Schmick, Fagan report

During a post-session tour of the Ninth District last week, Representatives Joe Schmick and Susan Fagan summarized a tense state legislative session aimed at closing the $5.1 billion budget gap. Both expressed satisfied with the budget but cited growing concern about the steep cuts made to higher education and K through 12 budgets.

Schmick pointed out this is the first budget in many years in which the state will be spending less than it is taking in, but he noted that comes at the cost of cutting education budgets.

WSU alone is slated to lose almost a quarter of its state funding in the 2011-2013 budget. A 16 percent hike in tuition was approved by the WSU Board of Regents this week.

State-wide, districts will face a 1.9 percent cut in salary funding to teachers and a 3 percent cut for administrators for kindergarten through high school grades.

“Basically, this whole session was education versus social programs,” Schmick said during a stop at the Gazette.

Both legislators said they voted in favor of the bill to let universities decide their own tuition, hoping the measure would give those institutions the flexibility to balance tuition raises with cuts to university staff.

Both legislators agreed education will continue to see such cutbacks as the state and nation attempt to leave behind the recession.

State Sen. Mark Schoesler joined Fagan and Schmick on other stops along the tour later in the day.