WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

E-newsletter: Big challenges ahead for the 2017 Legislative Session

I returned to Olympia last week to begin my 18th session in the Legislature. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve the 32nd District. It is a tremendous privilege.

There are many challenges facing the Legislature this session, including making some hard decisions about how to fully fund education while still looking out for all of our friends and neighbors across the state, but I am optimistic that we will have a successful but long session.

I look forward to keeping you informed as the session progresses with these e-newsletters. As always, please feel free to contact my office with questions or concerns about legislation or other issues.

– Ruth

Keeping kids safe

Last week I met with constituents whose lives have been changed by gun violence. In our homes, we take many steps to protect children from possible harms, from installing outlet covers to making sure that medications are kept out of reach. Unsecured guns in the home can easily lead to tragedies. That is why I have introduced commonsense legislation that would hold adults responsible for safely storing their firearms.

The bill doesn’t tell gun owners how to store their guns or require that gun owners purchase new safety equipment, but it does establish standards of safe storage that all owners must follow. If a child or anyone that is prohibited from possessing a gun hurts or kills themselves or another person with a gun that was unsecured, the adult can be held responsible for the crime of community endangerment.

Fully funding public schools

For the last several decades, Washington has failed to meet our constitutional obligation to adequately fund basic education, leaving many of our 1.1 million K-12 students without opportunities to succeed.

While the Legislature has made progress in the last few years one final challenge remains related to teacher pay. In order to comply with Washington state law, the Legislature must adopt a solution this session that ends the state’s reliance on local levies to pay teachers.

The bipartisan Education Funding Task Force, created by the Legislature last April, was supposed to provide specific, tangible recommendations to the Legislature by January 9th to address these problems. House and Senate Democrats put forth a proposal that pays public school teachers fairly, ends the reliance on local levies, and creates new accounting requirements to ensure education will be fully funded for the next generation. You can read a summary of the proposed solutions here.

After seven months of meetings, Republicans have proposed no tangible solutions and are only offering up what they call “guiding principles.” The time for “guiding principles” is long past. Our children can’t wait any longer. The Legislature needs to step up and fully fund education now.

Finding a path to fully funding education won’t be easy and it won’t be quick. While the Legislature is working to find a sustainable and permanent solution, we also need to make sure our school districts can develop their 2017-18 school year budgets.

During the Great Recession, we implemented temporary measures that allowed local districts to make up for the state’s funding shortfalls with local levies. Those measures are set to expire unless the Legislature acts this session. This issue is commonly referred to in Olympia as the “levy cliff.”

The bottom line: local school districts across the state will soon be creating their budgets for the 2017-18 school year and unless the Legislature passes HB 1059, districts will be forced to make painful budget cuts. Teachers will receive layoff notices and crowded classrooms will become even larger. This will only make the education funding problem worse while lawmakers continue to work on an education funding solution.

As a co-sponsor of HB 1059, I know it is imperative that we pass this bill as soon as possible. It is the first bill that the Appropriations Committee passed, and it will be coming to a vote on the House floor early next week. Unfortunately, it was a straight party line vote out of the Appropriations Committee. A similar version of this bill passed the House 91-7 last year.

When the state finally steps up and fully funds education, measures like the levy cliff bill will not be necessary. But in the meantime, this an insurance policy to make sure schools can plan their budgets for the upcoming school year. Lawmakers shouldn’t gamble with our kids’ education.

This isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. This is about kids and ensuring every child receives equal opportunities to learn and succeed.