Republicans call for special session

OLYMPIA – Senator Mark Schoesler hosted a teleconference meeting with members of the House and Senate caucuses to call for a special session to address urgent topics including unemployment and back to school issues Monday, Oct. 26.

Joining Schoesler were fellow Republicans, 7th District Senator Shelly Short from Addy, 26th District Representative Michelle Caldier of Port Orchard, and 31st District Representative Drew Stokesbary.

The elected officials agreed it was time to get back to work and begin to address budget shortfalls that would only grow larger as the days grow shorter.

Schoesler said he wanted businesses to know "the real truth about unemployment and those taxes."

"Every employer in this state is going to get taxed and will see their rates go up in the socialized costs," Schoesler said. "It's hard for me to believe that anyone can downplay a billion-dollar tax increase on our state's employers. Before any of the proposed taxes hit Olympia, they automatically get hit with a billion dollars."

He also expressed concern about the potential for increased cost to unemployment insurance coming on again in 2021 and 2022, as other factors enter the market.

"Over the time of this pandemic, we've watched our hardworking staff carry the ball for employment security to help those that most needed help," Schoesler said. "But, during all of this, the employment security director has found time to give the maximum donation to the Inslee campaign. She's also served as Vice-Chair for the DNC campaign, all while deserving workers in Washington had to go without. I really think that it's time for the governor and the majority party to forget about campaign contributions, and take a hard look at what's happening to employers in our state, and what our workers have suffered due to really lousy service; and quit downplaying $340,000,000 'only' being lost to these scammers. That's a lot of money to employers, and we know there are ways to address this."

Schoesler said there was bipartisan agreement in the final days of the last session on finding some unemployment relief from the general fund.

"We still have time with CARES Act money for the governor to direct some there," Schoesler said. "We also should be looking at, how can we sit down as employers and employees, and look at reforms that could help this system out down the road. Governor Locke was more than happy to work on that during his time."

Rep. Stokesbary, who serves on the House Republican Leadership Team, is the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee and the lead Republican on the budget committee, said he thought the governor has not only "shown a real lack of leadership in his complete, abject failure to hold ESD responsible and accountable for their failings," but has also failed on the budget front in a number of aspects.

"First of all, as a lot of us here have discussed before, we felt like there should have been a special legislative session this summer. We felt like there should have been one called before July 1, before a new round of collective bargaining contracts went into effect, and a variety of new spending programs went into effect," Stokesbary said. "The governor let that day pass."

Stokesbary said a legislative session in the summer could have been used to begin making targeted reductions in budget areas that aren't in as high of needs or as high priorities as other areas.

"The governor again declined to bring us back into special session for that, and now here we are at the very end of October and very little has been done to help dig us out of the enormous budget hole that we're finding ourselves in," Stokesbary said, adding that the math behind it was complicated but the principle itself very simple. "If we have a two-billion-dollar budget hole, the longer we go in the biennium without making reductions, the higher the percentage of reductions are going to have to be, for the last month of the biennium to make things balance. Every day that goes by will require either more cuts or more taxes to balance the budget. The longer we wait, the higher those taxes are going to need to be to raise enough revenue in the balance of the biennium to bring our budget out of a deficit situation."

Stokesbary said what he found "most troubling of all," was a statute on the books designed to address this very situation, which the governor was apparently refusing to acknowledge.

"The statute says, if the governor and his budget office ever projects a fund to be entering into a cash deficit situation, the governor has a mandatory obligation to make across-the-board reductions to the spending in that fund until it's brought back into balance," Stokesbary said. "Well, the state general fund has been out of balance by hundreds of millions of dollars nearly every day last month and this month. And the governor is simply ignoring the statute."

Stokesbary said the budget office provided the legislature with a month-by-month projection of the cash balance that showed it going into a deficit situation, back in August. "Legislators and members of the public pointed out that it seemed to trigger the statute," Stokesbary said. "The governor's budget director responded and said the cash deficit analysis that we provided 'isn't actually a cash deficit analysis for the purposes of this statute.'"

Stokesbary said he immediately requested they perform "whatever analysis that they think was proper" under the statute, but they declined to do so.

"It seems the governor's office has simply decided if they don't make the calculations, then the requirement that would get triggered with the calculation result can simply be ignored," Stokesbary said. "That's like saying you don't have to abide by the speed limit if you look the other way when you pass the speed limit sign. And that seems to be what the governor is doing."

Stokesbary said while no one wanted across-the-board cuts, he would like to see the legislature go back into session as a whole to figure out the best ways and places to make reductions.

"This statute exists as a forcing function so that we don't end up in session with a multi-billion dollar deficit," Stokesbary said. "It exists so that in times like this, either the governor can take action on his own, or he can bring us back in ahead of time, so we can start to solve the problem."

Stokesbary pointed out that on one side of the aisle were folks who want to be proactive and productive and "right-size the budget to fit the tax revenue that's already being collected," on the other side of the aisle were those who either want to ignore the problem, wait for Washington D.C. to solve the problem for them, or to raise taxes.

"I think to raise the taxes in the middle of a recession is a bad idea, and I think to rely on Washington, D.C. is a bad idea; but I think asking the legislature to solve the problem creatively is the best path forward, and I think that's what all of us here on this call would support."

Senator Short agreed, saying she felt it needs to be more about what can be done as a legislative body and less about the decisions of one person.

"That's what we've had, is the governor entirely making these decisions," said Short. "I think it really short-changes both those who rely on the state for services, or you're the one paying the bills."

Short spoke on the repercussions of both declining access to childcare and the need for schools to return to in-person instruction.

Rep. Caldier said significant educational gaps already in the system are quickly widening with schools closed, especially among certain cohorts.

"According to Treehouse, only 47% of foster youth were even online and engaged in the spring, so this remote learning is not working for many of our students," Caldier said. "There's some children who learn easily. But many children don't learn easily. And our constitution says it's our paramount duty to educate all students. Not just the students who are easiest to teach. So we are failing many of our students, and that educational gap is only growing."

Caldier she felt one of the biggest problems was the diversity within the state.

"What works for one school and one school district, doesn't work for others. We have 295 school districts in our state. Some only have seven students. Some have 50,000 students. So what works for Stehekin doesn't work for Seattle, and vice versa," Caldier said. "Even if you took all of the connectivity issues aside, which is a significant problem in rural areas; even if we were able to provide equity with that, there's still major inequalities that we have in our educational system, and it's not working for many parents."

Caldier pointed out that even though the legislature is flawed for many reasons, there was equity in terms of representation, making it another reason they should have, and still should go back for a special session.

"All of us are sitting here on the sidelines watching all of these problems happening in our state. We are ready to work," Caldier said. "I'm ready to put in all the time and effort to fix some of these problems. But it is incredibly frustrating because you have one person who is making unilateral decisions that are really hurting our most vulnerable populations. And it will take us years to try and fix those problems, so we need to fix them sooner rather than later."

The public was given time to ask questions, and Schoesler was asked how so many issues could be addressed in one special session, even if it was extended an extra 30 days; or did he intend to remain in session "right on into 2021."

Schoesler responded the legislature had windows of opportunity, and it would have been easier in June.

"As we get closer to January and the holidays, that window is probably smaller," Schoesler said. "The problem is that we didn't do anything to involve the elected members of both bodies in engaging in chipping away at these problems. I don't believe we can totally fix any of them, but to do nothing is irresponsible."

When pushed further on the issue, Schoesler responded, "We're ready anytime to participate in a meaningful process to start addressing these issues in our state."

Asked if he had any kind of working plan in place to actually accomplish something in a 30-day session, Schoesler said there were certainly options.

"In some cases, it's taking an active role in the CARES Act. In some places, it's looking at regulations; opening schools," Schoesler said. "We can't solve every problem in a brief moment of time, but doing nothing is just the wrong thing."

Stokesbary also addressed the question, stating if the legislature were to go with a special session next week, they could make some budget reductions on November 1. With the current billion-dollar hole for the biennium right now, Stokesbary explained, it would take a 13% across-the-board cut to come up with a billion dollars. If they wait until January 1, it becomes a 17% cut.

"If we wait until February or March, which is the more likely path, given what we've been observing for the past year, you're looking at a 20 to 25% across-the-board reduction," Stokesbary said. "I don't understand why we would wait a few months because it's more convenient for us, in order to have to make twice as deep cuts in order to balance our budget. It seems like we were elected to do a job, we've all got families and holiday plans, but like Senator Schoesler is saying, I think any of us on the Republican side would be ready at a moment's notice to drop everything and go down to Olympia and do our jobs. The sooner we do it, the easier it's going to be, and the longer we wait, the harder it's going to be."