KGMI News
OLYMPIA, Wash. – The State Supreme Court commended the legislature on their progress toward fully funding education, but said they’re going too slow to meet the deadline set by the court.
KOMO reports that the high court ordered lawmakers Wednesday to present a report by April 9 on the state’s progress to fully fund education by September 2018, instead of in September 2019 as the legislature proposed.
District 42 Representative Vincent Buys said there were some good things that came out of the ruling, chiefly that the court agreed with how the legislature was trying to comply with the court’s decision.
But the time constraint creates a wrinkle in the legislature’s plan. “It was pretty evident that these were significant changes that we were making, both in the scope and the cost of what we’re doing. It became very important to phase these in,” Buys said.
“We come up $1 billion short,” District 42 Representative Luanne Van Werven said. “I’m concerned this sets the state up for a tax increase, as we are completely run by the Democratic party.”
The state has been held in contempt of court since 2014 for lack of progress on satisfying the 2012 McCleary ruling that found K-12 school funding was not adequate.
“They’re over-stepping their authority by acting as a legislature, when that is the job we are elected to do” Van Werven said.
The court will continue to fine the state $100 thousand a day until a fix is made. The fines currently amount to about $82 million.