“Call it a decent first step both toward meeting our children’s constitutional right to lower class sizes — and toward improving funding for schools, in general,” observed state Rep. Gerry Pollet. “The new budget adds $1 billion in education funding, and it assures health care for an additional 300,000 Washington people who would otherwise go without it.
“And you bet, I’m very happy that the new budget is the first in five years to hold the line against tuition hikes. We’ve done this by working to provide $140 million in new funding for higher education and by not kicking Washington students off of the ladder of opportunity.
“When the Higher Education Committee passed my House Bill 1624 earlier this year with broad bipartisan support, we set goals of lowering tuition long-term and stopping any increases near term. More than a few school folks and others maintained that we’d fail.
“But we did it. Although the bill didn’t make it all the way through the process, the new budget reflects its intent. We also provide more than $140 million in new funding for higher education to make it possible to avoid tuition hikes and to increase access in high-demand fields. I appreciate the bipartisan support and dedication for restoring access, particularly from Chair Seaquist,” Pollet emphasized of state Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-26th Legislative District (Gig Harbor), who chairs the House Higher Education Committee, of which Pollet is vice chair.
“Certainly, we need to continue to work hard toward restoring access to the ladder of higher education opportunity. We must reach a long-term goal in state law for tuition to be affordable, which means that tuition rates should not exceed 10 percent of the median household income of Washington families. To get there, we must invest real dollars by making our tax system fairer. That will come about only with the closing of tax loopholes — and then sending that solid new revenue to our colleges and universities, as sought in my House Bill 2048.”
As a member of the House Finance Committee, Pollet said he is also working to make the state’s tax system fairer by closing corporate tax loopholes and dedicating funds to education. He said that HB 2048 would generate $342 million for the upcoming biennium by closing the huge loophole exempting revenue earnings of non-financial corporations from the B&O tax.
“Closing this loophole would be a major step to increasing the fairness of our tax system while encouraging productive economic investment in our state. The exemption is for the revenue from companies investing in Wall Street back East — instead of investing on Main Street right here in Washington.”
He said companies putting their money to work in the state pay B&O taxes on every penny of revenue. “But perversely: If they invest in Wall Street, they don’t pay one penny in state taxes on their revenue!”