House budget will be released today

House Appropriations Chair Ross Hunter

House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, Appropriations Committee Chair Ross Hunter, and Finance Committee Chair Reuven Carlyle will release the House 2013-15 operating budget proposal at 12:15 today in House Hearing Room A.

TVW will cover their press conference live, and documents will be made public at the same time.

Check back here later for more details.

Read this story in Spanish.

HDC reactions to Governor Inslee's budget proposal -- it's all about the kids

Governor Inslee released his operating budget proposal today, which included $1.26 billion in new spending for K-12 education.

"I feel deeply that my number one priority is to help rebuild our economy, get people working again and take important steps toward building a workforce for the future," Inslee said. "And that begins with education."

House Democratic leaders agree. 

Said House Speaker Frank Chopp: “Taking meaningful steps toward better-funding of our public schools is a top priority, and many of our members have long argued for giving tax breaks serious scrutiny.  So we are heartened to see the governor call for closing some tax loopholes to fund the education of our kids."

Appropriations Chair Ross Hunter added: “Governor Inslee’s proposal focuses on funding education and responsible budgeting – these are the right priorities for Washington."

And House Finance Committee Chair Reuven Carlyle said: "We strongly agree that fully funding public education is a higher priority than continuing tax exemptions that may not provide a reasonable return on investment for the future of our state.”

Read this story in Spanish.

Main Street businesses: Close tax loopholes, invest in future

It’s not every day that a business group calls on legislators to resist budget cuts, raise revenue and invest wisely to boost the economy and fuel consumer demand, but Monday was one of those days.

“We need customers – not cuts!” a coalition of small-business owners from across the state said in a letter hand-delivered to Rep. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle in the Legislative Building. “We believe it’s time to refocus our political debate on generating revenue to create the investments we need to support small businesses,” the letter said.

The letter called for closing tax loopholes for big corporations or adopting new revenue measures in order to raise money for health care, education and infrastructure. It was signed by more than 170 members of the Main Street Alliance.

“We believe that an economy works best when everyone pays their fair share,” the letter said. “When essential public services are cut, our economy suffers, people lose their jobs and small businesses lose our customer base.”

The letter was delivered by Consuelo Gomez of Marty K Comprehensive Facilities Maintenance in Bellevue, Tiffany Turner of Adrift Hotel and Inn at Discovery Coast in Long Beach and Don Orange of Hoesly Eco Automotive in Vancouver.

Carlyle has long advocated for increased accountability for tax loopholes granted to businesses and industry sectors. As chair of the House Finance Committee, he is working this session to make sure that the exemptions are linked to measurable economic benefits.

Read this story in Spanish.

Budget matters matter

Appropriations chair Ross Hunter

The Washington Budget and Policy Center thinks that the Budget Matters -- and they brought 300+ people together to talk about ways to move Washington's economy forward. Advocates, stakeholders, policy experts, and legislators participated in plenary and break-out sessions throughout the day. 

Deputy Majority Leader Marcie Maxwell

Several members of the House Democratic Caucus participated in panal discussions, including Ross Hunter, chair of the House Appropriations Committee; Marcie Maxwell, Deputy Majority Leader for Educationa nd Opportunity; Reuven Carlyle, chair of the House Finance Committee; and Laurie Jinkins, vice-chair of the House Health Care and Wellness committee.

Digital textbooks coming to K-12 classrooms

iPads are replacing bulky flight manuals in the cockpit. A music library of records, cassettes, and CDs that once filled entire closets can now be stored in your phone. And after many centuries of using paper textbooks in the classroom, Washington state took the first big step towards moving classrooms into the digital age.

House Bill 2337 was signed into law last week by Governor Gregoire. The bill directs the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop a program designed to get open source digital textbooks in our public schools. Open source materials are vetted, peer-reviewed, and available for free or at very low cost via the internet. All open source materials approved by OSPI will align with the state’s Common Core standards.

The idea was introduced by Rep. Reuven Carlyle, a Seattle democrat, who successfully championed a similar effort at the community and technical college level.

Photo credit: Tnvols2

In addition to the $65 million the state spends each year, traditional textbooks are 7-11 years out-of-date. In today’s digital world where we can summon information at a moment’s notice, should our children be learning from textbooks written before the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Digital textbooks provide a solution to expensive and out-of-date traditional textbooks.

“Open source educational materials are the future,” said Carlyle. “They are gaining popularity with school districts all across the nation. They are simple, efficient, easy to use, and dramatically cheaper than proprietary textbooks.”

To read this post in Spanish, click here.

Plan in place to cut down on unwanted phone books

Photo credit: Jamiesrabbits

 The telephone is one of the most important inventions in history. When telephones emerged in the late 1880’s, they connected people, business, and communities in ways never seen before. But telephones alone would not have changed the world like they did without an important companion – the phone directory. Having a phone was only half of the equation. People needed directories to connect with the right people on the other end.

For over a century, new white and yellow pages directories would show up on every doorstep about once a year. They were so vital to connecting communities that many states, including Washington, adopted laws and rules requiring phone companies to publish and distribute the white pages on a regular basis.

However two relatively recent inventions – the smartphone and the internet – have rendered traditional phone directories nearly obsolete. Between 2005 and 2008, the number of households depending on the white pages for information decreased from 25% to 11%. 

Reps. Reuven Carlyle, Marko Liias, and Joe Fitzgibbon are leading efforts to cut down the on the number of unwanted phone books in Washington state. They recently met with yellow pages industry representatives to find a solution that benefits publishers, consumers, and the environment.

As a result of those conversations, the four largest yellow pages providers will now include opt-out information on the cover of every phone directory they publish in Washington. Consumers can go to  www.yellowpagesoptout.com to opt out of receiving the directory. You can read more about this agreement here.

With an easy-to-use solution in place for the Yellow Pages, the lawmakers are now turning their attention to the White Pages. With the support of businesses, local governments, and environmental interests, the group is urging the state Utilities and Transportation Commission to modernize the rule that requires phone companies to distribute physical directories to Washington residents.

Over five million trees are cut down each year to print white pages directories. If Carlyle, Fitzgibbon, and Liias are successful with their petition, unwanted phone directories will be a thing of the past in Washington state.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

   

Week 5 House Floor Speech Highlights

It was a historic week in the state House. After a very civil House floor debate earlier this week, Washington is on its way to becoming the seventh state in the nation to legalize equal marriage. The House also passed measures that will improve the lives of foster children, expanded suicide prevention training, and honored the National Guard. Check out these clips from this week's floor debates.


SB 6239 - Marriage Equality
Rep. Jamie Pedersen


Rep. Drew Hansen


Rep. Sam Hunt


HB 2592 - Extending Opportunities for Foster Care Children 
Rep. Reuven Carlyle



HB 2366 - Suicide Prevention Education 
Rep. Tina Orwall



HR 4655 - Honoring the National Guard 
Rep. Larry Seaquist


To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Rep. Carlyle discusses tax exemption reform

Rep. Reuven Carlyle, a democrat from Seattle, introduced legislation that would fundamentally change the way the state approaches tax exemptions.  Rep. Carlyle introduced a bi-partisan plan at a press conference with Rep. Glenn Anderson, a republican from Fall City, last Friday.

House Bill 2762 would add expiration dates (also known as “sunsets”) to 251 tax preferences currently in state law. These tax breaks, some of which have been on the books since 1935, are worth about $2 billion in tax revenue that won’t be collected in 2013.

“Today, tax exemptions, credits, and loopholes in our state in effect can’t be terminated, they can’t be modified, and they can’t be changed,” said Rep. Carlyle. “That’s bad public policy regardless of how your politics come down.”

Carlyle is referring to the voter-approved Initiative 1053 that requires all tax increases to receive a two-thirds super-majority vote of the Legislature to become law.

Under HB 2762, these types of tax preferences would expire every ten years unless the Legislature votes, by a simple majority, to reauthorize them.

Rep. Carlyle emphasized that this is not intended to be a short-term budget fix. He hopes this bill will help get a conversation started with other lawmakers about problem of “philosophical inconsistencies” in the legislative process of enacting and repealing tax breaks.  “This is about instituting long-term, structural, responsible reform.”

You can read about more about Rep. Carlyle’s proposal here, here, and here.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Legislature hears ideas to end capital punishment

Rep. Reuven Carlyle  introduced a bill last week that would eliminate the death penalty in Washington state. If enacted, HB 2468 would impose a punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for aggravated first degree murder.

“The death penalty is beneath us as a civilized society,” said Carlyle.  “It is economically inefficient. It is unjust to the victims’ families because of the frustration of years of delay in allowing a form of closure. It is inequitably applied across race, class and social status. It does not achieve deterrence for other criminals.”

The first electric chair, which was used to execute William Kemmler in 1890.

For more of Rep. Carlyle’s thoughts regarding the death penalty, check out his blog here.

The U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972 but reinstated it in 1976 giving states the authority to enact death penalty statutes. Thirty-seven states reauthorized capital punishment shortly after the court ruling.

New Jersey, New Mexico, and Illinois recently abolished the death penalty. New Jersey spent $254 million on death penalty convictions without a single person being executed. Only five people have been executed in Washington state since it was reinstated in 1981. According to the state Department of Corrections, eight men are currently on death row with sentences dating back as early as 1991.

A companion bill - SB 6283 – is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary committee on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. To watch the hearing on TVW, click here.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Would a cheaper textbook be of interest to you?

State news about higher education has been pretty bleak recently, but one program is bringing some relief to college students. Started by the 2009 Legislature through funding from the state and Gates Foundation, Washington has now opened the Open Course Library.
What is the Open Course Library? Rep. Reuven Carlyle spearheaded getting the state to fund its half of $1.5 million investment and wrote about it back then his blog, reuvencarlyle36.com:

Today I’d like to tell you how a ONE TIME state investment of $750,000 in precious tax dollars has the very real likelihood of turning into a $41 million savings ANNUALLY for college students in Washington. Are you awake now?
...
Unfortunately, tuition is only one piece of the puzzle and yet it sucks the oxygen out of the room of so many other issues that impact the ‘total cost of attendance’ for students. The best example? Every family, whether rich, poor or squarely in the middle, has the exact same sense of moral outrage staring at textbook bill that now averages more than $1,000 a year for a regular full time student.
I have long held a fascination with the ruthless cost of textbooks at our colleges and universities. One of the projects I am most proud of from my first term in the Legislature is a $750,000 appropriation that I worked very, very hard to successfully include in the 2009-2011 budget. The appropriation created an open textbook and course material program for our state’s community and technical college students.

You can read a post about the Open Course Library launch at Carlyle's blog: Beginning of the end for $100 college textbooks: Legislature, colleges, Gates Foundation partner
 
The Seattle Times Editorial Board also weighed in on the event:

Students who used to pay nearly $200 for a new pre-calculus textbook can pay only $20 — or use it online for free.
The $1.26 million in expected savings for the 2011-2012 school year represents real money for community-college students, who often are older and paying for their own education and living expenses.
The real prize is $41 million in annual savings if all faculty at the state's 34 community- and technical-colleges begin assigning open-source texts to their students.

Read more about this ground-breaking Washington program in this Seattle Times article, Low-cost textbooks for college students make debut.

And of course, don't forget to check out the Open Course Library's website.

A smart move for Washington students

Landing the jobs of tomorrow won’t be an easy task, and the need for education and training beyond high school is increasingly critical.

How can we create and keep the high-tech, cutting-edge jobs of the future?

Let’s start by making sure our own kids get the education and skills needed to claim those jobs. Moving in that direction, Governor Gregoire signed a package of higher education bills into law today, paving the way for comprehensive and creative change for higher education in Washington state.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1795, which was signed today and will allow public four-year institutions to set tuition rates to meet local demand, while also increasing financial aid for low and middle-income students.

“Our challenge as a state is to find a thoughtful balance between ongoing state budget deficits and a significant need for access, affordability and quality in our state colleges and universities,” Carlyle said. “This legislation embraces the differences within our public college system and boosts financial aid that will bring relief for real students needing real relief.”

Gregoire also signed Rep. Tim Probst’s House Bill 2088 to help students earn degrees in high-employer demand fields. With the creation of the Opportunity Expansion Program, the state will increase the number of students obtaining high-demand, high-wage jobs at state four-year colleges and the Opportunity Scholarship Program will provide scholarships to low and middle-income students who earn degrees in high-demand careers and other educational programs. At today’s bill signing ceremony, the Boeing and Microsoft companies announced they will each be putting $25 million into the Opportunity Scholarship Program.

“Washington is the first state in the nation to create a scholarship program like this,” Probst said. “We hope that other companies will follow Microsoft and Boeing’s incredible example, so we can offer 10,000 scholarships or more before Christmas of this year.”

Also signed today, held at Seattle’s Cleveland High School, were Senate Bill 5749, making minor changes to the actuarially-sound Guaranteed Education Tuition program, and Senate Bill 5182, eliminating the Higher Education Coordinating Board and transferring their functions.

“In order to compete in tomorrow’s economy, Washington simply must become better educated and better skilled,” said Rep. Larry Seaquist, chair of the House Higher Education Committee. “With the bipartisan leadership and significant community involvement in this great set of higher education legislation, we’ve set the foundation for success in our colleges and universities.”

To read the full press release, please click here. Here’s a link to the Governor’s release from today as well.

Carlyle's Higher Education Opportunity Act clears the House

Lawmakers focusing on higher education during this recession have faced a difficult path in keeping access and quality high, while realigning state support. As The Advance has covered, funding for each student enrollment has flipped from predominately state funded, to student tuition supported.

For example, the average state support per year for a full-time student at the University of Washington in 2007 was just under $10,000. In the coming budget, it's likely that state funding level will be under $6,000, leaving the balance of an average yearly $15,700 tuition up to the students.

This session Rep. Reuven Carlyle introduced a comprehensive bill to navigate this problem, the Higher Education Opportunity Act. It passed the House yesterday with a 79 to 17 vote and it's expected to also pass the Senate.

The bipartisan support in the House is a positive step for an issue that's been sticky for the Legislature in the past, and will likely continue to cause some controversy.

Key elements of the bill:
- Universities are given the authority to set tuition levels consistent with local needs
- Tuition raised over prescribed levels will trigger increased aid for low and middle-income students
- Efficiencies and changes will help students complete degrees quicker, especially two-year transfers and students with prior learning
- Strong accountability measures so the public can track performance

You can listen to an audio report on the legislation by clicking here, and also watch Carlyle urge support for the bill on the House Floor:

Carlyle's Higher Education Opportunity Act

Rep. Reuven Carlyle announced his Higher Education Opportunity Act today on his blog, which he will formally introduce Tuesday. Tomorrow at noon, Carlyle and Rep. Larry Seaquist will be available to the press to talk about Carlyle's bill, higher education funding, and other issues coming up in their Higher Education Committee.

Carlyle on his proposal:

House Higher Education Committee Chair Rep. Larry Seaquist, Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Rodney Tom and I are working together to attempt to deal openly and genuinely with the complex reality of decreasing state appropriations and rising tuitions.

It is easy for some to criticize this new reality. The challenge is to deal with it openly and explore new models and approaches that can help us find a more viable, stable and equitable structure in today’s era of scarcity.

Unfortunately, the trend in the Legislature is to reduce funding for the institutions of higher education under the operating assumption that they can continue to absorb the cuts without measurable or meaningful consequences for students, faculty, families and supporters. The trend of decreasing state support and increasing tuition seems virtually unstoppable. The question is not whether this trend will continue but how we can get a handle on the negative consequences for the middle class and more intelligently manage this structural shift.

You can read his full post, along with details about his proposal, at his blog: reuvencarlyle36.com

Details of the media availability:

Who: Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, and Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, the vice chair and chair of the House Higher Education Committee
When: February 1, 2011 at 12:00 p.m.
What: Media availability to discuss The Higher Education Opportunity Act, introduced by Carlyle
Where: John L. O’Brien Building, Conference Room 114 – located inside the entrance to Hearing Room E

Passing down the page jacket

As the League of Education Voters recently pointed out, serving as a page in the Legislature is a great learning and life experience.

Reuven Carlyle can attest to that. Serving as a page in the House was the beginning of Carlyle's run with state government. After serving as a page here, he went on to page in the other Washington for some memorable state figures -- Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry Jackson. Carlyle is appealing to students to apply and get involved:

"Walking on the floor as the House debates important issues, like education funding and graduation requirements, is an experience pages won’t forget. These youth will become our next generation of leaders and lawmakers."

Photo from Carlyle's blog -- reuvencarlyle36.com

Want change? You got it. The Governor's multi-billion dollar reform ideas

In the past two days, Governor Gregoire has outlined several major proposals to restructure and rethink some of the services our state provides.

At yesterday's press conference, she outlined major pension and health care reforms that will save tens of billions of dollars over the next 25 years.

By eliminating the automatic pension increases paid to TRS 1 and PERS 1 employees, Gregoire says the state would immediately cut its unfunded liability in half and save $2 billion over the next two biennia. She proposes other changes such as eliminating the no-penalty provision for future new hires and closing the retire-rehire exception for certain retirees in higher education. In total, Gregoire's pension plan would save $11.3 billion over 25 years. (Note: Rep. Reuven Carlyle introduced a bill yesterday that would also address some of the retire-rehire issues in higher ed.)

Her health care proposal aims to save $26 billion over the next ten years by focusing on reducing health care cost inflation to no more than 5 percent per year, paying for Medicaid and other health care services based on outcome instead of number of office visits, and better leveraging the state's purchasing power by consolidating health care purchases into a single agency.

In today's press conference, Gregoire suggested major agency consolidation plans that she says will reduce overhead costs and minimize duplication across agencies. She anticipates savings of about $30 million in the next biennium and a reduction of 125 employees. She wants to:

• Consolidate the state's 11 natural resource agencies into five
• Merge the Departments of General Administration, Personnel, Printing, and portions of the Department of Information Services and the Office of Financial Management merge into a new Department of Enterprise Services (Gregoire alluded to more details in January about other broad changes regarding DIS's IT management)
  
• Consolidate the state’s Human Rights Commission, Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise, Commission on African Affairs, Commission on Hispanic Affairs and Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs into a single Office of Civil Rights
• Eliminate 36 more boards and commissions (dozens were already eliminated last session)
  
• See whether anything comes of discussions between the Department of Corrections and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs about short- and long-term strategies to maximize each correctional systems’ (state and local) strengths and integrate certain services
  

The Governor will release her budget proposal tomorrow. Her budget is expected to reflect savings from these proposals.

For more information, you can see yesterday's press conference on the Governor's pension and health care reform ideas here.


Today's press conference is here.

This for that - Carlyle's pitch for PAYGO

Rep. Reuven Carlyle offers up his thoughts on why legislators should consider a "pay as you go" approach to budgeting, an approach he says "would radically change the dynamics of our political dialogue."

Read it here.

Cross-post: Reuven Carlyle on goverment reform

On his blog this weekend, Rep. Reuven Carlyle discussed how legislators are embracing certain government reforms in the face of financial crisis. He also shares his hopes that legislators act even more ambitiously for meaningful systemic transformation.

Enjoy.

Race to the Top spurs big changes in education policy

Last summer, President Barack Obama announced a $4 billion education initiative aimed at boosting student achievement nationwide. States essentially compete for grant money with points awarded for innovation and reforms.

The deadline for applications is today and Washington is among the states that has thrown its hat in the ring. Just yesterday Governor Gregoire unveiled a package of legislation aimed at making Washington a competitive player. Despite many of the historically contentious issues addressed in her proposal, Gregoire is keeping detractors at bay, at least for now.

Though K-12 education was the most protected pot of money in last year's budget balancing act, legislators cut about $795 million from non-basic education. And with more cuts likely, money is a particularly enticing carrot for making bold changes such as new teacher and principal evaluation programs and strategies for dealing with failing schools. Washington could be eligible for as much as $250 million.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle is a particularly dogged supporter of Race to the Top. He gives a nice breakdown of how he thinks Washington will fare in the race.

Race to the Top is not something all states are gunning for. NPR featured a story today that touches on why some states are choosing not to participate.

Winners will be announced in April. States who aren't awarded funding in this first round can enter into a second round of grants to be awarded in September.

Hear me out: Legislators, stakeholders make their case for cell phone restrictions

Following testimony from a collection of advocates overwhelmingly in support of the bill, the much-anticipated public hearing on HB 2635—aka the “cell phone bill”—just concluded in the House Transportation Committee. Bill sponsor Rep. Reuven Carlyle acknowledged his initial hesitancy about the hand of government possibly reaching too far, but ultimately he was swayed by the “cold, hard reality of the statistics” and the compelling case they make for legislative action.

Co-sponsor Rep. Tina Orwall spoke to how the legislation would impact young drivers by setting a good tone during their formative years of learning how to operate a vehicle safely.

The Washington State Patrol also voiced its support of the bill, noting how much progress the state has made in recent years to enhance driver safety. This bill would be another step in the right direction toward the department’s goal of “Target Zero”—that is, no traffic fatalities.

Although no one seemed to voice outright opposition to the bill, several people posed other scenarios and ideas: Rep. Brad Klippert cited WSDOT stats showing other behaviors (eating, reading, etc.) that also play a role in distracted driving, so why single out cell phones? Rep. Dean Takko said whether a phone is held up to one’s ear or is used with a hands-free device, the cognitive impairment is similar—a point also emphasized by a Western Washington University cognitive researcher who testified.

General support for the bill seemed to be present, but the scope and approach of the bill will surely be debated back and forth as the session continues.

Lawmakers bracing for deficit to top $2 billion

If you're a legislative junkie, your eyes will be glued to the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council meeting this morning at 10 a.m.

Washington's economy, like most other states, is struggling. Last session legislators approved more than $3 billion in cuts to the two-year 2009-2011 operating budget. It's now appearing they'll have to cut an additional $2 billion (or more) to make sure we break even at the end of 2011. The ERFC report will provide more specific information about how much of a shortfall we're looking at.

This information is crucial to helping the governor and lawmakers as they start drafting budgets. Governor Gregoire will be the first to release her budget, sometime in December.

It's sobering when you realize what it takes to cut more than $5 billion from our two-year budget. As Rep. Reuven Carlyle pointed out from a presentation given by the Office of Financial Management, you could eliminate all state funding for the University of Washington, Washington State University as well as Central, Eastern, Western and the Evergreen State Colleges, and cut all state funding for the Department of Health and that only gets you $1.53 billion.

Tune in to TVW at 10 to watch the meeting. We'll post an update later today. Following the meeting, TVW will air an interview with Rep. Ross Hunter who sits on the ERFC and is chair of the House Finance Committee.