Legislative debate and votes on a plan to meet court mandated school funding increases are likely still weeks away, but votes taken on related issues this week reflect a deep partisan divide in Olympia.

Earlier this week, the Democrat-controlled House passed HB 1059, to extend temporary local property tax increases an extra year, until January 2019, allowing school districts to raise an additional $500 million via local levies. The bill passed along mostly partisan lines.
  
On Wednesday, House Republicans proposed an amendment to the permanent rules of the House (HR 4610) to officially fund education first in the state budget. “Fund Education First” has been supported by House Republicans since 2006. It would change the state’s budget process and require the legislature to pass a separate K-12 education budget before any other appropriations. This approach would elevate K-12 education to the highest priority in the budget.

During floor debate, Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane, spoke in favor of the amendment. “We can work together right now for the children of Washington state. It is in our ability to make this truly the priority and make these hard decisions first, ” he said. “Let's take the politics out of education funding by making it a priority right now.” 

Democrats argued funding education first could push other services down the list of budget priorities. “How effective will our system be if we see an increase in homelessness, if our mental health needs in our children go unaddressed?” Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo said.

Democrats rejected the amendment on a strict party-line 50-48 vote. A separate bill, HB 1021, sponsored by Rep Drew McEwen, would enact the Fund Education First principle into law. It has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee for consideration.

While lawmakers are deeply divided on education funding, there may be bi-partisan agreement that Washington should not have an income tax. Senate Republicans today introduced Senate Joint Resolution 8204, to submit a constitutional amendment to voters that specifies “no state or local tax may be imposed on individual income derived from wages, investments, the sale of goods or services, or any other source.”

Senate Minority Leader Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, commented in a television interview last week “the voters defeated (an income tax) several years ago. We heard that loud and clear. We are not in favor of an income tax as a caucus.” 

State voters have rejected income tax proposals the last nine times they have been on a statewide ballot. Last November, voters in Olympia rejected a proposed local income tax. 

A constitutional amendment would make Washington’s eighty-year opposition to an income tax permanent, by ending the possibility of the ban being reversed by today’s more political state supreme court.

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