By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — State lawmakers will have a little more money than expected heading into their next two-year budget cycle, but the state budget director warned Wednesday that it’s not enough to address a mandate by the state Supreme Court related to education funding.
Numbers released by the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council and Office of Financial Management showed that the current two-year budget that ends in the middle of 2017 will have a surplus of about $308 million, putting it at $38.1 billion.
The council also adjusted its forecast for the following two-year budget projection that shows an additional $127 million than originally expected.
The 2017-19 state budget is now expected to be at $41 billion.
“It certainly helps a little bit,” said David Schumacher, director of the Office of Financial Management.
“We still have plenty of work to do.”
The state Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that lawmakers were not meeting their constitutional responsibility to fully pay for basic education.
They gave the Legislature until the 2017-18 school year to fix the problem and ultimately found the Legislature in contempt in 2014 before sanctioning them last year.
The sanctions assessed at $100,000-a-day since last August are supposed to be set aside in an education fund, something that lawmakers have not yet done, though there’s enough in state reserves to cover the amount.
Since the ruling, lawmakers have spent more than $2 billion to address issues raised in the lawsuit.
Schumacher said the costs related to that court mandate are at least $3 billion.
Gov. Jay Inslee will release a supplemental budget proposal in December.
Last week, the Office of Financial Management sent state agencies a letter telling them to limit their requests for new funding and not expect restoration of previous cuts because of the necessary focus on education funding.
“Competition for available resources will be intense,” Schumacher wrote.
“While agencies should always strive to reduce costs and find new ways to save resources, these efforts will be especially important over at least the next two biennia.”
Lawmakers will return to Olympia in January, and the House and Senate each will present their supplemental budget proposals during the 105-day legislative session.
