Message to Washington State Legislature: Let's Get on the Good Foot and Avoid Levy Cliff

Naturally, that isn't going to happen soon (and maybe not by the end of the session.)

There are some early bills to be aware of.


HB 1021, Funding Education First - a clever ploy of a bill that looks like it supports the constitutional mandate to fund ed first except that it means they will fund education with money from other state services.  

From Washington's Paramount Duty:
WPD opposes an education first approach. This would mean drastic cuts to early learning, higher ed, public health, mental health, homeless services, and other essential government services and programs.

No one who supports public education should support hacking into health, safety or social services.  There are kids in families that need those supports.

There are two bills to support to help avoid the levy cliff, one in the House and one in the Senate:

Link to support HB 1059: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill//1059.

HB 1059 would delay the levy cliff for one year. This bill "recognizes that the system of state and local funding for school districts is in transition during 2017, with the state moving toward full funding of its statutory program of basic education, and with current statutory policies on school district levies scheduled to expire at the end of calendar year 2017. To promote school districts' ability to plan for the future during this transitional period, the legislature intends to extend current statutory policies on local enrichment through calendar year 2019."

Link to support SB 5023: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill//5023.

You'd think this would be job #1 and easy peasy because well, what good is it to allow some districts to have these dramatic cust happen to them?  Current intel is that avoidance of the levy cliff will NOT happen any time soon and the GOP members are determined to wrangle as much leverage as they can in order for it to happen.

There is a hearing on the House bill this Wednesday in Olympia.