Bryan Bissell of Tacoma has been all over the place, digging up news of relevance for our political scene.

Here is his last posting.

Another comment on our economic times (and journalism), I just heard on CNBC that the Detroit Free Press is going to publish a paper only 3 days a week. The other 4 days people will have to read the paper on line.

Rep. Bill Grant, D-Walla Walla, has been diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer.

Here's the e-mail that the House chief clerk forwarded from Grant to members and staff:

I understand there are many different stories circulating around the campus concerning my absence and thought I should send you 'the facts'.

After recommendation from my hometown doctor, I came to Seattle to undergo a lung biopsy. The procedure is over and the diagnosis I received is a rare form of lung cancer. (The oncologist sees only two or three cases a year.) Although these are not the results I had hoped for, the good news is I have been released from the hospital and am heading home to discuss my treatment options. Hopefully this will answer your questions. I thank you all for your concerns and would appreciate your positive thoughts and prayers directed my way.

Bill Grant

As caucus chairman, Grant is the No. 3 leader in the House Democratic caucus. He also is the longest-serving member in the House, now that Rep. Helen Sommers of Seattle has retired.

Grant, 71, was first elected in 1986, and was reelected this fall.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has released a list of 11,391 infrastructure projects in 427 cities that could be launched quickly as part of a national stimulus plan.

The projects would cost $73 billion and create 11,391 jobs, according to what the mayors call the MainStreet Economic Recovery plan.

Fifteen Washington cities took part in the survey,ranging from Seattle and Tacoma to Yarrow Point and Kirkland.

It is just one of the wish lists being created by state and local governments to take advantage of the recession-driven transformation of pork to stimulus. I talk about this transition in my column Sunday.

Here is a link to the list but be carefull – it is 800 pages long.

How timely is this? The state Department of Revenue just came out with its 2008 list of tax exemptions, exclusions, deductions, etc.

In layman's language, that's "The Really Big List of Tax Breaks and Loopholes." It's probably required reading for the upcoming legislative session, what with an impending $5-6 billion budget shortfall for 2009-11. It's a great reference manual.

The report says there was almost $100 million of savings to taxpayers (most of it from uncollected taxes) in the 2007-09 budget cycle. Now, that's a greatly exaggerated number because much of that money would never have come to the state anyway. For one, that number includes tax revenues for cities, counties and other governments. For another, a big chunk of that money could never be collected, even if the state did repeal some of the tax exemptions. (For instance, the state can't tax interstate commerce.)

Even so, Democrats in the House and Senate, where they have hefty majorities, will be scanning this tome, looking for ways they can raise money so they won't have to make what they consider beyond-draconian cuts to spending.

"Closing tax loopholes" and "getting rid of tax exemptions" doesn't count as a tax increase in their minds. Of course, if you are one of the groups that is not paying a tax today and you have to start paying it tomorrow, you probably will feel as if your taxes have been increased.

Just an example of a "tax break" (and I'm not suggesting the Legislature will or should get rid of this one) is the sales tax on food. We don't pay sales tax on food we buy at the store. If we did, the state would have collected about $1.7 billion more in taxes in the current 2-year budget cycle.

Here is a link to the "Tax Exemptions 2008" report.

If you think about it, after all of the millions of dollars were spent on state House of Representative elections this summer and fall, Republicans managed only to make up for the defection of Rep. Fred Jarrett of Mercer Island.

Democrats' ranks had risen briefly to 63 after Jarrett switched from the Republican to Democratic Party. (He ran for Senate, but his replacement also is a Democrat.) Now, House Democrats go back to a 62-36 majority.

Appointee Liz Loomis, the Democrat, lost by 138 votes to Republican challenger Mike Hope after the recount in Snohomish County.

Here's The (Everett) Herald story.

Can the Pierce County Council legally appoint one of its own members to be county auditor?

Council attorney Susan Long says there’s no state statute or case law prohibiting the move. But four state attorney general opinions suggest it’s no slam dunk that the council can appoint one of its own members to fill the auditor’s post.

It’s a timely question because County Councilman Shawn Bunney, a Republican from Lake Tapps, is one of several local politicians interested in the auditor’s job. It’s open because current Auditor Pat McCarthy will become county executive in January.

Bunney said this week he hasn’t decided whether to pursue the job. But with a Republican majority on the council, some believe it’s his if he wants it.

Still, those attorney general opinions could make a Bunney appointment problematic:

• A 1965 opinion holds that “a board of county commissioners may not appoint one of its members to fill a vacancy in the office of county auditor.” It also states that if a commissioner resigns for the sole purpose of accepting an appointment under a prior agreement he’s still ineligible for the appointment. You can read the full opinion here.

• A 1973 opinion states that commissioners can’t appoint one of their own members to fill a vacancy in the state House of Representatives. It also says commissioner is ineligible if he resigns with the understanding that he’ll get the House appointment. You can read the full opinion here.

• A 1985 opinions states that “if a vacancy occurs in one position of a House of Representatives district which encompasses two counties and part of a third county, the boards of county commissioners of the three counties, acting jointly … may not appoint one of their own members to fill such vacancy.” Read the full opinion here.

• Finally, a second 1985 opinion stats that a former commissioner is eligible for appointment to a vacant Senate seat if the commissioner “resigned prior to the appointment, the resignation is made without qualification and there is no pre-arranged agreement that the former member will be appointed.” Read the full opinion here.

=> Read more!

We received a phone call yesterday from former Pierce County Sheriff candidate Robert "The Traveller" Hill -- who was listed on the ballot as Jesse Hill, his middle name. The News Tribune had made a grievous error, he explained, in a Nov. 22 article ("Ex-candidate to get mental exam").

The photo that ran with the story -- which explained that Hill was to undergo a mental exam after allegedly pointing a fake gun at a courthouse security guard and following the arrest of his friend who apparently tried to smuggle a loaded gun registered to Hill's mom into the County-City building after Hill made inquiries about whether he'd become sheriff if the race's winner, Paul Pastor, died before the results were certified -- that photo, he said, showed him as Jesse Hill, not Robert Hill. (Click the link to listen to Hill's call.)

Our bad.

Just so we're all clear:

Robert "The Traveller"	Jesse Hill

Remember that voter survey that Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy says showed voters overwhelmingly disliked ranked choice voting? An RCV supporter says it’s fatally flawed.

In a post on Kelly Haughton’s ranked choice voting blog, University of Puget Sound professor Richard Anderson-Connolly writes that McCarthy’s survey may be skewed because of a low response rate. Though 90,738 voters responded to the survey, that’s only 27 percent of the registered voters surveyed. Anderson-Connolly says a minimum 50 percent response is required for an adequate analysis.

While the survey’s sample of voters is large, it’s not a random sample. So Anderson-Connolly says it likely is not representative of Pierce County voters or their opinions of ranked choice voting.

Last week McCarthy presented the survey results to a state Senate committee. "It was overwhelming," McCarthy told members of the state Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee on Friday. "The majority did not like it."

According to Anderson-Connolly, a more accurate way of stating the results would be:

72.8% No response
17.0% Negative view toward RCV
8.7% Positive view toward RCV
1.4% Undecided on RCV

McCarthy’s survey is fuel for those who want to repeal ranked choice voting next November. But Anderson-Connolly concludes: “The calls for immediate repeal are occurring in an environment filled with ulterior political scheming by powerful interests and devoid of reliable information regarding the true wishes of the public.”

You can read the full post here.