2.14.17
Suggested lead: The divided Legislature in Olympia is about
to tackle its biggest job this year: reconciling very different plans to fund
public schools and satisfy the Supreme Court’s McCleary ruling. Dan Frizzell has
that story.
Wrap (:77 total): Democrats hold the majority in the state
House in Olympia, and it’s their job to produce a plan to reinvent public
education in Washington. They made
that plan public two weeks ago, and by early next week it should pass out of the
House and head for the Republican-controlled Senate.
The Senate GOP, meanwhile, came up with
their own proposal and passed it over to the House on a party-line vote.
That proposal, however, has been plagued by math problems that range into
the billions of dollars. It apparently hikes taxes but somehow spends less on
schools. Democratic House Majority
Leader Pat Sullivan of Covington was a lead on the joint education-funding task
force, and he talked to reporters Tuesday after studying the Senate plan.
SULLIVAN: "The Senate Republican plan right now is underfunded by about
one-point-four billion, despite that it’s a significant property tax increase
for a number of taxpayers. On the
budget side they haven’t shown where they’re going to make those one-point-four
billion dollars in reductions. On
both sides we’re going to have to produce a budget that balances." [:18]
When the competing plans are both out on the table, Sullivan said,
negotiators from the House and Senate can begin the give-and-take process that
legislators hope will produce a balanced budget and fully funded public schools
by the time the Legislature adjourns for the year on April 23.
In Olympia, I'm Dan Frizzell.