A Nov. 8 article in The Columbian prompts me to express my feelings about how difficult it must have been for Gov. Chris Gregoire to explain to students at the Clark County Skills Center why the state faces more deep cuts to education. The students must have sensed how agonizing it was for her to bring this bad news. After all, she has excelled in previous budgets in prioritizing K-12 and higher education. Gregoire told the students that more than half of the budget goes to education and that much of the other half is off-limits to cuts: federally mandated Medicaid, pensions, debt service, and other needs. Without new revenue, her hands are tied.
The funding areas in education that are not protected by the State Constitution, Article 1X, and the Judge Robert Doran decision (1977) are subject to cuts. These include levy equalization, school busing, early childhood education and others. (I personally would argue that all of these are basic for equality and fairness for every child).
So, what should we concerned Washington citizens do? I want to preface my next comments by a disclaimer. I am a strong believer in our state’s initiative and referendum system. However, in the recent past, by initiative, the people have chosen to require the Legislature to fund class size reductions in K-12 and increase teachers’ salaries. All worthy causes; all cost money. Recently the people passed three initiatives that reduced revenues or made it more difficult to raise revenue. First, voters repealed the bottled water tax that the Legislature had passed in 2010. Second, voters required the Legislature to fund extra training of caregivers at a cost of $70 million. Third, voters required the Legislature to have a two-thirds vote in each House to raise taxes (although I would argue that you can’t amend the constitution by initiative).
Now for a little legislative history similar to our current dilemma. In the late ’70s, after House and Senate Democratic majorities pushed for tax increases, Democrats lost the majority in the House and later in the Senate when a Democratic senator changed parties. Republican John Spellman was elected governor over Jim McDermott. The Democrats’ attempt to raise taxes changed the state’s leadership.