(POSTED Friday at 11:30 pm) The governor has signed the operating budget into law, not long after the Senate approved a series of 13 tax breaks for Washington industries.
(POSTED Friday at 10:37 pm)
Governor Inslee has announced he'll sign the state operating budget at 11 pm. We'll have one more update tonight after that and then produce a feature summarizing today's events that will air tomorrow morning on KPBX.
(POSTED Friday 10:15 pm)
We're waiting to see when Governor Jay Inslee will sign the operating and education budgets approved earlier this afternoon and evening. The governor has apparently vowed to sign one or both by midnight.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate have both approved a paid leave bill that will allow most employees up to 12 weeks of leave to care for injured or ill family members, to get well themselves, to stay with a spouse who has given birth or in case of military emergencies. The governor has said he will sign the bill.
(POSTED Friday 6:47 pm)
The Washington Senate approves a new education budget by a 32-17 vote.
(POSTED Friday 6:42 pm)
The Washington Senate is now debating the education budget.
(POSTED Friday 5:07 pm)
The Washington House has approved a $43.7 billion operating budget by a 70-23 vote. This follows Senate approval earlier this afternoon. The budget now goes to the governor for his signature before the end of the fiscal year at midnight.
(POSTED Friday 4:45 pm)
The Washington House has approved a public school budget that will put nearly two billion new dollars into K-12 education next year.
The vote was 67-to-26.
This came after weeks of negotiations between Senate Republican and House Democratic budget writers. They were under pressure to craft a budget that puts enough resources into schools so that it will satisfy the state Supreme Court. The high court is fining the legislature until it approves a satisfactory budget. The court ruled in what is known as the McCleary decision the state doesn’t adequately fund basic education.
House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, one of the lead Democratic negotiators, rose to urge his colleagues to vote for the new budget.
“I’m proud to stand and say today with a great deal of confidence that the passage of this bill will allow us to meet our constitutional obligation to amply fund our schools. Is this bill perfect? No. Will we have to come back and make adjustments and changes? Of course we will," Sullivan said. "But this bill provides significant investments that will allow the one-point-one million schoolchildren in the state of Washington to get opportunities that they’re not getting today.”
Ellensburg Republican Matt Manweller also voted for the bill, but also blasted the state Supreme Court inserting itself into the legislature’s function of making laws.
“Will we simply hand them the appropriations pen next time? Those questions are not abstract and they should make you feel uncomfortable," Manweller said. "I raise this issues, these seemingly esoteric issues because I believe that the day will come when someone in the future will look back and say why did we do the things we did? Why did we surrender so much of our autonomy? Why did we trade a policy victory for an institutional capitulation?”
The education bill now goes to the full Senate, which could vote on it tonight.
(POSTED Friday 4:45 pm)
The Washington Senate has approved a new two-year state budget for the fiscal year that begins tomorrow. The vote was 39-to-10.
During debate this afternoon (Friday), the leading budget writer for the Senate Republicans, John Braun from Vancouver, praised his colleagues for coming together to solve difficult problems.
“You know, when we talk about budgets and negotiations, we often say what comes out reflects our values. And I think it’s pretty obvious from this budget that we share a commitment to public education," Braun said. "But just to highlight a couple of those other things that come out of this budget, we share a commitment to great mental health care in our state. We share a commitment to developing our manufacturing sector in our state to provide family wage jobs around the state.”
The budget now moves to the state House, where it may be voted on tonight and sent to the governor.