Letter Opinion 1971 No. 056

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                                                                  March 31, 1971

Honorable William J.S. "Bill" May
State Representative, Third District
Legislative Building
Olympia, Washington 98501                                                            Cite as:  AGLO 1971 No. 56 (not official)

Dear Sir:

            This is written in response to your recent letter requesting our opinion on two questions pertaining to House Bill No. 90, presently pending before the legislature.  The bill in question is entitled "An Act Relating to educational opportunities for all handicapped children" and its purpose is set forth in § 1, as follows:

            "It is the purpose of this 1971 amendatory act to ensure that all handicapped children as defined in section 2 of this 1971 amendatory act shall have the opportunity for an appropriate education at public expense as guaranteed to them by the Constitution of this state."

            Question (1):

            Your first question arises from an estimate that the fiscal impact of this bill would be in the neighborhood of $16,000,000 per biennium.  You have pointed out, however, that the bill itself makes no appropriation of funds to pay its costs.  Therefore, you have asked whether the legislature may, constitutionally, enact a law which ". . . necessarily binds the State, and future legislatures, to pay costs resulting from the law's passage, but for which the law makes no provision."

                                                                     ANALYSIS

            Clearly, under the provisions of Article VIII, § 4 (Amendment 11) of our state constitution, no funds may be expended from our state treasury for any of the purposes contemplated by the bill without an appropriation by the legislature of the necessary money.  However, in order to characterize House Bill No. 90 as obligating future legislatures to fund, by appropriation, any of the programs contemplated by the bill it would be necessary to conclude  [[Orig. Op. Page 2]] that the legislature, having once enacted this measure, would then be powerless to amend or repeal the bill at some future session if it then desired to do so.  Clearly, nothing contained within this bill, nor in any existing law or constitutional provisions, could be said to have any such a limiting effect upon the authority of future legislatures.