Brad Shannon reports that Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna appears to be resisting calls by Democratic challenger John Ladenburg to step aside and let someone else decide whether to file campaign-finance charges and seek penalties against the Building Industry Association of Washington.

The state Public Disclosure Commission found "apparent multiple violations" of finance law earlier this week against BIAW, one of the biggest backers of Republican candidate for governor Dino Rossi. It also found apparent violations by Master Builders Association of King & Snohomish Counties. More than $1 million in contributions and spending was at stake.

McKenna has until Friday to file charges or citizens who earlier filed a complaint against BIAW and Master Builders could go to court on their own to seek penalties.

Click here to go to Brad's post and see what McKenna spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie and other say about the case.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's communications director Pearse Edwards passed on the Executive Ethics Board findings, probably because his staff had to do much of the leg work defending the governor's office.

I didn't write about Luke Esser's original complaint because it's so easy to lodge a complaint and so many of them are found to be, well, unfounded.

Basically, the chairman of the state Republican Party had accused The Guv of using taxpayer dollars to pay for stuff that advanced her reelection campaign, to reward campaign donors with contracts and to pay for polls and campaign rallies.

I covered one of those "rallies," by the way. It was the final stop on Gregoire's six-city listening tour. She was at Stadium High School in Tacoma in November 2007, fielding questions from several hundred people.

On this complaint, the five-member ethics board put a check mark next to the finding that says, "The complaint obviously is unfounded or frivolous."

Or as Edwards put it, "Appears to me to be a wild goose chase at the expense of state taxpayers."

In short, the ethics board said Gregoire had not yet announced she was running for reelection, she already was the governor and it's OK for the guv to talk and listen to the people.

Here is a copy of the Ethics Board report.

By the way, "Luke the Truth" comes from Esser's days as a columnist (sports writer?) for the University of Washington Daily when he was a student. That was his personna back then.

The City of Tacoma has drafted a deal - to be voted on at Tuesday's City Council meeting – to take over the contaminated downtown land that was the home of Sauro Cleanarama.

According to the draft, the Sauro family will deed the 15,000 square foot plot to the city and chip in $550,000 for clean-up. In exchange, the family won't be liable for the land and its pollution any more.

For years, used drycleaning chemicals leaked into a hole in the basement of the downtown property, contaminating the soil on the property and surrounding area.

The city estimates that clean-up will cost up to $2.7 million. In addition to the $550,000, they'll seek a grant from the state Department of Ecology to help pay for the clean-up.

City officials said the deal isn't final, but will be a boon to the city's economy if it works out.

Mayor Bill Baarsma said future development in the city – including Russell Investments and DaVita – depend on the clean-up. "It's a real major blight right in the heart of downtown, right in an are that is primed for development," he said.

Check back for more in a bit.

Today's revenue forecast will provide much fodder for upcoming radio and television ads in the governor's race. Actually, Republican candidate Dino Rossi probably will just change the "$2.7 billion deficit" in his current ads to "$3.2 billion deficit."

Gov. Chris Gregoire's supporters chafe at that characterization, but I've heard the ads and as long as they say the state "faces" a deficit, they're accurate. We do face a deficit. Today. We won't in November because Gregoire's budget proposal will have cut spending or raised selected taxes (or both) enough to eliminate any deficit.

But that will all happen after Nov. 4 -- after Election Day.

The $3.2 billion figure does overstate the projected deficit because it doesn't subtract the $700 million in an emergency savings account. So, it's just as accurate to say we're facing a $2.5 billion deficit.

Here's the story I wrote for Friday's print edition of the newspaper:

The size of Washington’s budget problems grew larger Thursday when economists predicted tax collections over the next three years will be $530 million less than what was expected only three months ago.

That decline could produce a $3.2 billion gap between state spending and tax collections for the state’s next operating budget, unless steps are taken to reduce spending.

Gov. Chris Gregoire directed her budget office to find $200 million in savings right away, a move that has the potential to shrink the size of the problem by as much $600 million if the spending cuts are continued through the 2009-11 budget cycle.

=> Read more!

John Ladenburg delivered a few memorable lines this morning during his first debate with incumbent Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Ladenburg, the outgoing Pierce County executive and Democratic AG candidate, accused McKenna of "issuing more press releases than subpoenas" during his first term of office.

And Ladenburg invoked King 5 television reporter Jesse Jones as he blasted McKenna for failing to protect the state's consumers.

"You shouldn't have to 'Get Jesse,'" Ladenburg said, referring to the title of Jones' regular consumer protection segments for the station. "You should be able to get the attorney general for the state of Washington."

McKenna fired back, accusing Ladenburg of making "several factual errors" during his introductory remarks. He tried the set record straight on some of them, including Ladenburg's attempt to assign credit to the state Legislature rather than McKenna for the passage of sweeping methamphetamine laws.

"Our office wrote the laws," McKenna said, adding that they resulted from a task force that he created.

=> Read more!

Today's look at state tax collections shows they are sagging even more that when state economists looked at them in June.

Overall, Washington can expect to collect $529 million less over the next three years. That's $273 million less for the current 2007-09 biennium and $256 million less for the 2009-11 biennium.

That means the "projected" deficit for the next budget cycle has now grown to $3.2 billion, but if you subtract the $700 million that's in the rainy day savings account, the projected shortfall is $2.5 billion.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has ordered her budget director, Victor Moore, to find $200 million in cuts/savings for this year. That could translate to $400 million in cuts to the 2009-11 budget cycle.

In any case, she's trying to shink the size of the projected deficit now so it will be more manageable when her office finalizes her 2007-09 supplemental budget and 2009-11 budget proposals in mid-December.

Right now, it appears Washington will finish the current budget cycle in mid-2009 with $87 million left in its checking account and $442 million in its emergency savings account.

(The size of the deficit is in dispute because Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and state GOP Chairman Luke Esser don't want to count the $728 million in the rainy day fund. That way, it appears Gregoire and Democrats are spending a lot more, and not saving anything.)

Look for Dino's new TV ads to reflect the larger number soon.

Either number is valid, depending on how you want to use them.

More on this later, and in Friday's paper.

The Legislature just this past session passed a bill to pay for quit-smoking drugs like Chantix for Medicaid clients. It already was available for pregnant women.

From the press release: "As of July 1, 2008, people on Medicaid have extra support to help them quit, including prescription medications written by their doctor. To receive the benefit, Medicaid clients can call the toll-free Washington State Tobacco Quit Line at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-877-2NO-FUME in Spanish). Already the quit line is receiving about 19 calls a day from Medicaid clients."

The state is targeting poor people because the percentage of smokers is highest in that group.

Adult smoking drops slightly; rate hits new low
Health department providing quit support and medications for groups smoking at higher rates

OLYMPIA – A new state survey shows the adult smoking rate in Washington is continuing to go down, yet the decline is slowing. When the Department of Health began its comprehensive Tobacco Prevention and Control Program in 2000, the adult smoking rate was 22.4 percent. The most recent survey shows the smoking rate has decreased slightly from 17 percent in 2006 to a new low of 16.5 percent in 2007. At the same time, rates remain higher among people with low income and low education.

=> Read more!