OLYMPIA — The Legislature is courting sanctions from the state Supreme Court for failure to fund basic education, said the senator representing the North Olympic Peninsula.
Neither the state Senate nor the House budget eliminates the need for local levies to support schools, which the court insists is the state’s responsibility.
The court, which found the state Legislature in contempt in September, gave it until at least the end of this session — scheduled to end April 26 — to show progress toward that goal before it implemented sanctions.
And while the legislators have added all-day kindergarten to the state curriculum and made an attempt to curtail class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, they haven’t met the court’s demand for a permanent revenue stream that doesn’t depend on local property tax initiatives.
“That is an 80 to 89 percent possibility,” state Sen. Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam said Friday about contempt sanctions.
Hargrove, along with Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, both of Sequim, represents the 24th District that includes all of Clallam and Jefferson counties and most of Grays Harbor County. All three men are Democrats.
Tharinger and Van De Wege both said they were immersed in Friday’s floor discussions maneuvering on House marijuana legislation and unable to speak with Peninsula Daily News.
Hargrove had said weeks ago he hoped the Legislature could avoid what he called “a constitutional crisis” if the judicial branch of state government squares off against the legislative branch.
He hasn’t speculated on what penalty the court could levy.
“We’ve got a fairly large problem to get solved on both sides [of the Capitol],” he said. “That’s going to have to be done before we leave town.”
The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn April 26, although it’s likely to linger longer in Olympia, according to Tharinger.
Hargrove took pride in parts of the Senate budget that funnel millions of dollars to the North Olympic Peninsula, including improvements to Fort Worden, Fort Flagler and Sequim Bay state parks.
He said he was happiest with the $7 million allocated to help the city of Port Angeles cope with its shuttered 18th Street landfill that threatens to spill garbage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The allotment is $2 million larger than what had been sought in last year’s budget — which the Legislature did not approve, he said.
City officials, he said, convinced senators that they weren’t holding back money from the project.
“The tipping fees [at the city’s transfer station] are at a max for the region,” Hargrove said.
“The local community couldn’t handle any more. They’d really used up all their own money.”
The Senate budget also awarded almost $28 million to Peninsula College for a new Health and Early Childhood building plus funds for “dozens of trails and parks that affect our end of the district,” Hargrove said.
The outlay also allocates money for salmon habitat-enhancement projects along the Strait and the Pacific coast.
Those will benefit not only the Indian tribes and non-Native commercial fishers of the 24th District, but the West End’s tourism industry that relies on sport fishing, Hargrove said.
“That’s becoming a bigger piece of the economy out there,” the senator said.
“It’s good to see all of that go in, because there certainly have been other budgets that have been cannibalized for other things.”
Hargrove, who ended the previous week at odds with his Republican colleagues over their parliamentary requirement of a 30-vote supermajority for budget amendments, said both he and they had cooled off.
He said he supported the GOP-crafted Senate capital budget that now goes to the state House for consideration while the House outlay comes before the Senate.
The two budgets are about $1.1 billion apart, Hargrove said, with Democrats proposing a capital gains tax while Republicans promise no new taxes.
A dustup such as took place the previous week “happens in the workplace, it happens in the community, it happens at Little League games,” Hargrove said.
“I think we’re getting back on an even keel. I think temperatures have cooled down a little bit. I knew that would happen, that we would get back to talking to each other.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
