Washington Gov. Jay Inslee today announced a proposal to boost school spending by $200 million to keep the state on track for meeting its court-mandated basic education obligations.
The state Supreme Court, in McCleary v. State of Washington, ruled in 2012 that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to adequately fund basic education. In 2009 and 2010, the Legislature made statutory commitments to change how education is funded and direct billions of dollars in strategic new education investments over the next six years.
But in an order earlier this month, the court said the state was not moving fast enough to meet its own funding timelines and called for “immediate, concrete action … not simply promises.”
Inslee originally proposed a “hold-steady” 2014 supplemental budget that made only modest increases to the 2013–15 budget. But he said the new court order had forced him to revise that approach.
“Our constitution makes clear that education is this state’s paramount duty. And in recent years the Legislature has come together in a bipartisan fashion to pass promising school reforms,” said Inslee. “What’s missing is action, follow through, making good on our commitment. What’s missing is funding. Today I am presenting a plan that puts us on the path to meet our moral obligation to our children and our legal obligation to our constitution.”
The governor proposed $200 million in additional funding in the 2013–15 budget to address two areas mentioned in the Supreme Court ruling:
• ensuring classrooms are properly equipped with necessary materials, supplies, books and curricula; and,
• restoring voter-mandated teacher cost-of-living salary increases.
Inslee said the state has not been doing its part to make sure teachers are adequately paid. Voters in 2000 approved Initiative 732, which requires the state to fund annual teacher COLAs. But the state has not provided any funding since 2008.
The governor proposes a 1.3 percent COLA for the 2014–15 school year, which would cost the state $74 million.
“If we want to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers for our children, we have to provide competitive salaries,” Inslee said.
As he did last year, Inslee proposes closing tax breaks to provide ongoing funding for the basic education investments. His plan calls for closing or amending seven current tax breaks, which would generate $200 million over the remainder of the current biennium and $414 million during the 2015–17 biennium.
Among the areas targeted by Inslee:
• repealing sales tax exemption for trade-ins valued more than $10,000;
• repealing the public utility tax deduction for in-state portion of interstate transportation;
• repeal the use tax exemption for extracted fuel (except for hog fuel);
• refunding the state portion of sales tax to nonresidents;
• repealing the tax exemption on bottled water;
• repealing the sales tax exemption for janitorial services; and,
• repealing preferential business and occupation tax rate for resellers of prescription drugs.
“There may have been a time and place for each of these tax breaks,” Inslee said, “but today they simply are not as high a priority as educating our children. I welcome further conversation with legislators about how to move forward.”
