With the help of some
good news this month when the Economic & Revenue Forecast Council released
its update of projected revenue for the remainder of the
biennium, the budget gap in Olympia is shrinking. For the first time in 15 quarters (almost four
years), the revenue forecast was positive with estimated revenue for the
biennium increasing by almost $100 million. Adding to this good news is an estimated
reduction in caseload costs bringing what was an expected $1.5 billion deficit
down to about $1 billion.
With this as a backdrop,
the House Democrats yesterday released their budget that did not include a
sales tax increase. According to Ross
Hunter, House Ways and Means Chair, the tax increase, however, is still a
possibility.
Although the House plan
balances the budget without asking voters for a sales-tax increase, Hunter did
not rule it out. No decision has been made yet, he said.
In this budget K-12 comes out far
better than was expected earlier this year.
Through accounting gimmicks used in the past, the state realizes savings
by delaying our June apportionment payment to the first day in July, pushing
the expenditure into the next biennium.
They will also delay levy equalization payments and reduce the
equalization rate beginning in August 2013 from the current 14% to 12%. This is good news for us as earlier budget
possibilities included cutting the entire amount. If you are a budget nut and want more detail
you can find it here and a related Seattle Times opinion that calls the budget irresponsible because it pushes the problem into the next biennium.
In contrast to this budget, the House
Republicans earlier released their Education First budget. This is a concept that was first shared in
2006 and now seems to have more backing including some support from democrats. It would require that the legislature develop
an education budget first, before looking at other needs in the state. They use the state constitution and recent
court ruling to support this proposal. It
did not, however, have the votes to get out of committee. You can read about this budget proposal on
the Washington House Republican site here.
I will share more details as we learn
more. We now wait for the Senate’s
budget release next week and the negotiations that will follow between the two
houses and the Governor. Perhaps we
should add the recent State Supreme Court ruling on funding to the good news
that may have been in the back of legislators minds as they crafted their
budget. Other than the equalization
reduction there may be little push back to this proposal. Even that would not result in big issues as
levy equalization is arguably not part of basic education.
1 comment:
I agree that the new blogger interface is a bit confusing. I'm still giving it a shot because I figure maybe it will grow on me. Owever, if you want to switch back, go to blog list at blogger.com then in the top right under your name and next to the language selection, click on the gear icon. Towards the bottom of the popup list you can choose the old blogger interface. That option took me like ten minutes to find!
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