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Policy Today: Levy Swap and Tax Increases for Education

Rep. Hunter on the budget and education finance

Rep. Ross Hunter, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has a very interesting blog post about what is going on in the budget negotiations and education finance. As Hunter shows, there are a number of issues that must be resolved. If you’re interested in either topic, I highly recommend it.

An income tax for education?

Last week state Superintendent Randy Dorn released a $2.2 billion education spending proposal. Today state Treasurer Jim McIntire proposed a way to pay for that new spending. His proposal would: Eliminate the state property tax, lower regular property tax limits, and limit excess local school levies; Set the B&O rate at 1.0 percent for business […]

New policy brief: Levy Swap: Tax Increases, Tax Reductions, Unanswered Questions

We have posted a new policy brief titled: Levy Swap: Tax Increases, Tax Reductions, Unanswered Questions Briefly Levy swap: court-required state funding to replace local dollars to finance basic k-12 education. A state property tax increase to fund a levy swap is proposed by Sen. Dammeier, Rep. Hunter. A uniform statewide property tax hike to […]

The Health Benefit Exchange and the 2015-17 budget

Both the House and Senate 2015-17 operating budget proposals would provide additional funding for the Health Benefit Exchange (HBE). As I’ve written, the HBE budget depends partially on its enrollment numbers, which were not as high as the HBE had hoped. Along with the 2 percent tax on premiums, other sources of income are a […]

How to get around the unfunded mandate of I-1351?

Budget writers agree that Initiative 1351 should not be funded. This is easier said than done. (Like true love, the course of budget writing never did run smooth.) I-1351 requires class size reductions for grades K-12, while the McCleary decision requires class size reductions only for grades K-3. The Legislature is already working on that […]

“Levy swap” proposals surface

The Seattle Times has a story about three legislative proposals to reduce reliance on local school property tax levies that emerged on Wednesday: State lawmakers Wednesday put forth three competing proposals to address part of a court mandate for K-12 education that would reduce schools’ reliance on local tax levies. … The three tax-levy proposals […]

March 11–April 10 state revenue collections were $39.4 million greater than forecast, however much of this good news was due to the timing of a refund

This afternoon the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly Economic and Revenue Update. Here are the key bullets on revenue from the summary: Major General Fund-State revenue collections for the March 11 – April 10, 2015 collection period were $39.4 million (3.7%) higher than the February forecast. Much of this month’s surplus was […]

New brief: 2015-17 Operating Budget: Spending Priorities

We have a new policy brief comparing the House- and Senate-passed operating budgets. Briefly: A better economy is expected to bring in an additional $3 billion in revenue. The House-passed budget increases spending by more than $5 billion over 2013– 15. The Senate-passed budget increases spending by more than $4 billion over 2013– 15. Policy […]

Carbon taxation in the offing?

Apparently some form of carbon taxation could still happen this year, despite the fact that it did not make it into either House or Senate budget proposal. It was a main source of revenue in Gov. Inslee’s proposed budget, but the House proposal would increase revenues in different ways. From Crosscut: House Environment Committee chair […]