Author Archives: ericcampbell

Senate unites to keep Braun special-education bill alive

OLYMPIA…The state Senate today doubled down on its support for the special-education policy improvements in Sen. John Braun’s Senate Bill 5532, with a vote that would have the effect of keeping the bill alive through the end of the Legislature’s regular session Sunday.

“The Democrat leadership in the House has basically claimed it hasn’t had time to consider this bill. The unanimous vote by the Senate today gives the House two more days to find the two minutes needed to conduct a vote – because that’s literally all the time it would take to light up the voting board and let House members push the ‘yes’ button,” said Braun, R-Centralia, who is the Senate Republican budget leader.

“The Senate isn’t giving up on seeing this good legislation move to the governor’s desk,” Braun added.

SB 5532 is the Senate’s way to give parents more help in navigating the system and advocating for the specific needs of their children, give students more help with the transition to further education and training after high school, and get teachers the professional development they can use to promote inclusion. The content of the bill lines up with what parents of special-ed students were hoping to see from the Legislature this year. It and Senate Bill 5091 both received unanimous support March 9 from the Senate.

“SB 5091 is positioned for a full House vote, but SB 5532 was set aside and had become ineligible for a House vote,” Braun explained. “The Senate’s vote today makes SB 5532 exempt from any more voting deadlines, so it’s eligible to be included in any session-ending budget package. That’s exactly the outcome we want to see.”

Braun says tax hike targets blue-collar jobs, rural areas

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia and budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus, offered the following comments about his vote to oppose Senate Bill 5993, which would make controversial changes to the state’s Model Toxics Control Act, including a tax increase of nearly 60 percent on certain petroleum products.

“The fund created by the MTCA has supported many good environmental-cleanup projects over 30 years, but past legislatures have limited its effectiveness by regularly sweeping money out of the fund to use for other expenses. Tonight the Senate majority made it less effective by changing the way MTCA revenue is distributed, so 60 percent goes to the operating budget and only 25 percent goes to the capital budget. That’s completely backwards if you’re serious about cleaning up toxic sites. The numbers just don’t work.

“I support the idea of calculating the hazardous-substance tax based on volume instead of sales price, to bring more stability to the fund, but that change can be made without including an almost 60-percent tax increase that will threaten one of our state’s leading industries. This is bad for refineries and the great blue-collar jobs they provide in our state, primarily in rural areas. It will undoubtedly translate to higher fuel costs at the pump, and more cost for commuters and residents of our rural areas, who drive longer distances. And worst of all, this tax increase is completely unnecessary at a time when state government is collecting a record level of revenue.

“This bill is not about keeping Washington beautiful. This is about punishing an industry, penalizing commuters, and potentially putting blue-collar workers and tradespeople out of work.”

Braun bill takes away excuses for school-levy ‘lift’

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun today proposed a way for lawmakers to answer school-funding concerns while protecting taxpayers against big increases in local school levies.

Senate Bill 6021, introduced with less than six full days left in this year’s 105-day session, is being offered as an alternative to two measures still in play: House Bill 2140 and Senate Bill 5313. Either would lift the bipartisan cap on local school levies and enable property-tax increases.

“There are members of the majority who realize it would be a big mistake to lift the limit on local school levies and endorse higher property taxes, but they also don’t want to go home without responding to funding concerns raised by school districts they represent. For them this new bill is a way forward that doesn’t raise taxes and would help avoid an overtime session,” said Braun, an architect of the landmark education-funding updates enacted in 2017.

He said SB 6021 would send more money to school districts on each end of the student-enrollment scale, taking away arguments in favor of what some districts and the state’s largest education union are calling “local levy flexibility.” It also would address special-education funding not found in another Senate measure pending approval by the House of Representatives.

“We knew some policy and funding adjustments would need to be made as the school-funding updates took hold – but the local levy limit didn’t take effect until just this year, so let’s leave it alone and come at these adjustments from another direction,” said Braun, R-Centralia. “This bill checks some important boxes for big urban districts, and districts with enrollments less than 1,000 students, and it also complements the special-education funding that I hope is already on its way into the final budget.”

For instance, Braun’s bill would increase the annual allocation to Seattle Public Schools by $28.3 million, including an additional $1.6 million for special education. The Tacoma School District would see another $15.5 million per year, with an additional $1.3 million designated for special education.

Braun acknowledged that his bill may also save lawmakers from going into overtime due to the lack of agreement on a new state budget.

“If it’s true that some senators see their support for a new budget going hand-in-hand with a solution to the concerns about school funding, then this approach deserves serious consideration. I know it’s late in the session to put new legislation on the table, but this is a path that would be easy to follow if enough people recognize the advantages,” said Braun.

Braun said the cost of the new funding could be covered through improvements to the state-run health-care system for K-12 employees that would maintain access to care at a lower cost to the state and to school districts. He estimates those refinements, handled in separate legislation, could mean multimillion-dollar savings for Seattle Public Schools.

The risks of undoing the local-levy limit are detailed in a July 2018 edition of Braun’s Economic Sense policy paper.

Braun sees proposed Senate budget as ‘good start’ but remains concerned about spending level, new taxes

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia and budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus, said this about the 2019-21 state operating budget proposed today by the Senate majority:

“The Legislature is well-positioned this year to pass a budget that would support major new investments in bipartisan priorities, like special education and mental-health treatment, without any new taxes. Unfortunately, the budget proposals that are now on the table include new taxes – however, the Senate approach is a much better start than what we’re seeing from the House.

“The tax increases in the proposed Senate budget are still unnecessary, and the spending is higher than necessary, but there is no question it’s much more respectful of taxpayers than the House approach. I appreciate that the Senate majority steered clear of the destructive taxes the House supports – the new capital-gains income tax, the higher tax on services and the property-tax increase tied to lifting the statutory cap on local school levies. However, I remain concerned about the effect of the higher real-estate tax and other tax increases in today’s proposal.

“In the coming days I hope to work with my Senate colleagues on making this a budget that works for all of Washington.”

Braun plan for expanding mental-health treatment capacity becomes part of Senate capital-budget package

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun’s proposed $500 million investment in mental-health treatment capacity is now embedded in the 2019-21 capital budget proposed Wednesday in the Senate.

Braun said the capital budget’s authors are looking to put the unprecedented infusion of funding toward a new teaching hospital at the University of Washington, to be the hub of a behavioral-health campus in Seattle; creating more mental-health treatment space in communities around Washington; and replacing 500 beds of capacity now at Western State Hospital in Pierce County.

“This represents a tremendous bipartisan commitment toward a new chapter in the state’s approach to mental-health treatment. Increasing access to treatment at the community level will help Washington residents with mental illness to get care sooner – before they get to a crisis level and end up in places where they don’t belong, like jail or an emergency room,” said Braun, R-Centralia, who first proposed the investment strategy at the start of the 2018 legislative session.

“For years our state has been behind most of the others when it comes to community mental-health facilities, whether those are for evaluation and treatment, or crisis triage and stabilization, or detox – and we also know the needs vary from one community to the next. A $500 million investment would be a huge start toward turning things around, and I’m glad to see the support from the capital-budget leaders.”

The next step for Braun’s legislation, which was approved by the Senate budget committee Feb. 25, is a full Senate vote. If both houses of the Legislature back Braun’s plan, voters would also be asked for their approval in November’s general election. That’s because the sale of bonds authorized by Senate Bill 5537 would represent a special form of debt, which under Washington’s constitution must be endorsed by a majority vote.

Washington has two state-run psychiatric hospitals – Western State, and Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake – but no hospital focused on teaching that could expand the state’s behavior-health workforce. The idea of establishing such a facility as part of a behavior-health campus within the UW medical school is contained in House Bill 1593, a bipartisan measure which passed unanimously in the House on March 13 and is to have a public hearing in the Senate tomorrow.

Braun to hold Chehalis town hall March 30

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun is inviting 20th Legislative District residents to a town hall in Chehalis from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30. The meeting will be at the Veterans Memorial Museum, at 100 S.W. Veterans Way.

Braun, R-Centralia, said he chose the date because Democrats who have majorities in the state Senate and House of Representatives are expected to announce their respective budget proposals by then.

“This year the state treasury is in such good financial shape that there is absolutely no reason for the Legislature to be looking at tax increases to balance the next state budget,” said Braun, who is the budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus. “But despite having more than enough revenue on hand, the Democrats have already put an income tax, energy taxes, property taxes and other taxes and fees on the table. Some of those could very well be in the final budget package, but I and other Republicans are working to prevent that.”

The latest edition of Braun’s Economic Sense policy paper lays out why he believes the next state budget, which will pay for day-to-day agency operations in 2019-21, does not require new or higher taxes.

Braun says new revenue forecast makes new taxes even less necessary

OLYMPIA…The first state revenue forecast for 2019, adopted today, continues a streak of good financial news for lawmakers, with an additional $860 million anticipated to come in over the next two budget cycles: $307 million more for the remainder of the 2017-19 fiscal biennium, which ends June 30, and another $553 million for the 2019-21 biennium.

Sen. John Braun, budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus, said the projections only reinforce his belief that new or higher taxes won’t be needed to balance a new 2019-21 budget for state operations:

“Today’s forecast is very good news, better than I expected. But judging from the tax proposals that continue to surface, and the comments made after the forecast was adopted, some in the majority are still clinging to the idea of higher taxes.

“Before this forecast there was already more than enough revenue to continue every program or service being delivered now – such as the assistance to low-income residents, where our state is above the national average, and ahead of California. With some simple policy moves, and now with these new projections, the Legislature could easily have an additional $3.75 billion to significantly enhance existing services and programs for 2019-21 – like the delivery of special education, or access to mental-health treatment – all without a single change in taxes.

“We could do right by state employees, including teachers, and still look at offering some form of tax relief, or making a larger deposit to the rainy-day fund. And depending on priorities, there could also be new spending on transportation, or even an efficient response to the court decision about fish passage and culverts. Again, without new taxes.

“As my predecessor, the late Senator Andy Hill, liked to put it, tax increases should be the last resort – not the first choice – when it comes to balancing a budget. This is the best budget situation the Legislature has been in for decades. Tax increases shouldn’t even be on the list of possibilities.”

Senate backs Braun measures to address mismanagement, improve care for developmentally disabled Washingtonians

OLYMPIA…The Senate today gave unanimous approval to bills from Sen. John Braun aimed at addressing concerns about the care of developmentally disabled Washingtonians and the management of health care for low-income residents.

“It’s wrong that developmentally disabled people who don’t have medical needs are effectively being abandoned at hospitals – but it happens, and the state agencies who are ultimately responsible for their care need to be held accountable,” said Braun, R-Centralia.

His bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill 5483, is inspired by a report from the state’s developmental disabilities ombuds that was featured in a January edition of Braun’s Economic Sense policy report.

The bill calls for the state Department of Social and Health Services and its Developmental Disabilities Administration to track and monitor client hospitalizations and improve the transition of clients from service providers. Also, hospitals would be reimbursed by the state when they are essentially forced to care for developmentally disabled people who have no medical need requiring hospitalization.

Braun’s SB 5523 is intended to bring more accountability to the delivery of health care to low-income Washington residents on Medicaid – the focus of another Economic Sense paper, issued in February.

“It costs our state’s taxpayers nearly $6 billion a year for what is called ‘managed care,’ yet the companies receiving that money can’t manage to provide care at levels even close to the national average,” Braun said. “That’s unacceptable, particularly when some of the measures are related to the health of women and children.

“This bill would tie performance to payment – and if performance improves, then both the clients and the taxpayers will benefit.”

Another Braun bill approved today is also directed at the DDA arm of DSHS, and has to do with requiring quarterly assessments of those receiving care at state-run rehabilitation housing centers.

The federal government recently announced it will decertify a program at one of those RHCs, Rainier School in Buckley, resulting in a loss of about $12 million annually in federal funding. The case, prompted by health and safety concerns, is similar to the issues that led to the recent loss of $53 million in federal funding for the largest state-run psychiatric hospital, Western State Hospital.

Braun said Senate Bill 5536 would start to address challenges involving the RHCs and federal requirements and “help put us on a good track for our state’s most vulnerable residents.”

Today was the final day of the 2019 legislative session for the Senate to act on Senate bills that are not part of any upcoming budget package. SB 5483 and SB 5536 will now go to the House of Representatives for its consideration.

Braun pleased by Senate support for special-ed proposals

 

OLYMPIA…The state Senate today gave overwhelming support to a pair of bills intended to improve the delivery of special-education services in Washington’s public schools. Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, is the prime sponsor of one of those measures: Senate Bill 5532, which focuses on policy changes to support families and equip teachers. He said this following the unanimous vote to send his bipartisan legislation to the House of Representatives:

“Our state can and should do better at serving students with special education needs, and the parents of those students have made it clear that funding is not the main issue. They’re looking for help in navigating the system, and advocating for the specific needs of their children, and a more effective transition to further education and training after high school. And they recognize that professional development for teachers – all teachers, not just those in special education – is key to including students with disabilities in a general classroom. This bill is about all of those things, and I’m glad it was supported by so many of my colleagues.

“It’s important to realize that if SB 5532 and the second special-education bill we passed today become law, support for special education would be on track to increase by nearly $900 million in the next budget alone. A commitment of that size is proof that our school districts don’t need more local-levy authority to support special education – it means the Legislature is ready to respond to this and other funding needs that reach across our state’s K-12 system. Especially when those needs are about ensuring fairness and complying with our constitutional obligation to provide for the education of all children.”

Funding for special education totals $2.04 billion in the current state operating budget, which runs through June.