Lawmakers ponder payment delay

OLYMPIA – The state may wait a day to pay schools districts about $253 million this summer as a way to make the budget balance at the end of the fiscal year, and the schools would either have to do the same to their creditors or borrow money.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee considered Tuesday what some regard as a budget gimmick, shifting from June 30 to July 1 hundreds of millions of dollars for basic education, special education, bilingual education, transportation and other school programs. Marty Brown, the Office of Financial Management director, called it “a wise thing to do at this point” and none of the members of the committee disagreed. The state would make cuts during the next two years to offset the payment.

Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, said he believed school districts could manage what he called “a one-day float” of money from the state. “It helps us get through to the next biennium without making painful cuts.”