During his first day on the job as 9^th District Senate Republican Leader, Mark Schoesler formed the Senate Majority Coalition to create a list of goals focusing on establishing a proper budget suitable for jobs and education. After months of special sessions, the Washington State Legislature passed one.

Schoesler addressed the ASWSU Senate Wednesday to talk about the Washington State budget.

 “I never thought I’d have a letter from Elson Floyd, Michael Young and Marty Brown from the community technical colleges thanking the coalition and the legislature for a budget,” he said.

Schoesler said providing an additional billion dollars to fund K-12 and higher education was necessary for the success of schools statewide.

A smoothing process of the budget should begin January 2014 along with the recognition of two state-related pension lawsuits, Schoesler said.

“If we were to lose those, we could be back putting general fund dollars into pensions rather than the priorities of government that we want to operate on,” he said.

ASWSU Sen. Steven McCutcheon asked Schoesler how he balanced fiscal responsibility with increasing support of higher education.

“What we did, we slowed the rate of growth in 45-50 percent of government and increased the growth in the remainder,” Schoesler said in response.

Sen. Jacob Montaño expressed to Schoesler how ASWSU can better its ability to reach out to its constituents.

“We have that job to educate and we have to start early on public policy rather than later,” Schoesler said.

Schoesler is a recipient of the Champion of Higher Education Award from WSU and has spent 21 years representing the university.

“What this university does is so important for my family, my industry, agriculture and to the future of this state,” he said.