Senate budget committee passes ed bills out of committee by deadline

Four education bills received a do pass recommendation, subject to signature, from the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The bills include:

- SHB 2492 would require fiscal impact statements be provided during certain State Board of Education rule making proposals to identify fiscal impacts on school districts.

- E2SHB 2337 would create a library of open source curriculum on Common Core Standards, along with convening a stakeholder group to review existing materials and make recommendations.

- ESHB 2586 was amended in committee ... It would appear the underlying bill has been replaced with a stakeholder group that will report back to the Legislature, but the amendment was not available for review. However, it is possible that the working group is for only one piece of the bill.

- SHB 2617 would create a legal framework for the dissolution of school districts faced with insolvency. The committee adopted a technical amendment raised by the county treasurers.

All four bills have been sent to the Senate Rules Committee, provided they receive enough signatures to move forward.

Today was the final day for consideration of policy bills with a fiscal impact.

Legislative update: budget status

The House Ways and Means committee passed SHB 2127 out of committee Saturday with two changes to K12 funding. The committee restored funding for small high schools and added $3 million for an "urban schools" partnership between school districts and universities. This is in addition to funding also included for the Governor's university/school district partnership.

The supplemental operating budget bill passed along party lines (Democrats voting yes, Republicans voting no).

In addition to offering a number of amendments, House Republicans proposed striking the House Democrats' K-12 funding proposal and replacing it with their own funding priorities. This included opposing the apportionment shift and May/June LEA shift of payments to school districts to July 2013.

Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, opposed making the delayed $404 million in payments part of the 2013-15 biennial operating budget, and said that with deeper cuts this biennium, the payment shifts were unnecessary.

The House is expected to vote on the budget bill Tuesday.

Meanwhile ... Senate Ways & Means has a long list of bills for possible executive action today, including bills on WaKIDS (HB 2586), fiscal insolvency of school districts (HB 2617), state board of education fiscal impact statements (HB 2492) and open source curriculum (HB 2337).

They are breaking for caucus now and will be back to take on the list of some 35 bills ...they are expected to return around 6:30 p.m.

Revenue forecast slightly positive, Week 7 schedule available on WSSDA website Friday

The pace is really picking up next week, with the Tuesday deadline for bills to clear House policy committees, and by Thursday for the House appropriations committees. Meanwhile, the Senate has a Friday cutoff for policy committees.

Both chambers have a Monday, February 27 deadline for bills to pass bills out of fiscal committees, with the House Ways & Means Committee working Saturday.

In addition, a House Democratic proposal for the 2011-13 supplemental operating budget is expected to be released this week.

Lawmakers are hoping to meet a March 8 deadline to complete their work in the short 60-day session.

With a slightly better revenue forecast issued today, lawmakers may find it easier to bridge a now-projected $1.1 billion shortfall and still keep some money in the bank.

The outlook remains uncertain for the biennium, which is why Gov. Chris Gregoire wants the Legislature to leave about $600 million in reserve. The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council summed it up with:

“Our current economic forecast is very similar to our November forecast, with the same muddle-through conditions expected for the rest of the biennium, along with a high degree of downside risk.” Click here for more information on the revenue forecast announcement.

 
In addition, the logjam over repealing some tax exemptions may be broken, with House Republicans announcing some willingness to consider exemptions that have either outlived their usefulness or aren’t producing the expected results at this time.

Look for a new committee schedule on the WSSDA web site Friday, February 17.

SHB 2492 passes House 97-0

Saying the bill will result in better communication and understanding of fiscal impacts on school districts when the State Board of Education considers rule changes, sponsor Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-35, encouraged lawmakers to vote yes.

Also rising in support was bill co-sponsor Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-25, who urged a strong "yes" vote.

Without further ado, the bill passed unanimously. It was one of the last bills to pass tonight before the House adjourned until Friday.

The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

House to take up state board rules bill tonight

The House will vote tonight on a bill that would require the State Board of Education to develop a fiscal impact statement on significant rules that have an effect on school districts. The bill would require a public hearing on the fiscal impact statement, and direct the SBE to share the information with the education committees of the Legislature.

SHB 2492 is co-sponsored by Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, and Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup. The bill creates some exceptions to the requirement for a fiscal impact statement, mainly for technical changes or when explicitly defined by the Legislature.

The bill is on a list that was just taken up by the House and is not expected to have opposition. No amendments have been proposed.

Interested parties can watch the discussion on TVW (www.tvw.org).

Fiscal committees spell end of some bills, other remain “alive”

The list of active bills is getting smaller, after budget committees wrapped up marathon sessions Tuesday, February 7, polishing some bills and sending others to the graveyard.

Keep in mind that several bills that didn’t pass budget committees may get labeled “Necessary to Implement the Budget” or NTIB, and others – like the many revenue and tax preference bills – may get wrapped into the budget conversations as well.

 

In addition, for many bills that passed out of the House and Senate Ways & Means committees, modifications were made to trim the fiscal note, add accountability, make tweaks to satisfy stakeholder or member concerns, or remove policy elements that would have kept the bill from moving merrily along.

 

Action now turns to the Rules committees, which serve as the gate-keepers to what the full House or Senate will vote on. Lawmakers also will be focused on floor action; they have until Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 5 p.m. to pass bills from the chamber where they started.

Get more on this story Thursday, Feb. 9 at www.wssda.org Legislative Updates

Senate budget committee to hear TPEP, reform bills

The Senate Ways & Means Committee has pulled two "title only" bills from last year's vault and scheduled them for a public hearing today at 1:30 p.m.

As advertised, the public hearing is on the "proposed substitute." SB 5895 is the Governor's TPEP bill (SB 6177); SB 5896 is the business-backed reform bill on teacher and principal evaluations (SB 6203). WSSDA was supportive of the Governor's bill and supported elements of the reform bill.

In addition, the budget committee has scheduled SB 6377, which would eliminate funding requirements for I-728 (class size) and I-732 (COLAs), and SB SB 6567, which appears to exempt state funding allocations of K-12 spending from I-601 expenditure limits.

Charter school bill still stalling Senate committee action

Action in the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee on SB 6202, the bill that would authorize 10 charter schools a year, for a total of 50 in the next five years, appears to be the main reason the committee hasn't met to act on bills before today's cutoff for policy bills.

The teacher/principal evaluation bills are also part of the equation.

And with the meltdown in the House Education Committee earlier this week, the Governor lost her lab partnership bills and her version of the teacher/principal evaluation bills. All of which added up to Governor-intervention last night and today to see if some resolution could be found.

We've been waiting to hear whether a noon or 3:30 p.m. meeting would materialize, but so far nothing has been set.

Stay tuned.

House Republicans announce K-12 budget

At a press conference today, House Republicans announced House Bll 2770, which would lay out a K-12 budget spending plan for the remainder of the biennium.

The actual budget proposal is not available yet. House Ways & Means ranking Republican Gary Alexander said their proposal makes about $50 million in cuts to public schools funding from the current biennial budget, compared to the Governor's proposal, which cut $150 million from local effort assistance alone.

According to a press release by House Republicans, the proposal is expected to eliminate non-basic education programs, freeze the teacher salary step schedule, and reduce the bonus amount for National Board Certified Teachers. Local effort assistance is not cut.

The announcement and budget proposal will be in line with House Bill 2533, which would direct the legislature to enact an education budget first before other spending proposals.

HB 2533 was heard before the House Education budget committee earlier this week. It was supported by most education organizations, including WSSDA, WASA, AWSP, WEA, PTA, Stand for Children, and SPI Randy Dorn.

Currently, the legislature passes three separate budgets - operating, transportation, and capital. HB 2533 would require the legislature to adopt an education budget first.

Bill to require fiscal impact statements on SBE rules passes committee

The House Education Appropriations Committee passed HB 2492 from committee today 17-0 with 2 excused.

WSSDA worked with the bill sponsors to address issues raised by staff regarding how the original bill would be implemented, and create an alternative that required the State Board of Education to solicit information from school districts on proposed rule changes.

The substitute bill focuses the fiscal impact statement on significant rules and would not be used on technical changes. It also creates the process to have a presentation and public hearing on the fiscal impact statement prior to SBE adoption, and forward a copy of the impact statement to the Education committees.

The bill moves to the Rules Committee for the next step towards passage in the House.