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90 Seconds with the Washington Research Council: State budget update

House tuition-related funding, and a modest proposal for GET

The House operating budget proposal would freeze resident undergraduate tuition, and the various editions of the proposal have provided various amounts of state funds to support institutions that would potentially be losing increased tuition revenues. The table below shows how the proposals offered yesterday compare to the House-passed version. 2P2SHB 1106 would provide additional state […]

Policy changes in the various budget proposals

As I wrote yesterday, Rep. Hunter has made a new budget proposal. It comes in two parts: 2P2SHB 1106 is the main appropriations bill, and PSHB 2269 makes additional appropriations dependent on revenue increases. The chart below shows the policy changes in every proposal that has been introduced so far. Compared to the June 1 […]

New House budget proposal would spend $316 million more than Senate

Today House Appropriations chair Ross Hunter released a new 2015-17 operating budget proposal. The budget bill (2P2SHB 1106) is accompanied by PSHB 2269, which makes revenue changes and additional appropriations. 2P2SHB 1106 would appropriate $37.854 billion, which is significantly less than the House’s June 1 proposal ($38.512 billion) and slightly less than the Senate’s May […]

House appropriations will make new budget proposal today

At 11:30 this morning, the House appropriations committee is scheduled to release a new 2015-17 operating budget proposal, along with a revenue bill. They will hold a hearing on these and several other budget-related bills today at 3 pm. The other bills are: HB 2266, which would defer implementation of Initiative 1351 until the 2019-2021 […]

The budget solution won't include a capital gains tax after all

As Opportunity Washington noted this morning, it’s been a little too quiet in Olympia. No longer: Today Gov. Inslee held a press conference in which he said that the two sides are not hung up over a capital gains tax (or any other new tax). Instead, he said there are still disagreements over the amount […]

Transportation trumps rent control

Josh Feit at PubliCola points out a poll from EMC Research that asked likely Seattle voters about affordable housing policy. Apparently they were asked whether they would support a candidate who supports either (a) “strict rent control, capping costs to protect affordability” or (b) “a variety of policies for affordable housing, including developer fees, increasing […]

On the Budget Impasse

There’s not much information coming out of Olympia about the status of the ongoing budget talks, but what we have heard prompts a review of what we know. McCleary and Initiative 1351. First, we started this session with the understanding that there could be a significant budget shortfall resulting largely from the state Supreme Court’s […]

InFocus this week: Revenue collections, health spending, Senate tuition plan, and K-12 funding

Senate Bill 6130 tackles the over-reliance on local levies to fund basic education

In a breath of bipartisan fresh air, a group of four senators, two from each party, unveiled SB 6130 yesterday. In this bill, Senators Dammeier, Rolfes, Hargrove, and Rivers seek to address the McCleary-driven need to reduce over-reliance on local levies for funding teachers’ salaries. Sen. Dammeier called the bill a policy “deep dive,” and […]