The Elected Officials Reception hosted recently by the Home Builders Association of the Tri-Cities and the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce was a great opportunity to connect with a large number of local business and community leaders. This was at the REACH Museum in Richland — and I count 42 people!

Dear Neighbors,

Article IX of Washington’s constitution is clear: providing for the education of our state’s children is the “paramount duty,” or top priority, of state government. But what does that mean when a school district gets itself into deep financial trouble?

My previous report mentioned how I’m keeping close track of the financial issues facing the Prescott School District. That has included meeting with administrators from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and more recently speaking up at the latest meeting of the Prescott school board.

Because Prescott is considered financially insolvent, the district’s future hangs in part on this 2012 state law. It is what allowed the state superintendent, former Democrat state representative Chris Reykdal, to convene a four-member Financial Oversight Committee specifically to look into Prescott’s situation.

By law this oversight committee will ultimately recommend one of two options to Superintendent Reykdal: Dissolve the district and force Prescott students to attend school elsewhere, or try saving the district from dissolution by placing it under “enhanced financial monitoring.”

There’s a lot I could say about this, as a proud Prescott alum and a member of both the K-12 education committee and the budget committee in our state Senate. For now let’s look at how OSPI has treated another district with financial issues: Marysville, in Snohomish County.

In June 2024, Superintendent Reykdal appointed a Financial Oversight Committee to assist Marysville in getting on a “path forward to financial stability” after the district failed to come up with a balanced budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Little more than two months later, noting the district also had yet to produce a viable budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, he placed Marysville under enhanced financial monitoring. This included the appointment of a special administrator to “oversee and carry out the financial conditions imposed on the district.”

What struck me was this part of the letter Superintendent Reykdal sent to the district, because of how it contrasts with what’s happening in Prescott:

“After reviewing, and carefully considering, the messages sent to the FOC, and the public comments at school board meetings, it is clear that the community lacks trust and confidence in school district leadership… I have lost confidence that the district has the decision-making tools or current personnel necessary to fix its financial situation on their own… Despite being faced with significant financial challenges, the district has shown it is unwilling and unable to take appropriate steps or accept responsibility for the current situation. After more than a year of OSPI and NWESD partnering with the district’s executive leadership, financial clarity and progress toward long-term stability has not been achieved by MSD leadership. As a result, I am transitioning decision-making through enhanced financial oversight.”

I don’t sense that the Prescott community has lost trust and confidence in PSD leaders. And has Superintendent Reykdal noticed the heroic efforts being made by the district and the community to raise money?

The former Vader School District in southern Lewis County was dissolved nearly 20 years ago largely because the school building had been condemned as unsafe. Failed efforts to pass a construction bond issue put the district in an insurmountable financial situation. That is not the case in Prescott.

The head of the Marysville School Board has blamed that district’s financial situation on the effects of inadequate state funding of schools, declining student enrollment, inflation and a double levy failure. You don’t hear those excuses from Prescott, as the cause of the financial trouble is much simpler and widely known.

To me the best course would be for the Prescott FOC to recommend against dissolving the district, and for going the financial-oversight route. Superintendent Reykdal should agree and give Prescott the same opportunity Marysville received.

And if those aren’t enough reasons, the latest student assessment scores from Prescott are another reason for Olympia to stand with the community, not against it.

While the learning loss resulting from pandemic-related classroom closures is a reality, Prescott is bucking the trend. The share of district students testing at grade level for math in the 2024-25 student assessments is up 9% from pre-pandemic and compares favorably with other districts in the area.

To me, supporting small, successful districts like Prescott is more in line with our constitutional duty to provide for education than dissolving them. I agree with the view expressed in this open letter to OSPI and the Prescott FOC, from someone identified only as Bob:

“We hope you are for us. The paramount work of the State of Washington is education. Prescott is in the education business. It has helped grow and develop hundreds of students into productive members of society. Keep us open! The financial downfall was at the hands of previous staff. None of them are still at Prescott. But those that are are here because they want to see it continue.”

I could not say it better.

As fallout from new taxes continues, Democrats look at more increases

You can’t make this up: School districts in our state are getting blindsided by the new sales-tax increase approved by Democrats this spring.

To be clear, the news here isn’t that districts are now paying sales tax – they already have been on new construction, for instance. It’s how, in their haste to rake in even more money, our colleagues across the aisle apparently didn’t think about how extending the sales tax to even more things would cut into school budgets.

A report in The Seattle Times this week offers more of the story – and if you read it, ignore the speculation from a Democratic state representative that the tax increase (which he supported) might be illegal as it pertains to schools. He’s wrong.

The sales-tax expansion is estimated to take nearly $4 billion from the economy over four years. It was not even the largest part in the state-record $12.2 billion, six-piece package of partisan tax increases adopted this year. That title goes to the hike in Washington’s business-and-occupation tax, at $5.6 billion.

The collection of tax hikes was cited by a prominent Washington distiller recently in announcing its storefronts in Gig Harbor, Tumwater, and Roslyn will close.

“With the largest tax increase in state history now going into effect, and more already being discussed for next year, we determined that the path to profitability and growth for our spirits business in the current environment is not feasible,” the announcement read.

A Mexican restaurant in Dayton recently closed due to the increasing costs of doing business, the owner told the Dayton Chronicle.

The increases coming from Olympia don’t hit employers only. The state Employment Security Department recently used its authority under Washington law to approve a 22% increase in the rate of the “premium” (another name for tax) that funds the state-run Paid Family and Medical Leave program.

Nearly 72% of the tax will hit employees directly, through their paychecks, with the remainder falling on employers.

Then, because they are already anticipating another budget shortfall in 2026, there’s the new tax Senate Democrats are reportedly floating: another version of a state income tax, this time targeted at high-income households. The concept itself isn’t new, just some of the details.

We saw a similar approach in 2010, through Initiative 1098 – which was rejected by Washington voters by a margin of almost 2-to-1. It also showed up in a handful of unsuccessful Democratic legislation, especially from 2012, when the majority’s chronic overspending had put the state into a shortfall (which is what we’re again facing, going into the 2026 session).

It’s frustrating how Democrats here and elsewhere talk about affordability but consistently approve policies that make the cost of living less affordable.

I was proud this year to support the $ave Washington budget proposed by Senate Republicans. It would, as the name implies, have saved the people of our state from cuts to core services while saving them from all of those tax increases.

Our balanced approach also would have done more to insulate the state budget from any funding changes at the federal level. However, the majority Democrats had their own agenda and rejected our plan.

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I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

EMAIL: Perry.Dozier@leg.wa.gov
OLYMPIA PHONE: (360) 786-7630
OLYMPIA OFFICE: 342 Irving R. Newhouse Building
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 40416, Olympia, WA 98504