6.30.17
Suggested lead: In Olympia, lawmakers OK’d a state budget
late Friday, averting a government shutdown and pouring billions of new dollars
into K-12 schools. Dan Frizzell has
that story.
Wrap (:89 total): When state legislators finally began
bringing long-delayed pieces of major legislation to the House and Senate floors
Friday morning, the partisan rancor that characterized much of the last 180 days
seemed to evaporate. Bill after bill quickly fell into place, and by the end of
the day Governor Jay Inslee had signed a new state budget and a tax bill that
will make the record seven-point-three billion in new education spending
possible.
Lawmakers are confident that the 43-point-five-billion-dollar spending plan
will satisfy the state Supreme Court’s order in the 2012 McCleary ruling that
the Legislature had to devise a way to provide the revenue to fully fund
Washington’s public schools. House
Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, a Democrat from Covington, was a lead on the House
budget negotiating team.
SULLIVAN: "The budget we passed today is a great success for the state of
Washington. We invest seven-point-three-billion over the next four years in
quality programs to help students to be successful, but we also invested in
mental health, in early learning opportunities for our younger students, in
higher ed . . . some really good things that move the state forward for the next
four years." [:21]
Before and after Inslee signed the budget act, lawmakers stayed busy passing
bills that had been held up until the last few days, including paid sick and
family leave, and the creation of a new state agency, the department of
children, youth, and families. Still to come are a two-year construction budget
and a plan to revamp, once again, Washington’s complex water laws. In Olympia,
I’m Dan Frizzell.