Two-year budget adds to education without raising taxes

OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee signed a budget bill Friday that, for a change, had no tax increases, deep cuts in spending or elimination of tax breaks.

The legislation, which enjoyed overwhelming support in the House and Senate, will add about $155 million in new spending to the two-year state operating budget approved last year.

It puts $58 million more into basic education of public school students, freezes college tuition for a second straight year and pumps $30 million into scholarship programs.

There’s an infusion of $20.3 million for community mental health programs and money to give thousands of child care workers a raise.

Though the budget is balanced and has an ample reserve for rainy days, the spending bill didn’t inject as much money into public schools as the governor desired and the Supreme Court is demanding.

He said lawmakers needed to make more progress toward complying with the court’s McCleary decision requiring the state to fully fund basic education for elementary and secondary students.

Now the Legislature will need to come up with at least $1.5 billion more for public schools in the next budget to stay on course with meeting the court’s 2018 deadline for compliance.

“It’s going to take some very, very difficult work,” he said.

Also absent from the budget bill was money to provide teachers a cost-of-living increase or its workers a pay raise — which Inslee and most Democrats in the House and Senate wanted.

Those too are going to need to be addressed next year, he said.

“Some people have characterized the budget as sustainable. But the state’s fiscal situation is not as rosy as that outlook suggests,” he said. “We have a huge budget problem to address next session.”

The chief Republican budget writer in the Senate agreed there are “challenges going forward.”

But state Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond, said the governor complicated matters by vetoing a proviso in the budget to transfer $20 million into the public schools account from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

Shifting those dollars would have helped deal with the McCleary obligation, said Hill, who is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Moreover, he said, the veto won’t sit well with some lawmakers who know the difficult negotiations to strike a deal with the House that wound up winning the support of 48 of the 49 senators.

“We gave him everything he asked for and he came back and dropped this bomb on us,” Hill said of the governor.

It may make chilly relations with the Republican-controlled Senate Majority Coalition caucus a little chillier when it comes to budget negotiations next year.

“It is going to be hard to do our work next year,” Hill said. “We’ll always be looking over our shoulder.”

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.