The bad, the good, and the not so good . . .

First, the bad news:

As promised, the Senate released their budget this morning. Listening to the news conference I found myself wondering how are we going to make this work with the depth and breadth of cuts. The cuts included the following main areas.
· I-728 – 93% cut of approximately $2,700,000. The Governor proposed a cut in December of 23% or approximately $680,000.
· Levy Equalization – 75% cut of approximately $250,000. The Governor’s proposed cut was about $120,000.
· K-4 Enhancement, revenue that allows for lowering class size in grades K-4, 100% cut. This was a complete surprise as it was not in the Governor’s budget and could have meant the loss of up to 15+ teachers in these grade levels.

Second, the good news:

Senator Pflug sent us a copy of the excel document that showed the impact of the cuts on each school district. In this document we saw for the first time the stimulus funding used to partially offset the proposed cuts. The Senate basically tried to equalize the cuts to each district at 3.5% by using the stimulus funds to back into this percent. They also funded the reduction of grandfathered districts related to the Federal Way lawsuit. Together, these two new pots put approximately $2,000,000 of the cuts back into our system next year. This was definitely good
news.

It seemed odd, however, to be celebrating additional cuts to our state revenue. We are learning through this process that emotions change with new information and tomorrow’s House budget will, I’m sure, provide another opportunity for a roller coaster ride.

Third, the not so good news:

We are still processing the Senate budget to see how some of the other changes will impact our revenue for next year. We know that the net effect will be an increase over what the Governor proposed, but we will not know how much until we have more detailed information. What is also problematic is the use of the stimulus funds. It eases the issue for next year, but it does not eliminate it in the long term as these funds are only available for the next two years. After that, we will be forced to revisit the need for additional adjustments unless basic education funding undergoes a significant overhaul at the state level.

Forgot this one additional item - LID days were cut.