On Tuesday, March 27, Governor Inslee signed E2SSB 6362, the “fixes” to last session’s EHB 2242 on education funding. For a summary of the changes, see our Week 9 recap. Details on the effects on funding statewide and for each school district can be found by downloading the “Updated Multi-Year Budget Comparison Tool” from the OSPI 2018-19 Budget Updates page.
Governor Inslee vetoed two sections of E2SSB 6362:
- Vetoed the section (Section 402) that would have delayed professional development to the 2019-20 school year. With the veto, districts should receive one day of professional development for the 2018-19 school year. TJ Kelly of OSPI has indicated the Multi-Year Budget Comparison Tool will be updated by May and sent to districts.
- Vetoed the section (Section 408) that would have required OSPI to create rules about separate accounting of state and local revenues to expenditures in time for the 2018-19 school year.
- However, starting with the 2018-19 school year, school districts must create “a local revenue sub-fund of its general fund to account for the financial operations of a school district that are paid from local revenues.” (Section 302 of E2SSB 6362); and
- Local revenues may only be used for documented and demonstrated enrichment of the state’s statutory program of basic education as authorized under RCW 28A.150.276. (Section 301, Section 306(4), Section 307(7) of E2SSB 6362).
Auditing: Auditing of the sub-fund by the State Auditor begins in the 2019-20 school year, under RCW 43.09.2856. (Section 406 of E2SSB 6362).
Sections 303 (LEA changes, including eliminating the word “resident”) and 307 (levy changes, including eliminating the word “resident”) take effect January 1, 2019. Everything else takes effect June 7, 2018.
Also, on April 3 at noon, the Article IX legislative task force will meet to draft its report to the Supreme Court. The meeting will be available for viewing on TVW and TVW.org.