Senate Bill 5034, Third Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5034: State Operating Budget
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 44-4
This is the agreed-upon budget bill, which appropriates the funds for state programs and agencies for the 2013-15 biennium, as well as making supplemental appropriations for 2011-13. The General Fund budget totals $33.6 billion and includes an additional $1 billion for public schools. It also freezes higher education tuition rates for one year. Overall, the budget is about $2.5 billion more than the 2011-13 budget ($31.1 billion.) The budget considerations contain about $300 million saved by suspending cost-of-living increases for education employees (See HB 2043) and about $85 million by ending the sales tax exemption on residential phone land lines (see HB 1971).
Sen. James Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
Senate Bill 5034, Third Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5034: State Operating Budget
Passed the House on June 28 by a vote of 81-11.
The bill passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Rep. Steve Tharinger (Sequim) Y
Rep. Kevin Van De Wege (Sequim) Y
House Bill 2043, House Bill 2043: Temporary suspension of cost-of-living increases for education employees
Passed the House on June 27 by a vote of 54-36
As part of the budget package, this bill temporarily suspends cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for kindergarten through grade 12 and applicable higher education system staff for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. The COLA is based on the Seattle-area Consumer Price Index from the most recently completed calendar year. The suspended increases are 2.5 percent for the 2013-14 school year and 1.8 percent for the 2014-15 school year. The bill also suspends adjustments to the National Board for Professional Teaching certification bonus for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. Total savings for the 2013-15 state Operating Budget are estimated to be in the $300 million range.
Tharinger Y
Van De Wege Y
House Bill 2043, House Bill 2043: Temporary suspension of cost-of-living increases for education employees
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 25-23
The bill passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
House Bill 1971, Second Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1971: Revising telephone service taxes
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 36-11
This bill passed the House on June 27. It repeals the state and local sales and use tax exemption for local residential landline service. It also requires retailers of prepaid wireless telephone service to collect and remit the Enhanced 911 tax and allows a seller of prepaid wireless to charge an additional 5 cents per retail transaction to offset the cost of collecting the tax. The bill also repeals the taxes funding the Washington Telephone Assistance and Telecommunications Relay Service programs and requires the programs to be funded by State General Fund appropriations, and it establishes a temporary state universal communications services program. The bill has passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
Senate Bill 5035, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5035: Capital Budget
Passed the Senate on June 29 by a vote of 47-0
This bill authorizes $3.6 billion in new capital projects for the 2013 Supplemental and 2013-15 Capital Budget, of which $2 billion are financed with state general obligation bonds.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
Senate Bill 5035, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5035: Capital Budget
Passed the House on June 29 by a vote of 79-4
The bill passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Tharinger Y
Van De Wege E
Senate Bill 5946, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5946: Strengthening student educational outcomes
Passed the House with amendments on June 28 by a vote of 69-23
As enacted, this bill places responsibility on school districts for providing a comprehensive system of instruction and services in reading and early literacy to kindergarten through fourth grade students that is based on the degree of student need for additional support. I places certain responsibilities on the office of the superintendent of public instruction to support reading and early literacy and requires the learning assistance program to be evidence based. It requires establishment of a discipline task force to develop standard definitions for causes of student disciplinary actions taken at the discretion of school districts. The bill also establishes the educator support program to provide professional development and mentor support for beginning educators and educators on probation.
Tharinger Y
Van De Wege Y
Senate Bill 5946, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5946: Strengthening student educational outcomes
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 46-2
The Senate agreed with the House amendments to the bill, and the bill has been delivered to the Governor.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
Senate Bill 5882, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5882: Creating, expanding, or extending tax breaks
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 43-5
As part of the budget package, this bill provides for a number of tax breaks worth about $13 million total. Included are tax exemptions for amounts received by a business that provides payroll services to an affiliated business, clay target purchases for non-profit gun clubs; hog fuel, blood banks, restaurants, honey bee food and products; the sale of dairy products used in manufacturing other dairy products; and labor and services related to maintenance of private aircraft owned by a non-resident.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
Senate Bill 5882, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5882: Creating, expanding, or extending tax breaks
Passed the House on June 28 by a vote of 66-25
The bill passed both Houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Tharinger Y
Van De Wege Y
House Bill 2051, Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2051: Implementing basic education expenditures
Passed the House on June 28 by a vote of 55-34
This bill is intended for the incremental enactment of certain basic education expenditures. It directs revenues from the Real Estate Excise Tax, the Public Utility Tax, and the Solid Waste Collection Tax that are currently deposited in the Public Works Assistance Account to be deposited in the Education Legacy Trust Account through June 30, 2019. It repeals a requirement for an annual transfer of $102 million from the State General Fund to the Education Construction Fund, and redefines the Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program to require school districts to make instructional support available for students for up to two years.
Tharinger N
Van De Wege Y
House Bill 2051, Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2051: Implementing basic education expenditures
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 29-19
The bill has passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
House Bill 1450, Engrossed House Bill 1450: Implementing student assessment program reforms
Passed the House on June 27 by a vote of 81-8
This bill is intended to begin administering the college-ready and career-ready assessments that are being developed to measure the common core state standards in the 2014-2015 school year; It calls for combining the current reading and writing assessments into English language arts assessments; reducing the number of different assessments that will be required for students to graduate beginning with the class of 2015; and decentralizing the scoring of these assessments. The bill also requires the student achievement council to convene a work group to determine how the results of the college and career assessment could be incorporated into college and university admissions, scholarship, and course placement Decisions. The office of the superintendent of public instruction is also required to develop a process for periodically auditing school districts to ensure fair and reliable scoring of the assessments.
Tharinger Y
Van De Wege Y
House Bill 1450, Engrossed House Bill 1450: Implementing student assessment program reforms
Passed the Senate on June 28 by a vote of 36-12
The bill passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
Senate Bill 5904, Senate Bill 5904: Expanding quality early learning programs
Passed the House on June 27 by a vote of 80-10
The bill provides that, during the 2013-15 biennium, early learning enrollment must be increased by 10 percent from 2011-13 levels and rates paid for these slots must also be increased by 10 percent. These increases are subject to amounts appropriated specifically for this purpose. The Department of Early Learning (DEL) must coordinate with the Office of Financial Management to develop an implementation plan for expanding the early learning program. This plan is due to the Legislature by September 30, 2013. It requires the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to conduct a comprehensive retrospective outcome evaluation to assess short-term and long-term outcomes for the program. This report is due on December 15, 2014.
Tharinger, (Sequim) Y
Van De Wege, (Sequim) Y
Senate Bill 5904, Senate Bill 5904: Expanding quality early learning programs
Passed the Senate on June 27 by a vote of 46-2
The bill was amended in the House and the Senate agreed with the House amendments. The bill passed both houses of the legislature and has been delivered to the Governor.
Hargrove (Hoquiam) Y
