WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Education, child care, mental illness main focus of House budget

February 26, 2014

House Democrats unveiled their 2014 supplemental budget proposal and education investment package on Wednesday. The proposal includes:

  • $60 million in additional funds for basic education
  • $10.4 million to improve community mental health services
  • $20.5 million for child care providers

To restore voter-approved (I-732) cost-of-living adjustments for teachers, which have been suspended since 2009, and fund the Early Start Act (improving quality in early learning), House Democrats are proposing to repeal or narrow four costly tax exemptions:

  • Extracted Fuel                                              $31.7 million
  • Nonresident Sales Tax                               $29.0 million
  • Sales Tax on Bottled Water                        $24.3 million
  • Prescription Drug Reseller B&O rate       $15.6 million
Steven M. Herppich
Ruth Dowies’ third grade class at For Stevens Elementary School in Yelm, Wash.

“This is a balanced, responsible approach to meeting our needs in high-priority areas like K-12 education, early learning, and mental health,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, chair of the House Appropriations committee. “We’re making short-term investments by funding teacher COLAs and school supplies, while setting the stage for meeting our long-term education funding obligations.

“This budget is a win for kids and keeps us moving forward,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Pat Sullivan. “Closing a handful of costly and ineffective tax exemptions is critical to fully funding our schools and meeting the needs of students across the state.”

“We’ve got a $2 billion promise to our public schools that we must keep next biennium,” said Rep. Reuven Carlyle, chair of the House Finance committee. “The only way to do that is to rigorously examine the tax preferences on our books. Our proposal closes a small number of preferences that are better spent on our kids in school.”

The House Appropriations committee will hold a public hearing on the proposal today at 6 p.m. in House Hearing Room A.  House leaders expect the budget and education package will be considered by the full body early next week.

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