Governor’s budget challenge to the Legislature

Your editorial rightfully gives Gov. Inslee credit for proposing a supplemental budget that fully funds K-12 public schools. The legislature will undoubtedly tear it apart in an effort to come up with one that has its own fingerprints. The problem is that it has a dismal budget-setting record from last session, when only four legislators from party leadership negotiated a budget, with no public process, at the absolute end of the third special session. Moreover, that budget had no permanent solution to school funding.

The governor should throw down the gauntlet right at the outset of this session, and put the legislature on notice that he will not call any special sessions. Or perhaps he can relent a little and agree to call one only if the legislature agrees to forego its per diems.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Governor’s budget challenge to the Legislature."