State Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, is prime sponsor of a bill that's being sought by all the transit cops in the Puget Sound region.

Senate Bill 5513 expands the list of offenses from littering and spitting to loud noise, gambling, skating on skates, skateboarding and refusing to obey a transit cops who tells you to stop doing what you're doing.

Cops say they want to create "fare enforcement zones" so passenger will feel safe while they're waiting for a bus, train or ferry. And if you can't prove you bought a ticket, they can kick you off.

Here's a link to the Bill Report for SB 5513.

House Bill 1205 would authorize another judge to Division II, District 2, which is based in Tacoma.

CORRECTION: A former neighbor pointed out that I made an error when I said the new appeals court judge would handle cases only from Thurston, Kitsap, Mason and three other counties. I should have that judge, whenever he or she is appointed, will have to stand for election in those six counties. (And that doesn't include Pierce County.)

Here is the Bill Report for HB 1205.

Just passing this on. (I just bought a roll of 100 stamps, too.)

Postal Service Mailing Services Prices to Change on May 11
Annual Pricing Review Results in 2¢ Increase in First-Class Mail Stamp

The Governors of the U.S. Postal Service have approved new prices for mailing services, including a 2-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail stamp to 44 cents. Prices for mailing services are reviewed annually and adjusted each May. The new prices will go into effect Monday, May 11.

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Pierce County voters will decide in November whether to repeal an election system they used for the first time last fall.

By a vote of 6-1, the County Council approved an amendment to the county charter this afternoon that would repeal ranked choice voting. Now the fate of the election system goes to voters for the third time in three years.

Pierce County voters approved ranked choice voting in 2006 and modified it in 2007. The vote was widely interpreted as a rebuke of the state’s unpopular “pick a party” primary, which required voters to state a party preference in primary elections.

Ranked choice voting addressed that issue by eliminating primary elections for most county offices. Instead, all candidates for those offices advance to the general election.

Under the new system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no one receives a majority of first-place votes, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated and voters’ second and third choices are taken into account.

The process of eliminating candidates continues until someone gets a majority of votes.

Supporters of ranked choice voting say it encourages more candidates to participate and gives voters more choices in the general election. That seemed to be the case last November, when four candidates vied for county executive and six ran for assessor-treasurer.

Opponents say the system is too confusing and didn’t give voters the chance to properly vet all the candidates.

Today the council elected to let voters decide who’s right.

=> Read more!

The Feb. 10 revenue collection report came out to day with the same kind of news the state has been getting for many, many months.

The state expected to collect $1.17 billion between Jan. 11 and Feb. 10. Instead, it collected $1.07 billion, or $63 million less than expected. That makes cumulative tax collections $196 million less than expected for the last three months.

The Economic Review and Revenue Forecast Council will meet next Thursday to take another quick look at "projected" revenue collections. It's supposed to sober up legislators who appear to be in denial as to how much they are going to have to cut spending.

They still haven't sent the governor any spending cut bills, and it's a full month into session.

If they're paying attention to Congress, they should be able to see they might get about $2.5 billion worth of help. But the projected deficit probably will be $7 billion by then.

Here is the Feb. 10 revenue report.

Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, top Republican on the Senate budget committee, has less than kind words for Democratic majority. Gov. Chris Gregoire said yesterday she's also frustrated by legislative leaders and has let them know it.

From Zarelli:

Legislature fiddles while shortfall grows
One-third through session and still no budget savings, with revenues worsening…

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Gov. Chris Gregoire announced today she has chosen Bremerton School District Superintendent Bette Hyde to take over the top job at the state Department of Early Learning.

She will replace Jone Bosworth, the agency's first director, who left at the end of Gregoire's first term. Hyde starts in April at a $142,000 salary.

Gov. Gregoire appoints Early Learning director

OLYMPIA—Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced her appointment of Dr. Bette Hyde as director of the Washington State Department of Early Learning.

“The children and families of our state are incredibly fortunate to have Bette coming onboard to lead the Department of Early Learning,” Gregoire said. “With her years of classroom experience and firm belief that all children have the potential to succeed, she will bring passion and strong leadership to one of our state’s most important investments.”

Hyde is superintendent of the 5,500-student Bremerton School District, well-known for its emphasis on partnering with local early learning groups to improve kindergarten readiness. She began her career as a special education teacher, and has worked as a school psychologist, principal and assistant superintendent in the Seattle, Vashon Island and Highline school districts. Hyde worked as deputy superintendent for Puget Sound Educational Services District. She also served on the governor’s Washington Learns advisory committee.

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Puyallup City Manager Gary McLean won't be getting a performance raise this year, a city official told me today.

I posted an item on this blog last week raising the question, since a salary increase wasn't discussed as part of McLean's public evaluation by the city council.

"He didn't ask for one," city spokeswoman Glenda Carino told me today over coffee. "He said it's not the time to ask for any type of raise."

That's in part because the City of Puyallup is trying to tighten its belt, she said. The city cut $3.5 million from its general fund spending in 2008 to offset revenue shortfalls.

As a result, the city ended up saving $2 million over the course of the year. The city plans to save an additional $1.2 million in 2009 and $2.4 million in 2010.

In that spirit, McLean's base salary will remain at $151,800 for 2009, plus a standard cost of living raise being given to all city employees. (I'm unsure right now what percentage that raise is, but it's low -- less than five percent.)

On Feb. 3, four members of the Puyallup City Council gave McLean a positive review, while the other three council members were more negative.

2008 was McLean's first year as Puyallup's city manager. Prior to that, he spent about six years there as city attorney.

Sim Wilson was before my time, but he served 20 years in the Legislature.

His widow, former state Rep. Karen Schmidt, is still head of the Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board, and is a former chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee.

Here is a link to The (Everett) Herald story.

The most obvious reason was pointed out yesterday by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. The guv said she didn't want to jinx it, but she noted the U.S. Senate plan has only $39 billion for "stabilization" money for the states, whereas the U.S. House plan had $79 billion.

They two measures are headed for a conference committee to hash out a compromise.

The key provision in the House plan is this: There's $25 billion -- that's for the entire nation -- that could be used to replenish cuts the Washington Legislature might make to prison budget, services to the disabled and elderly, child care, law enforcement, child care, etc. It's hard to figure out how much Washington would have gotten from that pot of money, maybe $527 million.

Both versions have about $2 billion in Medicaid money for Washington, but not all of that could be used to backfill state cuts, maybe only one-fourth. Both also have about $1.32 billion for schools, but again that isn't gonna help the state budget much, if at all. There's also pots of money for more food stamps and homelessness prevention.

Basically, the state could cut state funding then restore spending with federal money. If the cards fall just right, maybe $1 billion to $2.5 billion might be available to help the state with its $6 billion, going on $7 billion budget deficit over 30 months. That's the best-case scenario. So does that mean the Legisalture is looking at a tax increase to put on the ballot? Probably.

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Plans to close part of A Street in downtown Tacoma and turn a portion of the old Prairie Line railroad line into a biking and pedestrian trail are moving forward, despite the decision by Denver-based ProLogis to abandon its part of a complicated deal with the city and railroad.

City officials are working on a legal document for a slightly revised transaction and plan to bring it to the City Council soon, said Ryan Petty, director of the city's Community and Economic Development Department.

The potential Prairie Line trail and the planned warehouse development were never really related, but city officials tied them together as a bargaining tactic with BNSF. The city had tried for years to get the railroad to donate a portion of the right-of-way from the historic Prairie Line, but had not succeeded. BNSF needed the city's cooperation on the ProLogis development.

Even without the ProLogis warehouses, BNSF wants to move forward with the closure of A Street and it remains willing to give up part of the Prairie Line, Petty said.

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U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, says she got extra weeks and larger unemployment benefits into the U.S. Senate's economic stimulus package. (It's not on President Barack Obama's desk yet. And I'm sure Cantwell didn't do it all by herself, but, hey, she helped.)

I wrote a story last week about the state House passing a bill to raise the minimum weekly unemployment benefit to $200 and the maximum to $586. That story said benefits could be gotten for a total of 72 weeks. That included the 33 weeks that Cantwell is talking about in her news release. You could get the additional weeks if you've used up all 39 weeks that are available now.

That extra $25 would appear to increase the weekly benefit to a minimum of $225 and a maximum of $611, but I haven't seen the full text of the bill in Congress and the House and Senate have not yet hammered out a final deal.

Cantwell Secures 33 Weeks More Support for Washington State Workers and Families Struggling with Unemployment

136,000 Unemployed Washingtonians Eligible for Additional Unemployment Insurance

WASHINGTON, DC – As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) successfully secured an additional 33 weeks of unemployment benefits to certain workers in Washington state who have exhausted their rights to regular unemployment compensation benefits. Also, individuals receiving unemployment insurance could receive an additional $25 a week. Currently, there are more than 136,000 Washingtonians receiving unemployment benefits. More than 90,000 people applied for unemployment benefits in December of 2008, which is a 75 percent increase from a year ago.

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State Rep. Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way, is prime sponsor of House Bill 2103, which would levy an 18.5 percent tax on all visual or audio pornographic materials.

But he's not the only one.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, has signed on. So have Reps. Al O'Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace, Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, John McCoy, D-Tulalip, and Marilyn Chase, D-Shoreline.

I don't know yet how much they hope to raise from the porn tax because there is no fiscal note for the bill yet. I don't think it would solve the entire $6 billion budget shortfall, but I'm assuming Miloscia arrived at the 18.5 percent figure for a reason.

Miloscia said he doesn't know yet, either, "but anything would be helpful in this situation."

House Finance Committee Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina, has agreed to hold a hearing, Miloscia said.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed cutting the General Assistance Unemployable (GAU) and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment Support Act (ADATSA) programs to save $415 million over the 2009-11 budget cycle. (I don't have separate figures for each program, but Miloscia wants to salvage only the 16,000 folks on GAU, not the 6,000 on ADATSA.)

Here is the full text of HB 2103.

The porn tax would apply to materials that show explicit sex -- magazines, photographs, motion pictures, video tapes, video discs, cable television, telephone services, audio tapes, computer programs and paraphenalia. The movies must be X-rated.

=> Read more!