some of the changes include
    • The standard annual pass is now transferable between two vehicles
    • A new “family pass” will be available that is transferable among an unlimited number of vehicles
    • When paying a rental fee for use of a state parks facility for an event, attendees of that event will not each require a Discover Pass in order to park

These are some of the things we have been able to accomplish in 60 days.

I remain hopeful that budget negotiators from both the House and Senate can come to an agreement very soon on a final budget for our state, and end this special session ahead of its 30-day deadline.

If you have questions or concerns about this process, please don’t hesitate to contact me. It is a privilege and honor to represent you and I want to be as accessible to you as possible. After the special session adjourns, my House seatmate Rep. Cindy Ryu and I will be sending out a final legislative report for the year.

Sincerely,

clip_image002