Supreme Court fines state $100,000 a day for failure to comply with McCleary orders

This morn­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court, in a land­mark order that will turn heads and shoul­ders across the Ever­green State, ordered the state to begin pay­ing a $100,000 fine for each day that it fails to adopt a plan for ful­ly com­ply­ing with Arti­cle IX, Sec­tion 1 of the state Con­sti­tu­tion (“It is the para­mount duty of the state to make ample pro­vi­sion for the edu­ca­tion of all chil­dren resid­ing with­in its bor­ders, with­out dis­tinc­tion or pref­er­ence on account of race, col­or, caste, or sex.”)

The Court also sug­gest­ed that the Leg­is­la­ture go back into spe­cial ses­sion to work on the prob­lem of school fund­ing with­out delay, not­ing that leg­is­la­tors fig­ured out how to raise bil­lions of addi­tion­al dol­lars for high­way con­struc­tion on a bipar­ti­san basis only a few weeks ago. From the Court’s order, pub­lished today:

Giv­en the grav­i­ty of the State’s ongo­ing vio­la­tion of its con­sti­tu­tion­al oblig­a­tion to amply pro­vide for pub­lic edu­ca­tion, and in light of the need for expe­di­tious action, the time has come for the court to impose sanc­tions. A mon­e­tary sanc­tion is appro­pri­ate to empha­size the cost to the chil­dren, indeed to all of the peo­ple of this state, for every day the State fails to adopt a plan for ‘full com­pli­ance with arti­cle IX, sec­tion 1.

At the same time, this sanc­tion is less intru­sive than oth­er avail­able options, includ­ing direct­ing the means the State must use to come into com­pli­ance with the court’s order. Now, there­fore, it is hereby

ORDERED:

Effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly, the State of Wash­ing­ton is assessed a reme­di­al penal­ty of one hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars ($100,000) per day until it adopts a com­plete plan for com­ply­ing with arti­cle lX, sec­tion 1 by the 2018 school year.

The penal­ty shall be payable dai­ly to be held in a seg­re­gat­ed account for the ben­e­fit of basic edu­ca­tion. Rec­og­niz­ing that leg­isla­tive action com­ply­ing with the court’s order can only occur in ses­sion, but fur­ther rec­og­niz­ing that the court has no author­i­ty to con­vene a spe­cial ses­sion, the court encour­ages the gov­er­nor to aid in resolv­ing this mat­ter by call­ing a spe­cial ses­sion. Should the leg­is­la­ture hold a spe­cial ses­sion and dur­ing that ses­sion ful­ly com­ply with the court’s order, the court. will vacate any penal­ties accru­ing dur­ing the ses­sion. Oth­er­wise, penal­ties will con­tin­ue to accrue until the State achieves compliance.

As it has since the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Wash­ing­ton’s school fund­ing sys­tem was first lit­i­gat­ed in Seat­tle School Dis­trict, the court assumes and expects that the oth­er branch­es of gov­ern­ment will com­ply in good faith with orders of the court issued pur­suant to the court’s con­sti­tu­tion­al duties. Seat­tle Sch. Dist. 1 90 Wn.2d at 506’07. Our coun­try has a proud tra­di­tion of hav­ing the exec­u­tive branch aid in enforc­ing court orders vin­di­cat­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

$100,000 a day adds up to about $3 mil­lion a month.

We are about five months away from the 2016 reg­u­lar ses­sion. Were the Leg­is­la­ture not to act until then, it would incur $15 mil­lion in court-imposed penalties.

The Leg­is­la­ture of this state has a long and grand his­to­ry of dither­ing, pro­cras­ti­nat­ing, and excuse-mak­ing. But the time for mak­ing excus­es is over. The Supreme Court is fed up and tired of the Leg­is­la­ture’s inabil­i­ty to meet its own goals for com­ply­ing with Arti­cle IX, Sec­tion 1 of the state Con­sti­tu­tion. The Court’s unan­i­mous deci­sion to impose sanc­tions is war­rant­ed and appropriate.

It’s time for the Leg­is­la­ture to get back to work. Wash­ing­ton needs tax reform. It needs its schools ful­ly fund­ed. It is our para­mount duty to pro­vide for the edu­ca­tion of our youth. We’re not meet­ing that oblig­a­tion, and our kids are being robbed as a con­se­quence. This sit­u­a­tion must be reme­died as quick­ly as possible.

Half-mea­sures are not enough; the Leg­is­la­ture can and must do better.

When we get a response from Gov­er­nor Inslee, Super­in­ten­dent Dorn, and leg­isla­tive lead­ers to this deci­sion, we will post it.

Loom­ing over all of this is Tim Eyman’s I‑1366, which threat­ens to wipe out $8 bil­lion in sales tax rev­enue over six years unless the Leg­is­la­ture votes to approve a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment per­ma­nent­ly lock­ing in our state’s regres­sive tax sys­tem. I‑1366 has been cer­ti­fied for the bal­lot, but is being chal­lenged in court on scope grounds. The first hear­ing in the case will take place tomor­row morn­ing, against the back­drop of this Supreme Court order in McCleary.

UPDATE: Gov­er­nor Inslee’s response is as fol­lows.