Statehouse Member Out To Give New Homeowners A Tuition Break

You may own a house and pay taxes here, even have a Washington driver’s license.

But if you’ve been here less than a year, enrolling in college could cost you a bundle.

A lawmaker frustrated that college-bound residents must live in Washington 12 months before being eligible to pay in-state tuition is proposing making new homeowners eligible instantly.

Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver, said the idea was brought to his attention by a woman who moved to his community and put $50,000 down on a house, only to pay out-of-state tuition for her child’s education.

“She pointed out that when she moved here, she had only 10 days to get a driver’s license,” Dunn said in a hearing on the bill before the House Higher Education Committee.

The proposed legislation also would let active-duty military personnel immediately pay the lower tuition, since they have little choice where they reside.

But while the idea was warmly received last week, lawmakers found shortcomings in the plan.

Rep. Dawn Mason, D-Seattle, said not granting the same tuition break to apartment dwellers who can’t afford a home is a form of economic discrimination.

Yet by not distinguishing between the two groups, students from across the country could claim they were residents the moment they arrived on campus, said Susan Patrick, a member of the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Patrick told lawmakers about an American who had lived 12 years in Japan but voted by mail in Washington elections and hoped that would be enough to enroll his daughter in school at the lower cost. She also mentioned a Tennessee man who visited Seattle for a week and claimed that made him a resident.

“There are thousands of stories just like that,” she said.

Committee members suggested amending Dunn’s bill to a 90-day residency requirement, and having it apply only to community colleges, which already support the idea. Lawmakers could then ask the four-year schools to study the proposal and tell them what changing residency requirements would cost.

The committee will reconsider the bill again this week.

, DataTimes