The Olympian editorial board writes about the supplemental operating budget. I think the way they frame the education differences between the House and Senate proposals is a bit odd:

The Democrats want to give teachers a small cost-of-living pay adjustment, including Inslee’s plan to lift starting-teacher pay to $40,000. They want to pay for that by closing a tax exemption for purchases of bottled water, limiting tax exemptions for out-of-state-shoppers and sales of foreclosed properties, and ending preferential business tax rates for travel agents, international investment services and resellers of prescription drugs.

Republicans oppose the pay and tax changes, but want to reinvest funds in charter schools after a court struck down the state charters law. House Democrats save several million dollars by not funding charters.

If you don't know any better, it almost sounds like the charter schools proposal would cost much more than the school employee salary proposal. Actually, the House budget would increase spending by about $99 million to increase salaries for teachers and other school staff, while the Senate would increase spending by about $6 million to fund public charter schools.

The editorial also mentions the merger of the Law Enforcement Officers' and Fire Fighters' Plan 1 and the Teachers' Retirement System Plan 1, which the Senate proposes as a way to save about $75 million. Jordan Schrader of The News Tribune has an interesting story today on the proposal and the history behind it.

For more on the budgets, see "House-Passed Supplemental Operating Budget Would Increase Spending, Increase Taxes, and Tap the Rainy Day Fund" and "Senate-Passed Supplemental Operating Budget Would Modestly Increase Spending Within Existing Revenues."