State representatives Jeff Morris and Dave Quall had no easy answers about the looming school budget shortfall other than “wait until next year,” when they met with San Juan Islanders on April 30.

Quall said they should have their answer by April 2009.

That answer didn’t go over too well. Parent after parent chimed in in frustration.

What if the Legislature doesn’t come through with enough money for basic education, parents and teachers wanted to know.

“How can we get more money out of the Legislature?” asked middle school teacher John McMain.

Parent Jim Skoog referred to a lawsuit brought by the Federal Way school district to compel the state to more equitable funding. Skoog asked, “Is that the only way we’re going to be able to fund education – to sue the state?”

Morris responded, “When I’m asked that question … I have to say, ‘Yes, you need to sue us.’ It’s very very difficult to get 51 of us in the House to line up and make a definitive statement about what basic eduction should be, or what an appropriate level of funding is.”

According to Quall, the state is facing a tax revenue shortfall that precludes any short-term fixes this year.

“When we did the revenue forecast, we were down $425 million,” Quall said. “So the political climate was saying be careful and prepare yourself for the next session. We were careful.”

The pointed comments from parents and teachers come on the heels of the disclosure of a $820,000 shortfall in next year’s San Juan Island School District budget brought on by declining enrollment, increased hiring of needed personnel and a voter-mandated cost-of-living salary increase for teachers and classified staff not funded by the state.

Following the meeting, Morris expressed his frustration with having the rug pulled out from under the House’s budget proposals.

“We (the House) have been the highwater mark for funding for both K-12 and higher ed for the last six or eight years, the budgets come back and we always get our numbers struck back down (by the Senate and the governor’s office).”

Morris, speaker pro tem of the House, also said the funding priorities by the Legislature get upended by citizen initiatives.

“The citizens passed the salary thing we’ve been trying to live up to five years ago. At a certain point, it becomes a sand pit you can’t quite climb out of. Those initiatives come in and amend what we’re doing.

“One of the problems in our initiative system, quite honestly, is that we don’t make people show how they’re going to pay for what they want to do,” he said.

Morris noted the lack of a working majority – hence a consistent direction – in the state Senate.

“They never know what votes they’re going to have, depending on what day they show up. It’s been very difficult for them to look long term at some of these funding issues versus looking at the next election is going to have for them, so …”

Quall, Morris and Senator Harriet Spanel met with Orcas Islanders at West Sound on May 5, after the Sounder went to press. Go to www.islandssounder.com for a report on the meeting.