Today’s winner: Science
Today was policy cutoff day in the state senate. There’s a long list of dead bills. But one noteworthy bill that didn’t make it (along with its house counterpart) was state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe’s (D-1, Bothell) bill to delay high school science graduation requirements by four years.
Now, the class of 2013 will have to meet state standards in science in order to graduate as opposed to putting off the Einstein stuff until 2017.
Could be an illusory win, though, as legislators continue to slash educational funding—$57 million from the K-12 budget just last week.
Today’s (tentative) loser: State Sen. Scott White’s (D-46) local transit funding bill.
White’s bill, which would allow King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties to establish a temporary $30 vehicle-license fee to pay for transit service, could be running into trouble in the senate, where transportation chair Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10)—historically no friend to transit advocates—seemed skeptical at a public hearing on the bill this afternoon.
A parade of Seattle-area representatives from the University of Washington, King County Council, Seattle City Council, and local environmental and business groups pleaded with the committee to pass out the legislation, which the advocates said would provide badly needed funding to transit systems—King County Metro, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit—that will otherwise have to make disastrous cuts.
“We are facing devastating service cuts of up to 17 percent at a time when Metro has had the highest ridership growth of any transit agency in the country, and that’s including during this great recession,” King County Council transportation chair Larry Phillips told the committee. Phillips was echoed by city council transportation committee chair Tom Rasmussen, who said the cuts Metro will have to make next year without additional funding are the equivalent of eliminating all service to the Eastside or cutting all weekend service.
Haugen wants to push next year for a comprehensive transportation package, and may want to wait until then to take up the question of transit funding. She asked (rhetorically) why no representatives of areas other than Seattle had showed up to speak on behalf of the emergency funding bill.
“We know how Pierce County voted,” Haugen said derisively, referring to Pierce County voters’ rejection of a funding package for Pierce Transit earlier this month. “But we don’t know how they feel about this” bill, she said.
The emergency-funding bill, if it passes, will allow county councils to impose a license fee without approval from the voters.
The house version, sponsored by Rep. Marko Liias (D-21, Edmonds) passed out of committee earlier this month, but ultimately, one of these versions has to get past Sen. Haugen.
