Tag Archives: Washington Senate

Washington Senate Majority Coalition Caucus Introduces Real Hope Act (a.k.a. DREAM Act

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This afternoon the Washington Senate Majority Coalition Caucus held a press conference to announce the introduction of the Real Hope Act (SB 6523). The bill could go to the Senate floor as early as Friday.

The bill would allow students to be eligible for the State Need Grant program if they met the following criteria:

  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent;
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma or its equivalent and until being admitted to a public institution of higher education; and
  • Provided to the institution an affidavit indicating that the individual will file an application to become a permanent resident at the earliest opportunity the individual is eligible to do so and a willingness to engage in other activities necessary to acquire citizenship.

Or

  • Granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) Status;
  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent; and
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma orits equivalent and until
    being admitted to a public institution of higher education.

The bill mirrors similar legislation passed by the Washington House on the first day of session with a strong bipartisan vote.

 

Senate Democrats Name New Leader

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This afternoon the Washington Senate Democrats named Sen. Sharon Nelson the new leader of the caucus.

Nelson, who represents parts of Burien, North Highline, Vashon and Maury Islands, and West Seattle, served as Assistant Ranking Member on Ways & Means during the 2013 legislative session.

Prior to serving in the Senate she served in the Washington House and as Chief of Staff for then King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, where she worked on a broad range of public policy issues, including complex land use legislation.

Nelson replaces Sen. Ed Murray. Murray resigned his position after being elected as the Mayor of Seattle earlier this month.

Changes in Leadership in Olympia

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This week Governor Inslee announced the appointment of a new chief of staff. Inslee named senior advisor Joby Shimomura as his new chief of staff.

Shimomura is a longtime aide of the Governor’s who has served on the governor’s executive team since January. She is a veteran Congressional staffer and campaign manager, working as Inslee’s Congressional chief of staff for six years and managing several of his campaigns.

Shimomura replaces Mary Alice Heuschel who has served in this role since January. Heuschel will lead state efforts on an interm basis to implement the Governor’s accountability framework “Results Washington”.

In other news, Senator Ed Murray resigned his position as Senate Democratic Leader.  Murray successfully won election as the Mayor of Seattle this week. Murray cited the need to focus on the transition of becoming mayor. However, he plans to remain in the Legislature through the special session, setting a date later for resignation from the Legislature.

Senator David Frockt will take over as interim leader of the Senate Democratic caucus.

Senate Releases Biennial Capital Budget

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This afternoon, with little fanfare, the Washington Senate released a proposed biennial capital budget.

The Senate’s proposal provides funding for a small number of projects across higher education. This includes funding for two projects at Evergreen – the renovation of the Science Lab 1 Basement and the Science Lab 2 second floor.

In addition the budget includes funding for minor works preservation and preventative maintenance. Though the  Senator’s budget does provide some funding for minor works preservation it does not fully fund the College’s request. The Senate’s proposal is approximately $1 million less than the budget proposed by Governor Gregoire in December.

The proposed budget does not fund the design phase of the Lecture Hall Renovation, the predesign for the renovation of Seminar I, and the acquisition of land and design for the Tacoma Campus.

The proposed capital budget is scheduled for a public hearing tomorrow in Senate Ways & Means.

Washington Senate Releases Budget, Makes Some Investment in Higher Education

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This week  the Washington State Senate released and passed a proposed biennial operating budget for the 2013-15 biennium.

In a press conference Senator Andy Hill, Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee framed the budget using four numbers.

  • Zero: The deficit in the budget for the supplemental session
  • Four: The number of years the budget is balanced
  • Twenty-One:  The budget builds an education system for the 21st century
  • One-Hundred and Five: The plan to finish this work within the regular session of the Legislature.

Overall the proposed budget makes some enhancements, primarily in education; balances the budget; leaves a reserve; makes some savings; and redirects funds from the capital budget and other revenue.

The Senate proposal makes three primary enhancements in the area of education:

  • Provides funds for over $1 billion for K-12 education by continuing the phase-in of HB 2776 requirements and enhancing other basic education programs;
  • Makes over $100 million in policy level enhancements in state funding for higher education;
  • Expands preschool through the Department of Early Learning

These enhancements as well as the other parts of the budget are funded through a combination of savings, transfers, and the redirection of funds.

  • $2 billion in spending controls and savings: (1) $321 million by re-purposing Initiative 732, (2) $303 million through federal Medicaid expansion, (3) $238 million by temporarily extending the hospital safety net; (4) $151 million in administrative efficiencies (including higher education); (5) $127 million in savings by aligning health benefit eligibility for state, higher education and K-12 employees with the federal Affordable Care Act; (6) $113 million in changes to the Housing & Essential Needs (HEN) program and support for the Aged, Blind and Disabled (ABD); and (7) $183 million in caseload and policy changes affect TANF and Working Connections Child Care.
  • $179 million in transfers: The largest fund transfers include $42 million from the Life Science Discovery Fund, $20 million from the State Treasurer’s Service, and $15 million from the Public Works Assistance Account.
  • $262 million in redirection of capital budget and other revenue funds

Finally the budget assumes $61 million in new revenues. This increase includes a combination of $11 million in legislation reducing revenue and $72 million in legislation/budget actions increasing revenue.

Higher Education

The Senate proposal makes an investment in higher education that moves in the right direction. The proposed budget assumes no increases in resident undergraduate tuition rates for the 2013-15 biennium. The budget provides $77.8 million in funding to support the core academic functions of the institutions of higher education and an additional $50 million in recognition of the institutions performance in support of statewide goals relating to student retention and degree completion. Finally the budget makes an investment in financial aid including the College Bound Scholarship program and the State Need Grant.

Additional dollars are provided to WSU to expand their medical programs in Spokane and to establish the Center on Ocean pH Balance within the UW.

The investments in the Senate proposal are funded in part ($59 million) with dollars that would be generated from a 20% surcharge on international students who attend the two- and four-year public institutions.

Evergreen

For Evergreen the Senate’s proposed budget would require that tuition remain at zero for the 2013-15 biennium for undergraduate resident students. The College may increase tuition beyond this level but would be required to invest in institutional financial aid.

In addition the budget provides $1.515 million above maintenance level funding to  support the core academic functions of the institutions of higher education and $953,000  in recognition of the College’s performance in support of statewide goals relating to student retention and degree completion. Evergreen, along with the other public baccalaureate institutions, is reduced by $356,000 to meet additional administrative efficiencies.

Finally, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, a public service center of Evergreen, is funded to support six study/research projects for the Legislature.

Next Steps

On Friday the Washington Senate passed the proposed biennial operating budget with a vote of 30-18. The vote was a mix of Democrats and Republicans. The proposal now goes to the House for consideration.

The House is expected to release their operating budget sometime this week.

Both chambers have yet to release a 2013-15 biennial capital budget.

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.

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.

Washington Senate Changes Historic Rule

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Today, the Washington Senate voted to end a 96-year-old requirement that amendments to the operating budget offered on the Senate floor receive a supermajority in order to pass.

In 1915, the Senate adopted a supermajority requirement for floor amendments to the operating budget proposed by Ways & Means Committee. A two-thirds vote was requirement for amendments, but the Senate heard amendments on the floor as a committee of the whole, which appears to have meant that votes on the amendments were not recorded.

The requirement for voting as a committee of the whole was dropped in 1983, and the threshold lowered from two-thirds to sixty percent, creating the rule as it has existed for 28 years until today.

More Bills Trickle through Process

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As the week nears an end, the House and Senate continue to work hard to move bills through the final stages of the legislative process.

Earlier in the day, the House passed HB 3178 with a vote of 97-1.  House Bill 3178 organizes, consolidates, and, where appropriate, contracts with private providers for technology systems and resources.  In addition, the bill establishes spending restrictions for information technology for the 2009-2011 biennium.

The House passed a striker put forth by the House Ways & Means Committee which replaces the current language but maintains the intent of the bill. In addition, the final bill passed off the House floor with two amendments attached:

  • Amendment 119:  Adds the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to the list of higher education entities exempted from provisions of the bill.
  • Amendment 118: Removes the section of the bill that changes the Data Processing Revolving Fund from a non-appropriated to an appropriated account.

House Bill 3178 now goes to the Senate for further consideration.

The Senate was also busy moving bills through the process. The Senate passed House Bill 2481 with a vote of 47-0.

HB 2481 allows the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to become a viable partner in the area of biomass and a potential partner with Evergreen in our Biomass Gasification Project. 

As passed by the House, HB 2481 will allow the DNR to do the following:

  • Allows the department to enter into contract terms up to 15 years when an entity plans and commits to a capital investment of at least 50 million dollars prior to the contract and completes that investment prior to removal of biomass under the contract.
  • Allows the department to include provisions in the agreement that are periodically adjusted for market conditions.
  • Requires the contract to include provisions that allow the department, when it is in the best interest of the trust beneficiaries, to maintain access to existing users of biomass.
  • Ensures that biomass volume conveyed under this chapter will not be counted toward the department’s sustainable harvest target, except that appraised timber sold in a conventional timber sale will count toward the target whether individual trees are ultimately used by that purchaser for timber or biomass energy.
  • Excludes wood from existing old growth forests from the definition of forest biomass

The bills now goes to the House for concurrence.