With the announcement Thursday Feb 15th that even more money than predicted over budget is coming into State Coffers.  Sen. Doug Ericksen’s bill introduced early in the session picks up momentum.

Please note There is a Townhall of 42nd Legislators Saturday Feb 17th at the Blaine Senior Center at 763 G Street Blaine from 2 to 4 PM.

The bill number is below with the description and status
Sentator Ericksen’s bill would fix a financial glitch in the Funding bill for education that was passed last year by the legislature using excess collections to do so.
For one year (2018 tax year) school districts are funded by their local levies (at whatever level) AND a new State Property Tax.  You can see the effect of this new state funding formula for Whatcom County Schools below. We ran this article on the Effect of school funding last July… In Meridian School District’s case, for example, there is a one time increase of $222.00 in tax before taxes go down in 2019.

In a facebook post Senator Ericksen states:

“The Trump Economy is working in Washington. Since Donald Trump was inaugurated in January of 2017, tax receipts for the state of Washington are $3BILLION above projections.

Today I anticipate the state will receive a new case load study showing case loads are down, meaning less money needs to be spent.

I am proposing that we cut property taxes by $1Billion immediately.

Property taxes are scheduled to increase by over 15% in parts of Whatcom County and we need tax relief now.”

                                              In Conclusion

Meridian High School

As far as Senator Ericksen is concerned The solution: Use some of the extra money coming into the State Coffers (estimated  at 3 Billion Dollars) to cover this one year “overage in collection” of taxes.  In addition he states “its time, with the State’s booming economy over the last year, that the working families of Washington State get a break.  They are the ones working hard and bringing more money into the General Fund for government to spend.”

This and other bills to provide for the return of excess tax collections have time to be heard in committee and passed by the legislature with 23 days left in the schedule for this session.
40th District Contact Points:
42nd Distict Contact Points: