Governor Jay Inslee has called the Legislature back in special session next week to finish work on the budget. In January, most observers agreed we had three main issues to address:
1. Balance the budget over both two and four years complying with our four-year balanced budget requirement.
2. Fund the K-12 educational improvements called for by the state Supreme Court in the 2012 McCleary decision without making cuts our citizens don’t support.
3. Implement the expansion of Medicaid called for by Obamacare, covering nearly 300,000 additional Washingtonians largely at federal expense.
When fully implemented in 2018, the K-12 improvement called for by McCleary will move us from the bottom 10 percent of states in funding-per-student to about the middle of the pack. The Joint Task Force on Education Funding estimated the cost of meeting the new funding requirements will be an additional $4.5 billion per two-year budget by 2018.
The plan includes lowering class size in kindergarten through third grade, all-day kindergarten, increases in instructional time in middle and high school, and paying for the regular operating costs of schools with state money instead of depending on local taxpayers for things like transportation, materials, supplies and compensation for staff the state says the district needs to hire.
The Medicaid expansion will cover nearly 300,000 additional Washingtonians, and the state will actually save $250 to $300 million in the next two years. More people will be covered, it will be easier and cheaper for small businesses to cover their employees, and our hospitals will have much less uncompensated care. It’s a good deal for taxpayers, a good deal for individuals, and a good deal for the state.
The House Democrats and Senate Republicans each have budget proposals and we’re currently engaged in serious negotiations. The House proposal calls for closing a few tax loopholes that our performance audit committee believes are no longer justified and extending some existing taxes, putting every dime of that money toward the new K-12 funding required by the Supreme Court. We feel it’s important to maintain our current safety net for at-risk children, the elderly and the disabled and make modest improvements in a few places, like our troubled mental health system.
The Senate Republicans have taken a different approach, demanding that no new revenue be adopted – even common-sense things like fixing a problem in our estate tax caused by a change in federal law that makes single people pay but lets married couples off, or an industry-supported modernizing of our telecom taxes.
That demand results in unacceptable cuts in services that people depend on. Some of their reductions are petty and overtly partisan, like a 31 percent cut to the general fund allocation to the court system, and cutting half of Ecology’s general fund. The use of questionable techniques, such as absurdly high savings estimates for policies that will be difficult to administer, unconstitutional transfers, and hidden cuts that will only show up later will only result in endless special sessions to fix self-inflicted problems.
But, unlike the other Washington, we actually talk to each other and find common ground. Even with all the challenges, I look forward to working with my Senate Republican counterparts to negotiate a budget that meets the basic goals of our Washington: It’s fair, balanced, meets our educational investment requirements, and doesn’t depend on tricks that won’t wind up working out. The other Washington hasn’t adopted a balanced budget since the Clinton administration nor any budget at all in the last four years. In this Washington we’ve managed it every year since 1889, and will get it done this year as well.
Rep. Ross Hunter is a Democrat from the 48th Legislative District and Chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
