— from Rick Manugian, Sen. Ranker’s Office —
Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, issued the following statement today [February 26, 2016] following the Senate’s passage of the 2016 supplemental operating budget.
“Traditional bipartisan negotiations on the budget were suspended last week, when the tally was still in the red, so final cuts were decided without Democrats in the room. While the budget my Republican colleagues passed today does many things I agree with and helped shape before bipartisan negotiations broke down, it fails to address critical needs in several areas.
“First, it literally balances on the pensions of retired firefighters, police officers and schoolteachers. That’s no way to thank them for a lifetime of public service.
“At a time when mental health needs are on the rise, this budget reduces mental health funding by $14.3 million.
“Homelessness is dramatically increasing in communities across our state. More than 35,000 school children are homeless, and while this budget does take some actions to begin to address this crisis, it does not go far enough. It doesn’t begin to provide the funding necessary to reverse this destructive tide. This budget tells people across our state that being without a safe, warm home does not constitute an emergency.
“Without action on the looming levy cliff, school districts across our state stand to lose over $460 million in local funds. They need assurance that we will delay the levy cliff so that they can plan their budgets this fall. Without the amendment we tried to add to the budget, these districts have no assurance they will receive these critical funds. Also, while we are being fined $100,000 a day for failing to adequately fund our schools, this budget does nothing to take additional steps to address the largest outstanding aspects of the McCleary ruling to fully fund education.
“This budget leaves thousands of women without access to one of the most effective methods of preventing unintended pregnancy — long-acting, reversible contraceptives. If women who rely on Medicaid were able to access these contraceptives, Washington state would avoid about 2,804 unintended pregnancies annually— saving the state millions at the same time.
“When negotiations resume to settle on a final budget, I will work tirelessly to address these urgent, critical needs.”
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It is beyond explanation that the Legislature continues to be fined $100,000
per day as it is in violation of a Supreme Court order to fund education satisfactorily.
That situation begs the question, “Who is getting fined?” If the monies to pay the mandated fine are coming from the general fund budget, then that budget needs more cuts in order to balance. In that case, it is only the State citizens who are impacted.
Rather, I would hope that the fine is a deduction from the Legislature’s own budget and that the pay of every individual legislators is being reduced by 1/100 of the fine, every day !!!
That $1000 per day hit to each and every legislator would surely galvanize their collective effort to meet the mandate of the Supreme Court. WE send these representatives to work on our behalf. If that work is insufficient or violates a Court order, then they should be paid !!
Than you Ed for pointing out the silliness of the $100,000 fine situation. The current politicians have no worry about the fine, because we, the taxpayers, are paying it.
To a member, every one of them should vow to step down at the end of their next term and make way for new leadership. Republicans, Democrats and any member of what should be the most embarrassed group of people in Washington – our legislature – should be afraid to show their faces in public. While they continue to draw their paycheck, they remain in contempt of a Supreme Court order for failing to do the single, primary duty assigned to them by the State Constitution (and have repeated this behavior for years!)
I am still puzzled by the Democratic legislator who CUT the $450,000 from the education budget. Is that the local levy threat cited above? What was the thinking behind this?
And where did the education proposition mandating funding in the neighborhood of $1 billion go? It was passed. Now what?
I concede that the meaning of “fully funding basic education” is open to wide interpretation differences, but I am frustrated by the complete lack of productive action in Olympia. I agree that legislative pay and pensions should be docked for the failure to address this issue.