DAYTON – The Washington State Legislature opened its 60-day 2016 session on Monday, and once again, education funding is the number one issue legislators will face.

In a phone interview with The Times last week, Republican Representative Terry Nealey, of Dayton, expressed a sense of déjà vu about having to revisit the issue once again.

"We've increased education funding about one-third" since the State Supreme Court's McCleary decision, he said. "Still, we're being held in contempt by the court, with a fine of $100,000 a day." News reports say the fine has grown to nearly $15 million.

Nealey pointed out that the fine money will go to funding education, which will help solve the problem.

The McLeary decision, handed down by the court in 2012, found that the Washington State Legislature was violating the state constitution by not funding public education in the state adequately or fairly.

According to Nealey, the main issue remaining to be resolved is that of levy equalization. In Washington, a large proportion of funding received by local school districts is through voter-approved property tax levies. The court has held that students in districts with lower property values are at an unfair disadvantage under this system.

"Districts like Kirkland or Mercer Island can raise a lot of money with a fairly low tax rate," Nealey said. Districts in eastern Washington are at a disadvantage he said, because of lower property values. "In Pasco, for instance," he added, "which is in my district, it takes about four dollars per thousand to raise the same amount as a one dollar per thousand rate," in one of the wealthy west-side districts.

Nealey serves as ranking Republican on the House Finance Committee, and he will be a central player in discussions during the session on resolving the levy equalization issue. "We'll be looking at a number of possible methods to resolve that," during the session, he said.

Another issue the legislature must tackle this session is what to do about Initiative 1336, the Tim Eyeman-backed initiative that the state's voters approved in November. That measure requires that either the legislature put a constitutional amendment before the voters requiring a two-thirds legislative majority or voter approval for any tax increase, or else the sales tax rate will drop by one percent.

The measure is being challenged in state courts, but the legislature must still address it, Nealey said. "A constitutional amendment measure will require two-thirds approval itself," he said. "I don't know if we could get that."

Nealey said that two other potential voter initiatives are expected in November, and the legislature will likely address those this session. The first is the minimum wage.

Nealey said that separate initiatives raising the state-wide minimum wage to $12 and $15 are likely to both come before voters in November. "We need to look closely at the negative impact those would have on businesses," he said. "Perhaps we could propose an increase that is phased in over a number of years."

Other potential initiatives in the fall could introduce a carbon tax or cap and trade program in the state to reduce greenhouse gasses. Again, Nealey is concerned about the potential negative impact of those measures on business. This issue, too, will be high on the legislative agenda, he said.

Nealey, who retired from the Nealey and Marinella law firm in Dayton in 2014, is entering his seventh term in the House. Besides being ranking Republican member on the House Finance Committee, he also sits on the Technology and Economic Development Committee.

While this year's session is a shorter "non-budget" session (a biennial budget was passed last year), the legislature still must pass a supplemental budget during the current session, which must take into account the latest state revenue and spending forecasts.

"Those aren't as rosy as they have been," Nealey said. He said that, particularly on the spending side, costs for non-discretionary programs, such as Medicaid caseloads, are up significantly.

In addition, the legislature must address new spending requests. First and foremost is a request by the state Department of Natural Resources for an additional $150 million to fight wildfires.

Fighting last year's wildfires cost the state $164 million, according to news reports, which is double the previous record year. Nealey said he expects the legislature to look closely at the DNR's budget and possibly pare back their request.