Legislative Update during the 3rd (and final) Special Session
It has been a busy, and sometimes frustrating, couple of months since my last newsletter. While we were able to pass an operating budget before the end of our fiscal year, and avoided a government shutdown, we are in the middle of an unprecedented third special session while some final bills get negotiated and finalized. We expect to finish our business and adjourn for the year this Friday.
The budget we passed last week was a historic budget for education – investing in our littlest learners with investments in early learning, making a substantial payment towards our McCleary obligations in our K-12 system, and passing a historic first-in-the-nation tuition cut for our college students.
Early Learning This may be the best session ever for early learning in Washington State! This budget makes over $159 million in early learning investments to improve outcomes for kids, expand Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) enrollments, and stabilize Working Connections Child Care eligibility. Early learning is by far the best investment the state can make to get youngsters on the right path toward success. The evidence is clear – quality early learning is the best way we can help close the opportunity gap in Washington. These are investments that we will see pay off for years to come.
K-12 Facing another review from the State Supreme Court of our progress towards meeting the terms of the McCleary decision, the Legislature made $1.3 billion in new investments in K-12, the largest increase in school funding in state history. Investments will go toward K-3 class size reduction, all-day kindergarten, maintenance, supplies, and operating costs. This investment puts us on the right path toward fully funding basic education and meeting our McCleary decision obligations. A high-quality education requires a high-quality educator in the classroom. Paying teachers adequately is vitally important to providing the education we want for our kids. In addition to restoring the I-732 cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), we added another $157 million in funding teacher COLAs to help educators make up lost ground on their earnings during the Great Recession when no COLAs were given. Additional investments were also made to ease health care premium costs for all K-12 employees.
Higher Education ALL college students will receive a 5 percent tuition reduction for the 2015-16 school year. For 2016-17, students at UW and WSU will receive an additional 10 percent reduction and students at the regional schools will receive an addition 15 percent reduction. The state will also invest an additional $41 million in scholarships for high-demand majors in science, technology, engineering, math and health care. Additional investments were made in computer science and engineering programs at UW and WSU.
The rest of the budget While I am proud of the education investments listed above, I still have significant reservations with the final compromise – most significantly we made no structural changes to our worst-in-the-nation tax system. Our current revenue sources are not sufficient to meet the needs of state, and our poorest are asked to pay more of their income than those who are better off. House Democrats have consistently argued that new revenue is needed to make the investments necessary to move our state forward. Democrats initially offered a capital gains tax on the state’s 32,000 most prosperous taxpayers to provide a stable funding source for K-12 and higher education. Senate Republicans proposed raising property taxes to pay for education. We believed the tax system was already too hard on everyday families while giving the super-rich a pass.
In the end, the Senate Republicans finally agreed to $452 million in tax loophole closures. Senate Republicans insisted though on sweeping funds from the Public Works Trust Fund, which helps finance public works projects for our cities and utility district. Those funds are paid for through Capital Budget bonds – which essentially means that we are paying for part of our operating budget with the credit card (would you pay your mortgage with your Visa?). It’s not everything we wanted, and we have more work to do on this front, but this is a good compromise in a divided government that allows us to make core investments in the services that are important to all of us.
The Transportation Revenue Package Since I was first elected I have been working hard to help build a transportation package that can bring our transportation infrastructure into the 21st century. I am pleased that after a decade without significant investment in transportation, I was able to vote yes to pass a transportation revenue package out of the legislature.
There is a lot in this package to make 46th district residents happy – $10 million in funding for the Northgate Ped/Bike Bridge, $875,000 for a needed culvert replacement in Lake Forest Park, $12 million for the final section of SR 522 in Kenmore, $8 million for the replacement of the West Sammamish Bridge in Kenmore, and $16 million for needed improvements on the Burke-Gilman Trail. Just as important though, this bill included authorization for Sound Transit to go to the voters and ask for ST3.
Originally the Senate Republicans only wanted to give Sound Transit $11 billion in authorization – not nearly enough to build a useful project that could win at the ballot box. The Republicans’ next offer included the full $15 billion in authorization requested by ST, but included a $500 million tax on Sound Transit that would go directly into the State’s General Fund. So essentially folks in the Sound Transit region would be given permission to tax ourselves for the infrastructure that the State refuses to help fund, and for that right we would be charged a tariff which would go to the rest of the state. This is not a deal I was willing to support, and would have led to me voting against the entire package if it had stayed in. At the last second, transportation negotiators in both the Senate and the House agreed to support an amendment I offered which deposits that $500 million into a new Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, and restricts those funds to be spent only in the Sound Transit counties for educational services to improve educational outcomes in early learning, K-12, and higher education.
I am also proud of language I worked on that made it into the final Sound Transit authorization that will direct $20 million over five years to go into a fund to help develop affordable transit oriented development near light rail stations, and which directs Sound Transit to offer a bulk of its developable surplus land and air rights to affordable housing developers.
The Poison Pill
I do need to note that, infuriatingly, the “poison pill” that prevents the Governor from enacting a low-carbon fuel standard remains in the final package. This anti-environmental policy is offensive and doesn’t belong in a transportation budget. I will continue to work with my colleagues and the Governor’s office to establish a low-carbon fuel standard and to take other actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Washington.
Capital Budget The Legislature has also passed a Capital Budget. I am very proud that included in that budget is $2.5 million for Neighborcare’s Meridian Center for Health which will continue to make help underserved populations receive the healthcare they need, and $7 million for Seattle Children’s Hospital Cancer Immunotherapy Facility which will help give children top notch cancer treatment and will save lives.
My Bills
Oil Transport – After months of negotiations with Senate Republicans and the Governor’s office, I was pleased to watch my oil transportation safety act pass both the Senate and the House almost unanimously. This bill is an important first step towards addressing the increasing issue of crude by rail, and ensuring that our first responders have the information they need to protect our communities, while making sure that the railroads are on the hook for all clean-up costs should a train jump the tracks here in Washington. KUOW had some great coverage of the problem. That said, there is still a lot of work to do – we must better address the marine transport of oil, and we need to secure long-term sustainable funding for our clean-up programs, problems I will be working on next session.
Minimum Wage – Unfortunately the Republican Chair of the Senate’s Commerce and Labor committee refused to schedule my bill to raise the minimum wage for a vote in his committee before cutoff, and the bill died. My proposal was modest – raising the minimum wage from its current $9.47 to $12/hour over four years. We did make progress this year – my bill passed out of the House and got a hearing in the Senate, and started a meaningful conversation at the state level. I will continue to fight for this and other bills to help Washington’s workers. Read this great story about how a family living on the minimum wage survives day-to-day.
Transit Coordination – Some very good news out of this third special session was the unanimous passage of my bill to improve transit coordination. Our region is already experiencing some of the worst traffic in the country. With the expected growth in the next few decades (1 million new people by 2040), transit coordination is absolutely essential. A robust transit system is good for our communities, good for our economy, and good for the environment. As the region grows, the demand on the five transit agencies in the region will also increase. This bill will improve the coordination between these agencies, saving tax dollars, and ensuring an integrated transit system that will be able to serve the growing number of riders.
By gathering information from transit agencies and encouraging collaboration through grant programs, this bill will help the region’s transit agencies work together to find ways to save tax dollars while also providing accountability measures, and more efficient service. The agencies will be able to integrate administrative and technology projects. Transit riders will also get a better user experience with improvements like more accessible schedules and easier transfers between agencies. For years we have recognized the need for a coordinated and well-planned transit system in the Puget Sound region, this bill provides the information and incentives needed to actually put these goals into action.