Democrats in the state House want to cut funding for all-day kindergarten at struggling public schools so they can give teachers and other school workers a bigger pay raise next year.
The budget proposal released by House Democratic leaders Wednesday in Olympia would give all public school and some community college employees an extra 1 percent pay raise in the 2008-09 school year. That’s in addition to the 3.9 percent raise that school employees are supposed to get because of a voter-approved measure guaranteeing automatic raises for school workers based on the rate of inflation.
That extra 1 percent would cost state taxpayers $35.6 million.
On the other hand, the House budget suggests cutting $16 million that’s earmarked to expand all-day kindergarten from 10 percent of high-poverty schools this year to 20 percent of those schools in the 2008-09 school year. That expansion would be delayed indefinitely.
House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said majority Democrats are trying to make up for the years the Legislature suspended the automatic pay-raise provisions of Initiative 732 and gave school employees no raises. That was in 2003-04, when the consumer price index was 2 percent, and in 2004-05, when the inflation raise would have been 1.6 percent.
The Democrat-controlled Legislature gave teachers an extra 0.5 percent raise in the 2006-07 school year.
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s supplemental budget did not include extra money for teacher pay, nor did it cut funding for kindergarten. It was Gregoire’s original budget last year that started expanding kindergarten from half days to full days in public schools, phased in over a 10-year period.
The full House is expected to vote on the budget Friday and send it to the Senate, which is developing its own budget proposal. Democratic leaders in both houses will try to resolve their differences by March 13, the end of the 60-day session.
Two unions – the 78,000-member Washington Education Association and the 26,000-member Public School Employees Association – and the League of Education Voters, a group that advocates for more school funding, have been lobbying the Legislature for bigger pay raises, especially since their members got nothing in the 2003-05 budget.
George Scarola, an officer for the league, thanked House budget writers for the extra 1 percent raise. He said it was “the top priority” and characterized the kindergarten funding cut as “a little setback.”
“On balance, a great budget in a tough year,” Scarola said of the money for education.
Overall, House Democrats would increase state spending by $287 million over the current two-year budget cycle that ends in mid-2009. That would boost total spending in the state’s largest operating budget funds to $33.7 billion. The budget leaves a total of $750 million in reserves. In December, the governor and legislative leaders said they hoped to leave $1 billion in reserves.
Kessler said House Democrats had to rewrite their budget after the state’s chief economist last week predicted the state’s projected $1.4 billion surplus would shrink to about $950 million with no changes in spending.
Rep. Gary Alexander of Olympia, top Republican on the House budget committee, said Democrats leave too little in savings.
“Their plan spends more, adds more in new programs and creates more trouble for the next biennium than what the governor is proposing,” Alexander said. “It fails to come to grips with the clear signs of a slower state economy and lower growth in revenues. It also cuts the reserves in half.
“This is an irresponsible approach that ignores economic realities,” he added.
House Democrats also unveiled their revised capital and transportation budgets for 2007-09. The capital budget, House Bill 2765, adds about $110 million in new projects, mostly housing for low-income people and those hurt by the flooding in Lewis county. The transportation budget, HB 2878, is about $7.5 billion and has only a few new projects.
The overall state budget is about $65 billion to $70 billion.
Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said she expects her committee to amend and approve the operating budget, HB 2687, today. The full House is expected to vote Friday.
Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
Here are some highlights from the operating, capital and transportation budgets released by the House on Wednesday:
• Increases net operating budget spending by $287 million, to a total of $33.7 billion.
• Leaves $750 million in savings.
• Continues planning for a new University of Washington Campus in Everett, Marysville or Lake Stevens, but does not start the campus.
• Gives adult family home operators a 5.8 percent raise instead of the 2 percent that had been scheduled.
• Pays for a computer system to process and administer the family leave program, but no money for actual leave payments.
• Puts $5 million into a fund for local law enforcement for in-person visits to verify sex offenders are living where they say they are.
• Sets aside $1.4 million for the state prison system to put electronic GPS monitors on as many as 200 released sex offenders in 2009.
• Cancels $500,000 in state funding that was going to go to the Pierce County Alliance to test the effectiveness of Prometa, a drug that’s supposed to help addicts kick their habits.
• Provides $9.8 million for prison officials to put ex-convicts in drug treatment instead of sending them back to prison or jail for violating terms of their release.
• Provides $41.5 million in state and federal funds to help victims of December 2007 flooding and storms.
• Does not include state money for public facilities in Auburn, Tukwila, Federal Way or Richland.
• Has none of the $150 million sought by the University of Washington for fixes to Husky Stadium.
• No money for Oklahoma-bound Sonics, either.
• Assumes $43 million in state sales tax on Narrows Bridge will be forgiven.
• Starts a child care quality pilot program in Pierce County to help special needs children transition to regular day care.
• Spends $3 million to design a skills center at the site of the old Safeway store at South 160th Street and Canyon Road East. Total cost would be $42 million.
• Supplies $290,000, half the amount of money needed to buy development rights for 21-acre Terry’s Berries between Tacoma and Puyallup.
• Gives $3 million to the UW Tacoma for land purchase and soil cleanup.
• Allots $10 million to renovate the John L. O’Brien Building, home to most offices for state representatives.
• Spends $750,000 to preserve Orting Valley Farms in Pierce County as farmland.
• Gives Pierce County $1.4 million for the Chambers Creek pedestrian bridge.
• Gives Eatonville $350,000 for a community pool access addition.
• Spends $500,000 on South Tacoma Community Center.
• Spends $500,000 on the William Factory Small Business Incubator on Tacoma’s East Side.
• Cuts $4 million from the state Department of Transportation’s overhead on operating toll collection on Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
• Provides $383 million to move ahead with construction of three 144-car ferries.
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