OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday called on Republicans in the Senate to pass a measure delaying a deadline for a reduction in the amount of money school districts can collect through local property tax levies.
Inslee’s comments came following a meeting with superintendents from four Washington school districts about impacts of the so-called “levy cliff.”
School districts face a reduction in the amount they can collect through local levies starting next year, but a measure that has already passed the House pushes that deadline off until 2019.
That bill has stalled in the Republican-led Senate, which instead chose to include the delay within their overall education proposal that passed out of the Senate earlier this month.
But because the proposal includes several issues still being negotiated between both chambers, it’s unlikely that will pass anytime soon, which is why Democrats say the levy fix is needed as school districts start their budgets.
“This is an unnecessary burden on educators that they don’t need and there’s no reason for it,” Inslee said.
The four superintendents from Seattle, Lake Washington, Sunnyside and Federal Way school districts said their districts would take a combined hit of $66 million if the bill doesn’t pass.
While the timing for each district varies, Seattle Superintendent Larry Nyland said his district will have to send out budget notices next Tuesday notifying schools about potential staffing allocations.
“It creates uncertainty in each of our school buildings,” he said.
The levy issue is part of a broader discussion surrounding education funding, an issue for which the state is currently being held in contempt by the state Supreme Court.
Lawmakers are working to comply with a 2012 ruling that they must fully fund the state’s basic education system.
Lawmakers have already put more than $2 billion toward the issue since the ruling, but the biggest piece remaining of the court order is figuring out how much the state must provide for teacher salaries.
School districts currently pay a big chunk of those salaries with local property-tax levies.
Republicans have argued that by passing the levy fix bill separate from an overall plan, it removes the pressure from lawmakers to finish the overall plan.
“We’re better off with a comprehensive plan than a Band-Aid,” Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler said at a news conference earlier in the week.
But Federal Way Superintendent Tammy Campbell said that absent any plan — or the stopgap levy fix they are seeking in the meantime — schools are scrambling.
“We’re trying to plan for the unknown,” she said.
