This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.
What’s happening south of our state line is enough to make the likes of Tim Eyman, as well as a number of thwarted Washington Democrats, green with envy.
On Monday, Oregon legislators wrapped up a session – marked by their bracing refusal to let policy ambitions bow to the economy – that has left the state ripe for a tax revolt. Business leaders announced last week that they plan to spend big to defeat $733 million in tax hikes.
Eyman might wish for some of that mojo. As the perennial tax-cut hawker’s annual appointment with the secretary of state’s office draws near today, it’s looking like he’ll cross the finish line huffing and puffing, if at all.
He’s mortgaged his house. He also recently complained that the secretary of state’s office isn’t staying open on Friday’s government holiday to give signature gatherers one more day to come up with the 300,000 or so signatures required to make the ballot.
It’s clear that Eyman’s rhetoric – “Huge levy increases, skyrocketing valuation increases, massive rate hikes. It’s obscene and unsustainable” – is simply ringing hollow with a good segment of the voting public. One big reason: The tried and true bogeyman of state government hasn’t stoked the usual outrage.
The Legislature seriously considered raising taxes to help cover a $9 billion shortfall, but eventually deferred to an unreceptive public. To liberal advocacy groups, lawmakers’ decision to cut its way out of the hole was a failure to respond to a severe crisis. For many others, it was a hard-knocks budget befitting the times.
Oregon’s Legislature is a case study in the opposite tack. Lawmakers approved more than $1 billion in new taxes while vastly expanding health care programs and launching some of the state’s most expensive construction campaigns.
They shot down Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s entreaties to leave a healthier reserve as a hedge against future economic perils. They thumbed their noses at the business community’s efforts to work out a tax compromise, even as Oregon’s unemployment rate soared.
The Oregonian’s editorial board dubbed it the year of governing dangerously. Democrats, blessed by the same overwhelming majorities their counterparts in Washington enjoy, had their chance to dominate state government. And, for better or worse, they took it.
Washington Democrats who bemoaned their caucuses’ lack of “vision” can now watch Oregon’s brand of progressive politics play out from a safe distance. Politicians there may have averted the immediate pain of a no-new-taxes budget, but a taxpayer rebuke could easily make the victory a temporary one at best.
