Our Capitol Ambassador Ollie loves fresh snowfall

(Photo Credit: Pam Toal, Ollie’s mom)

With the 2023 legislative session rapidly approaching, there is a lot of news to share, so let’s get to it!

Getting Organized …

Election Results

Now that every county has certified its election results, we have a picture of the make-up of the 2023-25 Legislature. (Note there is one more procedural step – the Secretary of State must certify the final results by Dec. 8).

Heading into the 2023 session, Democrats maintain a majority in both the State Senate (with Democrats holding 29 seats to Republicans’ 20) as well as the House of Representatives (with a 58-40 edge). For the first time, women hold a majority of seats in the Senate Democratic Caucus. And, given the virtual nature of both the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions, a large number of lawmakers (including those elected in 2020) have never participated in an in-person legislative session.

Last week, legislators-elect gathered in Olympia for new legislator orientation. Included in the new member class are three former lawmakers returning to legislative service – Senator-Elect Claudia Kauffman from the 47th legislative district; Representative-Elect Beth Doglio from the 22nd legislative district; and Representative-Elect Kristine Reeves from the 30th legislative district.

Newly Elected Members to the House of Representatives

(Photo Credit: Representative-Elect Kristine Reeves Twitter page @RepReevesWA)

Late Breaking Election Results. A number of elections were extremely close, with the declaration of a winner coming down to the wire. As a prime example that every vote counts, a Whatcom County initiative focused on early learning passed by twenty votes (54,290 to 54,270).

Five House Members Moving to Senate. A total of five former House members now hold the title of Senator-Elect: Matt Boehnke from the 8th legislative district; Noel Frame from the 36th legislative district; Drew MacEwen from the 35th legislative district; Sharon Shewmake from the 42nd legislative district; and Javier Valdez from the 46th legislative district.

Four Incumbents Defeated. Only four incumbents lost, with two of those losing to members of their own party. In the Senate, Incumbent Republican Senator Simon Sefnik (who was appointed to fill the term of the late Doug Ericksen) lost to Democrat Sharon Shewmake in the 42nd legislative district. In the House, Republican incumbent Rob Chase lost to Republican Leonard Christian in the 4th legislative district; Republican Incumbent Robert Sutherland lost to Republican Sam Low in the 39th legislative district; and Republican Incumbent Greg Gilday lost to Democratic challenger Clyde Shavers in the 10th legislative district by only 211 votes.

2023 will bring many new faces to Olympia. An exciting time!

Leadership/Committee Jurisdictions and Assignments

The Democratic and Republican caucuses in both the Senate and House of Representatives recently met to decide their leadership and, in some cases, committee jurisdictions and assignments.

Each caucus maintained its top leader, with Senator Andy Billig continuing as Senate Majority Leader; Representative Laurie Jinkins as House Speaker; Senator John Braun as Senate Minority Leader; and Representative J.T. Wilcox as House Minority Leader. In addition, House Democrats selected Representative Joe Fitzgibbon as Majority Leader, replacing the recently retired Pat Sullivan.

The House announced some changes to the subject areas considered by standing committees. Most notably for early learning, Representative Senn’s House Children, Youth and Families Committee has been renamed House Human Services, Youth and Early Learning and its subject matter expanded to include economic assistance programs, developmental disabilities, youth development and children’s mental health.

There does not appear to be subject area changes to the Senate Committees, but the faces on some committees will change. Senator Mark Mullet will now be the lead on the Senate Capital Budget Committee, and Senator-Elect Kauffman will serve as Vice Chair of Senate Human Services Committee. Here is a link to the Senate Democratic news release with a full listing of leadership and committee assignments.

As of this writing, other committee assignments have not been released.

Legislative Committee Days

On Dec. 1 and 2, legislators convened in Olympia for what is referred to as “committee days.” Over the course of two fast-paced days, each standing committee got one, two-hour slot to focus on priority issue(s).

Committee days serve as a reminder of the breadth of issues lawmakers tackle on a daily basis. Committees held work sessions looking at areas from affordable housing to the state’s assistance for Ukrainian refugees to police accountability. These work sessions provide a great opportunity to glean data points from PowerPoints and hear questions from lawmakers that give insight into their thinking on a matter.

Amongst these busy two days, two primary issues stood out. Not surprisingly, the state’s fiscal outlook received attention in a number of committees. The State’s Economist Dr. Steven Lerch presented to both the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the House Finance Committee. (See Revenue Update for our summary of the state’s fiscal outlook).

In the House Appropriations Committee, Budget Coordinator Mary Mulholland presented an excellent preview of the 2023 budget process. This House Appropriations preview may be the most thorough overview of state budgeting I have seen. It is worth a look and a “file away” for reference as the legislative session progresses.

The second issue that received a great deal of attention was child care. The House Children, Youth and Families Committee held a work session that focused exclusively on workforce shortages and challenges in recruitment and retention. This work session included testimony from providers representing the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), child care centers and family child care homes describing their current realities.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee held a work session in follow up to the “Blueprint for Recovery from the Washington State Senate Special Committee on Economic Recovery” report. Chaired by Senators David Frockt and Shelly Short, this bi-partisan report included recommendations for the state’s economic recovery following the pandemic. At the top of the recommendation list was the need to increase access to affordable child care and support providers to build capacity. Child Care Aware’s Ryan Pricco was charged with providing the Committee with an update on the status of the child care industry.

All committee day work sessions can be found at TVW.org. Look under “media archives” to find specific sessions.

Capital Gains Update

As we have reported, the Washington State Supreme Court is scheduled to begin hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of a capital gains tax beginning Jan. 26, 2023.

The state’s Department of Revenue (DOR) is currently pursuing rule making related to tax collections. On Nov. 3, Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion with the State Supreme Court asking that the Court allow the DOR to complete its rule making and begin collecting the capital gains tax prior to the Court’s final ruling.

On Nov. 30, the Supreme Court unanimously granted the Attorney General’s request, allowing the DOR to collect the tax prior to the Court’s final ruling.

All of the revenue forecasts include revenue from the capital gains tax.

Revenue and Caseload Forecasts

Recently, state budget writers received updated forecasts that help guide how much money the state has to spend (aka the revenue forecast) as well as its major cost drivers (aka the caseload forecast for entitlement programs). These numbers will inform Governor Inslee’s budget which is expected to be released around mid-December.

Caseload Forecast. Early Childhood Education Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Working Connections Child Care caseloads are both forecasted. For the current fiscal year (SFY 23), ECEAP caseloads are projected to decline by 2540 from the June forecast – a 16.7% drop for an expected caseload of 12,659. The state Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 caseloads are also expected to be lower than projected in June, with expected caseload of 14,437 and 14,905, respectively. Risks to the ECEAP caseload projections include the lingering impacts of the pandemic, a tight labor market and, “potentially, competition with other early learning options.”

Working Connections Child Care caseload projections are also lower than the June forecast. The projection for the current state fiscal year is a caseload of 24,300 which is 700 families less than what was expected in June. The caseload is expected to rise to 27,392 in SFY 24 and to 28,135 in SFY 25. The forecast notes the pandemic altered work patterns which, in turn, impacted child care utilization, leading to a decline in Working Connections Child Care usage. Additionally, the forecast notes that increased eligibility made possible through the Fair Start for Kids Act should impact caseloads with more families participating.

Revenue Forecast. In short, because revenues did not slow as quickly as projected, the state’s overall revenue is expected to be higher than the September projections by $762 million in our current 2021-23 biennium and $681 million for the upcoming 2023-25 biennium.

While these numbers represent good news, the Governor’s Budget Director David Schumacher and legislative members of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council emphasized that many moving pieces could complicate the construction of the biennial budget. Director Schumacher stated the budget situation is much tighter than the revenue alone indicates.

Importantly, the forecast council meeting showed that many caseloads are rising, which generate additional costs for the state. In the K-12 system, for example, inflationary cost increases alone will cost $1.5-$2 billion.

Although the base budget does not assume a recession, the state Economist’s “pessimistic” budget outlook (which Dr. Lerch said is much more likely than his optimistic forecast) has a decline of $5.3 billion in revenue for the 2023-25 biennium.

House Appropriations Chair Timm Ormsby noted that in addition to caseload and inflationary costs, the Legislature will need to consider the major workforce challenges “all around” as well as pressing needs in housing.

A few other items of note:

• The revenue projections assume the State Supreme Court will uphold the new capital gains tax and assumes revenue.
• The budget grew 20.4% between 2019-21 and 21-23 (largely due to COVID-19 funding) and is only projected to grow 3.5% between 2021-23 and 2023-25.
• While real estate is projected to be on the decline (impacting real estate tax revenue), consumer spending has been higher than expected and, with higher inflation, items are more expensive and the state accumulates more sales tax.
• Downside risks to the revenue forecast include: increasing interest rates could lead to recession, rise in technology sector layoffs, continued high inflation, uncertainty around the Russia-Ukraine war and potential rail and port strikes.

Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Reauthorization

On Friday, Dec. 2, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 8876, the Jackie Walorski Maternal and Child Home Visiting Reauthorization Act of 2022, by a vote of 390-26. The entire Washington state Congressional delegation voted in favor of the bill.

The next step is the U.S. Senate, so stay tuned.

Start Early Washington Resources

A friendly reminder that the Start Early Washington State Policy Resources page contains a number of policy resources, including our organizational 2023 budget and policy priorities, the Home Visiting Advocacy Coalition’s 2023 budget ask as well as a new resource highlighting challenges facing the home visiting workforce.

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will include weekly bill trackers along with budget and other analyses.

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(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

2022 General Election

What do we know so far? While the news is predominantly focused on national races, we are closely following the results here in Washington state. With an entirely vote-by-mail system in our state, it can take days to know the outcomes, especially if a large number of voters submitted their ballots on election day.

The Washington state Secretary of State has a website where you can track the results of federal, state and local races. The website notes when updated numbers are due to be released, voter turnout and the number of ballots counted as well as those left to be counted. County officials certify their results on Nov. 29 and the Secretary of State will certify final results by Dec. 8.

What are we watching? As a reminder, the current breakdown of the Washington State Legislature sits at 28 Democrats and 21 Republicans in the State Senate and 57 Democrats and 41 Republicans in the House of Representatives.

Roughly 24 hours after the release of the first results, here are the initial takeaways:

Tight Races. As of 5 p.m. Nov. 9, the tightest contests can be found in the following races:

• 10th Legislative District, position one (Island County and parts of Skagit and Snohomish counties): Democratic challenger Clyde Shavers leads Republican incumbent Greg Gilday 53%-47%
• 26th Legislative District (parts of Kitsap and Pierce counties): State Senate Democratic Incumbent Emily Randall holds a 52%-48% lead over Republican challenger Jesse Young and, to fill Rep. Young’s open House seat, Democrat Adison Richards leads Republican Spencer Hutchins 51%-49%
• 42nd Legislative District (parts of Whatcom County): all of the Democratic candidates hold slim leads over their Republican challengers. State Senate candidate Democrat Sharon Shewmake is leading the incumbent Republican Simon Sefnik 51%-49%. In the House of Representatives position one, incumbent Democrat Alicia Rule holds a 52%-48% lead over Republican challenger Tawsha Thompson. And, finally, in the open House of Representatives position two race, Democrat Jim Timmons holds a 51%-49% lead over Republican Dan Johnson.

Vulnerable Incumbents. Initial results indicate four Republican incumbents may be vulnerable. This includes:

• Republican Rob Chase in the 4th District (parts of Spokane County) is trailing his Republican challenger Leonard Christian 51%-47%
• As noted above, Republican Incumbent Greg Gilday is trailing his Democratic Challenger in the House of Representatives position one seat
• In the 39th District (parts of King, Skagit and Snohomish counties), Republican Incumbent Robert Sutherland is trailing his Republican challenger Sam Low by a wide margin of 55%-42%
• Republican Incumbent Simon Sefnik, who was appointed to fill the term of the late Senator Doug Ericksen in the 42nd District, is trailing Democratic challenger Sharon Shewmake by 51%-49%

As more votes come in, these results could change.

Whatcom County Early Learning Initiative. Initial results show that the Whatcom County’s Children Initiative is failing 51%-49%.

Stay tuned for another “Notes” focused on election results.

Capital Gains Tax Status Update

The Washington State Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of a capital gains tax Jan. 26, 2023. Oral arguments will be held in Tumwater because the Temple of Justice, where the Court usually meets, is closed for a two-year renovation.

On March 1, 2022, Douglas County Superior Court judge Brian Huber ruled the capital gains tax unconstitutional. Following this action, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson asked the state Supreme Court to accept the case on direct appeal, to which the Supreme Court agreed.

On Nov. 3, Attorney General Ferguson filed a motion with the Supreme Court asking the Court to allow the state’s Department of Revenue (DOR) to start collecting the tax before the Court makes its final ruling. DOR is currently pursuing rule-making related to tax collections. The Court will consider the Attorney General’s motion at a conference on Nov. 29.

As a reminder, the capital gains tax is intended to provide significant funding for early learning and the Fair Start for Kids Act, specifically. This Start Early Washington resource identifies investments in the Fair Start for Kids Act that were initially supported with short-term federal COVID-19 dollars with the intent for capital gains tax revenue to serve as the funding source once the short-term federal funds conclude.

Fair Start for Kids Act Resource

As we prepare to enter another two-year budget development process (one with a tightening fiscal picture), Start Early Washington put together a resource laying out which budgetary components of the Fair Start for Kids Act are laid out in statute and which are deemed “subject to appropriations.”

It is important to remember the funding of all policies is ultimately determined through the budget process, and while it is preferable to have specific funding levels set out in statute, the Legislature can change statute to fund at a different level – or not at all.

This resource breaks down which parts of the Fair Start for Kids Act are in statute, which are subject to appropriation and what this all means.

State Budget Preparations

Our last couple of “Notes From Olympia” have focused on summarizing the budget requests (known as decision packages) submitted by the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) to the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) for inclusion in the Governor’s budget. Additional resources are available through DCYF’s Government Affairs webpage which has been updated to include summaries of some of the agency’s decision packages.

Staff at OFM are busy reviewing and building the Governor’s budget which is expected to be released around mid-December. The state’s next revenue forecast will be released Nov. 18. The status of the state’s revenue picture will impact what is (and is not) included in the Governor’s budget proposal. The last revenue forecast in September projected a sharp decline in available revenue for the upcoming 2023-25 biennium. Many eyes will be on the Nov. 18 revenue forecast to see if the projection continues to decrease.

On Nov. 4, the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met to receive an economic review from the state’s economist, Dr. Steve Lerch. Not surprisingly, most of Dr. Lerch’s report focused on concerns about the potential for an upcoming recession and the impacts of high inflation on our state’s economy.

Legislative Committee Days

Each year in late November/early December, the Legislature holds “Committee Days,” where members of the existing committees meet and hold work sessions on issues likely to garner attention in the upcoming legislative session. The event is timed to occur before the “legislative session freeze” commences, wherein elected officials are barred from fundraising. This means that committee days also include a hearty number of evening fundraisers.

This year, the Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to meet Dec. 1 and 2 in person, and the two days are jam-packed with legislative committee work sessions. I view this as a test to gauge how ill-prepared I am for a return to walking on marble, dressing professionally and being social for an extended period of time. (High likelihood I will fail this test.)

Of note for early learning, the House Children, Youth and Families Committee will hold a work session at 1 p.m. on Dec. 1 focusing exclusively on early learning recruitment issues. Also on Dec. 1, the Senate Ways and Means Committee will hold a work session at 3:30 p.m. that looks at the state’s revenue and economic picture as well as implementation of the state’s COVID-19 recovery plan including a segment on how child care providers utilized stabilization funds. Finally, the first will also include a work session for the House Appropriations Committee that includes a 2023 Session Budget Preview.

While Committee Days will see a return to in-person work, TVW will continue to stream all the committee meetings, so you can catch them live or by accessing the media archives at tvw.org. It is important to note that unlike committee hearings, work session presenters are by invite-only, so the public cannot testify during these committee day activities. However, when the legislative committees pivot to bill hearings come January, public testimony will be back, and work is underway to continue to incorporate the availability of virtual testimony.

Child Care Center Coming to Capitol Campus

This fall, the state’s Department of Enterprise Services announced it selected KinderCare Learning Centers to operate the second child care center in Olympia to serve state employees and their families. Located right across from the Capitol campus at Maple Park Avenue SW and Capitol Way South, the center hopes to open soon and will serve children from six weeks to five years old.

I saw the center recently in Olympia and it looks ready to welcome children!

Ahead of Illinois’ midterm and gubernatorial elections next month, in a recent survey, voters across the state made it clear that they want to see increased attention towards early childhood services. In fact, the vast majority of survey respondents believe that investing in early childhood education and care is a good use of taxpayer dollars – and most would even be willing to pay more in taxes to fund it.

Start Early conducted this latest survey on behalf of state advocates to measure the level of support for early education among voters. The results were unequivocal – Illinois voters value early childhood education and care and want to see government action.

Eight in 10 voters say investing in early childhood education and care is a good use of taxpayer dollars. Among key groups like Black voters (55%) and those in Chicago’s suburbs (53%), a majority believe it to be a very good use of tax dollars. A majority of voters (56%), including nearly 75% of Black voters, went even further to say they are willing to pay a little more in taxes if it meant the state had better services for families with young children.

While partisanship continues to divide voters in many other policy areas, the survey’s findings also demonstrated that the early childhood education and care discussion goes far beyond political lines: 90% of Democrats, 73% of Independents and 70% of Republicans support government action and investment in early childhood programs and services.

Home to approximately 800,000 children under age 5, Illinois has a prominent history of investing in early care and education, spanning four decades under leadership of both Republican and Democratic state administrations. As the state prepares for its midterm elections, most timely is the survey’s bipartisan finding that most voters (70%) would feel more favorably towards a candidate who prioritizes an increase in funding for early childhood services.

“While Illinois has long been at the forefront of early learning and care innovations and investments, our system, like that of most states, has its challenges and real shortcomings,” Start Early Vice President of Illinois Policy Ireta Gasner says. “Without decisive action by our elected Governor and state legislators, critical components of the system will collapse – leaving countless young children and those who care for them behind.”

Decades of research have proven that quality early childhood programs can help break the cycle of poverty for generations to come and can change the trajectory of a child’s life toward healthy development and success. Yet, families – particularly those in communities left under-served – continue to face impossible challenges in accessing such early learning experiences.

As Illinois works to mitigate these challenges, often brought on by systematic inequities, voters reported that funding services for children experiencing homelessness and for children with disabilities or developmental delays should be priority focus areas of the state. Voters also ranked early childhood services as the second most important way to address the root causes of crime, a traumatic reality for far too many young children.

Start Early and its advocate partners across the state are passionately working to advance transformational change of the early childhood system in order to reach families and those who provide early learning services. This powerful survey data reaffirms that Illinois voters share advocates’ desires, and offers policymakers a renewed opportunity this upcoming legislative session to redouble efforts to make early learning a reality for all young children.

Conducted in partnership with Global Strategy Group, the survey of 609 registered voters in Illinois took place between September 8 – 12, 2022, and an intentional focus was placed on ensuring diverse demographic and geographic representation among voters. Interviews were conducted over the phone and text to web.

Our Capitol Ambassador Ollie eagerly awaits the return of people.
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

As we get further into fall, we see an uptick in activity that will influence the 2023 legislative session. Of course, one of the biggest influencers will be the Nov. 8 General Election and the subsequent leadership and legislative committee assignment decisions. Be on the lookout for a detailed analysis of upcoming changes following the election. In the meantime, this edition features timely updates.

Legislative Work Sessions

As part of the gear-up for the 2023 legislative session, legislative committees held a number of work sessions in the last few weeks. An interesting aspect of the preelection meetings is they include the sitting lawmakers, some of whom may not be returning in 2023.

Senate Ways and Means Committee

On Sept. 27, the Senate Ways and Means held the first in-person committee meeting since March 2020. I think it would be fair to say both lawmakers and audience members were excited to be back together.

Among the agenda items was a presentation by State Auditor staff regarding the audit of the state’s receipt and usage of federal dollars. It is not a surprise to see this review given that the state received billions of federal dollars to address pandemic-related items.

Of note for early learning, the State Auditor representatives discussed their finding that $293.2 million of the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant funds were “unauditable” due to the Department of Children, Youth and Families’ accounting practices which limited the State Auditor’s ability to access the level of detail needed to determine if funds were spent appropriately.

Following the State Auditor staff’s presentation, DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter responded (starting at around 1:30), noting that DCYF’s current Information Technology system needs an update to provide the level of detail required for more detailed auditing. Importantly, Secretary Hunter emphasized that DCYF did not receive any significant findings related to eligibility determination.

Secretary Hunter committed to working with the State Auditor; his agency submitted a decision package to provide the Information Technology investment needed to support the requested level of accounting detail.

House Children, Youth and Families Committee

On Oct. 11, the House Children, Youth and Families Committee held a work session focused on:

• Early learning programs for children with special needs or who have experienced trauma.
• Updates from DCYF on the Complex Needs Grants, Working Connections Child Care special needs rates and the Infant Child Mental Health Child Care Consultation program.
• Updates from OSPI on Inclusive Transitional Kindergarten Grants.

Each of the presentations linked above contain excellent background and data on the various programs, and the meeting video is worth a watch. The work session highlighted not only general confusion over the varying goals and target populations for the programs, but also the challenge for families in securing needed supports and care. We can expect these conversations to continue into the legislative session.

Joint Committee on Employment Relations

You are probably wondering why an early learning related newsletter includes an update about a rather obscure legislative committee related to state employment. I actually have a good answer for that!

The Oct. 13 meeting of this Joint Committee received an update detailing the estimated costs and themes of the various collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). This bargaining not only involves state employees but also includes higher education employees, state and K-12 education health care expenses and non-state employee groups of family child care, adult family home and language access providers. These collective bargaining agreements will be included in the 2023-25 biennial budget and with the state’s revenue picture tightening (See Sept. 29 Notes From Olympia), the price tag of these agreements will impact the availability of funding for other investments.

In short, the estimated costs of all the CBAs totals $2.24 billion, with $1.401 billion of that amount from the state General Fund. Like nearly every other sector, state government is challenged to recruit and retain its broad and diverse workforce. These agreements aim to address staffing shortages – especially in high priority areas such as hospitals, ferries and state institutions – by providing overall wage increases, various retention bonuses and premium pay/lump-sum payments for employees working in institutions and other high-risk positions.

Family Child Care Providers. As noted above, the state also bargains with Family Child Care providers and that agreement totals $217 million from the state General Fund to support 3,612 providers. This agreement increases the cost-of-care rate to $2100/month for providers accepting subsidy; increases the Working Connections Child Care subsidy rate to the 85th percentile of the 2021 market rate survey; removes the cost of background checks; and increases the hourly rate for Family Friend and Neighbor providers from $3.00 to $3.85 as of July 1, 2023 and up to an hourly rate of $4.00 on July 1, 2024.

What Comes Next? Following the November Economic and Revenue Forecast, the Director of the Office of Financial Management will make a “financial feasibility determination” (meaning – can the state afford these agreements?). After that decision, the agreements will be included in the Governor’s proposed budget, and then the decision moves to the legislative arena. Note that collective bargaining agreements are given an “up or down” vote. This is one of the few areas where the Legislature does not negotiate nor get the opportunity to make changes.

Minimum Wage Increasing January 2023

On Sept. 30, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries announced the hourly minimum wage will increase to $15.74 as of January 2023. This represents an hourly increase of $1.25, or 8.66%.

The 2016 initiative approved by Washington state voters calls for the Department of Labor and Industries to adjust the hourly minimum wage based on changes to the Consumer Price Index. With this increase, Washington will have the highest state minimum wage in the country.

Updated Summary of Decision Packages

Start Early Washington recently updated its summary document detailing early learning related decision packages submitted to the Office of Financial Management for consideration in the Governor’s 2023-25 biennial budget. The update includes a $5.046 million Capital Budget request from the Department of Commerce to support facility costs for early learning programs at six school districts. Our Sept. 30 Notes From Olympia contains more detail on the decision package process.

Each year the Illinois General Assembly passes legislation that can have an impact on families, or the organizations in our communities providing early childhood or related supportive services to families. Start Early leads on some of these legislative changes, often in coalition with others, and in other cases we contribute our early childhood lens and expertise to support the efforts of another lead organization. The 2022 Legislative Summary provides a listing of those bills that became law in the spring 2022 session that we thought would be relevant to families with young children and the field.  We hope that this is a resource you will download and share with colleagues and families alike. We are happy to provide additional information about any of these initiatives or connect you with other advocates where needed. Initiatives that were led by Start Early are marked “*”. 

The 2022 Illinois Policy Accomplishments report details progress we helped the state achieve toward advancing our Illinois Policy Agenda. In some places, Start Early may have led a charge, in other places we contributed research and advocacy to help advance shared goals of many stakeholders. While many challenges remain to be solved in our fragmented early learning system, this year’s report details the many ways that tangible progress is being made to improve the experience of families and children and providers.

In Illinois, Start Early engages on a variety of topics of importance to the well-being of expecting families, infants, toddlers, their families and professionals who support their healthy development.

Advocating with state agencies, elected officials, and working in partnership with providers, fellow advocates and parents, we work to advance our Illinois Policy Agenda. Work is currently underway for a refresh of our policy agenda to reflect our priorities for the next four years. More updates to come on this exciting work underway at Start Early.

We are excited to publish and offer two new resources relating to policy changes and progress toward longer-term changes that were achieved in Fiscal Year 22.

The Illinois Policy, 2023 Accomplishments report details progress we helped the state achieve toward advancing our Illinois Policy Agenda. In some places, Start Early may have led a charge, in other places we contributed research and advocacy to help advance shared goals of many stakeholders. While many challenges remain to be solved in our fragmented early learning system, this year’s report details the many ways that tangible progress is being made to improve the experience of families and children and providers.

The Capitol campus on a gorgeous September morning.
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

A Reminder …

Start Early Washington publishes “Notes From Olympia” periodically throughout the legislative interim. This edition focuses on recently released state agency “decision packages,” a state revenue update and workforce challenges.

State Agency Decision Packages

Each September, state agencies submit decision packages detailing budget requests to the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM). These decision packages (or “DPs” as commonly known) are used to build the Governor’s proposed budget that will be released in mid-to-late December. See Start Early Washington’s August 25, Notes From Olympia for further discussion on the DP process.

OFM established a dedicated website where every agency DP can be downloaded. Unfortunately, this website is clunky at best, and downloading each DP can be extremely time consuming (my grumbling may have been heard statewide).

Thankfully, the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has been transparent about their DPs. They have held multiple stakeholder feedback sessions as their DPs were under development as well as a webinar to answer questions once the DPs were uploaded on the OFM website.

A full summary of the DPs most relevant for early learning issues is on our website. A few items of note:

• Looking across the variety of state agency DPs (broader than early learning), common themes emerge. These themes include advancing equity, providing direct funding to BIPOC-led organizations, targeted support to BIPOC and rural communities and increasing support to families (particularly in substance use disorder treatment services) to prevent out-of-home placement in the child welfare system.
• State law requires the adoption of four-year balanced budgets, so many of the DPs not only include requested spending for the upcoming 2023-25 biennium, but also for the subsequent biennium for state Fiscal Years 2025-27.
• You may find that not all the numbers add up perfectly in the finalized DPs, and that’s okay.
• DCYF organized many of their DPs into themes (e.g., Prevention, Child Care Access and Affordability), so their number of DPs is smaller than most other state agencies, but the grouped DPs often contain a larger number of requests. DCYF’s early learning budget requests total more than $1 billion in new funding for the 2023-25 biennium.

As the DP list is so long this year, we’ve summarized an analysis on our resource page. If you have a deep interest in a particular item, I recommend reading the DP as they include cost modeling and further explanation and detail. Feel free to reach out if you have questions or would like help navigating OFM’s unwieldy website.

State Revenue Update

On Sept. 21, the Washington State Economic and Revenue Council met to receive an update on the latest revenue figures from the state’s economist Dr. Steve Lerch.

In the current 2021-23 biennium, revenue is projected to exceed the June forecast by $43 million, bringing the 2021-23 budget to $65.999 billion.

For the upcoming 2023-25 biennium that begins July 1, 2023, revenue is projected to decline from the June forecast by $495 million. Even with this projected decrease, the 2023-25 budget is projected to exceed the 2021-23 budget by $2.313 billion, with a projected biennial budget of $65.504 billion for 2023-25.

You may be asking, what is contributing to the slowing revenue? It comes down to three primary challenges:

1. Decreasing personal income is leading to slower retail sales.
2. Washington construction is slowing at a rate faster than projected.
3. Interest rate hikes are slowing real estate activity, impacting real estate tax collections.

Finally, there was apparently a significant Board of Tax Appeal decision that reduced expected revenue in 2023-25 by $117 million.

A reporter asked the Governor’s Budget Director David Schumacher how the slowing revenue projections would impact the budget Governor Inslee will release in December. Director Schumacher responded by noting the Legislature left a healthy reserve that should help mitigate the blow of federal stimulus dollars concluding.

Per state budget documents, the Legislature left an ending fund balance of $789M for the 2021-23 biennium and $83M for the 2023-25 biennium. Additionally, of the $4.428 billion the state received and deposited into the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSFRF) in the State Treasury, $3.151 billion was appropriated ($1.0 billion in the transportation budget; $400 million in the capital budget; and $1.75 billion in the operating budget). The remaining $1.277 billion was not appropriated and remains available for use.

The next revenue forecast will be released Nov. 18. These numbers will inform the Governor’s budget.

State Employee Workforce

The word of the year is workforce, particularly in the health and human services sectors. Looking through the agency DPs, you can see efforts to increase contracts and provide wage adjustments to help with staffing critical jobs ranging from child care to ECEAP to nursing home staff to behavioral health staff.

At the Sept. 15 DCYF Oversight Board meeting, DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter discussed his agency’s efforts to address recruitment and retention. (Secretary Hunter’s remarks begin around the 2:00 mark). He noted this is a challenge crossing all state agencies as they face competition from the private sector, with compensation being the largest barrier. Secretary Hunter acknowledged this workforce issue extends to DCYF’s contracted partners.

For DCYF, Secretary Hunter noted the emotionally and physically difficult work in all its programs, especially with the acuity of youth served in juvenile rehabilitation. A particular challenge for state agencies is in the Information Technology (IT) sphere, with the average age of state employee IT staff exceeding 50 years of age. IT is an area where the private sector is more lucrative.

Secretary Hunter also noted the importance of offering a career pathway for his agency’s employees and highlighted the magnitude of change the agency employees have undergone, starting with the creation of the new agency, navigating a pandemic and implementing multiple new laws and policies.

A few days after Secretary Hunter’s presentation, the Spokesman Review reported on a tentative deal between the state and its largest public employee union, the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE). The agreement includes a 4% wage increase in SFY 23 and a 3% increase in SFY 24, a $1000 bonus for receiving a COVID-19 booster shot and a $1000 retention bonus for current employees who stay employed on July 1, 2023.

While no cost estimate has been made public yet, WFSE said this is the largest compensation increase in the union’s history. But, first, the agreement needs to be approved by the state and the union, and then it will go to the Legislature, where an up or down vote would approve it. This is one of many Collective Bargaining Agreements the state is negotiating.

I raise this agreement because it will likely result in a significant price tag and, with slowing state revenues, competition for resources will be great. The policy question of workforce may be THE issue facing lawmakers when they gather in Olympia on January 9, 2023. Without people to perform mission critical work, the state will be challenged in serving Washingtonians in many areas.

What Will the 2023 Legislative Session Look Like?

While there has not been formal communication about the structure of the 2023 legislative session, we will likely see a return to in-person campus activity with continued ability to participate virtually.

The House of Representatives sent out communication last week stating that its December committee meetings will be in-person, with its hearing rooms equipped for hybrid participation and the Senate is holding work sessions this week from hearing rooms (with hybrid participation).

More to come …

Hello from my friend Ollie. He gets very happy when his human takes him for walks on the Capitol campus. He’s kindly offered to show us interesting spots when trivia resumes in January. (Photo Credit: Ollie’s mom, Pam Toal)

Next week, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is holding the first 2 of 3 fall budget hearings, the first step in determining next year’s proposed education budget for the state. These hearings provide the early childhood advocacy community an opportunity to help shape the state’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal. Please consider participating *virtually or in-person* in requesting a 20% increase in state funding for the Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG).

Here’s how you can participate in the ISBE budget hearing process:

1. Visit ISBE.net/BudgetRequestForm, and enter your name and contact information.
2. Choose the hearing you’ll attend or select the option for submitting a written testimony. Written requests must be received by ISBE no later than Oct. 26.
3. Under the “Add Program Request” drop-down menu select “Early Childhood Education”
4. Enter $119,627,620.00 under the “Additional Requested Funding” section.
5. Under the field that begins with “Please provide the Board with a description of your funding request,” you will need to put further detail on the 20% ask.

Upcoming Budget Hearings:

• Oct. 4, 4-7 p.m. CT (Virtual)
  Registration deadline is Sept. 29
• Oct. 6, 4-7 p.m. CT (In-Person, Springfield)
  Written funding request must be turned in by Oct. 4
  
• Oct. 24, 4-7 p.m. CT (Virtual)
  Registration deadline is Oct. 20

Register Now

Contact us if you plan to testify or have questions. Thank you for speaking up for children and families across the state!