Senate budget coalition remains intact as special session starts

The regular session of the Legislature ended Thursday night, as scheduled, but there is still work to do – namely, agree on a supplemental budget that will close the $1.1 billion gap in the two-year operating budget adopted in 2011.

It was clear a couple of hours before the midnight deadline that a budget agreement was well out of reach, for reasons I’ll explain. And shortly after midnight, meaning very early Friday morning, the governor called the Legislature into a special session, to begin at noon Monday (although no formal actions will be taken in the Senate before Wednesday, for reasons unbeknownst to me).

Late yesterday morning I packed my gear, loaded it and the faithful hound in the Chevy and hit the road; my goal was to be home in time to have dinner with Mrs. Schoesler for the first time in weeks, and I made it. She and our son Cody have been overseeing things on the farm while I’ve been away, but there’s nothing like being on the ground and seeing things for myself. There are fruit trees to prune and other spring chores to get done – just the thing to clear my mind after what was an especially long week at the Capitol.

Senate’s sustainable-budget coalition holds strong

Last week’s budget news centered on the late Friday-early Saturday passage of a Senate budget by a bipartisan group of senators who temporarily formed their own majority.

This week the budget news was more about what didn’t happen: direct negotiations between our bipartisan coalition and the House Democrats, who had passed a budget three days earlier.

Typically, each chamber adopts a budget, and then the budget leaders sit down to try reconciling differences between their plans. Sometimes that works, and one plan ends up moving to a final vote. Sometimes it doesn’t, in which case a “conference committee” of legislators is appointed to make another try at ironing things out. Either way, the goal is to get to a final agreement that is acceptable to a majority in the Senate and House.

It’s too bad that script wasn’t followed after the Senate budget was passed. Six days went by, and the House never did talk directly with the coalition’s budget leaders. They instead spent that time working with the senators who opposed the bipartisan Senate budget.

In almost 20 years as a legislator, I haven’t seen behavior like this. Senate Democrat leaders clearly were unhappy that three of their members found our budget proposal more appealing and joined us to pass it; still, you’d think they would have nudged their House counterparts, pointed our way and said, “Hey, you should be talking to them, not us.”

Late Thursday, the House Democrats took the Senate budget we’d sent over, swapped in a list of revenue and spending choices very similar to what Senate Democrats leaders wanted, and tossed it back to us for consideration. However, the coalition of senators who want a sustainable budget was (and is) so strong that the Senate Democrat leaders chose not to even bring it to a vote.

Considering the Legislature already had one special session to work on closing the budget gap, I’m not pleased about having to come back this coming week. It would have been better if the Legislature had focused more on the budget instead of social issues during the first several weeks of session, because that could have prevented the upcoming overtime.

However, if returning to the Capitol leads to a sustainable budget that includes reforms, leaves a reasonable amount in savings and does not spend more money than we have, then taxpayers win, and it will have been worth it.

Senate budget better for school districts, taxpayers

It’s easy to spot differences between the House and Senate budgets. Start with support for K-12 education: the Senate budget is expected to increase direct allocations to school districts by $7.8 million, compared to a $1.8 million decrease from the House budget.

Just as the Senate Democrats proposed, the House Democrats also would delay $330 million in support to school districts until the next budget cycle. That’s a bad move because it puts the next Legislature in a bind.

Imagine telling the server at the café, as you walk out the door, that you won’t pay the check for your lunch but will be back the next day to take care of it. What would the reaction be? There’s no such delay in school funding in the Senate budget.

Then there’s this, which is reason enough to steer away from the House approach: its budget would most likely lead to another $2 billion deficit for the next Legislature to resolve. The Senate budget, in contrast, balances not only for next year but the two years after that, based on revenue forecasts. That sort of sustainability is just what taxpayers need in a state government budget – it reduces the threat of tax hikes and sudden spending cuts.

Teacher-evaluation system receives legislative approval

This week the governor signed one of the K-12 education reforms that made it through this session, although it was with no shortage of wrangling: a bill aimed at improving student achievement through a four-tiered teacher/principal evaluation and professional-development process.

The measure, which stalled in the Senate education committee but was revived through bipartisan negotiations, builds on an eight-school teacher/principal pilot program. Senate Bill 5895 will make student-performance data a substantial factor in evaluations. Individual school districts will determine how to use evaluations in personnel decisions, including school assignments and layoffs. Districts may make the process for using these evaluations part of collective-bargaining negotiations, but the evaluations must be a factor.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction will be responsible for developing a comprehensive training program to support the implementation of the system. Professional development prior to implementing evaluations would be required of principals and administrators.

Discover Pass fix gets shackled to donation for state parks

One of the first bills the Senate passed this year (on Jan. 27) was Senate Bill 5977, a simple measure that would have allowed holders of a Discover Pass or Fish & Wildlife Vehicle Access Pass to use that pass on two vehicles.

The idea was to fix a flaw in last year’s law creating the Discover Pass, but amazingly, it took until Wednesday (the day before the regular session ended) before work on this legislation was completed.

Why? Because House Bill 2373 rolls that simple fix into an expansion of the “opt-out” $5 state parks donation to license tab renewals for snowmobiles, commercial trailers, mopeds, ORVs, private use single-axle trailers and trucks, buses and for-hire vehicles with a gross weight of less than 12,000 pounds.

Under the “opt-out” scheme, people often end up paying the $5 for parks because they are not aware it is up to them to remove it from the total license-tab fee.

I did not support this convoluted response to what seemed like a simple problem; however, a majority in both chambers did. ESHB 2373 is now before the governor to be signed into law.

Unelected boundary-review boards get more authority

The governor and local-government officials appoint boundary-review board members. These boards make decisions regarding the annexation of new property to a municipality. In a 25-24 vote – which is as close as it gets – the Senate joined the House in approving House Bill 1627, which reduces the notice of public hearings to affected property owners to 10 days, rather than 60 days as is law now.

I opposed this legislation, which also passed by a very close vote in the House.

In addition, the consent of at least 60 percent of the voters in a proposed annexed area to accept existing debt or excess tax levies will no longer be required. ESHB 1627 is now before the governor to be signed into law.