In The News Tribune, Melissa Santos writes,

State Rep. Hans Dunshee, the budget writer in the Democratic-controlled House, said the dispute over teacher raises is part of what is delaying a budget deal. . . .

While House Democrats and Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee have proposed boosting what the state pays for beginning teachers, the Senate’s proposed budget includes no money for teacher raises.

The supplemental budget that was passed by the House would increase appropriations by $98.5 million to "recruit and retain K-12 staff." That figure includes:

• $62.9 million to increase compensation for school employees,
• $27.7 million for a bonus program for teachers with second tier certification,
• $5.0 million for the beginning educator support program, and
• $3.0 million for professional development for paraeducators.

Of the $62.9 million for salary increases, $6.8 million is to increase salaries (on an on-going basis) for classified staff by 1 percent. The remainder would be used to increase salaries for new (and new-ish) teachers and to add a 17th year to the state salary schedule. The table below shows the increases in the state salary schedule for SY 2016-17 in the House-passed supplemental budget over that in the enacted biennial budget.

(Note that the enacted 2015-17 budget provided salary increases for school employees of 3 percent effective Sept. 1, 2015 and 1.8 percent effective Sept. 1, 2016.)

More from The News Tribune:

Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, said leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate would rather wait to raise teachers’ pay until next year, when the Legislature plans to address what the state Supreme Court has deemed an overreliance on local funding for basic education.

“It needs to be done, but it needs to be done in a comprehensive way, where we’re addressing the huge inequities between school districts at the same time,” Dammeier said.