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Answers to Popular Education Emails
I’ve been swamped with email on education issues and want to consolidate my responses to a number of popular questions as I think it’ll give a better sense of what my positions are on your issues. I’m hearing about: Basic Education funding, including ensuring that we adequately fund our McCleary obligation. Funding and implementation of Initiative 1351 The…
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Budget Update and Thoughts on Teacher Compensation and Levy Reform
I write this on Tuesday April 21st. At this point I do not expect that the Legislature will agree on a budget before the regular session ends on Sunday April 26th. The Seattle Times published a lot of articles this weekend about the budget, and I’m structuring this newsletter around them. The first article in…
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House and Senate Budget Differences on K12
I’ll be posting a handful of high-level summaries of budget differences with the Senate over the next few days. As usual, K12 is my first post in this sequence. House Democrats are investing $3.2 billion more in K-12 education with this budget over the amount we spent in the last biennium, a 21% increase. People…
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Budget Negotiations to Start Monday
We’re now entering the budget negotiation phase of the session. The Senate and House are in pretty significantly different places. The top level difference is only about a billion dollars, but the underlying differences are much greater than that. We need to come to agreement by Wednesday the 22nd to be able to get the…
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Fiscal Cutoff
State legislatures typically meet for a relatively short period of time each year and consequently are very deadline driven. Congress works on things until they are ready to be brought forward, but in most states (including Washington) the dates are relentless and serve to help the body focus on what is likely to get done…
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Gov. Inslee’s Carbon Pricing Model, Part 2
Last week’s newsletter on Gov. Inslee’s Carbon Action Pricing Model got a lot of comments – about three times the normal amount. Thanks for reading it! The bill has arrived in the Appropriations committee and we will spend some time looking at it before taking action, so I have time to work through all the…
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Gov. Inslee’s Carbon Pricing Proposal
I’ve gotten a lot of email this year about Governor Inslee’s climate proposal, both pro and con. Mostly pro, but a number of questions have come up and I’d like to take the opportunity to address them. I have no personal doubt that the globe is warming up, and that human activity contributes to this. …
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Compelling Speech from New Rep. Tom Dent (R-13) on Mental Health
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Joel’s Law and dealing with lawsuits, disasters, and an increase in child abuse reports
The House Appropriations committee is planning to hear two bills Today, (Jan. 26, 2015): HB 1258 – Concerning court review of detention decisions under the involuntary treatment act. This is “Joel’s Law,” a bill creating the ability for parents and other family members to provide information to the court in involuntary treatment act cases. The…
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Mental Health, Child Abuse, Disasters, Lawsuits…
OLYMPIA – The House Appropriations committee will have a public hearing on Monday, January 26 to discuss an early action supplemental operating budget proposal. The bill deals with a small handful of items that need immediate attention. The committee expects to adopt a more typical supplemental budget later in the session. Issues addressed in the…