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 the result of “a year of bipartisan work.”

Rather than looking for quick Senate passage and negotiations with the House, the sponsors are seeking substantive feedback on their uncharacteristically detailed proposal, principally from those directly affected, the 295 school districts of our state. This 63-page bill is significantly beyond the call for a study group that is the principal element in the House proposal attempting to cover the same ground. However, as Sen. Dammeier stated, the bill is not quite ready for prime time: the legislation lacks a critical element, the means to pay its estimated $3.56b price tag.

The bill adds teacher compensation to the legislative definition of basic education and re-codifies existing language regarding basic education into a single chapter. It implements a new salary allocation model for teachers, phases in new salaries for all school staff and requires that a comparable wage analysis be conducted every four years. The bill  significantly ratchets up monitoring requirements regarding the use of local levy funds and supplemental contracts.

The bill changes the local school district levy process and local effort assistance (LEA) process—but deliberately leaves some latitude for local districts to continue to raise funds. It establishes a body to monitor for implementation and unintended consequences—and gives that body (the Education Funding Council) the power to make major changes to the plan if it becomes necessary. And finally—none of this will happen unless revenue sources are provided to fund these provisions.

Reaching agreement on sources of new revenues to replace the local levies is a daunting task. (We describe several options in this April policy brief.) Senator Rolfes, a proponent of creating a capital gains tax, said the state will need to “raise it from a variety of sources.”

We will carefully monitor the dialog surrounding SB 6130 as the McCleary drama continues.

Here is video of the senators’ press conference on SB 6130:

Here is video of the Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing on the bill:

Here are links to the SB 6130 bill report, a summary table of fiscal impacts, a table of revenue changes by school district, and  a table of salaries by school district.