Two weeks ago the Reporter’s front page story profiled the State Senate race in the 45th Legislative District and the Supreme Court decision that Washington is under-funding our public education system. Because we were called out in the article by the King County Republican Party chair the Reporter has offered us this opportunity to share our perspective on education funding.

We agree Washington has under-funded our K-12 system. But remember, we’ve had to cut state spending by nearly $15 billion since 2009 in the face of the recession. Hopefully those days are behind us and we can reestablish funding levels for both K-12 and higher education.

We disagree with comments by Lori Sotelo, King County Republican chair, who seems to believe the Supreme Court was looking for “a new plan for education.” Wrong – the Supreme Court clearly found the Legislature’s plan outlined in major bills from 2009/2010 to be the “new plan” for K-12. The Court insisted what is missing is sufficient funding to implement that plan. It’s about funding, pure and simple. Mrs. Sotelo would have you believe the Supreme Court had no problem with Sen. Andy Hill’s budget. Wrong again – the Court stated again the Legislature has not made sufficient progress toward meeting its funding obligation. That seems like an indictment of Sen. Hill’s much-touted budget to us.

Here’s why … it’s clear K-12 needs at least an additional $4-5 billion by 2017. There are only two budget cycles left. Sen. Hill’s 2013 budget provided less than $1 billion, and even the $960 million actually in his budget relied heavily on local levy monies to pay teachers. In 2014 we could only add $50 million more when we should have added much more, but the Senate Republicans would not agree. The House also passed a Capital Budget to raise $700 million for construction of additional classrooms to accommodate lower class sizes, without a tax increase. Once again the Senate would not agree and for the first time in recent memory did not pass a Capital Budget at all.

Yes, we voted for Sen. Hill’s budget – but with our backs against the wall on June 29, 2013, one day before the state government would have to shut down. Political brinksmanship did not serve us well. The truth is we had voted earlier in session for a K-12 budget that would have raised $1.5 billion for K-12 but the Senate Republicans would not agree. We helped pay for that budget by ending several corporate tax exemptions. Once again, the Senate Republicans would not agree. Sen. Hill’s budget not only gave up the revenue from ending those tax exemptions, it added nearly a dozen more tax exemptions, including tax breaks for mint farmers and skeet shooters.

Tax breaks for skeet shooters and mint growers at the expense of kids in our schools is not a good idea.

Sen. Hill often mentions that his budget held tuition increases to zero at our colleges and universities. True. However, he fails to mention that his budget also cut higher education funding by $200 million. The House would not agree and that funding was restored in the final budget.

The upcoming session will be critical if we are to regain the momentum needed to reach success by 2017. We are reminded of 2009 when the Legislature arrived in January facing a $9.2 billion deficit.

We all worked together. We ended the session on time with a budget everyone could live with. We can do it again.

Roger Goodman and Larry Springer are Kirkland residents and representatives from the 45th Legislative District.