Tag Archives: state legislature

Governor Inslee Announces a Jobs Package

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Yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee announced a multifaceted $120 million jobs package for Washington.

The package would:

  • Provide tax breaks for new companies in certain fields
  • Create 500 new slots in aerospace-training programs
  • Assemble a commission to ensure that the state’s colleges and universities are turning out students with math- and science-based skills relevant to the economy’s needs.

The commission identified as part of Inslee’s package is the STEM Education Innovation Alliance. The Alliance would be responsible for advising the Governor in the development of a vision, guidance, assistance and advice to support STEM initiatives across the education spectrum to increase learning opportunities and improve educational outcomes in STEM.

The Governor’s Office, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is also responsible for inviting representatives of STEM businesses, business and labor organizations with expertise in STEM fields, one or more nonprofit organizations with a mission to enhance STEM education from early learning through postsecondary education, school districts and institutions of higher education that have demonstrated leadership and innovation in STEM education, and STEM educators to participate in the alliance.

The primary focus of the Alliance’s work is to align and combine previous STEM education strategic plans into a single, cohesive, and comprehensive STEM framework for action and accountability. The framework must concentrate on a limited number of selected and specific measures that are meaningful indicators of progress in increasing STEM learning opportunities and in achieving the intended longer-term outcomes of such efforts. The framework must also use measures that are quantifiable and based on data that are regularly and reliably collected statewide.

The package is part of the ongoing efforts by the Governor to drive collaboration between institutions and businesses  to prepare students and workers for today’s jobs and the jobs of the future.

Governor Inslee’s Working Washington Agenda has five major components.

  • Educationg a 21st centry workforce. Expanding and enhancing STEM education. Preventing and reengaging high school dropouts. Increasing workplace-based training opportunities for students.
  • Improving the business climate & expanding our workforce. Promoting job growth and encouraging innovation through targeted tax relief. Modernizing state regulatory systems.
  • Advancing Washington’s aerospace leadership. New investments in aerospace education and training programs across the state. Helping Washington compete for new aerospace business.
  • Clean energy, climate action and plentiful water. Tapping state capital funds to develop clean energy solutions. Supporting more biofuel production. Making transportation and other investments good for climate.
  • Health care reform: healhty people, healthy economy. Fully embracing federal health care reform. Improving people’s health, saving taxpayer dollars and creating thousands of jobs.

The legislation to create the STEM Education Innovation Alliance will be heard next week in both chambers. On Wednesday evening in the House Education Committee and on Thursday evening in the Senate Early Learning & K12 Committee.

2013 Legislative Session Kicks-Off

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Today the Washington Legislature convened the 2013 legislative session. The session will focus on several large issues including the budget, K-12 funding, and healthcare. The session starts with a new governor and a Senate led by 23 Republicans and two Democrats.

This Week

This week will focus on organization of the Legislature, work sessions, and some bill hearings. Both the House and Senate will likely spend a good deal of time over the next few weeks in learning mode. 

Here is a snapshot of the week ahead as it relates to higher education:

January 15

  • 8 a.m. – House Higher Education Committee, which will hear about the newly formed Washington Student Achievement Council (which replaced the Higher Education Coordinating Board).
  • 11:30 a.m.- Gov. Gregoire will deliver her final State of the State Address to a joint session of the House and Senate.
  • 3:30 p.m. – House Appropriations. Public hearing on Gov. Gregoire’s operating budget proposals focused on K-12 and higher education.

January 16

  • Noon – Governor Inslee’s Inaugural Address will begin; look for a Republican response to immediately follow.
  • 1:30 p.m. – House Higher Education will hold a work session on the Higher Education Policy Priorities for 2013 of the Council of Presidents and the public, baccalaureate institutions.
  • 3:30 p.m.- Senate Ways & Means Committee will discuss the state’s operating and capital budgets.

January 17

  • 9:00 a.m. – House Education will get an update on the K-12 Student Longitudinal Data System and hear from the Education Research and Data Center on current projects.
  • 10:00 a.m. – House Higher Education hold a work session on the higher education priorities of stakeholders for the 2013 session

Legislature

Today the House and Senate will formally organize the leaders for each chamber and swear in new members.

All eyes will be on the Senate Monday when it convenes at noon for what is expected to be a historic moment . Senate “rules” state that the party with the most seats is the majority; with the power shifting to Republicans, look for procedural floor motions to name Tom as majority leader and Sheldon as President Pro Tem, cementing the new Majority Coalition.

On the first day of session, typical business is to officially approve committee chairs, ranking members and committee membership, committee schedules, cutoff dates, and other operating procedures. This year’s opening events may also see the election of six (or more) committee chairs and vice chairs led by Republicans. It is also possible there may be votes for committees to be led by Democrats or co-chaired between the two parties.

In the House, the Democrats have a clear majority (55-43). Not unlike the Senate, the House will experience the addition of several new members to the chamber. In the House 20 new members have joined the chamber (9 Democrats and 11 Republicans).

Seattle-based Frank Chopp is expected to continue as Speaker of the House. In addition, Rep. Larry Seaquist (D-Gig Harbor) will lead the House Higher Education Committee and will be joined by Rep. Gerry Pollett (D-Seattle) as vice chair. The ranking republican members will be Rep. Larry Haler (R-Richland) joined by Rep. Hans Zeiger (R-Puyallup).

Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) will continue as chair of the House operating budget committee, which has been renamed as the Appropriations Committee. Republican Gary Alexander (R-Olympia) has been named the ranking member.

New this year is a true subcommittee on education appropriations that will be chaired by former school director Kathy Haigh (D-Shelton). The subcommittee will meet once during the week and will be comprised solely of legislators who are members of the larger Appropriations Committee.

Executive Branch

Tomorrow Governor Gregoire will give her departing speech. On Wednesday Governor- Elect Jay Inslee will outline his vision for the state in his inaugural address before a joint session of the House and Senate at noon.

Washington Legislative Session Kicks Off Next Week

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The 2013 biennial session will begin on Monday in Olympia. A quick “101” regarding the Washington Legislature. Each odd-numbered year the Washington State Legislature meets for 105-days to pass biennial operating, capital and transportation budgets and enact policy bills.

In addition to these tasks, the Washington Legislature will also tackle a response to the K-12 McCleary decision and implementation of Obamacare at the state level. All of which are the focus of next week’s committee hearings in both the Senate and the House.

Next week the focus of the appropriations committees will be a review of the Governor’s proposed 2013-15 biennial budget, released in mid-December. Higher education will have an opportunity to testify with regard to the proposed budget on January 15 in House Appropriations.

In addition, the higher education policy committees plan to focus on the higher education priorities of stakeholders. On January 16 the Council of Presidents and the six public baccalaureate institutions will present their priorities to the Committee. Other stakeholders including students, faculty, and the Washington Achievement Council will present on Tuesday and Thursday.

Stay tune for the latest news from The Hill…..

House Democrats Announce Leadership Team

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There will be little change in leadership in the Washington House for the Democrats. 

House Democrats re-elected several leaders from the prior legislative session. Among those re-elected were:

  • Rep. Frank Chopp – House Speaker designate
  • Rep. Pat Sullivan – Majority Leader
  • Rep. Eric Pettigrew – Majority Caucus Chair
  • Rep. Kevin Van De Wege – Majority Whip
  • Rep. Tami Green – Majority Floor Leader

The House Democratic Caucus must still elect a Speaker pro tem designate.

Washington Senate Democrats Name Leadership Team and Committee Chairs

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Yesterday Democrats, the majority party in the Washington Senate, proposed a leadership strategy to  navigate the narrow partisan divide within the chamber.

The proposed leadership strategy for the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions would reduce the partisan majority on Senate committees by giving the majority party a single vote more than the minority party on Ways & Means as well as the Transportation Committee and all policy committees.

In addition the strategy calls for the creation of a new committee – the Committee on Education Finance & Results – to be equally split between both parties and led by a co-chair from each party. The new Committee would continue the current work of the legislative task force on education funding whose focus has been to look for ways to comply with the state Supreme Court’s ruling in the McCleary case. Specifically, to explore ways to improve education funding in a manner that ensures state education programs are effective such as reducing remediation rates, increasing graduation rates, and eliminating the acheivement gap.

Senate Democrats plan to discuss their proposal with Republicans after the Republicans identify their leadership team.

The Senate Democrats also identified their leadership team and committee leadership. Some of the key appointments for higher education include:

  • Ways & Means: Chair Sen. Hargrove (Operating) and Vice-Chair Sen. Nelson (Capital)
  • Committee on Education Finance and Results: Co-Chair Sen. Frockt
  • Higher Education: Chair Sen. Tom and Vice-Chair Sen. Hasegawa

The 2013 legislative session will convene on Monday, January 14.

House Higher Education Holds Work Session

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Yesterday the House Higher Education Committee held a work session in Seattle. Transitions and partnerships between multiple sectors of education and industry were the focus of presentations to the Committee.

The Committee heard from two different panels that focused on transitions to higher education and within higher education. The first panel focused on transitions to higher education with an emphasis between key transition points from K-12 to postsecondary education. The second panel concentrated on transitions within higher education focusing on transfer and articulation as well as prior learning.

The work session closed with a discussion on the partnerships between higher education and industry. The panel highlighted technology transfer partnerships at the University of Washington and workforce training partnerships through Washington’s community and technical colleges.

Washington Legislature Ends 2012 Supplemental Session

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The first special session of 2012 ended last night as of midnight. Though close the Washington Legislature did not complete business by this deadline and Governor Gregoire called the Legislature back for a second special session. After nearly eight straight hours of work from midnight to early this morning, the Legislature passed a balanced budget, jobs act, and a handful of policy reform bills.

Operating Budget

 The 2012 supplemental operating budget passed 64-34 in the House and 44-2 in the Senate and was delivered to the Governor for her consideration early this morning. The operating budget makes no reductions to K-12 and higher education.  Some of the highlights of the budget include $238 million to the general fund as a result of the state temporarily claiming control of local sales taxes before they are redistributed back to jurisdictions at their usual time, an increase in taxes raising about $14.5 million by eliminating a tax deduction for some large banks, additional revenue to the state through changing rules on roll-your-own cigarettes, and at the end a reserve fund of $320 million.

Impact to Higher Education

The operating budget as passed by the Legislature does not reduce general fund support for higher education, this includes further eductions to institutions and financial aid. The budget however does include some provisos and policy changes.

  • Bellevue College is authorized to offer baccalaureate degrees. Prior to the passage of this bill the College could only offer applied baccalaureate degrees.
  • The two and four year institutions are required to conduct a comprehensive review of institutional tuition waiver policies.
  • Evergreen is required to reallocate $276,000 for FY2013 for an expansion in enrollments in STEM as defined in HB 1795. This definition includes bachelor and advanced degree programs in the sciences, which includes agriculture and natural resources, biology and biomedical sciences, computer and information sciences, engineering and engineering technologies, health professions and clinical sciences, mathematics and statistics, and physical sciences and science technologies, including participation and degree completion rates for students from traditionally underrepresented populations.
  • The Washington State Institute for Public Policy is required to conduct a longitudinal study of the state need grant program ($100,000).
  • The two and four year institutions are not permitted to use state appropriated funds to support intercollegiate athletic programs
  • Changes state payments for public employee health benefits from $850 to $800 per month

Capital Budget and Jobs Act

The 2012  capital budget made no changes to Evergreen’s biennial capital budget. The Jobs Acts  which includes a new bonds bill and the traditional capital budget  are estimated to have an economic impact of $1.1 billion in construction work over the next 14 months.  

Reform Bills

As critical to the process as balancing the budget were efforts to pass reform bills to provide for greater long-term sustainability in the state budget. Among the policy bills passed by the Legislature three were critical to finally ending the 2012 supplemental session.

Pension

SB 6378 addresses early retirement benefits for future state employees.. Under law changes in 2000 and 2007, an employee with 30 years’ service could retire at age 62 with no reduction in benefits, and at age 55 with only a 20 percent reduction. Under the new law, retirement at age 62 will lower the benefit by 15 percent and age 55 by 50 percent. The savings will go to the state’s general fund.

 K-12 Healthcare

SB 5940 attempts to equalize health-insurance benefits for full-time and part-time school district employees and their families. The bill requires school districts to meet certain requirements, including making all employees pay a share of premiums, offering a high-deductible health plan and tying the price of individual and family benefits.

Balanced Budget

SB 6636 requires the state’s two-year budget to be in line with anticipated revenue over a four-year period or 4.5% growth per year, whichever is greater.   Growth has met or exceeded 4.5 percent in half of the past 16 years.

Special Session Moves to Week 2

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This week marks the second week of the first special session of 2012 and follows on the heels of a relatively uneventful first week.

First Week of Special Session – Recap

For the majority of the first week little was happening on The Hill. Governor Gregoire met with legislative leaders including buget negotiators, but little progress was made. Towards the end of the week things got a little more interesting.

On Thursday morning, following a budget meeting with House and Senate members, a group of Senators (Republicans and Democrats) released a new budget proposal (SB 6612). That afternoon, disappointed with the lack of progress on the budget and the release of a new proposal by a Senate coalition, the Governor pulled back on several bill signings and declared that delays and potential vetoes may take place if  no progress on the budget was made.

Second Week of Special Session Kicks-Off

Yesterday, as the second week of the special session began, budget negotiators met with the Governor’s Director of the Office of Financial Management to talk about the fundamental fiscal disagreement that separates the two camps.

The largest impasse appears to be how the House and Senate proposals suggest balancing the supplemental budget. The House passed proposal would shift approximately $330 million in current expenses to the next budget period by delaying payments to school-districts. The most recent Senate coalition proposal would delay a pension payment and balance it with pension reforms and retirement-policy changes.

Budget negotiations among legislators and the Governor’s office continued today.

Governor Suggests New Idea

In comments to reporters on Monday, the Governor hinted that she has presented a new plan to budget negotiators in an effort to break the impasse. However she did not reveal any aspects of the proposal.

It was reported that she did indicate to reporters what the plan “was not” which included  securitizing state revenues, privatizing the state lottery system, allowing slot machines in non-Indian casinos or a general increase in cigarette taxes.

House Republicans

This session each of the four caucuses issued supplemental operating budget proposals. Often the public only gets to see two proposals, one from the Senate and one from the House.

Of the four proposals released over the last month, three of the four make no cuts to K-12 or higher education. The exception being the House Republican proposal. News came forward this week that the House Republicans have announced a new supplemental plan that would make no cuts to K-12 or higher education. However, details have yet to be released.

Senate Coalition Introduces New Budget

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Last Friday Washington Senate Republicans and three Senate Democrats released a new budget proposal (SB 6612). The proposed budget is a move closer to the latest budget passed by the Washington House.

The Senate coalition announced the new proposal at a press conference after the end of the first week of special session during which negotiations were essentially non-existent.

The last proposal from the Senate coalition does include the proposal to skip a pension payment that was part of the Senate-passed budget during the regular session.  However the proposal does give some on the ending fund balance dropping the balance from $600 million to $440 million.

The new proposal restores approximately $140 million in services/programs that were reduced in the prior Senate-passed budget. The savings in large part go to buy back reductions in the original version of the proposal for higher education and K-12. As a result no cuts are made to K-12 or higher education nor does the proposal shift the school-district payment to the next biennium.

Although there was not any restoration of prior cuts enacted by the Legislature to higher education, the Senate coalition budget would make no further reductions to institutional budgets this biennium. In addition, the budget propsoal would:

  • Establish a joint legislative task force on the higher education funding formula,
  • Restore funds to student attending for-profit institutions to 100% of award levels (in the 2011-13 biennial budget the awards were reduced to 50%),
  • Allow Bellevue College and the Seattle Community College District to offer baccalaurate degrees (this proposal is also included in the House passed budget), and
  • Change state payments for public employee health benefits from $850 to $800 per month (this is included in the House passed budget).

Beyond higher education the proposal also included several reforms. The reforms include a four-year balanced budget, a constitutional amendment to lower the state’s debt limit, changes to the state’s pension system for state and education employees and retirees, consolidating the K-12 health benefits system, and repealing the voeter-approved initiatives to reduce class size and COLAs.

No further action has been scheduled to date on the new proposal.

2012 Special Session Begins

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Today the Washington Legislature convened the 2012 special session. On Friday Governor Gregoire called legislators back to Olympia at noon today to finish work on a supplemental operating and capital budget as well as the necessary policy bills needed to implement the budgets.

The special session is likely to be focused but it remains uncertain if it will go the entire thirty days. Governor Gregoire announced that she reached agreement with lawmakers to remain focused on a limited agenda, including the budgets and potentially a jobs plan that could inject $1.2 billion in state money into school construction, community projects, and environmental cleanups across the state. 

In addition a handful of other policy items may be considered, especially as vote counts are realized. Among these issues include the repeal of Initiative 728, various revenue-raising ideas, and reforms focused on a new way of budgeting and the creation of a new health-insurance pool for K-12 public school employees.

However the time it will take to reach agreement even on this limited agenda is uncertain.

Legislators left late Thursday night after failing to reach agreement on a supplemental operating budget to close the remaining $1 billion budget gap. A primary barrier to resolution during the regular session was the different approaches taken to close the budget gap. The Republicans – with support of three Senate Democrats- support skipping a penion payment and the Democrats support delaying a payment to K-12 schools.  Solving this hurdle along with a multitude of reductions and other policy changes will be the primary order of business this special session and will take time.

Progress is likely to be slow. This week it appears the House is not scheduled to convene and the Senate is scheduled only for pro forma sessions until Wednesday when a possible session is scheduled. In the meantime the Governor has indicated her desire to begin to set up negotiations between the “five corners” – meaning the Governor’s Office and the leaders of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House and Senate.