Gregoire seeks more money for education

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire said Tuesday that she wants more money put into K-12 schools and higher education.

"I will not walk away from our longstanding commitment to K-12 or higher education," Gregoire said. "Education is the lifeblood of this state's economy and the path to a better future for our children."

The governor is asking the Legislature to consider two options that would put more money into the state's educational systems.

The first would temporarily lift a lid on property tax collections for school districts, allowing them to collect revenues that voters already have approved but that exceed the lid. Gregoire said that would bring in $68 million per year for 75 districts with excess levy capacity.

Richland has about $1.1 million in uncollected levies, according to data from Gregoire's office.

Rich Puryear, Richland School District's executive director of financial services, said the levies went uncollected from a maintenance and operations levy district voters approved in 2007.

The district estimated at the time that it would collect $14.9 million in 2009 and $15.8 million in 2010, but the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction came up with a lower number for what the district could collect.

OSPI sets levy lids for school districts, Puryear said.

If the Legislature allowed the lid to be lifted, Puryear said, district taxpayers would see an increase of 20 cents or less per $1,000 of property value, or $20 or less for a $100,000 house.

But that wouldn't be a new tax -- voters agreed to pay up to $3.03 per $1,000 of assessed value in the 2007 levy. Because OSPI set the collection amount lower than the district estimated, and because growth in Richland has added properties to the tax rolls, the current tax rate is $2.74 per $1,000.

Puryear said if the district is allowed to collect the full $14.9 million for 2009 and $15.8 million for 2010, it would raise the rate to a maximum of $2.94 per $1,000, depending on growth in assessed value.

"It's not a huge amount of money," he said.

But it's money that would go back into maintenance and operations for the district, as was originally planned with the 2007 levy, Puryear said.

Gregoire's second proposal would allow public four-year universities to raise tuition 14 percent per year for the next two years to make up for funding lost from the state.

She would like lawmakers to also allow a 7 percent increase for community and technical colleges.

The House operating budget proposal released last week would slash higher education by $683 million for the 2009-11 biennium. A proposal from the Senate the day before would cut $513 million.

Gregoire said those cuts will damage the state's ability to compete long-term in the global economy.

"The recession will end," she said. "In the meantime, we can't inflict damage on our universities and colleges. It takes years to assemble talented professors, build programs and offer excellent education.

"We simply can't afford -- especially now -- to deny thousands of students access to higher education. And we can't afford to lay off thousands of faculty and lose programs vital to our state's future."

Gregoire said expanded federal financial aid will help low- and middle-income families pay higher tuition costs, but even with the increase they're getting the best educational value for their money compared with other states.

"We're still the best bargain in town," she said.

Compared with seven states with similar technology-based economies that would be competing in the global marketplace -- known as global challenge states -- Washington had the lowest tuition rates for its public universities.

Gregoire said that would remain true even with the increases she has proposed.

The Washington Learns Commission in 2006 identified Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut and Virginia as Washington's global challenge states.

Columbia Basin College President Rich Cummins said he's concerned about low- and middle-income students having access to higher education if tuition rates are raised to the level Gregoire proposed unless more financial aid is made available to offset the costs.

"We always want to make sure if it's public education that we don't get to a tipping point where we're suddenly asking the student to bear the burden from it," Cummins said. "If financial aid doesn't rise with (tuition), it could block out some students making pretty hard choices between things they have to juggle with hours at work, day care -- the variables the modern student has to juggle."

Cummins said CBC does not set its own tuition rates and any decision about increased tuition would come from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

w Michelle Dupler: 360-753-0862; mdupler@ tricityherald.com