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Policy Today: College Affordability

New brief: College Affordability, Two Ways

In a new policy brief, we look at the College Affordability Program, which is the Senate’s plan to reduce tuition for 2015-17. Briefly: The Senate’s College Affordability Program would return tuition-setting authority to the Legislature. It would tie tuition to the state’s average wage, resulting in tuition reductions in the 2015–17 biennium. Reflecting the tuition […]

Sundry links: Trade, the budget, McCleary

Economist Gregory Mankiw has an excellent column in the New York Times: “Economists Actually Agree on This: The Wisdom of Free Trade.” Former state senator Rodney Tom has an op-ed in the Seattle Times about the state budget: “It was easy to make a case for fiscal responsibility when the state was in desperate financial […]

In Focus this week: The Exchange and the budget, March employment report, and an income tax for education?

Dueling op-eds on the budget proposals

The Seattle Times has op-eds from both the House and the Senate on their 2015-17 operating budget proposals. Reps. Ross Hunter and Reuven Carlyle and Sen. Andy Hill provide an overview of the differences between the chambers, as seen by the primary budget writers. (See here for a more inside-baseball take from Rep. Hunter.) Hunter […]

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 […]

“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 […]