Dems Try Again on Levy Cliff; Republicans Say, "Time to Go"
Here's how it played out (with the two major players here being Senator Marko Liias (D) and Senator Joe Fain (R).
From Washington's Paramount Duty:
From Washington's Paramount Duty:
Thank
you, Senate Democrats! Yesterday afternoon, they tried AGAIN to bring
the Levy Cliff Delay Bill (SHB 1059) to floor via a 9th Order. How did
the Senate Republicans respond? Instead of allowing a vote to save
school districts from losing $500 million, the Senate Republicans
adjourned at 5:09pm to avoid the vote.
Here's what they recommend and I agree with one additional thing:
All state legislators need to hear from us: Democrats need a thank you and ask to NOT allow anything to pass until the Republican Senators allow a vote. Republicans need to hear: • It is inappropriate to hold our kids hostage like this.
• The Senate Republican plan requires $2.5 billion in unnamed cuts to other state services. That's unacceptable! It’s not a serious plan.
• We are not going to even consider the Senate Republicans’ plan until they pass the levy cliff bill.*
• We weren’t asking you to vote for it. We are telling you to vote for it, and we reject your reasons for not doing so.
*My change to that is to allow a vote. It will pass if there is a vote.
My add-on is that we should call the Governor and ask that he make it crystal-clear that he is not signing ANY bill until this one gets a vote.
There is NO reason for this. Voters HAVE already spoken on these levies and said yes to them and yes to their levy rates.
And ANYONE who allows districts throughout the state to be hurt - with no good reason - should be ashamed of his/her self.
How to find your legislator - Yes, DO contact your legislator again and lay out what the WPD is saying.
Please call the Governor - not e-mail - call. 360-902-4111
Update: Senator Reuven Carlyle on Facebook on what happened yesterday:
Here's what they recommend and I agree with one additional thing:
All state legislators need to hear from us: Democrats need a thank you and ask to NOT allow anything to pass until the Republican Senators allow a vote. Republicans need to hear: • It is inappropriate to hold our kids hostage like this.
• The Senate Republican plan requires $2.5 billion in unnamed cuts to other state services. That's unacceptable! It’s not a serious plan.
• We are not going to even consider the Senate Republicans’ plan until they pass the levy cliff bill.*
• We weren’t asking you to vote for it. We are telling you to vote for it, and we reject your reasons for not doing so.
*My change to that is to allow a vote. It will pass if there is a vote.
My add-on is that we should call the Governor and ask that he make it crystal-clear that he is not signing ANY bill until this one gets a vote.
There is NO reason for this. Voters HAVE already spoken on these levies and said yes to them and yes to their levy rates.
And ANYONE who allows districts throughout the state to be hurt - with no good reason - should be ashamed of his/her self.
How to find your legislator - Yes, DO contact your legislator again and lay out what the WPD is saying.
Please call the Governor - not e-mail - call. 360-902-4111
Update: Senator Reuven Carlyle on Facebook on what happened yesterday:
Your state senate GOP majority voted 25-24 today to reject same-day registration and voting in Washington. They conducted unnatural rhetorical yoga moves arguing it is riddled with fraud.
And they again prevented a vote on the levy cliff to avoid millions in cuts to schools.
Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Comments
If there is any harm, it's only to district budget writers who have to draft two budgets. This outrage in the Senate Democratic caucus and WPD is an outrage over ADULT issues. This is typical. Senate Democrats work for the WEA and the adults in the system, not kids and definitely not kids who have CONSISTENTLY gone unserved and underserved in the current system. Extending the levy cliff simply extends the inequities in this system.
Ask yourself this --- who does the levy cliff extension really serve?
Albert Blog-Warrior
-voter
So, as of right now, there is no harm to any students. These cuts have not happened. There are no budget cuts and there are no teacher layoffs.
Albert
Calling this an "adult issue" is what we in the business call a "lie."
Snowball
"... last year's budget includes language to extend the levy cliff if a full McCleary solution is not agreed upon by April 15."
Is that true, and if so, what does it mean? It would be astonishing if the levy cliff was a moot point, and SPS officials and school board didn't know that. Either Albert is bluffing or the lunatics are running the asylum.
Only? The Senate bill is like slow-moving mud and will NOT get done in time to prevent this levy cliff from happening.
That's a fact.
Did you miss the list of how many districts will lose real dollars?
That's a fact.
The voters said yes to these levies AND their levy rate.
That's a fact.
Districts are making their budgets NOW and they have to in order to give proper notice to staff they WILL be laying off.
That's a fact.
This intransigence by Senate Republicans is disgraceful.
Snowball
"Through language in the 2016 Supplemental Operating Budget the Legislature makes a commitment to address the overreliance on levies. In an effort to 'facilitate budget and personnel planning by local school districts' and to 'minimize any disruption to that planning,' budget language requires the Education Funding Task Force (established in the McCleary plan bill, E2SSB 6195) by April 1, 2017 to either: (a) Determine that the Legislature will meet its obligation to provide for compensation reform and eliminate school districts’ overreliance on local levies by April 30, 2017; or (b) Introduce legislation to address the levy cliff by extending current state levy policy for at least one calendar year, with the objective of enacting such legislation by April 30, 2017."
Albert
It's basically the 2016 legislature saying to the 2017 legislature "pretty please will you pass it?" It was stupid of Democrats to agree to this, but then, the person who authored that provision and insisted on only a one year levy cliff extension was fired by the angry voters of his district last fall. His replacement, Lisa Wellman, is leading the charge to pass this bill.
Joe Fain and Mark Miloscia need to take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves if they want to join Steve Litzow as people who lost their Senate seats because they messed with their districts' schools.
Snowball
And, hopefully, there will be those of us to remind voters in their region just what they did (or did not) do. Hurting schools? A pretty big thing for most voters.
I was going to say it was only a matter of time before you did so, but you've done it before.
You've been threatening this for days if not weeks and you've finally done it. Good for you.
Albert
Snowball
My thinking is in alignment with Snowball. There is a reason LEV and SFC are advocating for per pupil funding model. Multiple school districts want to maintain the prototypical funding formula.
As well, proposed legislation regarding the levy cliff is yet to be seen.
Superintendents across the state have met with Governor Inslee and asked for a delay in the levy cliff. I"ll take their word over Albert's word- any day.
It doesn't take much to figure out Washington Round Table types. No one was "outed".
But it doesn't really matter to most of your readers that you'll willing to out people. They're in no fear of you outing them. You only out your detractors, or at least attempt to so.
You're transparent.
Albert
Westbrook, do you deny my allegation?
Mary Chen
Mary Chen
I have never seen such a collection of crybaby trolls.
Thank you for your tireless advocacy.
-SeattleTechParent
She even sends information to the teachers union. These emails have been see by many staffers. She discloses names of commenters on her blog and others she is at odds with.
Melissa, do you deny this or can you explain the emails and why you're doing this?
Mary Chen
Hopefully Anonymous
-SeattleTechParent
This is not news. Melissa has made it clear she forwards on certain types of comments and emails. As long as she leaves out students names I have no problem with it and neither should you.
--TBD
Albert's assertion that the "only harm" is to district budget writers is overly simplistic and beyond naive. Had the Levy Cliff been resolved in January, then there would have been hundreds of staff hours wasted on budget fire drills. That would have amounted to lots of dollars that could have been spent on key initiatives spent on a fire drill. This would not have been directly visible in a classroom but it does impact impact education.
But now that this mess has dragged into March, there are impact that will be seen in the CLASSROOM, even if it is resolved today. SPS needs to hire about 200 new teachers every year, just to keep pace, and this hiring has been stalled by the levy cliff.
Teachers are not widgets that can be replaced at a whim. They are professionals and are critical to any education happening in the schools.
This is not hyperbole. Just speak to any school that lost an incredibly talented first year teacher because they were unable to extend their contract in a timely manner. Just speak to any Title 1 school about the extreme pain they face every year because of the inability to hire enough teachers by the start of the year. Just look at any high school that has to trim key staff this Spring and may or may not be able to replace them if the money returns.
Title 1 schools really bear the brunt of this problem. When schools add new staff in over the summer, after the budget cycle, these positions are often filled by internal candidates and the domino effect means that South End Title 1 schools wind up short on staff in September.
High Schools have been severely challenged to hire key positions in a timely manner because of our regular budget cycle. The levy cliff is going to exacerbate that challenge.
Yes, students are being held hostage in this mess.
PA_juc