OLYMPIA — The state Legislature hadn’t taken a shot for three months at funding basic education, so state Sen. Jim Hargrove last week drew a bead on the target.
“Neither the House nor the Senate majority had introduced anything at all,” Hargrove told Peninsula Daily News, “so the minority [Senate Democrats] said, ‘We’d better pull the trigger on this and start the discussion.”
On Wednesday, Hargrove sighted down the barrel and introduced Senate Bill 6103.
It would raise the capital gains tax by one-tenth of 1 percent on the state’s 7,500 wealthiest residents, he said, and to grant some relief to people who pay property taxes.
In less than a day, he said, the Senate’s majority Republicans had countered with a proposal to fund education by raising property taxes.
The full Senate must consider both the rival bills, Hargrove said, because they directly affect the state budget.
“There’s a lot of speculation,” he said, about the floor debate that will start today, but he surmised that the Senate would pass “some hybrid” tax package.
Meanwhile, Hargrove said, the state House has proposed forming a task force to study funding basic education, a tactic that just might push the state Supreme Court into punishing legislators for contempt.
“I don’t think they [Supreme Court justices] will be very happy with that,” Hargrove said.
Hargrove, a Hoquiam Democrat, and Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, both Democrats of Sequim, represent the 24th District that includes all of Clallam and Jefferson counties and most of Grays Harbor County.
The court, which found the Legislature in contempt in September, has given it until the end of this session — scheduled to end April 26 but expected to continue into a special session — to undertake state funding of education that presently relies heavily on local property tax levies.
If the Legislature doesn’t act, the court has said it will impose sanctions.
Hargrove wouldn’t speculate on what penalties the court could impose on legislators.
However, he said justices might be satisfied with either of the Senate’s solutions as an indication of the Legislature’s good faith to meet a court-ordered deadline to make the state pay for basic education.
Hargrove’s proposal would increase the capital gains tax from 7 percent to 7.1 percent on individuals who earn more than $250,000 a year or couples who annually earn more than $500,000.
“It’s literally 7,500 people in the whole state,” Hargrove told the PDN about who’d pay the added tax on capital gains, defined as the profits on sales of non-inventory assets such as stocks and bonds over what their owners paid for them.
The tax wouldn’t take effect until the next tax year, and the money wouldn’t start flowing to schools until another year later, Hargrove said.
But as state revenue from the capital gains tax would rise, Hargrove’s SB 6103 would eliminate up to half the state’s slice of property taxes, currently as high as $2 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed fair market value.
That would drop property taxes for 98 percent of property owners, he said.
However, according to Hargrove, the Republican proposal would raise property taxes, he said, particularly in Port Townsend and Sequim.
Until Hargrove made his proposal, neither the majority Republicans in the Senate nor the Democratic majority in the House had tackled the court’s mandate to find a new revenue stream for basic education, he said.
Local levies cannot continue as a major source of school funding, the court ruled in 2012, giving the Legislature until 2018 to put new funding in place and until April 30 of this year to show progress.
“Reducing the reliance on local levies is key piece of the puzzle the Supreme Court is asking the Legislature to solve,” Hargrove said.
“We’ve really got to get it solved.”
Meanwhile in the state House, Rep. Kevin Van De Wege celebrated the Senate’s ratifying his HB 1779 that provides better training for health care investigators of sex crimes.
“In those situations, having well-trained and prepared investigators who can be sensitive to the victims’ needs while getting to the bottom of the case is absolutely imperative,” Van De Wege said.
“I’m glad both the House and the Senate were able to pass this bill, and I look forward to it becoming law.”
The bill is awaiting Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature.
So are five bills sponsored by Rep. Steve Tharinger.
One grants Medicaid parity to telemedicine practitioners — such as those who consult from Swedish Medical Center in Seattle with Olympic Medical Center patients in Port Angeles and Sequim — and pays them the same as doctors who work with patients in person.
Another allows practitioners of East Asian medicine — such as acupuncturists — to consult with primary care physicians to treat serious ailments such as cardiac conditions or acute abdominal distress.
The Senate also passed Tharinger’s bills that:
■ Provide training for respite care workers.
■ Ease licensing requirements for adult group homes whose owners die and pass the facilities to their children.
■ Increase Department of Health funds to study and combat blooms of shellfish biotoxins.
“We have huge tourist activity around shellfish in the 24th District,” Tharinger said.
“This money gives the Department of Health the money to do better research so we’re on top of the algae impact.”
Tharinger said he couldn’t be certain but expected the Legislature will enter a special session after April 26.
First, however, it probably will take a two-week recess to which Tharinger said he looked forward after weeks of marathon lawmaking.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
