The Pierce County Council put the finishing touches on a revised budget Tuesday that tries to plug an $8 million hole.

One problem: the hole has already grown to $10 million to $12 million.

Here’s what you need to know:

Revenue shortfall: The council action follows a January report that slumping sales tax and interest income had created an $8 million revenue shortfall in the $289 million general fund.

The solution: To address the shortfall, County Executive Pat McCarthy proposed cutting $5.3 million in spending and using $2.7 million in fund balances and other adjustments.

On Tuesday, the council approved a plan that cuts deeper ($6.1 million) and relies less on fund balances and adjustments. The council also made some last-minute adjustments, like boosting spending on senior centers and trimming the assessor-treasurer’s office less than originally proposed.

The impact: County departments will respond to the cuts in various ways.

The planning department will implement a nine-day furlough for some workers, pending union approval. The parks department will reduce facilities maintenance and staff time devoted to some programming. The sheriff’s department may reduce patrols on several lakes and on Puget Sound. The human resources department will cut positions.

It was unclear how many layoffs would result countywide.

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The House and Senate have come up with differing ways to close the same $9 billion budget shortfall that is projected over the next 28 months. Each budget has thousands of elements and strict comparisons are difficult to make. The list below is my feeble effort to compare and contrast some of them.

I'm not going to compare the House and Senate budget cuts to what the governor proposed in mid-December because the Legislature had to fill a $1 billion bigger hole than the governor. State revenues had fallen by $2.9 billion more, but the state got $2 billion more in federal funds.

(I've numbered each item only so you can compare them.)

HOUSE BUDGET PROPOSAL
1. Leaves $852 million in savings.
2. Public school and state agency job cuts: Unknown. Could be 7,000.
3. Tuition: Allows 10 percent hikes for four-year colleges; 7 percent for two-year colleges.
4. Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment Support Act and General Assistance Unemployable programs: Cut medical coverage by $35 million out of current $250 million.
5. Keeps McNeil Island prison open.
6. Close Naselle Youth Camp by Jan. 1, 2010.
7. Freezes pay for state and public school employees for two years.
8. Cuts overall higher education funding by $683 million.
9. Cuts overall K-12 funding by $625 million.
10. Parks: Assumes a $5 voluntary fee on license tabs. Seasonal closures.
11. Federal stimulus: Spends $3 billion.
12. Extra money to reduce class size: Cut from $458 per student to $184 in 2009-10 and to $152 in 2010-11.
13. Open 15 new liquor stores.
14. Adult Day Health program for low-income seniors: Eliminated.
15. Basic Health Plan: State subsidy continues for about 65,000 people, down from 106,000.
16. No estimate for cuts to college enrollment, but leaves decision to universities.
17. Lets 50 percent of ex-cons who violate terms of release from jail spend punishment time in home detention.

SENATE BUDGET PROPOSAL

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As I said, I have to rely on other sets of eyes to figure out what's going on down here in the Legislature, and one of those sets belongs to Jim King.

King pays close attention to the parts of the budget that affect state parks and recreation, so I'll defer to his analysis right now, and until I have a chance to more closely examine that part of the budget myself.

What follows is what I have just sent to the grassroots supporters of our State Parks and outdoor recreation programs. Wanted to share my thoughts with ya'll. I'll be swallowing hard and trying to help make the opt-out car tabs work. The context in the Senate makes that a little bit easier- a bit of sugar with the medicine.

I'm going to be away from the laptop for Senate Ways and Means, but will otherwise be available if needed.

Jim

Folks:

Yesterday, when the Senate proposed operating budget was released, there was cause for elation. The release of the House proposed operating budget today was a more sobering event.

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You'll probably see me refer to it as a "voluntary fee," despite the opinion offered up by the Attorney General's Office.

Today, vehicle owners have the option to donate $5 or more to parks ($5 is the minimum) when they renew their license tabs each year. You have to make a conscious decision to give that money by checking a box and writing in the amount.

That's called an "opt in" method. The state raised $700,000 with that method last year.

There is talk in the Legislature of changing that to an "opt out" method, in which the state automatically will take $5 from you unless you indicate you don't want to give $5 to state parks. Estimates vary, but the state may be able to raise $23 million to $28 million using that method. (The $23 million figure assumes 40 percent of people will contribute and 60 percent won't.)

Still, I have a hard time calling it a "donation" when it will be collected automatically if you don't notice the box on the form and therefore don't check it to say "I don't want to."

Here is an informalopinion from the Attorney General's Office.

As for parks, the Senate budget assumes no state parks will be closed if the fee is collected. The House budget assumes parks will stay open in summer and fall, but closed in winter (as many of them do anyway).

I'm still catching up, given all the budget rollouts this week.

Susan Dreyfus will replace Robin Arnold-Williams as Gov. Chris Gregoire's new secretary of the state Department of Social and Health Services.

I missed the news conference, but I saw part of the rerun on TVW. Dreyfus said her husband is a judge in Wisconsin, so theirs will be a long-distance relationship. She starts her new job May 18. Her salary is $163,056.

Gov. Gregoire announces appointment of new DSHS secretary

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire today named Susan N. Dreyfus, a Wisconsin executive with more than a dozen years of leadership experience in both the private and public health sectors, to head Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services.

“Susan brings an outstanding record of accomplishment, particularly in the areas of child welfare and mental health services,” Gregoire said. “She has the knowledge, leadership experience and vision necessary to succeed in one of the most difficult jobs in state government. The demands placed upon the agency are enormous and expectations are high, a situation that will deepen in this recession. Susan is exceptionally qualified and ready to take the reins.”

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That is, budget-writers spent almost $3 billion in federal stimulus funds, took $800 million from building projects and plowed the money into other state programs and spent most of the $700 million Rainy Day savings account.

"We are using federal money, which has been a godsend," said Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

She said the House budget proposal would be balanced, but she expects a tax package to be put to voters at some point, perhaps providing additional funding for education and-or long-term care.

"It's very likely that a proposal will come," Linville said. "(But) the revenue package is not something we're pinning all of our hopes on."

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There is no reason to believe property owners were harmed because the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s Office skipped tens of thousands of property inspections in recent years, a new report concludes.

The report, submitted to the County Council Monday (here’s a PDF copy), also finds Pierce County appraisers have a high workload compared to their peers elsewhere in the state. But it concludes there is no need to increase the number of appraisers at this time.

Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam plans to address the report’s findings at this afternoon’s council meeting. His initial reaction: “It’s not a good report. It’s not accurate.”

The report by the council’s performance audit staff comes three weeks after Washam announced the office had failed to inspect at least 181,000 residential properties and tens of thousands of commercial properties as required by state law.

Assessor’s documents and interviews with assessor’s office employees indicate the missed inspections occurred over six or more years under Washam’s predecessor, Ken Madsen.

The law allows local assessors to use statistical methods to assess properties annually for tax purposes. But it requires them to physically inspect every property at least once every six years.

Those inspections can catch significant improvements or deterioration that can affect property values. And they allow appraisers to update property descriptions used in the statistical methods that determine values most years.

Washam told the council recently there is no way of knowing how taxpayers were affected by the missed inspections. The performance audit report reaches a different conclusion:

“There is no reason to believe that individual property taxpayers were harmed by missed physical inspections of their homes in the past,” the report states.

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If you'll recall, Gov. Chris Gregoire moved Robin Arnold-Williams, former secretary of the state Department of Social and Health Services to head up her policy shop.

Gov. Gregoire to announce new DSHS Secretary

Event Date: Tuesday, March 31

OLYMPIA - Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday will announce the appointment of a new Department of Social and Health Services Secretary.

9 a.m. Gov. Gregoire announces DSHS Secretary

Governor’s Conference Rooms
Legislative Building- 2nd floor
Olympia

Sponsors of House Bill 2029, the measure that would raise the monthly tax for Enhanced 911 emergency telephone service, failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed to pass when it come up for a vote in the House this afternoon.

The bill would boost the monthly fee to 95 cents from 70 cents for telephone customers.

It failed on a 58-39 vote. It needed 66 votes for passage.

Here is the roll call vote on the bill.

Proponents of the measure predict the bill will come up for a vote again before the Legislature adjourns April 26.

The fee increase would raise a total of $85 million a year to upgrade the emergency telephone system over a six-year period. The new technology would be Internet-based and would allow text messaging to E-911 call centers.

House Democrats will unveil their budget Tuesday and negotiators from the House, Senate and Gov. Chris Gregoire's office will continue their behind-the-scenes talks to reconcile differences in their respective spending plans before the Legislature adjourns April 26.

Here's the story I wrote for Tuesday's newsprint edition, with some highlights below.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

House Democrats are expected to take a different path to closing an estimated $9 billion gap between state spending and tax collections Tuesday when they release their budget proposal, and it doesn’t include shutting down the state prison on McNeil Island.

“We don’t close McNeil,” said state Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, chairwoman of the House General Government Appropriations Committee, which helps set the budget for the state Department of Corrections.

Darneille said Monday the handling of McNeil Island is only one example of how the House and Senate will differ in their approaches to a state spending plan for the next 28 months.

In general, the Senate budget proposes to make deeper cuts in fewer areas of state spending, while the House budget would make shallower cuts to a broader number of programs, she said.

Senate Democrats, who outnumber Republicans 31-18, unveiled their 2009-11 budget Monday. They propose to use $3 billion in federal stimulus funds, part of the Rainy Day savings account, transfers from building and other funds and a wage freeze for 250,000 state and public school employees to narrow the budget gap. Still, they will have to make about $3.85 billion in actual spending cuts to state programs, said Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

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Faced with the possible closure of 40 parks, lawmakers are looking at imposing a $5 fee on all vehicles, due when you get your license tabs. The voluntary program that is in place today raised only $700,000 last year.

If the program became "opt out" -- that is, the money would be collected unless vehicle owners checked a box that said "No," the state could raise $23 million every two years.

That assumes that 40 percent of vehicles (and their owners) would be participating, according to the state Parks and Recreation Commission.

Stay tuned. It's budget day. Let's see what Senate Democrats assume in their budget proposal, which comes out at 10:30 a.m.

Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, told me last Friday this just isn't the year to overhaul the commission. And later in the day, his committee couldn't come up with enough votes to advance Senate Bill 5127, sponsored by state Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle.

Rich Roesler at The Spokesman Review had this item last Friday.

This is mostly a progress report on what new taxing authority cities and counties (and transit districts) might be getting from the Legislature this session.

The House Finance Committee on Friday approved on a 5-3 vote a measure that would let King County impose an utility tax of up to 6 percent on all utilities.

Senate Bill 5433 also would let the other 38 counties (including Pierce) levy utilities taxes in unincorporated areas, too, but with more limitations. Those counties could not tax natural gas and could tax electric service a maximum of only 1 percent. It's a 6 percent limit on water, sewer, telephone and cable.

And those taxes could be imposed on a councilmanic vote. That is, no public vote, just public hearings and then the county council or county commissioners could vote to impose the utility tax.

On the city front, they basically would get more flexibility in how they can use their existing taxes (or taxing authority) -- the sales taxes for public safety and mental health-chemical dependency programs.

They also get authority to levy utility taxes on the water and sewer districts inside their cities. Apparently, there are about 47 cities that get their sewer and-or water from a separate utility, 20 of which are in King County. Like Lakehaven provides service to customers inside Federal Way's city limits. So, if the bill passes, the Federal Way City Council could vote to put a utility tax on Lakehaven's service.

Edgewood and Milton in Pierce County are among those cities. So are Auburn, Black Diamond, Covington, Des Moines, Kent, Maple Valley, Pacific and Normandy Park.

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Some legislators think we need to honor nose touching and cheek smelling behavior, especially among our state’s only endemic mammal.

No, not politicians.

Olympic Marmots.

Sen. Ken Jacobson (D-Seattle) already convinced his colleagues on the Natural Resources, Ocean and Recreation Committee and the Rules Committee to pass his proposed bill.

I doubt anyone knew what endemic meant. I had to look it up. According to dictionary.com, endemic means: Belonging or native to a particular people or country; native as distinguished from introduced or naturalized; hence, regularly or ordinarily occurring in a given region; local.

Washington already has an official state marine mammal – the orca, otherwise known as a killer whale. It has an official bird, the willow goldfinch; an official insect, the common green darner dragonfly; an official fish, the steelhead trout; and an official proposer of goofball bills, Sen. Ken Jacobson.

(He also introduced bills naming the Garry oak our state’s official oak tree; allowing us be buried with our dead pets; and allowing us to take our pets into bars during happy hour.)

“The Olympic Marmot is the only endemic mammal in Washington State,” according to the senate bill report. “Olympic Marmots inhabit the Olympic Peninsula in the western section of Washington. Olympic Marmots are highly social animals and may live in groups of over a dozen animals. Gregarious bonds are made between animals in a family. Olympic Marmots identify each other by touching noses and smelling cheeks.”

Sounds like typical frat house mammal behavior.

“Olympic Marmots hibernate from September to May. During the morning and afternoon on summer days, they feed and spend their time sunbathing on rocks. In the evening, they return to their burrows.”

The bill apparently has some traction. Speaking in favor of it at a recent hearing were six elementary school kids, a representative from the University of Washington Burke Museum, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Pacific Education Institute.

A companion bill made it to the second reading in the House Rules Committee today.

There's been some buzz about this among journalists, so I thought I'd throw it open to everyone -- Is the public responsible enough to receive/understand information about how many birds hit airplanes? Do you want to know how many bird strikes there were on planes at Sea-Tac, for example?

Apparently, the FAA doesn't think the public can handle the truth.

In this Associated Press story, the FAA is arguing it wants to keep the data secret:

The government agency argued that some carriers and airports would stop reporting the incidents for fear the public would misinterpret the data and hold it against them. The reporting is voluntary because the FAA has rejected a decade-old recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board to make it mandatory.

There's more:

"The agency is concerned that there is a serious potential that information related to bird strikes will not be submitted because of fear that the disclosure of raw data could unfairly cast unfounded aspersions on the submitter," the FAA said in the Federal Register.

So you tell us:

Check out story from our sister paper and You Tube video footage of a state trooper nosing around the bikes.

By Jeremy Pawloski
The Olympian

A lawyer representing several Washington motorcycle groups wrote an angry letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire protesting Washington State Patrol’s recent surveillance activity at the Capitol, photographing license plates of motorcyclists who were there to advocate for issues important to them.

"I may be old school, but I always thought that the Capitol was supposed to be a sanctuary for free speech and assembly, and not an opportunity for clandestine intelligence gathering on citizens trying to be involved in the political process," Seattle attorney Martin Fox wrote.

Fox distributed his letter to numerous Washington media outlets, along with a DVD with images of a trooper "crawling around the bushes of the Capitol to record license plate numbers of motorcycles into his tape machine," the letter reads.

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UPDATE: (11:04 a.m.) Speaker Pro Tem Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon, just told me the vote on the E-911 fee bill has been postponed until Monday. And he confirmed it will require a two-thirds vote.

House Bill 2029 is the bill in question. Here's the story that will run in Saturday's newspaper.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

Operators of the statewide Enhanced 911 emergency telephone system are asking the Legislature to let them raise more money from phone customers to pay for a massive upgrade to a more modern technology.

The current tax of 70 cents a month would rise to 95 cents. That money would continue to be divided among the 39 counties and the state.

The total amount collected each year statewide would rise to more than $85 million from $63 million.

The House is expected to vote Monday on House Bill 2029, and it apparently needs a two-thirds supermajority vote because it’s a tax increase. Tim Eyman’s Initiative 960 says tax increases need a two-thirds vote by the House and Senate or a public vote to win approval.

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I wasn't aware of this one.

UPDATE: Alice Fiman at DOT called me to tell me I should have known about this program because she told me last year. DOT asked the WSP to enforce this at a construction zone in Lewis County from Sept. 15 though Oct. 24 in 2008. During those 5 weeks, troopers issued 1,400 tickets. (Yes, I said 1,400 ticket) at $137 apiece. You do the math. OK. I will. It's almost $192,000.

But the Senate transportation budget for 2009-11 says the State Patrol "may CONTINUE a pilot program for the patrol to issue infractions based on information from automated traffic safety cameras in roadway construction zones on state highways when workers are present."

I don't know where those cameras are being used, but the budget says the state Department of Transportation "shall plainly mark the locations" where those cameras are being used by placing signs that alert drivers to the fact they are entering a camera-enforcement zone.

Fines are higher for these violations. They're $137 instead of $124. The budget says $32 of that higher fine must go into the State Patrol highway account.

The Senate's transportation budget would give the state Department of Transportation permission to work with the state Department of Corrections "to utilize corrections crews for the purposes of litter pickup on state highways."

This would be a departure from previous policies. Those orange-suited folks you see doing that kind of stuff today are working for the state Department of Ecology, I think. Those are mostly summer, entry-level jobs for young folks.

Some of the crews you see elsewhere might be inmates from city or county jails, but I don't think the state has allowed its offenders out on those kinds of work crews for a long time, if ever.

The state has to balance cost of supervision with salary savings. Stay tuned.

That's one of the provisions in the Senate version of the state transportation budget for 2009-11.

Basically, the state Department of Transportation will take care of the lights, maintenance, etc. But only if the Narrows Bridge Lights Organization, the non-profit group that wants to put decorative lights on the brige, reimburses the state for that work within 3 months of when the work is done.

And the group must keep enough money in an account to cover those costs, fronting that money.

"If the Narrows Bridge Lights Organization is unable to reimburse the department (DOT) for any future costs incurred, the lights must be removed at the expense of the Narrows Bridge Lights Organization, subject to the terms of the contract."

That's what the budget says. I guess there must be a contract out there. I'll have to ask TNT columnist Kathleen Merryman. She's following this issue more closely than I am.

The state authorized $1.5 million in state funds for the lights project in a prior budget. I can't remember what the total cost is. $6 million?

I can't tell yet whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for Pierce County.

But Senate Bill 5682, which passed the Senate, would take Pierce County out of the Olympic Region -- one of six regions for the state Department of Transportation -- and move it into the same region as King County.

Hmmmmm.

Basically, the new "Puget Sound Region" would consist of Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

I didn't pick up on this bill until I read the Senate transportation budget proposal. This is a reorganization and may be too "inside baseball," but it makes me suspicious.

Experience tells me that whenever Pierce County is lumped into anything in which King County is a part, King County dominates the discussion and the dollars. Witness Sound Transit, Puget Sound Regional Council.

The bill says the DOT is supposed to save 5 percent in administrative costs.

UPDATE: (12:51 p.m.) Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, told me this bill was killed in the House Transportation Committee.

Here is a link to the bill report.

That's the proposed Senate transportation budget that Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, is talking about. It would spend about $5 billion on various projects over the next four years.

(I think my story in Thursday's paper said TWO years. My bad.)

Jarrett's most recent letter to constituents, which appears below, devotes quite of bit verbage to what's going on with respect to the Interstate 90 project and what the state budget has (or doesn't have) in store for his communities on King County's Eastside.

I'm not as familiar with that as I am other projects, so I'll just let Jarrett explain it to you. I have other fish to fry right now.

Dear Joe,
Wednesday, the Senate Transportation Committee released our proposed transportation budget. While the current economy has provided some challenges to writing a transportation budget, those challenges clearly pale when compared to the operating budget expected to be made public next Monday.

The first and most significant attribute of the budget is its impact on our region's economy. It invests over $3 billion in projects during the next two years and $5 billion in the next forty-eight months. Economists estimate this will create 50,000 jobs across the state and the sales taxes generated will help to ameliorate at least a part of the operating deficit.

=> Read more!

What I mean is, Gov. Chris Gregoire, in a letter to legislative leaders, said the current bills working their way through the Legislature don't go far enough in some areas and go too far in others.

For instance, setting the 2011-12 school year as the one to begin making improvements to Basic Education is too soon.

"As much as I would like it to happen, it will be impossible to do so," Gregoire said in the letter.

Gregoire said the state most likely will still be digging itself out of the huge budget hole it now finds itself in, and the first priority for the state will be to restore all the education stuff that's going to be cut over the next couple years. Only then can the state start improving education, she said.

Read the guv's letter here.

And here is a statement issued by the League of Education Voters:

Statement from Lisa Macfarlane, co-founder of the League of Education Voters, in response to Gov. Gregoire’s letter on the education reform bills, HB 2261 and SB 6048.

We applaud Gov. Gregoire for supporting changes that will make school budgets more transparent and for strengthening the high school diploma by requiring 24 credits to graduate.

We are disappointed that the governor did not include a timeline for reform and accountability measures that would position Washington State to receive federal stimulus dollars and other funds tied to President Obama’s call for innovation in our public schools.

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Washington State Labor Council leaders met the trio -- Gregoire, Chopp, Brown -- who killed the Worker Privacy Act before it could pass the House, and left dissatisfied.

“This entire incident has severely strained labor’s relationship with Democratic leaders,” said WSLC President Rick Bender.

WSLC Statement on Worker Privacy Meeting with Governor Gregoire and Democratic Leadership

The Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) and labor leaders from affiliated unions met Wednesday with Governor Chris Gregoire, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and House Speaker Frank Chopp to discuss the Worker Privacy Act legislation. The meeting was requested by the WSLC to discuss the fate of the bill and the criminal investigation instigated by the Democratic leadership against the WSLC and a staff member after an internal email, which was inadvertently sent to a few legislators who co-sponsored the bill, was forwarded to the three leaders.

The meeting revealed a deep division between Democratic leadership and the labor community in Washington state. Even after the meeting, the fate of the Worker Privacy legislation remains unclear.

“This entire incident has severely strained labor’s relationship with Democratic leaders,” said WSLC President Rick Bender.

=> Read more!

That's the maximum charge for the longest ride on the light rail line that is supposed to open in July. (But they don't get all the way to the airport until later this year.)

The Sound Transit board also decided to charge in downtown Seattle instead of allowing free rides there.

Board adopts fares for Link light rail; adult trips will range from $1.75 to $2.50

The Sound Transit Board today adopted the fare structure for the Link light rail system that will open this July. Light rail fares will be comparable to regional buses under the distance-based system, with a $1.75 base fare plus $.05 per mile, rounded up or down to the nearest quarter.

The maximum adult fare, to ride from Westlake Station in downtown Seattle to the airport, will be $2.50, the same as a bus ride. Youth base fares will start at $1.25 and have a maximum fare of $2.00 and Senior/disabled fares will start at $.75 and have a maximum fare of $1.25 under the adopted structure.

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And House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, made a point of saying "if there is one" when he was talking about a tax-hike referendum that might be put on the ballot. He said there are some more decisions that have to be made on that "over the next two weeks."

Chopp met with reporters today for more than 45 minutes, the first time in a couple weeks. Here are some highlights:

Monday: House comes out with its transportation budget.
Tuesday: House comes out with its operating budget.
Wednesday: House comes out with its capital budget.

(On Monday, the Senate will come out with its operating budget. So, we'll see how each chamber dealt with what is expected to be an $8.7 billion budget shortfall.)

He said the capital budget will be "25 percent under the governor's level" of spending. That means it's a lot smaller. Although Chopp said it's mostly because of the decline of general tax collections by the state, he conceded part of the reason is that capital budget revenue streams are being re-channelled into the operating budget.

Chopp is "pleased" with the bill that puts a permanent tug at Neah Bay.

He still has problems with the proposal to replace Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct with a 1.7-mile deep-bore tunnel. It costs too much. The state would be on the hook for cost overruns. Less capacity for freight and general traffic. Less access to neighborhoods and businesses. Community opposition to the tunnel.

=> Read more!

We'll let this one speak – or sing – for itself.

During his testimony in favor of House Bill 2261 – a bill implementing some of the recommendations of the Basic Education Finance Task Force – Rep. Skip Priest reprised his role in the Brewster High School performance of The Music Man.

Priest was telling the Senate Education Committee that the time to pick at the issue and talk about the issue was over. The time has come to act, he said.

Or sang. Check it out in this TVW footage on the House Democrat's blog which honored Priest as the first Republican to make an appearance there. (It's the second video on the page).

About a dozen years ago, the Pierce County jail was sued and has been subject to evaluation of its medical care every six months while it continues to bring its services up to national standards.

I just got a copy of the most recent inspection from the federal court filings.

Dr. Joe Goldenson reported the jail continued to make improvements, though it still had areas in which it needed to improve.

"Since our last visit, the mental health program has made significant changes, including the development and implementation of an updated policy and procedure manual, which have improved the quality of the care provided to the patients at PCDC," he wrote.

The jail was also able to clear a backlog of inmates waiting to see the dentist.

Keven Rojecki, a firefighter for the City of SeaTac, is formally launching his bid for the Tacoma City Council with a kickoff event tonight at -- wait for it, wait for it - Engine House No. 9.

Rojecki, 40, is running for the at-large position currently held by Mike Lonergan, who is barred by term limits from running again. Victoria Woodards, chairwoman of the Metro Parks Tacoma board, has also announced a run for the seat.

Rojecki is a legislative liaison and district representative for the Washington State Council of Firefighters. He also serves as the vice chairman of the Washington State Gambling Commission, a position Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed him to in 2006.

Rojecki said he is running on a record of public safety and community service.

"I value safe neighborhoods and an economic climate where business and working families thrive," Rojecki said in a statement. "The citizens of Tacoma have every right to expect efficiency, accountability, and transparency in their government and I'm ready for the challenge."

The kickoff event is tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Engine House No. 9, 611 N. Pine Street, Tacoma.

Here is the full press release.

The meeting of the citizen advisory committee is set for next Thursday in Gig Harbor.

The state Transportation Commission is looking at a possible increase in tolls paid by motorists who have transponders, to $3.25 from $2.75 for a standard toll, for a 2-axle vehicle. (An axel is a figure-skating move. Thought I'd share that. I just learned it myself.)

Tolls paid at the toll booth would stay at $4.

Randy Boss, self-appointed bridge watchdog from Gig Harbor, has suggested the state instead consider hiking the toll booth tolls to $5 and leaving the $2.75 transponder toll where it is. His rationale is that it costs the state 89 cents to process every toll booth transaction and only 32 cents to process and electronic toll payment.

So make the people who are costing more pay even more, he says.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee hosts toll recommendation review open house

GIG HARBOR – The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee will meet Thursday, April 2, from 6 to 8 p.m. to review proposed toll rates. A public open house will be held prior to the meeting, from 5 to 6 p.m., to give the public an opportunity to review toll financial and operations information. Both meetings will be located at the Inn at Gig Harbor, 3211 56th St NW, Gig Harbor.

=> Read more!

David Dickinson will take over April 8 as the head the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse in the Washington Department of Social and Health Services.

(I can't remember who he replaces, but I'll put in a call to DSHS.)

DSHS selects Kansas drug treatment, recovery administrator
to head state’s Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse

OLYMPIA -- David A. Dickinson, the director of Addiction and Prevention Services in Kansas, has been named to head the Washington state government office that supervises the delivery of chemical dependency treatment and recovery services in Washington.

Dickinson will head the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse in the Department of Social and Health Services, effective April 8. The appointment was announced by Doug Porter, DSHS assistant secretary with the Health and Recovery Services Administration in DSHS.

=> Read more!

If, that is, the Legislature approves the Senate version of the 2009-11 transportation budget.

The budget would authorize WSP to use $1.83 million to buy 21 patrol cars and assign 18 troopers and 3 sergeants to a special Target Zero program. Never heard of that program before. But it appears to be a federal program that encourages local authorities to aggressively enforce driving under the influence laws.

The money would go the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, which would then pay off-duty troopers to work for the commission enforcing DUI laws on the freeways and highways.

This program would not start until July 1, 2010.

I can't tell whether the federal money is part of the $787 billion stimulus package approved by Congress, or from some other source.

That's what the proposed Senate transportation budget would do.

See, when voters approved Tim Eyman's Initiative 960, they said all fees (aka tolls) must be approved by the Legislature. That was to make sure there were lots of fingerprints on the taxing "knife", if you will.

But when it comes to tolls, which used to be the purview of the Washington Transportation Commission, (they had the final say), the Legislature has given toll-setting authority back to the commission. The Legislature does not specify an amount, it just tells the commisioners they have the power to "review" and "modify" the tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and on the HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes on Highway 167, as they see fit.

So, if the Senate transpo budget passes, the commission will be able to raise tolls on the Narrows to $3.25 for transponder vehicles and (remain at) $4 for tolls paid at the booths.

The standard toll on the bridge for electronic toll collection is now $2.75.

Tolls on Highway 167 in South King County vary from a low of 50 cents to a high of $9, depending on the level of traffic congestion.

Next session, I-960 will be 2 years old, so the Legislature could remove that fee-approval requirement on a simple majority vote, if its members want to.

The Senate transportation budget, which came out yesterday, got me to thinkin' about the late 1990s. That's when the state had Todd Shipyards in Seattle build three Jumbo Mark II Class ferries.

Curiously, the vessels were named after the hometowns of the then-current leadership in the Legislature.

(The only one who got short-changed in the deal was then-Sen. Dan McDonald. Otherwise, one of those ferries would have been named "MV Yarrow Point.")

But we do have the Wenatchee, Puyallup and Tacoma.

I thought of this because the Senate budget would let the Washington Transportation Commission decide (with some help) what to name the next batch of ferries that will built over the next several years. There's four of 'em.

I'm suggesting we forget about the hometowns this time. Besides, we already have a ferry named "MV Spokane" (that's where Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown calls home.) Let's do away with all pretense and just name them after the four leaders: Brown, House Speaker Frank Chopp of Seattle, Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt (we already have an "MV Walla Walla," too) and House Minority Leader Richard Debolt of Chehalis.

And when we built that fifth boat, we can name it "Lynn" or "Kessler." Well, she is the House majority leader, after all.

It's only a proposal to further study, but the proposed Senate transportation budget wants to take a closer look at how a reservation system for the Washington Ferry System might work.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said yesterday she thinks the state ought to try it out on just a few ferry runs, at first. She wants a recommendation by Dec. 15 of THIS year.

Here is a link to what I wrote late last year on this topic.

OK. I overstated that by just a tad. What Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, actually said at Wednesday's news conference to talk about her 2009-11 transportation budget wasn't quite so dramatic.

But "vehicle miles traveled" or "VMT" just won't catch your attention as that headline did.

(Actually, the state expects to collect about $2.66 billion in gas taxes over the next two years, so I was sorta exaggerating there.)

Basically, Haugen and many others are saying the buying power of the gas tax is on decline because it doesn't keep pace with the cost of what we need to build. Cars get better mileage. Electric cars won't be paying gas tax and they can't figure out how to separate electricity that is used to recharge your electric car battery and the electricity you use to heat your home.

So, she says, we gotta find new sources of money. VMT means you pay taxes based on how many miles you drive. And that's one of the things that would be studied if the Legislature approves the money Haugen put in the Senate transpo budget.

She wants a funding strategy by Dec. 31, 2010, in time to maybe do somethig in the 2011 session.

Here is a link to Senate Bill 5689, which called for a study. The bill has not yet been passed by the full Senate, but it may not have to be if the $200,000 stays in the transportation budget. The study would be paid for because the budget (proposal) says so.

Budgets always have lots and lots of stuff that aren't always apparent until you read the whole dang thing.

And quite frankly, I usually don't get around to reading beyond the summaries put out by the Legislature until after the Legislature adjourns.

But last night I started looking at the proposed Senate transportation budget for 2009-11. Not the list of projects that will be built, but the language in the bill itself.

That's where I found this: "The commission may oversee no more than five pilot projects implementing the use of automated traffic safety cameras to detect speed violations."

It appears to be funded by about $1.8 million that would be earmarked for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

Camera cops started as a pilot program in Lakewood, to catch motorists who run red lights. Then it expanded to include cameras to catch people speeding in school zones. And last year (I think) it was expanded to let Seattle install cameras on arterial streets (main drags) to catch speeders in general.

Here's a link to the story I wrote last year.

I'll have to check to see whether that bill actually passed and whether Seattle has implemented it.

The Senate transpo budget wants the 5 test projects to operate over the course of 2010 and wants a report back to the Legislature in early 2011.

She was, after all, the first woman on the Washington Supreme Court. And now she is the subject of an oral history.

(Boy! Former reporter John Hughes is really cranking out stories! Slow down, John. You're a historian now, not a reporter on a daily deadline.)

Here is a link to the legacy project:
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/legacyproject//

Legacy Project honors first woman Supreme Court justice

OLYMPIA – Before Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court 28 years ago, Carolyn Dimmick was already getting used to breaking the glass ceiling in the judiciary in this Washington.

As the state and nation commemorate Women’s History Month, Dimmick, the first woman justice on the state Supreme Court, is being honored with a new oral history and profile. Her riveting story is the fourth in a newly launched series called The Legacy Project. These free online publications tell the life lessons and personal histories of some of Washington’s most interesting daughters and sons – and more installments are on the way.

The Legacy Project is part of the Washington State Heritage Center planned for the Capitol Campus in Olympia and online for the children and families of Washington and beyond.

The earlier trio honored by the series were rocker Krist Novoselic, pioneering newswoman Adele Ferguson and the state’s first African-American Supreme Court justice, Charles Z. Smith. All are on the Legacy Project site, along with photos and other materials, at no charge to the users. The Novoselic story has gotten thousands of “hits” after being written up in Rolling Stone magazine, The Associated Press and other media outlets.

=> Read more!

The news release below says the deadline for buying into the Guaranteed Education Tuition program at current rates is next week, March 31.

Who knows what's going to happen to tuition at Washington's state colleges after the Legislature finishes writing its budget. Gov. Chris Gregoire recommended 7 percent tuition increases at the 6 four-year colleges and 5 percent at the two-year colleges for each of the next two years.

But now there is talk -- by her, for sure; perhaps by legislators -- to tack surcharges of 3 to 7 percent on top of those increases. It could effect the GET program, depending on how those surcharges are structured. I think its just a way to raise tuition by as much as 14 percent each year in the 2009-11 biennium without hurting the GET program. The surcharges go away, so GET investments, which assume tuition rises at a steady 7 percent clip, stay healthy. And if they don't, the folks who do buy tuition credits get a very, very good deal.

MILESTONE: Enrollment tops 100,000 in state prepaid tuition plan

Enrollment up 21% this year; deadline for new accounts is March 31

OLYMPIA – A record enrollment year in Washington’s prepaid college tuition plan shows parents are eager to find a secure way to save for college. Today state officials confirmed the 100,000th enrollment in the nation’s fastest growing prepaid tuition plan.

New accounts are up 21 percent over last year, with just days left until the March 31 enrollment deadline, according to Betty Lochner, director of Washington’s Guaranteed Education Tuition Program, or GET. "No other college savings vehicle can guarantee that your money will keep pace with rising college tuition,” said Lochner. “Parents who save with GET have peace of mind knowing their savings won’t lose value in today’s volatile market.”

=> Read more!

I got this news release from the Washington State Patrol earlier today, but just now got around to posting it. I deleted the suspect's name because we don't name people when they are only booked, not formally charged.

Note to other would-be vandals: The Narrows Bridge has cameras all over the place! Smile!

Man Arrested For Striking Tacoma Narrows Toll Booth with Ball Bearings Using a Sling Shot

A Gig Harbor man was arrested by WSP detectives yesterday morning, after completion of an investigation where a sling shot and ball bearings were used to strike the windows of two Tacoma Narrows Bridge Toll Booths this month.

On March 12th a toll booth attendant was collecting money from a motorist for the toll fee, when she heard something hit the window of her booth. Video footage of the incident shows the attendant turning her head toward the back side of her booth, with her hand raised to her head, when the object hit the window and showed her turning back to the motorist telling them her booth had been shot at.

The impact from the object struck the glass, sending fragments flying through the booth. As a result, the attendant was covered with glass and had to close the booth. Just two days later, the same subject struck an unoccupied booth in the same manner.

The Tacoma Narrows Toll Booth Plaza has several cameras in place for constant surveillance of all lanes of traffic and all the toll booths themselves. The plaza is also very well lit at night.

Investigators reviewed footage during the time of the incidents from the cameras at the plaza. The video showed a blue truck driving slowly through and then speeding away. The cameras were able to zoom in and get a good description of the vehicle, including a license plate number and match it with the vehicles “Good to Go Pass” account number. In both incidents it was the same truck with the same “Good to Go Pass” account.

=> Read more!

Fresh from the chief propagandists himself...(Just kidding, Jeff)

Good afternoon,

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for:

The Senate will release its 2009-11 operating budget on Monday, March 30th at 10:30 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1.

The budget will be heard later that afternoon in the Ways & Means Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 4.

The capital budget will be released Thursday or Friday – more details to follow.

Surely, you already have questions. Good thing Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown is holding her weekly media availability this Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in her office, LEG 307.

Best,

Jeff

A lobbyist told one of my press corps colleagues that he saw Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon, taken from a committee hearing earlier today on a stretcher. So, I put in a call to Melinda McCrady, spokeswoman for the House Democratic Caucus.

Her reply:

Yes. He was lightheaded and had chest pains. But he has been checked out thoroughly, and all heart conditions have been ruled out. He's going to take it easy for a day or two and should be just fine, the experts say.

Morris, 45, is speaker pro tem, which means he presides over the House chambers most of the time when Speaker Frank Chopp is meeting with lawmakers, lobbyists, staff, interest groups, etc.

McCrady said Morris was attending a meeting of the House Technology, Energy and Communications Committee in the John L. O'Brien Building when he started feeling crummy.

One of the sorta overlooked provisions in the $787 billion federal stimulus package is additional money for Food Stamps. (I know. The name has changed.)

Maximum monthly benefits have increase by 13.6 percent. That means a fmily of four could get up to $668 a month.

And the 3-month limit for people with no kids is suspended for about a year and a half.

This is a program that actually takes into account basic human needs in what could be our second great depression. Changes take effect April 1.

Food benefits to increase for many Washington residents

=> Read more!

The state Senate unveiled a transportation budget on Wednesday that elevates Pierce County carpool lane project to the same status as the mega projects in Seattle and King County and lays out a plan to fully fund all the lanes on Interstate 5 from the Tacoma Mall to Fife.

Although some of that work would not be done until after 2019, the Senate plan is a dramatic improvement over the transportation budget that Gov. Chris Gregoire submitted to the Legislature in mid-December.

The governor proposed delaying many projects throughout the state, some of them so long that they never would have been built without more federal funds, tolling or another increase in the gas or car taxes.

Parts of the carpool lane network through Tacoma were among the projects that were postponed.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said Wednesday she is committed to paying for all of the mega-projects in the state, those that are expected to cost $1 billion or more.

The budget Haugen introduced would commit $1.2 billion to a series of projects on I-5 that would widen the freeway for a carpool lane in each direction from the Tacoma Mall to Fife. The state already has spent more than $400 million on parts of that project.

“I think it’s just fabulous for Pierce County,” said County Executive Pat McCarthy said late Wednesday.

She credited the county’s success to the 105 business, labor and environmental groups, as well as officials from Pierce and South King county cities, who wrote who signed onto a letter urging the Pierce delegation to reinstate projects the governor did not put in her budget.

“It was their effort to have our legislators fight the good fight, and I think they did,” McCarthy said. “I applaud our legislators for the hard work they did, especially in these challenging times with limited resources.”

=> Read more!

I don't have many details yet. But Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup, who has been filling in as caucus chairwoman since the death of former caucus chairman, Rep. Bill Grant of Walla Walla, won the permanent job today.

House Democrats met behind closed doors today, and I just got an e-mail that said Morrell won.

That gives Pierce County a leadership position in the House majority caucus, something they have not had since Rep. Brian Ebersole of Tacoma was House Speaker more than a decade ago.

House Democrats, there are 62 in all, rejected House Speaker Frank Chopp's reputed favorite for the job on the second ballot. That was Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, who is still vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. (Rep. John McCoy of Tulalip lost in the first round.)

Morrell then won the runoff elections from among herself, Pat Sullivan of Covington and Timm Ormsby of Spokane.

Morrell had been caucus vice chair. Her victory was a bit of a surprise. The Service Employees International Union, one of Chopp's favorite group of stakeholders, doesn't care too much for Morrell. Last year, she blocked their caregiver training bill because it was too expensive, forcing the union to put I-1029 on the ballot. They won among voters.

Rep. Sherry Appleton of Poulsbo wants to become the new vice chair.

=> Read more!

King County asked the Legislature for a 1 percent motor vehicle excise tax to raise more money for bus service. They won't get that, but it appears they may get authority to raise property taxes instead, with a public vote.

The property tax for transit would be as much as 7.5 cents per $1,000 in value.

That's only one of many local tax options included in Senate Bill 5433, which is scheduled for a vote Thursday by the House Finance Committee.

Cities and counties want more flexibility in how they can spend the money they already collect. Counties also wanted greater taxing authority and they may get it. SB 5433 would let them create "rural infrastructure improvement and public safety" districts, RIPS. (The second "I" is silent. Or is it the first "I"? Nevermind.)

Those new taxing districts, which would be overseen by county councils or commissioners, would be for unincorporated areas. They could collect utility taxes until Jan. 1, 2015.

The bill also lets cities use the money they already collect from sales taxes to prevent layoffs. It also puts a limit on the new ferry taxing district in King County, the one that now collects property taxes to pay for the foot ferries from Vashon Island to downtown Seattle, and other boat stuff.

(I'd post a link to SB 5433, but I can't find the most recent version on line.)

It was less than 5 years ago that Washington voters were asked to boost the state sales tax to 7.5 percent from 6.5 percent to raise more money for schools.

That was Initiative 884 in 2004. It was trounced by a 60-40 margin.

I bring this up partly because there are behind-the-scenes talks about another ballot measure that might include the sales tax and how that money might used (partly) to pay for schools.

Also, anti-taxman Tim Eyman forwarded to me an exchange of e-mails he had with the leader of the opposition campaign back in 2004, former House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-Wenatchee. And Ballard said it was OK for me to publish his remarks.

Such an increase would raise the right amount of money for the state budget, in the eyes of those who want to raise taxes. Going up by 1 percentage point would generate an estimated $2.3 billion over two years, 2009-11. My guess is if the sales tax is used, it would be a proposal to go up no more than a half-cent per dollar. That still raises more than $1.1 billion.

Eyman asked Ballard, "Clyde, any memories of that campaign and how that experience applies to the current desire by Olympia to put a tax package before the voters? Eager to get your perspective."

Here are Ballard's observations from the 2004 campaign:

From: Clyde Ballard
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 8:16 PM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: RE: Memories of 2004 and Initiative 884

Tim: This was a most interesting experience. As you will remember the initiative was to raise the sales tax 1 cent which I thought was out of line.

The proponents were very well organized and had lots of money and endorsements. Some of the main people supporting the initiative had profiles done on them by the Seattle papers. Comments such as how great they were, how they had never lost a cause, and the list went on. Many volunteers, big endorsements from big names, the teacher union, and they raised an incredible amount of money.

On our side was myself and Jamie Daniels with Freedom Works, Jamie was my chief of staff. We traveled the state telling our story and debated the proponents many times on different forums. We also had (former state Rep.) Tom Huff do a couple of debates for us. It seemed we were looked at as un-informed, more of a nuisance than a threat to their cause. I believe they spent us 70 to 1.

If the legislature is looking forward to going to the people for a vote they should take a moment and look at history from 2004.

Clyde

Here is a link to the 2004 election results for I-884.

The Legislature and parks commission are looking at selling or mothballing as many as 40 state parks (out of about 125) to deal with a huge budget shortfall.

Jim King, who is a big advocate for parks, said boaters are offering up the money they get from the gas tax -- about $9 million a year -- to keep as many parks open as possible. Problem with that is budget-writers may grab a bunch of that boater money for other purposes.

Anyway, there's been a lot of discussion lately about whether the current "opt in" contribution for parks should be replaced by an "opt out" approach.

(We're given the opportunity to contribute $5 or more to parks when we renew our license tabs, thanks to a law sponsored by House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. Under an "opt out" program, the state would take your $5 unless you told them NOT to.)

Read what Jim King has to say about what's happening on the parks front.

Folks:

First- it now appears that it will be next week before we see Senate and House budgets. Now onto the purpose of this e-mail.

I really need to clear up some rapidly spreading misconceptions regarding the so-called "Montana" plan being touted by some- at State Parks, in the Legislature, and among the media- as the answer to state park closures.

It is no such answer.

It is not a "Montana" plan.

It is not supported by the activists who have been working State Park funding for over a decade.

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Council will get a report next week on the county assessor’s ability to physically inspect properties as required by state law.

This afternoon the council approved a measure directing its performance audit staff to analyze staffing and other resources at the assessor’s office in light of the recent revelation that the office skipped tens of thousands of inspections used to determine assessed values for property tax purposes.

The auditors will issue a preliminary report next Monday – a day before the council is scheduled to take final action on a budget ordinance that will affect funding for the assessor’s office and other county departments.

“The assessor has raised some important budget questions that we’ve got to get to the bottom of quickly,” said Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps.

Earlier this month Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam told the council the office skipped more than 181,000 inspections of residential properties under his predecessor, Ken Madsen. He said the office also skipped tens of thousands of commercial inspections.

State law requires local assessors to physically inspect properties at least every six years. The inspections can help catch major improvements or deterioration that can affect property values.

As the council tries to cover an $8 million revenue shortfall, Washam’s office faces a 3 percent budget cut. He told the council that would hinder his efforts to address the backlog of uninspected properties.

Council members have asked the auditors to study staffing and workload in the assessor’s office. They’ll gather similar information from other local governments for comparison. And they’ll review state law to determine exactly what’s required of local assessors.

In light of budget cuts other departments are taking, some on the council wonder whether there’s room to trim the assessor’s budget and comply with state law.
“Generally speaking, I think government can tighten its belt,” Bunney said.

Not when the state is facing an $8.7 billion budget shortfall over the next 28 months.

"There isn't an indignity left," one labor guy told me after listing off all the things the Legislature is considering doing to state workers to balance the budget.

Health care might be the last straw. Right now, state workers pay 12 percent of their health care premiums and the state pays the other 88 percent. That's an average of about $800 per worker.

But Senate Democrats proposed boosting the worker share to 18 percent. House Democrats balked. Senate said 15 percent. There was tentative agreement, but perhaps not any more.

It's still unclear when the Senate (they go first this year) and House will come out with their 2007-09 supplemental and new 2009-11 operating budgets. The Senate was supposed to go Thursday and the House on Friday. Then that was off. Then it was on again. Then off. And now it might be back on.

UPDATE: (1:20 p.m.) It's OFF again. Now it appears the Senate won't be coming out with its budget proposal until next week. So, at least we don't have to work Saturday, although House-Senate budget negotiators probably will be working.

I ran into House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, twice yesterday and asked him. He wouldn't give me a day. "We're trying to reach agreement on major parts of the budget before we come out," he said.

Word is that Chopp is trying to buy back labor happiness after the state Labor Council, 40,000-member Federation of State Employees and United Food and Commercial Workers union walked away from the tax-package coalition. (They'll all be back when it matters, but they're ticked off now.)

Except for the Service Employees International Union, of course.

=> Read more!

Traffic passes new townhouses and a single family home near the intersection of South 43rd Street and South Warrner Street Sunday, May 25, 2008. JOE BARRENTINE/The News Tribune

This may not be huge news given the current state of the economy and the relative lack of development going on just about anywhere.

Nevertheless, the Tacoma City Council is preparing to extend its moratorium for a second time on a tax exemption for new multi-family developments in the Tacoma Mall Mixed-Used Center.

Council members first adopted an ordinance temporarily suspending the tax break last June, saying they needed to get a handle on development around the mall. They were concerned about a lack of open space, and the apparent lack of neighborhood planning.

Councilman Jake Fey said the development occurring along South Pine Street wasn’t what officials envisioned when they established the exemption. As he drives by and looks at the development, Fey said he wonders “where in the heck the kids are going to play except in the road or alley.”

“It’s bad enough that they’re not providing open space,” Fey said, adding that the city doesn’t have to offer an incentive for the developers to build such developments.

=> Read more!

It sure looks that way. But it's not just for the upcoming tax packages.

House Bill 2322, which was introduced yesterday, would change the state ethics laws to allow legislators to advocate in favor (or against) a ballot measure. They already are free to say what they think of something on the ballot, but this bill appears to go one step further. It would let them use their newsletters to constituents, press releases, correspondence to constituents and other state resources to make their views known far and wide.

UPDATE: I just talked to Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Shoreline, the prime sponsor, to see what she had in mind. First, her bill would apply only to referenda that are put on the ballot by the Legislature. "You oughta get out there and stand by what you did," she said.

(But if Tim Eyman or someone else managed to get an initiative on the ballot, legislators still could not use their office newsletter to campaign for or against those measures. Only a legislative referendum, she said.)

Chase said she didn't introduce this bill only for the upcoming tax package (or packages) that lawmakers are likely to put before voters, although that is part of the reason. She said she also signed onto a similar bill sponsored in 2002 by then-Rep. Ruth Fisher.)

"If we refer a measure to the voters, then we sure as hell better talk about it, tell them why we did what we did," Chase said.

(c) Activities that are part of the normal and regular conduct of the office or agency.

"Normal and regular conduct" for a legislator includes discussing a ballot proposition placed on the ballot by the legislature.

Legislators are permitted to discuss such a ballot measure, including its merits and demerits. Legislators may state
their position on such a ballot measure, including advocacy expressions of support or opposition. Such discussions are permitted in all manner of communications, whether initiated by the legislator or in response to an inquiry, and including newsletters, letters, press releases, and public meetings undertaken in the conduct of the official's office;

Here is a link to House Bill 2322.

Washington voters probably will be asked in August or November to approve a batch of tax increases so the Legislature can restore some services that undoubtedly will be cut in the state's 2009-11 budget.

But just because the ballot measures spells out how those higher taxes will be spent doesn't mean they actually will be used in that fashion. The experience of Initiative 773, which voters approved by a 66-34 margin in 2001, provides a cautionary tale.

It's was a classic bait-and-switch tactic, done -- not out of malice -- but because the Legislature overruled voters only one year after I-773 passed. Lawmakers decided to spend the money differently that what voters were told during the campaign. It took a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate because I-773 was less than 2 years old, and it takes a supermajority to change an initiative within its first two years. But it happened in early 2003.

I-773 raised the cigarette tax by 60 cents a pack and boosted existing taxes on other tobacco products. Sponsors of the ballot measure said they wanted the $130 million a year of new state revenues to be spent mostly to expand the Basic Health Plan. It was supposed to grow from an enrollment of 125,000 in November 2001 to 170,000 over the following four years.

Never happened.

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"A single smart card that will replace about 300 different passes issued by seven Puget Sound area transit agencies has moved a step closer to reality."

That was the lead paragraph of a story in Regional View, the publication of the Puget Sound Regional Council. It's from a story that ran in SEPTEMBER 1998. True.

The agency that coordinates transportation and land-use planning for Pierce, King, Kitsap and Snohomish counties was annoucing the beginning of a search to a company to provide a smart-card system.

They found one -- in Australia. And the smart card is named ORCA.

"The One Regional Card for All (ORCA) will be a non-touch smart card used for payment on seven transportation systems: Sound Transit, King County Metro Transit, Community Transit of Snohomish County, Pierce Transit, Everett Transit, Kitsap Transit and Washington State Ferries."

It's basically a debit-card sortof operation. You pre-pay and then swipe the card all over the place at transit centers and vehicles.

I was working on a story about its debut, but I got sidetracked by the 105-day legislative session. Maybe I can get back to it sometime after the April 26 adjournment of the Legislature.

In the meantime, here's a news release from the King County Council.

Council gives green light for rollout of single-payment card for all forms of regional transit

ORCA smart card will enable riders to move between bus, train and ferries across county lines using only one fare card

=> Read more!

Jane Milhans tells me this event is open to the general public, not just the Republican public.

The Pierce County Republican Club invites you to meet author Wayne Perryman.

Wayne is the founder of a new organization called the Lincoln Legacy. Come and hear what Wayne is doing to get a positive Republican message out to the public. Be one of the first to hear about what this new organization is doing!

Details:
* Saturday April 11th
* Clover Park Technical College, Culinary School, Bldg 31
4500 Steilacoom Blvd SW, Lakewood, WA 98499
Map and Directions: http://www.cptc.edu
* Registration: 8:30 AM
* Breakfast: 9:00 AM
* Cost: $15.00
* RSVP by 4-3-09 to: piercecountyrepublicanclub@yahoo.com
Mail Payment to: PCRC, PO Box 65383, University Place, WA 98464
Information: Jane Milhans 253-279-4245

And later in the month is this event:

T.E.A PARTY
Taxed Enough Already

=> Read more!

This may be the final chapter in the saga. (But I wouldn't back on it.) I was told union folks were going to have a meeting with legislative leadership tomorrow. I suppose not that meeting could be unnecessary, unless they want to talk about campaign contribution for the 2010 election season. Ya think?

Here is a link to previous coverage on the issue.

And here's what The Associated Press wrote after Gov. Chris Gregoire's news conference this morning.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ It sounds like a proposed union organizing bill was in trouble even before a controversial e-mail killed its chances at the Legislature.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday that she would have vetoed the so-called "Worker Privacy Act" anyway, because of its effect on Boeing.

The bill in question would have prevented businesses from holding mandatory meetings on religious or political topics, including unions.

It was organized labor's top priority at the 2009 Legislature. Boeing and other businesses opposed it.

Gregoire and Democratic lawmakers killed the bill recently, after a lobbyist's e-mail said union campaign money would stop unless the bill became law.

The State Patrol now says there was nothing illegal about the e-mail.

If the Legislature is going to put a tax package on the ballot in June, lawmakers had better get their hind quarters in gear.

Time is running out for a June election.

David Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, just told me the Legislature would have to decide by "early to mid-April" if it wants to put something on the June 30 ballot. (That's a Tuesday, by the way.) And they'd have to act quicker if they want a vote earlier in June.

I called Ammons because I got word that county auditors -- the local elections folks -- were being alerted to a possible special election in June.

Ammons said the Secretary of State's office is doing a just-in-case drill, so they can tell lawmakers what is needed. It's the office's own initiative, not in response to a legislative request, he said.

"We have no idea when they'll do it," Ammons said of the lawmakers' plans for a special election for a vote on new taxes to help offset budget cuts.

Ammons said it would take about 10 weeks notice to plan an election. And the last time the state had a single-issue election was the presidential primary earlier this year. That cost $8 million overall.

State election officials are just asking their county counterparts what their costs would be if there were to be a single-issue election on taxes in June, Ammons said.

If the Legislature put the election off until the Aug. 18 primary or Nov. 3 general election, of course, the costs would be shared by other governmental entities who have measures or candidates on the ballot, he noted.

Our colleague, Austin Jenkins, who works upstairs for National Public Radio, and freelances for CrossCut, broke this story.

Here is a link to Jenkins' weekend post on Crosscut.

He's saying the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Washington State Labor Council and the Washington Federation of State Employees have parted ways with the coalition that has been working behind the scenes on a tax package to put on the ballot.

Gov. Chris Greogire began her press conference today with the sports report.

She first welcomed the appearance of the new Major League Soccer franchise, the FC Seattle Sounders. Then, she had a few words about the state's two teams in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

"I'm disappointed, obviously, by the Dawgs losing and don't think the officiating was the greatest I've ever seen," she said. "But, that's the game..."

But the governor still has a dog in the fight, so to speak. While she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, her law degree is from Gonzaga. The Zags play North Carolina in the Sweet 16.

"I hope the Zags beat NC and go on to the (Elite) Eight," she said. "That's how I'm rooting despite some family disagreements on that one."

By family, the governor means her office family. Her press secretary, Pearse Edwards, is a UNC fanatic.

(Here is a Seattle Times photo of the first family at the game.)

This is that time in a legislative session where you catch leaders as you can, such as, when House Speaker Frank Chopp and House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler were walking from the House chambers through "Ulcer Gulch" toward the Senate chambers.

I asked them if they could confirm what I had heard last week, that House Democrats want to roll out a tax package as a companion to a brutal operating budget so they can point to ways how the cuts can be lessened.

"We're going to talk to the Senate about a variety of topics," Chopp said.

No help there.

But Gov. Chris Gregoire told reporters a couple hours earlier that she met with House and Senate leadership on Friday. "They have yet to tell me what 'it' is," Gregoire said, and she won't comment until she knows more details about what "it" is.

"It," of course, is whatever tax package majority Democrats will come up with, most likely for the ballot. (I say August; could be November.)

=> Read more!

I suppose this is when Pierce County finds out just how many of its projects get reinstated. If you'll recall, Gov. Chris Gregoire delayed many of them so long that they never will be built without new taxes.

I'm hearing about half of the projects will be moved back up to the timetable set by the Legislature in 2008. The other half? I don't know yet.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, already told some of her constituents the state will be building four more ferries under her budget proposal. That's what she told the South Whidby Record.

Senate transportation budget rollout

OLYMPIA — The Senate Transportation Committee will release the 2009-11 transportation budget in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the John A. Cherberg Building at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25.

Participating in the event will be committee chair Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, vice-chair Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane, Sen Fred Jarrett, D-Bellevue, ranking minority member Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, and Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima.

Local governments are vying to get a piece of the federal stimulus pie. But the official stimulus package isn’t the only source of federal money.

Last week the Pierce County Regional Council approved a plan to seek additional federal funding for six local road and transit projects. They’re a long way from actually getting the money, but here’s the press release issued by County Executive Pat McCarthy’s office late Friday:

NEWS_from_Pierce_County

March 20, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Executive Pat McCarthy and representatives of city and town councils throughout Pierce County are collaborating to compete for $44 million in regional funding for important projects that will address traffic congestion.

In a meeting on Thursday, March 19, the Pierce County Regional Council voted to send a package of six road and transit projects to the next step in the funding process - a review by representatives of public works departments and other transportation experts. The final approval must come from the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), a panel of elected officials who will make the final decision on how to distribute the $44 million in federal funding among four counties and their cities and towns.

=> Read more!

At least, that's the plan.

Which begs the question: Why do motorists who cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge get a $52 ticket if they don't pay the toll?

I'm working on a story about what the Legislature is going to do with respect to the Highway 520 and Interstate 90 bridges. They might both be tolled by the end of 2010 -- 520 for sure, and maybe I-90, too.

But the state Department of Transportation plan for Highway 520 is to have only electronic tolling -- windshield transponders -- and no toll booths. Their plan it to take pictures of the license plates of vehicles that don't pay the toll, and then send them a bill for the toll (which will be about $3), plus a surcharge to cover the cost of taking the picture for enforcement purposes.

The DOT Web site for 520 doesn't say how much that surcharge would be, but I'm guessing it won't be anywhere near the $52 ticket that Narrows Bridge scofflaws have to pay today. (Stone said it would be nominal, maybe $1.)

I'm gonna put in a call to DOT to find out why the different approach to Narrows Bridge. I'm guessing that DOT just rewrote the contract for TransCore, so they have to have toll booths for something like 5 more years. But then, why did they write a contract like that when they weren't planning to put toll booths on 520?

UPDATE: Craig Stone, director of DOT's toll division, said the toll booths on the new Narrows Bridge might, indeed, be removed some day. "I do anticipate that at some point in time we will ask, 'Should we not remove the cash (collection toll booths) from TNB (Tacoma Narrows Bridge). But today is not that day."

Stone said they want to see how things work on the 520 bridge, first. He noted the contract with TransCore runs to 2012, but the state has the ability to cancel the contract.

Stone also confirmed what Randy Boss of Gig Harbor told me over the weekend: It cost 89 cents to process a transaction at the toll booths and only 32 cents per transaction with the electronic tolls.

It cost more to have TransCore employees in the toll booths. So why have them? Why not go to the same picture-taking-billing procedure they're planning for 520?

I'm not thinking about the local scofflaws so much (they should know better), but at least we'd have fewer angry out-of-staters who get a ticket for missing the toll booth.

As some of you may have read in Saturday's print edition, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed this measure into law on Friday and it took effect immediately.

Inmates have a lot of time on their hands so some of them were gaming the system. They made many complicated public records request, and if prison officials did not comply, they sued. Some of them made money in lawsuit settlements. One was in excess of $100,000.

I saved one of the handouts that the Department of Corrections provided to members of a Senate committee. It gave examples of inmate requests. Here are a few. Ask yourself, why does the inmate want these records?

1. All records critical of Washington State Penitentiary staff over the past 15 months.
2. All fire escape plans at WCC. (Either the correction center at Shelton or the Womens prison at Purdy).
3. A frontal face photographic type image for each and every current employee of DOC in electronic format.
4. All records regarding confidential informants past, present or future.
5. Number of paper bags purchased at each DOC facility for the last 3 years.
6. The following information for all Monroe Corrections Complex employees (about 1,300 staff): first, middle and last name (including hyphenated, changed, married, divorced or maiden names), date of birth, gender, race, date of hire, employment job title, annual pay and pay rate, height and weight, employment identification number, training records.

I do have to point out that No. 6 is the kind of public records request a newspaper reporter might make if he or she were doing a story about whether prison staff are adequately trained (except for all that divorced, maiden name stuff.) So, not all of the requests are outlandish.

When I was working on the "Dumping Ground" story, about how Pierce County gets more than its fair share of released prison inmates, some of my records requests had to wait in line behind some of these inmate requests.

Legislature approves Attorney General’s bill to curb abusive records requests by inmates

=> Read more!

State Department of Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond sent out a letter last week to staff, clarifying what qualifies as a legitimate use of toll money collected on the Narrows Bridge (and other toll projects that will be coming down the pike, so to speak.)

This has been sought by Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, who also sponsored a bill that would accomplish pretty much the same thing. (I think Kilmer's bill is still in the works.)

"The following categories of expenditures will not be charged to toll facility accounts:"
Subscriptions
Training
Tuition reimbursement
Membership dues or fees
Meeting meals
Commute trip reduction
Employee travel

The Gig Harbor contingent, including Reps. Larry Seaquist felt DOT was using toll revenues to pay for too many things that were not directly related to the $735 million bridge project. Hammond tells DOT to use gas tax money for those things, instead.

I haven't had a chance to talk to newly elected Rep. Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard, on this topic yet.)

Here is Hammond's executive order to DOT staff.

Buyouts are getting increasingly commonplace in the newspaper industry. Trust me. We're going through our third round of layoffs and buyouts at Tne News Tribune.

But there doesn't appear to be much latitude for state agencies to basically pay their workers to go away sooner than they otherwise would. For several years, state agencies have had authority to pay workers as much as $25,000 as an incentive to retire. But that program is aimed at workers who already are 1 year past their "normal" retirement date.

Many of those workers are hanging around, partly because they don't want to pay full freight for health care coverage, which is really pricey because the state has a great medical plan. It costs about $800 a month if you have to pay the full cost. (Workers pay 12 percent of their premiums today; the state pays 88 percent.)

Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark wants some help, and he wants it in a hurry. He points out that another drawback to the current "buyout" plan is that agencies must recover the costs during the same biennium. That is, if you pay a $50,000-a-year employee $25,000 to go away, you have to leave the job open for at least six months, as long as it would take to realize a $25,000 savings from a lower payroll.

Goldmark says there isn't time for him to recoup that money since there are only 3-plus months left in the 2007-09 biennium. (It ends June 30.)

=> Read more!

On the same day (Thursday) that lawmakers learned they are facing an $8.7 billion shortfall in the operating budget, some of them -- many fewer, actually -- also found out things aren't too rosy for thetransportation budget, either.

"The overall reduction in motor fuel tax revenue for the 16-year period ending in 2023 is about $535 million when compared to the November 2008 revenue forecast."

Of more immediate concern is this: Overall transportation tax collections for 2007-09 are expected to be $4.07 billion. That's $140 million lower than the estimated made in April 2008. Even worse, total transportation taxes collected for 2009-11 are expected to be $4.3 billion, or about $257 million less than the April 2008 forecast.

That's $400 million the state won't have to pay for projects over the next couple years.

I confess, I know much less about the forecast for transportation taxes, but I do know that 16-year period is the time frame used for the 5-cent and 9.5-cent increases in the gas tax from 2003 and 2005. It's a rolling timetable. The Legislature keeps tacking 2 more years onto the end of the timetable after 2 years go by.

Anyway, seeing a projected $535 million drop over those 16 years, just from last November, is like seeing the money for more than half of the carpool lanes on I-5 in Tacoma go away.

(It remains to be seen just how much of the carpool project lawmakers actually put back on schedule. I'm hearing only half of the delays proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire for Pierce County projects will be cancelled.)

I've got to make a few phone calls on Monday to help interpret the transportation revenue forecast. I do see we can expect to collect $2.66 billion in gas taxes in 2009-11, and that number is smaller than it used to be before the recession hit.

Transportation Revenue Summary for the March 2009 Forecast
Motor Fuel Tax Revenues

The March 2009 motor fuel tax forecast projected a decline of $26 million (1%) in fuel tax revenues in the current biennium when compared to the forecast prepared in November.

Gasoline tax revenue is forecasted slightly higher (.01%) than the November forecast at $1.97 billion for 2007-09 biennium. Diesel tax revenue is down significantly $26.3 million (14%) over the November forecast.

=> Read more!

There are two bills in the Legislature that will be getting a lot of attention later this session, and both should be of particular interest to motorists who now pay a toll to drive across the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

House Bill 2211 would allow the state to impose tolls on the Highway 520 bridge between Seattle and Medina-Bellevue-Redmond as soon as 2010, before construction actually begins on the replacement of the bridge across Lake Washington.

House Bill 2319 would allow the state to impose tolls on the 520 bridge and on the I-90 bridge. (Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Mercer Island, is prime sponsor of this bill. But it was written by Rep. Deb Eddy, D-Kirkland.)

Money from the twin tolls could be used to improve the corridor all the way to Highway 202 in Redmond. But the tolls would be collected only on the floating bridge itself, not the highway at either end.

Tolling both bridges not only would raise more money for the $4-$4.5 billion replacement bridge for 520, it would capture the estimated 15 percent of drivers who otherwise would shift their travel route from 520 to I-90 just to avoid the toll if the toll were only on the 520 bridge.

And Hunter's bill has a trigger that would clear the way for tolls on I-90. If the average speed on I-405 drops by 50 percent or more in the peak direction for three months -- say, it drops from 40 mph to 20 mph -- I-90 would then become eligible for tolling.

Tolls would vary based on time of day and how heavy traffic is, but the maximum could be no more than $2.95 (in 2007 dollars) in one direction for your standard 2-axle vehicle. I guess that would be about $3.25, or $6.50 for a roundtrip. A roundtrip on the Narrows Bridge in 2010 probably will cost $4.)

=> Read more!

What to do? What to do? What to do?

House Democrats are on the horns of a dilemma. They've got this balanced budget proposal that they could unveil early next week, right after the Senate comes out with its own spending proposal.

The problem is, it's an all-cuts budget that will devastate many, many state programs and be extremely painful for state workers, schools and all of the Democrats' usual supporters.

So the question is, should House Democrats unveil their "budget," or should they come out with a "budget, but..."?

A "but budget" would say, "Look, we have to cut all these programs, BUT we could restore a lot of those cuts, the most painful cuts, if voters were to approve this batch of tax increases."

So, do they come out only with a balanced budget that doesn't rely on any tax increases, as the Senate was planning to do? Or should they appear to be nicer and more compassionate than those meanies in the Senate by having a companion proposal to put on the ballot to raise taxes?

You see, yesterday's $552 million hit to state revenues wasn't the main reason Senate Democrats decided to hold off on the introduction of their budget. (It has been set for next Tuesday.)

The main reason for the delay is to buy some time and try to figure out just how bad House Democrats are going to make Senate Democrats look by contrast.

I'm sure they'll sort it out in a month or so.

It's next Wednesday, the 73rd Day of this legislative session. Caucus chairperson is the No. 3 in House Democratic leadership, behind Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam.

Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup, who was elected House Democratic caucus vice chair, has been filling in at the top job since Bill Grant's death. He was caucus chairman for years.

She's also running for the permanent job. So are Reps. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, who is vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and John McCoy, D-Tulalip, who is chairman of the House Technology, Energy and Communications Committee.

Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, vice chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, may also jump into the race.

Bowing out is Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, capital budget chairman. Dunshee reportedly wants to get an early start to the Obama-Dunshee 2012 ticket. (Half of that last sentence is not true.)

UPDATE(Friday 3:45 p.m.)Rep. Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, is in the running. Rep. Larry Spring, D-Kirkland, told me he in NOT running.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

Traffic crossing the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge took another dip in February, which prompted Washington Transportation commissioners to move toward raising tolls later this year.

Commissioners on Thursday recommended boosting the standard toll to $3.25 from $2.75 for motorists who have windshield-mounted transponders and whose tolls are collected electronically. The current $4 cash charge at toll booths would remain unchanged.

That recommendation now goes to the Narrows Bridge Toll Citizen Advisory Committee, which has until April 10 to determine whether it agrees with the commission. The commission’s next meeting is slated for April 22, which is when its members most likely would take acting to change the toll rates.

The Legislature has the final say on any toll increase, although last year lawmakers gave that authority right back to the commission.
A toll increase would likely take effect July 1, the start of the state’s budget year.

=> Read more!

Here's the story that will appear in Friday's print edition of The News Tribune.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

Washington’s projected budget shortfall climbed even closer to the $9 billion mark with Thursday’s announcement that state tax collections are expected to be another $552 million lower over the next 28 months.

Arun Raha, the state’s chief economist, delivered the bad news to the governor’s budget director and key legislators during a morning meeting of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

His latest outlook for tax collections through mid-2011 puts the current budget shortfall at about $8.7 billion. That figure assumes the Legislature will write a budget that leaves $850 million in reserves to deal with further economic uncertainty.

A reserve of $850 million is the target of Senate budget-writers who now hope to unveil their budget proposals by the end of next week, said Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The Senate had planned to unveil its budgets on Tuesday, but the half billion dollars of bad news may have delayed that timetable, he said.

“We’re trying to get some early agreement on the budget with the House,” Tom told reporters after the forecast council meeting. “But it may take a little longer to reach agreement on an additional $500 million.”

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Council Wednesday approved a budget amendment that relies more on spending cuts than County Executive Pat McCarthy had proposed to cover an $8 million revenue shortfall. But in the council’s budget, some departments fare better than others.

Here’s an Excel spreadsheet that compares the council and executive’s proposed budgets head to head.

The spreadsheet shows general fund spending in the original 2009 budget, in McCarthy’s proposed revised budget and in the council’s proposed revised budget.

It also includes two calculations. The first shows the difference between the council and executive proposed budgets for each department. The second shows the difference between the council’s proposed budget and the original 2009 budget.

Some highlights:

• Several departments will see bigger cuts under the council’s proposed budget vs. McCarthy’s. For example, the council would cut $257,000 more from the human resources department budget than McCarthy. The sheriff’s department ($250,000), planning and land services ($238,400) and the WSU extension service ($194,000) also would be cut more.

• The council gives some departments more money than the executive, including the prosecuting attorney ($204,400 more), assessor-treasurer ($74,000) and juvenile justice ($55,000).

For a fuller explanation of the council’s proposal, here’s a PDF copy of the budget amendment it approved Wednesday in a committee of the whole meeting.

That's what Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, and House Minority Leader Richard Debolt, R-Chehalis, said yesterday at their weekly news conference.

Their guesses were a range of $400 million to $500 million. That upper end would put the budget shortfall for the next 28 months at $8.81 billion, if you assume the Legislature will hold $1 billion in a reserve savings account.

Here is a link to Television Washington's blog posting.

Arun Raha, the state's chief economist, will give his more recent forecast for state tax collections through mid-2011 at 10 a.m. today.

The state Labor Council says now that they've been cleared of any criminal wrong-doing, Democratic leaders in the Legislature should bring the Worker Privacy Act up for a vote. (See several earlier posts on this issue below, and read the entire infamous e-mail yourself here).

And Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Covington, said after reading the e-mail in which a Boeing lobbyist gives the governor's office a list of representatives who plan to vote "yes" and "no" on the bill, suggests that Democratic leadership has too much power over what the caucus votes on.

"We should have a caucus discussion about this," Simpson wrote in an e-mail to his 61 fellow House Democrats. "I propose that vote counts no longer be confidential and privy only to leadership and am open to other ways to strengthen our democracy – here in Olympia, where it should matter the most."

Here are the latest chapters in the Neverending Saga. First Labor; then Simpson.

We ask for a moment of truth

Gregoire, Chopp and Brown:
Allow a vote on the Worker Privacy Act

OLYMPIA -- Last week, Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown made a choice.

The state's three most powerful Democratic lawmakers decided to suspend consideration of the Worker Privacy Act (SB 5446 and HB 1528), organized labor's top priority legislation for 2009. Their decision prevented the people of Washington from knowing where their elected representatives stand on this important workers' rights legislation.

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Council is preparing to cut deeper and rely less on fund balances to fill an $8 million budget hole.

At a hearing this morning, the council unanimously approved a measure that will cut $6.1 million in spending to help balance the budget – $800,000 more than County Executive Pat McCarthy recently proposed to cut.

The council’s plan would cut deeper in human resources, the sheriff’s department, the corrections bureau and other departments. The council would cut less than McCarthy in several departments, including the prosecuting attorney, assessor-treasurer and superior court.

It was unclear whether the plan would result in any layoffs. Council members said the move would not cut existing sheriff’s deputies or corrections officers.

Still, Councilman Tim Farrell, D-Tacoma, acknowledged the cuts will be painful.

“I hate this budget,” Farrell said. “But I’m going to vote for it. And I’m going to stand by every decision in it.”

=> Read more!

The governor announced this a few weeks ago, but I didn't realize it was going to happen this quickly. Drivers are being diverted to Puyallup, Kent and Federal Way offices instead.

Auburn Driver Licensing Office Closing Permanently

Auburn—South King County residents are advised the Auburn Driver Licensing Service Office (LSO), 3310 Auburn Way North, Suite H, Auburn, is closing permanently.

The last day of service at the Auburn LSO will be Friday, March 27, 2009, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The office closure is part of Governor Chris Gregoire’s plan to reinvent government services. As part of this plan, DOL will consolidate 25 driver licensing offices around the state and offer more online and self-service options.

=> Read more!

Pierce County Councilman Tim Farrell, who had been considering a run for Tacoma mayor, confirmed today that he has decided not to enter the race.

I ran into Farrell at the new Blackwater coffee shop across from City Hall. He said his phone had been ringing with supporters since Tacoma City Councilwoman Marilyn Strickland announced yesterday that she is running for the mayor's seat.

Farrell said he's breaking the news to his fans that he's throwing his support behind Strickland.

Careful readers of Strickland's two-page press release would have noticed Farrell's name among the list of Strickland's endorsements.

Political junkies and just plain concerned citizens (which these days should include about everyone) are invited to The News Tribune Thursday evening for what should be a lively discussion of the 2009 legislative session.

Our own Peter Callaghan will moderate a panel of local legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle: Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, Rep. Skip Priest, R-Federal Way, and Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup. Fresh on the heels of tomorrow's revenue forecast, expect Callaghan to press the panel on how they will balance the budget, whether they will go for a tax increase and other key issues of the session.

The free event starts at 6:30 p.m. at The News Tribune, 1950 S. State St.
I hope to see you here.

The Worker Privacy saga continues....

I frankly don't know what to make of this. Clearly, Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, who I believe is not seeking reelection in 2010, is taking a shot across the bow of The Boeing Co. How much is jest and how much is real is what I can't figure out.

Responding to recently publicized concerns about the undue influence of lobbying upon legislative decision-making, Representative Brendan Williams (D., Olympia) has introduced House Bill 2316 (placing restrictions on lobbying) – which would add to existing legal limitations upon lobbyists clear direction that a forbidden practice would be to “[t]hreaten any legislator, or any government official, with the relocation of manufacturing jobs, including, but not limited to, jobs involving commercial airplane manufacturing, based upon the outcome of any pending or proposed legislation.”

Stated Williams: “We must clarify the rules. The recurring subtext to the recent debate over worker privacy was whether a major manufacturer would relocate jobs if not permitted to browbeat workers in captive audience meetings about their political and religious views. Let’s keep debate over bills strictly on the merits.”

Rep. Brendan W. Williams
22nd Legislative District

A follow-up from Williams: He said the bill is still in Code Reviser, so copies are not yet available, and he added,

If it’s evidently forbidden for labor unions to state that they will not contribute to those opposing labor priorities – a decision entirely within the First Amendment discretion of those unions – surely it should be expressly forbidden to actually threaten, as a means of influencing legislative outcomes, the relocation of taxpayer-subsidized manufacturing jobs.

First, I have to acknowledge the valuable contribution by Curt Woodward, Associated Press reporter, who requested the exchange of e-mails between the governor's office and others about the Worker Privacy bill, which was killed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown.

The rest of the press corps merely piggybacked on Curt's request. I singled out this particular e-mail because the Boeing lobbyist was telling the governor's main Boeing liaison that the Worker Privacy Bill, which was being pushed by Labor, was on the verge of winning approval by the Legislature. That was gonna be bad news for Boeing.

UPDATE: A reader suggests that I point out what could have happened if Brown and Chopp had NOT killed the bill. If they passed it and the Labor Council e-mail came out later, they would have been open to criticism that they caved in to threats from Labor and they just passed the bill to keep the campaign contributions flowing from Labor into Democratic political action committees warchests. Consequently, they were justified in killing it because THAT would have looked bad. (Fair enough?)

This e-mail shows part of the head count that Boeing had done. Some of the "yes" votes were reluctant, according to Boeing. He's also saying the governor has to get off her butt and do something.

"The Governor cannot sit by and wait for this stuff to go away on it's
own. It will not," Boeing lobbyist Trent House said.

Lucky for House, a copy of a Labor Council strategy e-mail was CC'ed to four legislators and that provided the cover for Brown, Chopp and Gregoire to kill the bill.

Here is cast of characters:
The part of the Boeing lobbyist is played by Trent House.
The governor's advisor on all things Boeing: Bill McSherry

Two more notes: The bill would have let employees walk out of management meetings that bad-mouthed labor unions or hit workers up for United Way contributions, etc.

All the last names listed in House's head count are state Representatives.

-----Original Message-----
From: House, Trent M .M.House@boeing.com>
To: Bill McSherry
Sent: Fri Mar 06 23:29:15 2009
Subject: Vote count on HB 1528 - Worker Privacy

Bill,

I have been counting votes and the reality is grim.

=> Read more!

State Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, is looking at the state law which the state Public Disclosure Commission will be looking at after the State Patrol forcibly handed off the whole "e-mail" case to the elections watchdog agency.

If you'll recall, the State Patrol announced yesterday it couldn't find a state law that was violated by the e-mail the was CC'ed to four legislators, an e-mail in which the Labor Council laid out its strategy for lobbying the Worker Privacy Bill.

I'm posting Williams' e-mail because he cites the same civil statute that PDC executive director Vicki Rippie mentioned yesterday when I asked her if the PDC had requested the material from the WSP. (It did not, she said, contrary to what the State Patrol said.)

As Williams notes, that statutes prohibits lobbyists from exercising "any undue influence, extortion, or unlawful retaliation upon any legislator by reason of such legislator's position with respect to, or his vote upon, any pending or proposed legislation."

You be the judge. I'm not gonna repeat the whole story here, especially when I can just provide a link to past coverage.

From: Williams, Rep. Brendan [mailto:Williams.Brendan@leg.wa.gov]
Sent: Tue 3/17/2009 6:04 PM
To: Turner, Joe - Tacoma
Subject: E-mail-gate

The only arguably relevant provision of state law I can find is chapter 42.17.230(2)(e), which prohibits lobbyists from exercising "any undue influence, extortion, or unlawful retaliation upon any legislator by reason of such legislator's position with respect to, or his vote upon, any pending or proposed legislation." I'm not aware of this ambiguous statement - surely the most violated, at least in spirit, provision of state law (read any edition of BIAW's Building Insight) - being tested in court.

=> Read more!

Karen Cooper has been in charge of NARAL forever. (No offense, Karen.) But in the following e-mail news release, she introduces her successor, Lauren B. Simonds.

Simonds will take over in May.

Cooper actually has been NARAL's executive director for 15 years, which passes as "forever" in this rapidly changing world.

I would like to give you an update on my upcoming retirement and our successful search for a new executive director. We are also making a formal announcement today, but I wanted to let you know personally that NARAL has found and hired an outstanding person to take over when I leave in May.

I am pleased to inform you that our Board of Directors has selected Lauren B. Simonds, M.S.W. (pictured) to replace me as NARAL Pro-Choice Washington's executive director. Lauren is currently the executive director of the Seattle Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), a position she has held since 2003.

She has a strong history of leadership and involvement in reproductive rights; NCJW is a key participant in the Washington Alliance for Reproductive Choice, and prior to her work there she served as a clinic manager at Planned Parenthood of Western Washington and at Cedar River Clinics.

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Council plans to investigate the Assessor-Treasurer’s Office to determine whether it has the resources needed to physically inspect properties as required by state law.

The council next Tuesday will consider a measure directing its performance audit staff to review the department. The news comes a week after Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam announced that the office skipped tens of thousands of property inspections under his predecessor, Ken Madsen.

“On behalf of everyone who pays property taxes, the most important thing we can do right now is get to the bottom of this,” council Chairman Roger Bush, R-Graham, said in a statement announcing the audit. “People have to know that they – and their neighbors – are paying no more than their fair share.”

Most years the assessor’s office uses real estate sales records and other information to calculate property values for the purposes of assessing taxes. But state law requires local assessors to physically inspect properties at least once every six years. The inspections can help catch major improvements or deterioration that can affect property values.

Last week Madsen said the office did not conduct “boots on the ground” inspections of every property, but used statistical methods to assess property values.

=> Read more!

The headline on the Seattle Times blog caught my eye. Then I read who was doing the talking.

Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, chairman of the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee, said closing McNeil is one of many options Senate budget-writers are looking at to balance the state budget in light of an $8 billion-plus shortfall.

This could be the year, but I don't think so.

Hargrove for years has tried to get into the budget language to study the possible closure of the McNeil prison because it's so darn expensive to operate. He even succeeded last year or the year before, but Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed that language from the budget.

It's on an island. Everything has to be brought out there by ferry.

But the bottom line is this: The state doesn't want to go site another, brand-new prison in some other community. That new prison would cost upwards of $300 million, probably $400 million by the time it is built.

McNeil is ugly from an operating budget standpoint. But it's already there. Besides, that didn't bother Gregoire (back when she was attorney general) or then-Gov. Gary Locke or all four corners (legislative leaders) several years ago when they decided to dump the Special Commitment Center for sex predators on the island. Their own studies said it would be a whole lot cheaper to put the SCC next to the state prison in Monroe, in Snohomish County, but they put it in Pierce County anyway.

Here's what the Seattle Times posted on its blog.

There are still some bills in the Legislature which might give King County (less likely for other counties, but still possible) the authority to collect utility taxes in unincorporated areas.

Many local governments are having budget problems. King is bigger at everything.

County Budget Director forecasting a 40 to 50 million
dollar general fund shortfall for 2010

Council budget chair says services will depend on State legislative action on revenues

In the wake of a 2009 King County Budget that started with a $93.4 million gap, the County’s Budget Director today warned that the County’s general fund faces a potential shortfall of 40 to 50 million dollars in 2010.

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Labor Council president Rick Bender is pretty torqued, as he may have a right to be. House Speaker Frank Chopp, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Gov. Chris Gregoire all agreed to kill the Worker Privacy bill after a Labor Council e-mail suggested labor should not contribute any money to Democratic political action committees until the bill they wanted was passed.

"This whole thing never should have happened," Bender said. "An honest mistake occurred in copying this email to some legislators who already supported our legislation, so to characterize this internal email as some kind of threat to legislative leaders -- or a possible crime -- is absurd."

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall of the next House Democratic Caucus meeting, when labor-friendly members ask Chopp exactly why he had to kill a bill that so many of them wanted? Sorta lends credence to the belief by some (expressed to me) that Boeing didn't want the bill so leadership agreed to kill it.

UPDATE: Here's another wrinkle to this episode: State Patrol Chief John Batiste says in his news release that the state Public Disclosure Commission requested all the materials from the WSP investigation. Not true.

PDC chief Vicki Rippie just told me her agency didn't request anything. The PDC was notified by the State Patrol that all the WSP stuff would be sent to them, she said.

"We will obviously look at it," Rippie said. "But we didn't request it."

She noted there is a section of PDC civil law, RCW 42.17.230, that might apply. But it appears to this lay reader that the Labor Council is just as "not guilty" of that provision as it was "not guilty" of any criminal violation.

But Chopp and Brown might want to check with Boeing's lawyers for a second opinion.

Here's my earlier coverage on this issue.

And here's the news release I just got from the Washington State Labor Council. And below that it the State Patrol news release that said there was nothing criminal in what happened.

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Tacoma City Councilwoman Marilyn Strickland announced today that she is running for mayor.

Strickland, 46, is the second candidate to announce a run for the seat being vacated by Bill Baarsma, who is barred by term limits from running again. Tacoma architect Jim Merritt announced his candidacy in January.

Strickland was elected to the City Council in 2007 and currently serves as vice chairwoman of the council's Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee -- a committee that was formerly known simply as the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

Strickland, who ran for City Council on an education platform, is responsible for adding "education" to the committee's name.

She also serves on the council's Government Performance and Finance Committee, and is on the board of Safe Streets, the Pierce County Regional Council, and is a member of the Theatre District Association.

Strickland said she is running for mayor because she believes Tacoma needs to maintain its momentum.

=> Read more!

It seems as if this project has been in the works forever, but as soon as it stops raining, crews will start paving on the 8-mile section of Interstate 5 between Grand Mound and Maytown in Thurston County.

Paving begins on I-5 widening project south of Olympia

OLYMPIA - Interstate 5 drivers in Thurston County should expect delays starting this week as crews working on a freeway-widening project begin paving in the median.

Over the next several weeks, frequent rolling slowdowns and nighttime single-lane closures are needed to get trucks and equipment in and out of the median. The paving will start once the wet weather subsides.

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It's 8.4 percent now. And Arun Raha, state's chief economist, now says he expects it to reach 10 percent in 2010, largely because the economic stimulus stuff will be slower to produce jobs than he thought a few weeks ago.

NOTE: On May 3, unemployment benefits rise to a minimum of $225 a week. The maximum will be $611 a week. (Cheryl Hutchison at Employment Security confirmed those amounts do include the $25-a-week federal increases that were part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved by Congress.)

As for unemployment, here's a link to the Schmudget, the blog by the Washington State Budget and Policy Center. I love how they do graphics to illustrate stuff. Here's the one they did on unemployment projections.

Washington’s unemployment rate rose in February

OLYMPIA – Washington’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.4 percent in February, up from January’s rate of 7.8 percent, according to the state Employment Security Department.

The state lost an estimated 28,200 non-agricultural jobs, seasonally adjusted.

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From D.C. Correspondent Les Blumenthal:

It's called clout and evidently Washington state still has some on Capitol Hill.

You'd think with Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Norm Dicks, Washington state would have a lot. But Roll Call says Washington ranks 14th when it comes to clout in the current Congress with a score of 425.

The rankings are based on such things as size of delegation, number of full committee chairmen and ranking members, number of members on most influential committees, leadership posts, number of members in the majority party and per capita federal spending.

Not surprisingly, California ranks No. 1 with the speaker of the House and a slug of committee chairman. California is followed by New York, Texas, Michigan and Florida. At the bottom are Idaho, Delaware, New Hampshire, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Oregon was tied with Maine at 39th.

Washington state's clout has grown over the years. In the previous Congress, it was ranked 15th and before that 30th and 29th.

Read the Roll Call story here.

Adjust your television viewing plans accordingly.

The Tacoma City Council has canceled tomorrow's study session and business meeting because a majority of council members are in Washington D.C. attending the National League of Cities annual Congressional City Conference.

Six of the nine council members made the trip, which also included a series of meetings on Friday with members of Washington's congressional delegation to talk about federal stimulus money.

Mayor Bill Baarsma and council members Spiro Manthou and Marilyn Strickland did not travel.

It's the second time this year that a majority of Tacoma's council has traveled to the other Washington. In January, six of the nine council members went to D.C., and the agenda that time also included talk about how Tacoma would spend federal stimulus money.

Because a majority of the council made the trip, the group's meetings in D.C. are open to the public under Washington's Open Public Meeting Act.

I didn't ask the bosses for travel money to attend, however. And I suspect Allen Douglass also is taking the week off, though I don't know that for certain.

I finally got a copy of the infamous e-mail.

It doesn't seem that over the top, at least not so bad as the reaction implied.

Here is a link to my earlier coverage of the governor and legislative leaders killing the Worker Privacy Act bill.

And both of them are playing in Portland on Thursday.

The UW is against Mississippi State and Gonzaga plays Akron.

Here's nifty March Madness bracket.

State lawmakers are nearing the home stretch of their 105-day session in Olympia. A looming budget crisis has dominated this year’s discussions and many money-related issues have yet to be resolved. But in the meantime, legislators have made progress on a variety of subjects. This is our annual update of where legislation stands just past the session’s midpoint.

To learn more about each bill, go to leg.wa.gov/billinfo. Type the four-digit bill number into the box and when the next screen comes up, click on Bill Report. That is a summary of what the bill would do, who testified in favor of and against the bill, and what their arguments were.

TAX & SPEND

Budget and taxes: The state now faces an estimated $8.31 billion deficit over the next 28 months. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a no-new-taxes budget. Senate Democrats say they will unveil their budget proposal sometime after Thursday’s revenue forecast. The state is getting about $3 billion in help from Uncle Sam, but the Legislature will have to make deeper cuts than the governor did in her proposal. Lawmakers are likely to ask voters in June, August or November to raise taxes, and polling indicates voters might go for temporary taxes, especially if they are on liquor, cigarettes, candy, gum and pop.

Capital budget: Pots of money ordinarily earmarked for construction projects might be raided to help the state out of its $8.31 billion shortfall on the operating side of the budget, perhaps $300 million to $800 million. Some, but not all, of the projects that are losing money would be replenished by borrowed funds. Part of budget discussion.

State hiring freeze: The governor signed HB 1694, which puts a partial freeze (prison workers and some others are exempt) on state hiring, cuts $300 million in spending for 2007-09, uses federal funds instead of state money to pay for $340 million of other programs and requires special permission to buy things that cost more than $1,000. If those cuts are continued through 2009-11, they shave another $1 billion off the state’s $8.31 billion budget shortfall.

Liquor stores: The governor wants to open 10 more stores to bring in $21 million more revenue for the state. Part of budget discussions.

King County car tax: The County Council wants authority to impose a 1 percent motor vehicle excise tax countywide to raise more money for transit service. Never got off the ground.

Porn tax: HB 2103 would have let the state impose an 18.5 percent sales tax on visual pornography. Died without getting a public hearing in the House Finance Committee.

=> Read more!

It looks as if the commission held a special, hurry-up telephonic meeting after its 9 members heard the state Senate passed a bill that would diminish their numbers and give the governor authority to appoint the agency's executive director.

SB 5127 would shrink the board to 5 from 9 members. (I incorrectly said last week that the version that passed would have shrunken it 7 members from 9 members.

Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources, Oceans and Recreation Committee, said the bill still is being worked on and he plans to continue negotiations with Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, and (I think) Rep. Brian Blake.

WASHINGTON FISH AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

Position Statement on SB 5127

During this morning’s Fish and Wildlife Commission conference call, the members discussed and approved a position statement regarding Senate Bill 5127. The statement is included at the end of this message.

The audio clip from this morning’s Commission conference call is available for listening on the Internet at:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2009/03/mar1309.html

The Commission is opposed to passage of SB 5127.

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Remember Proposition 1, that $18 billion ballot measure from last November? That's where voters in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties approved an additional 0.5 percent increase in the sales tax to pay for more light-rail, Sounder commuter rail and regional bus service. (OK. Most of Pierce County did vote "no" on that measure, but we're all joined at the hip.

That means the sales tax in most of Pierce County will rise from 8.8 percent to 9.3 percent.

Sound Transit 0.5% Sales Tax Increase Takes Effect April 1
Seattle, Wash., March 13, 2009 — The Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) sales tax will increase five-tenths of one percent to a total of nine-tenths of one percent on April 1.

The 0.5 percent increase was approved by voters last November. It will be used to expand and coordinate light-rail, commuter-rail, and express bus service, and improve access to transit facilities in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties. The rate increase applies to the majority of urban areas in those counties.

Once the higher rate takes effect, overall general sales tax rates will be up to 9.5 percent in King County, 9.4 percent in Snohomish County, and 9.3 percent in Pierce County. Rates depend on exact locations within counties, cities and other taxing districts.

The Department provides a sales tax rate lookup tool accessible from http://dor.wa.gov. A publication showing tax rates for all locations beginning April 1 is available at http://dor.wa.gov/Docs/forms/ExcsTx/LocSalUseTx/LocalSlsUseFlyer_Quarterly.pdf. This publication includes new location codes for areas of Auburn, Bellevue and Woodinville that are outside the RTA boundaries.

Questions about the rate change also can be directed to the Department’s toll-free help line, 1-800-647-7706.

Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s Office employees have come forward to confirm the office skipped physical inspections of properties. So I asked the state Department of Revenue what – if anything – it will do to ensure the physical inspections are done here.

Department spokesman Mike Gowrylow responded with the following statement:

While the Department is dismayed to learn that the previous assessor was inaccurately reporting the number of physical inspections he conducted, we are pleased to see that the current assessor is taking steps to correct the problem. We stand by to provide technical assistance to the assessor’s office to help it conduct the physical inspections as required by state law. The law requires physical inspections, and we will be consulting with the assessor’s office to make sure they get done.

The very purpose of the annual progress reports we require of assessors is to alert us to any problems they may be having in meeting their obligations, so we can step in to render whatever assistance we can. We can’t help an assessor who conceals deficiencies by filing false reports. We appreciate the fact that assessors in many counties are under severe budget constraints that make it difficult for them to comply with property valuation laws, but that is no excuse for taking a liberal interpretation of what constitutes a physical inspection. The visual observation requirement is very clear in state law. However, there are no statutory penalties for failing to meet physical inspections requirements. Rather, following the law is the obligation of the elected county official. We expect these officials to comply with state law, and to manage their staffs to that end. Again, it is disappointing to learn that this wasn’t happening in Pierce County.

That’s the message Lakewood Mayor Doug Richardson gave me today after I called about an incident at Monday’s City Council meeting.

It went down like this: The Lakewood City Council adjourned to executive session around 9 p.m., Monday to review the annual performance of City Manager Andrew Neiditz.

With the exception of me and another person, the room cleared as council members walked into a closed meeting room. A custodial crew began cleaning the City Council chambers. A Lakewood police officer also stuck around.

I was chatting with a meeting regular in Lakewood – Ken Severe — when the officer asked us to leave at the request of the custodians. Although we knew the public meeting hadn’t officially ended, we figured it wasn’t a big deal. We walked to the lobby.

Once there, we chatted with another regular meeting attendee – Fredric Cornell. While the three of us spoke, the police officer walked up and asked us to wait outside (in the cold, snowy weather).

=> Read more!

Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam said Thursday he plans to devote as much staff time as possible to addressing a backlog of property inspections that accumulated under his predecessor.

But Washam said it could be years before every property that wasn’t inspected as scheduled gets a visit by a county appraiser.

“If I can complete it in four years, I’ll do it,” Washam said. “If I can complete it in three years, I’ll do it.”

Washam pledged to address the backlog a day after telling the County Council the assessor’s office skipped state-required physical inspections on more than 181,000 residential properties – well over half of properties requiring inspection. He said the office also skipped inspections for tens of thousands of commercial properties.

Documents and interviews with current and former assessor-treasurer employees indicate the office skipped inspections on many properties for at least six years under former Assessor-Treasurer Ken Madsen.

Most years the assessor’s office uses statistical methods to value residential, commercial and industrial property for tax purposes. But state law requires local assessors to physically inspect properties at least once every six years.

The visits allow appraisers to spot significant improvements or deterioration to properties that can affect the assessed value. Skipping the inspections could lead some properties to be undervalued or overvalued. It could also create unequal assessments for similar properties.

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The Puget Sound Regional Council executive board today settled on how to divide $214 million in federal stimulus funds for transit and transportation projects in the region.

The full list is below, but for those who want to know what's in it for us (us being Pierce County), here is the upshot:

Transportation funding:

Transit funding:

Reporter Melissa Santos is covering the meeting and will have more later.

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Former Assessor-Treasurer Ken Madsen this week finds himself trying to explain why his office didn’t conduct – as he puts it – “boots on the ground” inspections for every parcel in Pierce County. But it’s not the first time Madsen has faced such questions.

In 2005, Madsen faced a recall petition filed by Dale Washam, who won election to the assessor’s post last November. In a court hearing on the recall petition, Madsen testified on the issue of whether the office physically inspected properties.

Specifically, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee asked Madsen about 89, 000 parcels that Washam and others claimed had been falsely reported as physically inspected.

According to a verbatim transcript of the hearing (you can download a copy below), McPhee asked Madsen: “…do you contend that in those reports, that those 89,000 parcels approximately were physically inspected by someone in your office?”

Madsen responded that the number reported was “a combination of physical appraisal – or physical inspection and statistical update or statistical appraisal.”

Madsen explained that the assessor’s office used computer analysis to identify parcels where “we need to put boots on the ground.”

McPhee followed up: “Do I understand your answer to mean that for those approximately 89,000 parcels … that there may have been some of those that were not physically inspected?”

Madsen responded: “I would agree with that.”

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You can knock Sen. Maria Cantwell for supporting Sen. John McCain's call to strip all earmarks from the omnibus spending bill, then turning around and supporting the bill, complete with nearly 100 earmarks she supported. (See Les Blumenthal's story.) But when you look at the details of what such spending would support in our area, it's hard not to feel some ambivalence.

Others in Washington's delegation staked out their positions clearly. Sen. Patty Murray, who ranks no. 12 in the Senate in securing earmarks in this bill, made a floor speech defending such "congressionally directed spending." Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, true to his declaration of a unilateral earmark moratorium, did not sign on to any.

Sen. Cantwell did not offer an explanation for her seeming contradiction, but here is a reasonable defense: I don't like the way earmarks have been abused. I've supported recent reforms, and along with President Obama support further reforms. But for the moment, they are part of the game and I'm not doing my job for constituents if I don't play that game and help get money for projects that might otherwise get shut out.

Would that make her a hypocrite or a realist?

Below is the itemized list of earmarks for Pierce County and the region. Whether they are pork or progress may depend on where you live.

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UPDATE No. 2 (1:54 p.m.)

Statement from Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council

We regret the incident. It was a result of frustration with the legislature’s failure to protect workers' rights in the workplace. Our job is to always protect workers' rights.

We do not believe that any law has been violated and we have no additional comments until we know where this will go.

Thank you very much.

So, I guess the Labor Council is admitting to something, but not to a crime. (Reminds me of the apology that Jason Giambi made a couple years ago, without ever saying he took steroids.)

UPDATE No. 1: House members have been briefed, but many of them are not happy about the sketchiness of the details that the House lawyer, Tim Sekerak, and Frank Chopp's lawyer, Cathy Maynard, are giving them, or not giving them.

According to someone at the briefing: Someone on the labor side of the Worker Privacy Act, possibly someone at the Washington State Labor Council itself, allegedly sent a threatening e-mail to two senators and two representative. It was something like, move the bill forward or you get no more contributions from us.

"We get stuff like that all the time -- 'if you don't do this, I'm never going to contribute to you again!'" one lawmaker said. "What's different in this e-mail?"

(All the stuff below is actually from my first postings on this topic.)

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LeMay Automobile Museum officials, hampered by the frozen credit market, are turning to the City of Tacoma for money.

City and museum officials outlined a plan Tuesday in which the museum would borrow $3.5 million from the city and leverage the money with other funds to build the first phase of the planned Harold E. LeMay Museum near the Tacoma Dome.

The money would come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 108 loan program. Tacoma would borrow the money from HUD and re-lend it to the museum.

Tacoma has participated in the Section 108 program for about 20 years, but has not made a loan from it in about three or four years, said Martha Anderson, assistant director of the the city's Community and Economic Development Department.

That's because private markets were providing a sufficient flow of funds, and the program comes with enough rules that borrowers don't use it unless they have to, Anderson said in a meeting of the City Council's Economic Development Committee.

David Madeira, museum president and CEO, told the council committee members that the museum tried to get financing for the new building last May and was told there was no money. Officials began looking for other options and discovered "new market tax credits."

The New Markets Tax Credit Program is a separate federal initiative that would provide another piece of the funding puzzle. That, combined with a Section 108 loan -- as well as private bank financing -- would allow the museum to move forward with construction on the $28.4 million first phase.

"This is a big piece of the picture to us," Madeira said.

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It's JUST a budget drill, but if the $8 billion budget shortfall didn't get the attention of legislators, the budget-cutting exercise will.

Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, told me a couple weeks ago that the first round of the exercise was to assume an all-cuts budget with no federal stimulus funds. (But I'm not sure if the information I got this morning was based on those ground rules. It matters a lot. The gravity of the situation, and all.)

Anyway, here's what the House is looking at after that extreme exercise:

1. 100 percent elimination of the Basic Health Plan, the state-subsidize health coverage program for working poor. The governor's budget proposal called for a 40 percent cut to save $252 million, so I'm assuming total elimination would save about $700 million.
2. Eliminate General Assistance Unemployable (GAU) and Alcohol Drug Addiction Treatment Support Act (ADATSA), same as the governor did in her budget proposal. That saves $415 million.
3. Eliminate the "backfill" for county public health departments. I think that adds up to about $50 million over a 2-year budget. (This is the money that went away after Tim Eyman's I-695 and the Legislature's decision to repeal the state Motor Vehicle Excise Tax.)
4. Eliminate the Adult dental, vision and hearing services under the Medicaid program. Don't have a dollar amount for that one yet.
5. A 14 percent cut to hospital reimbursement rates. (The guv had 4 percent cuts in her budget.)
6. Ten percent deeper cuts to nursing home reimbursements. (The governor did cut some in her budget, but the Legislature countermanded those cuts in its "belt-tightening" bill of a couple weeks ago.

Susan Eidenschink (League of Women Voters), Robbie Stern, chairman of the Healthy Washington Coalition and Jack Johnson of Community Action Network happened by as I was writing this up. So I asked what they thought of the drill.

"If the cuts are like that, they're drastic," Eidenschink said. "The safety net would be just about demolished."

Stern said that drill must not take into account the $1.77 billion the state is getting in additional Medicaid dollars from the feds because the cuts should not be that deep. And if they are that deep, that means the state budget-writers are diverting state dollars that are freed up by the arrival of federal health dollars to other uses, he said.

I also got a hold of Cassie Sauer, spokeswoman for the Washington State Hospital Association, which has an abiding interest in all things related to health care, and asked her for a comment.

"They are very scary about where we might be headed in an all-cuts budget," she said of the proposed cuts, drill or not. "The level of devastation to the health care safety net and to vulnerable people who need health care is immense."

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Matt Bergman, managing partner of Bergman Draper & Frockt, a Seattle law firm that specializes in asbestos litigation, has stepped down, taking the blame for the full-page newspaper ads that tried to pressure three state senators into passing a bill into law.

The senators retaliated by killing the bill, Senate Bill 5964.

Mark Firmani, who handles public relations for the firm, confirmed a few minutes ago that an e-mail that was sent to me anonymously is, in fact, authentic.

Bergman left Monday for Kenya, to open another school he has built with his own funds, Firmani said. Bergman is not resigning from the firm; he is just stepping down as its managing partner, Firmani said.

The ads ran last week in newspapers in the legislative districts of Sens. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island and Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam. The ads suggested the three senators were blocking passage of an asbestos-litigation bill, thus denying justice to a client of the law firm, whose husband had died at at 57 because of exposure to asbestos at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard.

The senators blamed a former colleague, Brian Weinstein, a member of the law firm who until December was a state senator representing Mercer Island, for the heavy handed ads.
The ad that ran in The News Tribune cost about $10,000.

Bergman said it was his call to run the ads:

"Recent events in Olympia have given me reason to doubt my leadership. It is not so much the content of my decision to run the ads (I’ve made mistakes before) or the result of the decision but rather the manner in which the decision was made.
I am distressed that a course of action as significant as attacking Democratic senators in the midst of the most stressful legislative session in a decade was made in haste with so little deliberation, consultation and foresight."

Here is the full letter:

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Pierce County Assessor Treasurer Dale Washam today told the County Council that the office skipped tens of thousands of property inspections required by state law to ensure properties are assessed fairly for tax purposes.

At a budget hearing this morning, Washam said the office skipped inspections on more than 181,000 residential parcels under his predecessor, Ken Madsen. That’s well over half the residential parcels in the county.

Washam also said the office failed to inspect tens of thousands of commercial properties.

I’ve spoken with several current and former assessor-treasurer employees in recent days who also contend the inspections weren’t done. I’m calling Madsen today to seek comment.

State law requires local assessors to physically inspect every parcel at least every six years. In other years assessors can use statistical methods to update property values by comparing sales of comparable properties.

The physical inspections catch improvements like garages or decks that can substantially increase the value of homes. They also can uncover significant damage or other problems that can lead to declining values.

When asked at this morning meeting what impact the lack of physical inspections had on property owners, Washam said he asked his appraisers the same question. “The answer I got is, we can’t answer,” he said.

Update: I just got off the phone with Ken Madsen. He conceded his office did not conduct "boots on the ground" inspections of every parcel. However, he said the office "touched" every parcel, though some were touched by statistical analysis.

"It depends on what you mean by physical inspection," Madsen said.

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Gov. Chris Gregoire has picked the guy she wants to be her first state "Secretary of Commerce." Now all she has to do is get the Legislature to convert part of an existing state agency in the "Department of Commerce."

Rogers Weed, former Microsoft exec, will start his new job next Monday at a salary of $147,000 a year. (He must taking a huge pay cut.)

If you'll recall, the governor said she wants to change the focus of the existing state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development to "commerce."

Here is the bill that will to that: House Bill 2242.

CTED is the agency that has become a catch-all for everything under the sun. (Tell me why that agency would be in charge of setting up housing programs for newly released prison inmates? Is that part of the "Community" mission?)

Here's the guv's news release from yesterday. (I deleted it without reading because the subject line didn't mention the new cabinet appointment. But Pearse Edwards sent me another one. Shame on me.)

Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke is working his way through the confirmation process in the U.S. Senate for the national commerce job. Reed technically should be confirmed by our state Senate, but he can serve without being confirmed.

Gov. Gregoire calls on business, labor leaders to fuel engine of innovation

Governor introduces Rogers Weed as her new commerce director at forum

SEATTLE – Gov. Chris Gregoire today named former Microsoft Vice President Rogers Weed as the director of the Department of Commerce to help lead Washington state through the deepening national recession and into a thriving economy for the 21st century.

“Rogers is the very essence of an innovator, as evidenced by his high-level contributions to Microsoft products ranging from Windows to Encarta to Pocket PCs,” Gregoire said, “and he is a proven leader and a family man.”

“I want Rogers to wake up every morning with a laser-like focus on keeping the companies and jobs we have, and bringing new jobs and companies to our state — and I mean both large and small companies,” Gregoire said, announcing the appointment during a major economic speech in Seattle.

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I'm pretty late to this party. But once again, newly minted Democrat, Sen. Fred Jarrett of Mercer Island, sent me an invitation.

Who will replace Ron Sims, who's on his way to Washington D.C. and the Obama Administration?

March 11, 2009

Dear Joe,
You may have read recent press reports that I might be a candidate for King County Executive this year. Over the past several months many of my friends and supporters have encouraged me to consider entering this race.

I am currently occupied with my Senate duties and will be until the session ends. That is my priority. I am deeply involved in strengthening education and the challenges of our budget, and the economic situation our state faces. Even if I decided to run, I am prohibited from doing so during the legislative session. Consequently, I've answered those who've suggested the race that while I saw the opportunities a new county executive would have, I didn't know how it could be done

This weekend, Susan and I talked about the race. What it would mean for our family and what I could bring to the race. We decided we should take a closer look into whether such a candidacy would be feasible.

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Senate Bill 5688 says, "It is the intent of the Legislature that for all purposes under state law, state-registered domestic partners must be treated the same as married spouses."

It stops short of authorizing same-sex marriages, however.

The Senate passed the measure Tuesday night on a largely partyline vote, 30-18, with Democrats in the majority. Sens. Jim Hargrove of Hoqiuam, Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, Paull Shin of Mukilteo and Brian Hatfield of Raymond were the only two Democrats to vote against the bill.

The House is expected to pass its own bill, which has 57 sponsors out of 98 members, or may just pass the Senate bill. SB 5688 was sent to the House.

Prime sponsor, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the dean of the gay caucus in the legislature, put out a statement, which is posted below. (My guess is that Murray's bill is the one that will be signed into law, because of his veteran status in the Legislature. He replaced the laate Cal Anderson, the first openly gay member in the Legislature. At the time, Murray was an aide to Seattle City Councilwoman Martha Choe. Anyone remember that far back?)

Again, I digress.

Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, wanted to put the measure on the ballot for a public vote. He predicted voters would defeat a measure.

"Washington is not ready for gay marriage, but this bill would amount to legalizing gay marriage – it just takes us there through the back door rather than through the front door," Swecker said.

Here is Murray's statement, followed by Swecker's:

Senate approves ‘final step in state’s domestic partnership effort’

=> Read more!

House Bill 2122 would reduce the business and occupation tax for people in the business of "printing or publishing a newspaper" to the same rate paid by The Boeing Co., Weyerhaueser and Microsoft, according to industry lobbyist Roland Thompson of Allied Daily Newspapers.

That's a 43 percent cut from where it is now. The reduction would take effect July 1 and apparently would last indefinitely. The summary of testimony before the House Finance Committee indicated newspapers said they needed the tax break until about 2015.

The bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, would cost the state about $3 million to $5 million in lower tax collections over the 2009-11 biennium, Thompson said. (And save newspapers that amount, collectively.)

There is no fiscal note yet to show a more precise impact on state revenues.

=> Read more!

Officials from throughout Pierce County have agreed to change the list of local road projects they want to receive economic stimulus funding.

The Pierce County arm of the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) voted Tuesday night to drop a paving project in unincorporated Pierce County from its list of recommended projects and slightly reduce the amount of money that would go toward a Port of Tacoma project.

The change allows Eatonville’s Rural Town Center project to move onto the list of projects moving forward to the PSRC, which will make the final decision Thursday on how to distribute $78 million in funds from the federal stimulus package.

“I feel good and bad,” Eatonville Mayor Tom Smallwood said Tuesday. “I feel good because we’re getting a share. I feel bad for the other agencies in the county.”

Two local projects remained unchanged on the list of recommendations: Puyallup’s Shaw Road extension and Orting’s State Route 162 Rechannelization.

The PSRC executive board still must approve the list of projects before they can receive funding.

=> Read more!

The House passed this measure on a 70-26 vote after it was amended twice at the last minute.

House Bill 1114 would require 14-year-olds who are hunting birds or wild life on publicly owned lands to be accompanied by someone at least 18 years old. That adult must have taken a hunting safety class, but not necessarily be a licensed hunter.

And if this law is violated? It's not a crime. The hunter gets a ticket.

This is the Legislature's response to a teenage hunter mistaking another person for an animal and shooting her. The bill now goes to the Senate.

City of Tacoma Public Works street maintenance crew Russ Stone, left, and Erik Sloan, right, fill the potholes with a patching material on S. Hosmer Street near the S. 72nd Street in Tacoma. The city is facing the snow removal costs and pothole problems arising in the aftermath of the recent snow storm. (Lui Kit Wong/The News Tribune) (1/2/09)

Message received.

In response to a public outcry, City Manager Eric Anderson unveiled a plan to council members on Tuesday that aims to fix virtually all of the city’s potholes on its main arterials by this summer.

Anderson scoured the city’s capital budget and came up with $4.2 million to pay for the work, which will include a combination of individual pothole patches, wheel path replacements and some complete lane replacements.

The manager, who has spent most of his career in colder climes of the Midwest, called Tacoma’s current pothole trouble beyond the scale of what cities usually encounter. He blamed the dire road conditions on a combination of “failing streets and a much, much harder winter,” than last year.

Council members cautioned against raising expectations too high: The plan does not address the city’s residential streets. A separate program is funding gradual repair of the city’s the long-neglected residential streets.

In addition, the plan stops short of funding all of the arterial lanes that city officials identified as needing replacement. Anderson said he found money for 86 percent of the needed lane-width replacements.
And officials said the city has identified an additional $65 million in maintenance and repair work needed just on arterial streets.

Even so, council members – who hear from irate motorists – welcomed the manager’s announcement.

=> Read more!

The cumulative shortfall in actual tax collections since November, the last official revenue forecast, is $239 million.

This latest report, even though it is from Feb. 11 through March 10, actually reflects holiday spending because of a lag in tax collection payments and reporting.

Here is the link to the Revenue collection report.

Thanks to NARAL, here is one single list that has ALL of the town hall meetings that legislators are holding this upcoming weekend.

Most are on Saturday, the 14th. But a few are on the 12th and 13th.

Go. And tell them how YOU want them to balance the budget.

The Pierce County Council got some sobering news this morning as it began hearings on how to balance the county budget: cut spending now and plan to cut again later. And expect next year to be even worse.

The council convened the first of several meetings devoted to figuring out how to cover what originally was expected to be an $8 million revenue shortfall. As sales tax revenues continue to slump, the shortfall has grown to an estimated $10 million to $12 million.

Budget director Pat Kenney told the council this morning it could get worse. By June the county will have a better idea how property taxes, planning department fees and other revenue sources are shaping up for the year.

Until then, Kenney asked the council to stick with the $8 million figure as it decides how to balance the budget this month. But he also said he'll be back for more cuts.

“There are going to be more cuts that need to be made,” Kenney said.

The next round may not involve the kind of across-the-board cuts County Executive Pat McCarthy recently proposed.

Kenney said the executive’s staff is studying the budget with an eye toward eliminating entire programs that aren’t top priorities. He said the next round of cuts likely will force the council to see “what you’re willing to let go because you have to.”

Bad as 2009 may be, Kenney said 2010 will be even worse. The county has been relying on its general fund balance and other one-time fixes to shore up this year’s budget. Those fixes may not be available next year.

“I think 2010 is likely to be worse than what you’re facing now,” Kenney told the council.

Update: Pat Kenney called to clarify that additional budget cuts may come either this summer or as part of next year's budget.

"It could be either or it could be both," Kenney said.

I wish I'd thought of that. And I'd like to tell you who actually thought of it first, but I can't tell.

I heard Gov. Chris Gregoire mention parts of that idea Monday at her morning news conference. (Her mention of it reportedly surprised her staff, too.)

But two weeks earlier, a lobbyist told me to look for something like that coming out of the Legislature. I even interviewed new state Treasurer Jim McIntire to see what effect borrowing money and raiding other state funds and a whole bunch of other things would have on the state's bond rating. (Pretty much none, he said.)

UPDATE: Dave Ammons, who is now over at state elections HQ, has a memory for past voter-approved bond issues and access to the one he can't personally remember. Check out his blog posting from earlier today.

And I heard the Legislature might make a raid on the Public Works Trust Fund to help balance its 2009-11 operating budget in the face of an $8 billion-ish shortfall. There's would be almost $400 million to be grabbed from there. (They would take that money for the operating budget, but then go borrow money the same amount to lend out to cities, counties, fire, water, sewer districts, etc. So, presumably, no one would get hurt. I was wondering how they could do all this. More later.)

(Quick explanation of that account: It's a revolving fund created in 1985, fed by some real estate excise taxes, utility taxes and the repayment of low-interest loans to cities, et. al. who use the 1-percent interest money to build stuff, and pay it back over 10 years, I think. Tacoma's second pipeline from the Green River got about $50 million from that pot of money.)

But I digress...

So, then I asked state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, about that possibility and Dunshee said there is talk about grabbing that money and other funds to come up with $500 million more than the governor did in her budget proposal.

=> Read more!

A jail for federal detainees is located at 1623 East J Street, on Tacoma, Washington's tideflats. The Northwest Detention Center operates under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security. (Bruce Kellman/The News Tribune)

The Geo Group, Inc., operator of the federal immigration lockup on the Tacoma Tideflats, has gone to court to block the City of Tacoma from releasing building plans and other public records to a civil rights activist.

Releasing the approximately 11 volumes of information would pose a security risk to the Northwest Detention Center, attorney Joan Mell argued in a lawsuit filed March 4 in Pierce County Superior Court.

The company is asking a judge to block the release, citing security and trade secret grounds. "Access to the information increases the likelihood of escape attempts and makes power and phone lines vulnerable," Mell argued.

Florida-based Geo Group owns and operates the Northwest Detention Center. It has a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The company is expanding the facility from 1,000 to 1,500 beds and submitted detailed building records to the City of Tacoma, according to the lawsuit.

Tim Smith, an activist with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee-Tacoma, requested the records last month. On Feb. 25, city officials informed the Geo Group that the requested materials had been compiled and would be turned over to Smith on March 2.

In addition to building records, Smith asked for documents, studies, email and other correspondence related to the business for periods covering April 1, 2004 to January 2005, and from October 2008 to January 2009.

A hearing is scheduled for June 26.

Or, as the Senate prefers to describe Senate Bill 6048, "a work in progress."

That's because none of the major, hard, money-costing decisions about how to finance basic education will be done until sometime after 2011, assuming we get out of what might be classified as a depression by then.

Those hard choices would have been done in HB 1410 and SB 5444. But they died. And even those bills dodged the main issue, providing about $2-3 billion more for K-12 funding.

Former state Treasurer, Rep. and Sen. Dan Grimm, the chair of the Basic Ed Finance Task Force, must be rolling over in his grave. Oh, wait! He's not dead yet. His bills are. Whew!

The Senate also passed a bill last night that "fronts" money to teachers who want to get board certified by a national group so they will qualify for a $5,000-a-year bonus for at least 10 years.

They would get an advance of $2,000 under SB 5714.

Here's the news release for the package of education bills the Senate passed on Monday.

Senate passes comprehensive education package

OLYMPIA — The Senate Thursday night approved a new funding model for the state’s constitutionally-protected program of basic education in Washington, advancing Senate Bill 6048 as a work in progress.
Lawmakers also approved a raft of other education bills Thursday to improve student learning, establish an education data system and improve graduation rates. All now move to the House for consideration.

=> Read more!

As the Pierce County Council begins a series of budget hearings this morning, there’s more bad news.

The proposed $17.5 million sale of the county’s Elk Plain road shop property has fallen through. Buyer Madison Development Group informed the county two weeks ago it is backing out of the sale.

Here’s the problem: the money is already budgeted to be spent on various capital projects, including the purchase of the Tacoma Narrows Airport, transportation projects near 176th Street East and Canyon Road, the county’s new road maintenance facility in Frederickson and another maintenance facility near Bonney Lake. Another $1 million from the sale was set aside to begin developing a park in Graham.

Public works director Brian Ziegler told the council’s Rules Committee Monday the collapse of the sale is “a huge problem.” He said County Executive Pat McCarthy is considering several options to address it. Though the airport purchase apparently won’t be affected, cuts in road maintenance, operations, administration and other expenses are on the table.

But there’s a bigger problem. Gas, real estate and other taxes and fees that pay for road projects are down dramatically because of the sluggish economy. That jeopardizes the county’s entire roads budget.

“Our road fund and current construction program are not sustainable,” Ziegler told the Rules Committee.

Ziegler said he will ask the council to revisit the county’s long-term transportation plan in April. In the meantime, the council today will begin addressing an operating revenue shortfall that has grown to $10 to $12 million.

The House passed the so-called "Payday loan" bill Monday night on a 84-10 vote.

CORRECTION: That 84-10 vote corrects an earlier posting that said it was 94-0. The vote was correct in one place online and wrong in another. Thanks, Rachel.

It doesn't appear to force lenders to charge lesser fees or interest. Instead, it sets a $700 limit on the total amount of money any person can borrow, altogether. Borrowers also can get no more than 30 percent of their monthly income in a payday loan.

The bill, prime sponsored by Rep. Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, also lets borrowers set up installment payment plans from 90 to 180 days if they become delinquent. The maximum duration of a pay-day loan today is 45 days.

I know some groups wanted to rein in payday lenders even more, but this appears to be the bill that's going to pass.

Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma, chairman of the House Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, brokered parts of this bill.

Here is the bill report for House Bill 1709.

I'm not sure exactly what House Bill 1123 does anymore. I do know that it is much watered-down from its original form, thanks to opposition by the hospital and medical associations. (I know, I know, they say "concerns" but that's just code for, "Your honor, I object.")

It basically just requires hospitals to adopt a policy for MRSA, when to test people for it, what to do when they test positive, etc. by Jan. 1, 2010.

MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureaus. That's a hard-to-kill flesh-eating organism that many people actually get while they're in hospitals.

Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, is the prime sponsor. He offered up a floor amendment that changed the bill quite a bit and I haven't had a chance to digest it. He's a pragmatist. This probably is all he could get, given the opposition of some pretty big players.

As I recall, his original bill would have forced hospitals to test for MRSA a lot. The final one doesn't. That's probably why it passed 97-0 late Monday night.

UPDATE: Campbell said the bill doesn't do as much as he wanted, but it still does a few things. It makes hospitals screen everyone in the intensive care unit for MRSA within 24 hours of admission. And it's stronger bill than the one in the Senate, he said.

Here is the bill report on HB 1123.

Here's Campbell's take on things:

=> Read more!

The House on Monday, on a 65-31 mostly partyline vote, passed House Bill 1329, measure that creates still another group of private-sector employees to be unionized.

Hence, the Republican opposition to the bill. The bill was sent to the Senate.

The bill lets the owner-operators, aka directors, and their workers form a union for purposes of bargaining with the state for wages and benefits. This is much like what happened with home-care workers, although the Service Employees International Union used a ballot measure to get most of the way there.

The independent providers and agency workers covered by these contracts are, indeed, a lot better off that $8.55-minimum wage workers they probably still would have been. Of course, state taxpayers are paying those higher wages and benefits. (This is a cue for SEIU 775NW's Adam Glickman to weigh in here to talk about how the union's members are getting screwed by the governor's decision to cancel funding for their most recent contract. The union is suing, and they have a better chance of winning than the Federation, which lost. Take it away, Adam!)

The connection to government in this bill is that the child care centers eligible for unionization must have at least one child of a parent who is getting state-subsidized child-care payments. This is a huge number because the WorkFirst program, the modern version of welfare, spends most of its money now on child-care so moms can work or look for work.

Exempt from the bill are chains of day care centers with 10 or more centers, as well as all the day cares run by state and local goverments or tribes.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, gave one of her constitutents an explanation of the rationale for the exemptions, although she was talking about the very similar Senate version of the bill.

"My understanding of why the exemption for the YMCAs, KinderCares, and other large entities that provide licensed child care is that they have operations around the state and as they are large organizations, provide higher wages and benefits than do other small programs," she wrote in a recent e-mail.

House Bill 1481 is the vehicle, if you will, to give a sales tax break on the sale of electric vehicles, batteries and installation of infrastructure such as charging outlets.

It also tells the state to start installing charging stations for electric cars at state agency fleet garages and at rest areas and accomplish that by Dec. 31, 2015. It would set a goal of 40 percent electric or biofuel vehicles in fleets for state agencies and local governments by mid-2013.

Lastly, the bill tells the Puget Sound Regional Council, which encompasses Pierce, King, Snohomish and Kitsap counties to study how to set up network for plug-in outlets all over the region and bring its recommendations back to the Legislature.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Deb Eddy, D-Kirkland, passed on a 71-23 vote. (I wonder what ever happened to that other "Electric Eddy" bill to make schools turn out the lights when Elvis leaves the building.)

This bill may turn out to be the most dramatic environmental measure of the session in its own right, and also considering how other "green" proposals are faltering so far.

Here is Eddy's take on things:

House passes Eddy’s legislation to encourage use of electric cars

Promoting electric cars will support state’s environmental and economic health

=> Read more!

That's what House Bill 1572 would do, and it was passed by the House today on a 54-43 vote.

Right now, Pierce County is the only remaining outlier, the only county that still lets some voters cast their ballots at the polls once in a while. And they are likely to keep allowing that if this bill fails to pass the Senate.

The bill now heads to the Senate. If it passes the Senate, the bill would take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, so the August primary election in Pierce County would be entirely by mail.

King and Pierce were the only ones with poll voting in the November 2008 general election, but that was the last one for King. They are planning to change to all-mail ballots.

Here is a link to the bill report.

George Walk, Pierce County lobbyist, told me earlier this session he had to testify both for and against the bill when it was in committee. County Executive Pat McCarthy was in favor of all-mail voting (she's the former election chief for the county) but the County Council was against it.

Check out the roll call vote. The Pierce County delegation is split with Steve Conway, Steve Kirby, Dawn Morrell, Bruce Dammeier, Jan Angel, Tom Campbell, Jim McCune and Dan Roach voting AGAINST the bill.

Jeannie Darneille, Dennis Flannigan, Tami Green and Larry Seaquist voted FOR it.

A Pierce County Council committee this morning voted to kill a program designed to help small businesses win county contracts.

The Rules Committee voted 3-0 to scrap the Historically Underutilized Business Program. The program was launched in 2004 to help small businesses qualify for county contracts.

Originally, the program was to include goals for small-business participation in county contracts. But the program was never fully implemented, and it was suspended in early 2007.

Last fall a county economic stimulus report recommended the council either the make changes necessary to implement the program or eliminate it.

This morning several small business owners asked the committee to give the program a chance before scrapping it.

“You can’t get rid of a program that you never gave a chance to even function,” said Rollin Gray, owner of RBG Enterprises, which has benefited from a similar program operated by the City of Tacoma.

Councilman Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom, sponsored a resolution to repeal the program. He cited the county’s current revenue shortfall and the administrative cost of implementing the small business program, estimated to be $100,000 to $180,000.

“In today’s economic climate, we’re looking to streamline operations,” Muri said.

The measure now goes to the full council for consideration.

Put this in the rumor category. But mark it as plausible.

All the state universities have been told to run through budget-cutting scenarios that call for as much as 20 percent cuts in the 2009-11 budget. So it would not be surprising if closing the campus on Tacoma's Hilltop District were in that drastic budget scenario. (As I recall, it's fewer than 100 students.)

I have calls in to Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, chairman of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, to Artee Young, campus director of TESC in Tacoma, and to the main Evergreen offices outside Olympia.

UPDATE: Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, chairman of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, returned my call. He said when the president of Evergreen came before his committee in early February, he said pretty much the same thing, that a dire cutting scenario meant the would "have to consider" closing the Tacoma campus.

Jason Wettstein, spokesman for Evergreen also called and said, "We're committed to keeping the Tacoma campus open for the 2009-10. Beyond that, it depends on what our budget is."

Below is Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, chairwoman of the General Government Appropriations Committee, responding to the rumor in an e-mail. The Tacoma campus lies in her 27th Legislative District.

I’m really hoping people will not panic (at least in the short-term). The budget you will see coming out of the House will not reflect the $!.2 Billion federal stimulus package (80% of which will eventually be spent on education), so our first budget draft will look more dire than the final product. I am unaware at this moment about the plans by TESC to close the branch campus, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they would consider their options…it’s what we are ALL doing on EVERY agency of government where General Funds-State are obligated. Inconceivable for the Legislature to consider cuts? I’m sorry, but we must, and many areas of government service will not benefit from the stimulus package.

State Rep. Jeannie Darneille

=> Read more!

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, briefed members of her Democratic caucus on Friday or Saturday about the polling that has been done to find out what kinds of taxes voters would be mostly likely to support and what kinds of things they want that new money spent on.

(Just for the record, on Thursday, Brown told reporters she had not yet been told the results of that tax polling. What a difference a few hours makes.)

According to a fly on the wall of the caucus room, during her briefing Brown told her fellow Democrats that polling showed "90 percent of the public knows we have a serious financial problem..."

And Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, immediately quipped, "..and the other 10 percent are in the Legislature."

That's my latest nominee for Quote of the Session.

Curt Woodward of the Associated Press broke that tax polling story on Saturday, but we didn't have room in our Sunday newspaper to run it. So most folks didn't see it until Monday in print. But if you read this blog, you saw Curt's story on Saturday evening.

The thing is, Pridemore is the guy mainly responsible for that "preliminary" revenue forcast back on Feb. 19, a month ahead of the March 19 regular forecast. He got some of his fellow members of the state Economic Review and Revenue Forecast Council to urge state chief economist Arun Raha to hold a hurry-up meeting. Pridemore thought a forecast more current than the one from November 2008 would be a Come-to-Jesus moment, a wakeup call for his fellow legislators.

Nope. Didn't work. And they need one, too. The deficit is $7.7 billion. Or $8.3 billion if you use Lisa Brown's number and put $1 billion in reserves instead of only the $416 million the governor held back in savings in her budget proposal.

You should see how many bills have been introduced that either spend a lot of money or give more or longer tax breaks to groups of people, all in the past two months! This is a Legislature that is in serious denial. Each lawmaker must think the cuts will come to someone else's favorite program, not his or hers.

Do not ask for whom the bell tolls.....

Today is Day 57 of a scheduled 105-day legislative session, just over halfway.

I'm writing a story for Sunday's print edition of The News Tribune, but it won't be nearly as long as this. (Unless, of course, lawyers buy some more full-page ads.) But there's virtually unlimited space on line.

I'll be updating many of these items and adding more as the House and Senate continue to pass or kill bills through Thursday. That's the deadline for the House to pass any bill that was introduced in the House and the Senate to do the same for its bills.

Budget bills and others "necessary to implement the budget" are exempt from that deadline.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

Budget and taxes: The state now faces an estimated $7.7 billion deficit over the next 28 months. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a no-new-taxes budget. Senate Democrats say they will unveil they budget proposal sometime after the March 19 revenue forecast. The state is getting about $3 billion of help from Uncle Sam, but the Legislature will have to make deeper cuts than the governor did in her proposal. Lawmakers are likely to ask voters in November to raise taxes and polling indicates voters might go for temporary taxes, especially if they are on liquor, cigarettes, candy, gum and pop.

Capital budget: Pots of money ordinarily earmarked for construction projects might be raided to help the state out of its $7.5 billion shortfall on the operating side of the budget, perhaps $300-800 million. Some, but not all, of the projects that are losing money would be replenished by borrowed funds. Part of budget discussion.

Transportation budget: There is a $500 million shortfall in the 2009-11 budget and several projects in Pierce County are at risk of being delayed to death, including carpool lanes on Interstate 5 from Tacoma Mall to Fife and property purchases for the eventual extension of Highway 167 from the Port of Tacoma to Puyallup. Part of budget discussion.

Children’s health care: HB 2128 would delay until Jan. 1, 2010 state-subsidized health care program that would let children of families who make as much as $63,600 a year enroll in the program, and tells the state agency to develop another program for children in families wiht higher incomes. House passed 68-28.

Youth concussions: HB 1824 would require coaches to remove players from games if they suffer concussions and not let the return until a license health professional certifies the athlete has recovered from the head injury. House passed 94-0.

Prostitution penalties: HB 1362 would allow cops to impound vehicles used in prostitution offenses by hookers, pimps or customers and make them pay an additional $500 fee to reclaim vehicles, if the act of prostitution took place in areas designated by the city or county councils. House passed 91-4.

=> Read more!

And he or she can't play again unless a licensed health care professional says the athlete has recovered from the head injury.

Those are 2 key provisions of House Bill 1824, which passed last week in the House on a 94-0 vote. It's now in the Senate.

The bill is named for Zackery Lystedt, who suffered a brain injury while playing middle school football. He and his father were on the floor of the House when the bill passed.

The summary of testimony before a House committee some weeks backs tell the story better than I could.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:
(In support) Zackery Lystedt suffered a head injury while playing middle school football.After making a good tackle, he didn't get up from the field. He did not suffer loss of consciousness. After being kept out for awhile, he returned to the game and played in the
third and fourth quarters. After the game ended he collapsed.

He had to have emergency brain surgery shortly after he arrived at the hospital, and that was followed by a second emergency brain surgery. It is his story which has been a catalyst for this bill.

The Brain Injury Association, the Center for Disease Control, and the Seattle Seahawks are partnering on an educational prevention program. As part of that effort, clipboards have been distributed to all the coaches in the state. On the back of the clipboards, there is information about head injuries and concussions, including the important concept that everyone needs to know, that one can suffer a concussion without losing consciousness.

=> Read more!

So much money was poured into newspaper ads attacking the three senators that it's now being referred to my some senators as "the newspaper stimulus package."

I posted a couple blog items on this earlier in the week, and combined them for a story that will run in Sunday's print edition. And it also appears below.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

The strategy of using full-page newspaper ads to pressure three state senators apparently has backfired on a group of lawyers who were trying to change the Washington laws that apply to asbestos liability lawsuits.

Senate Bill 5964, the measure that would have made the sought-after changes, is now dead -- retaliation for what Sens. Jim Kastama, Mary Margaret Haugen and Jim Hargrove and many of their their colleagues considered attack ads that went over the top.

The advertisements suggested the trio were denying justice to families of people who died from exposure to asbestos and accused Kastama, D-Puyallup, Haugen, D-Camano Island and Hargrove, D-Hoquiam of blocking passage of the bill.

The advertisements ran in several newspapers in the legislative districts of the three senators -- The (Tacoma) News Tribune, The Olympian, The (Everett) Herald and The (Aberdeen) Daily World -- and cost tens of thousand of dollars.

=> Read more!

Curt Woodward at the Associated Press scooped all of us with this little gem. But since the TNT is a member and AP is a co-op, I'm stealing it.

Thanks, Curt.

By CURT WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ Voters might support higher "sin taxes" to take the edge off deep state budget cuts, but they seem to recoil at tax hikes for businesses, according to polling by political interest groups pushing for a statewide tax referendum.

Washingtonians also prefer a temporary tax increase that "sunsets" after helping the state get through its present budget crisis, according to the poll of about 800 likely voters across the state.

An across-the-board sales tax increase of 1 percent was initially unpopular, but voters seemed more willing to accept sales tax increases if they were presented as an average monthly cost of around $20 or less, the polling showed.

The research, conducted earlier this month by Goodwin Simon Victoria Research, a national Democratic polling firm, is part of a growing effort among left-leaning political interests to blunt the effects of the state's budget deficit, presently about $8 billion and growing through mid-2011.

=> Read more!

State Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, took issue with an earlier posting in which I let House Republicans complain that they were being shut out of the "bipartisan" process.

Joe,
This is unfair and somewhat deceptive. I don't think the measure of bipartisanship is how many bills are left in the Rules Committee as we head for the cutoff. Instead, you should really be reporting how many bills have passed out of the House that are sponsored by members of each party.

As of now, we have passed 270 bills out of the House, 52 of which have Republican prime sponsors. That's about 20%. Another way of looking at it is that Republicans have been able to get 52/62 (over 80%) of their bills out of Rules, while Democrats have gotten roughly 220/440 bills out of Rules (about 50%).

You could also look at the percentages of bills that people introduce that actually pass. In any case, I think both the statistic that you chose and the headline that you gave it are misleading.

Jamie Pedersen

Fair enough. I'm not about to do all the leg work required to verify this kind of stuff, but I'm glad that you have.

House Republican Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, you've been served!

Here is my original post from Thursday, to which Pedersen was reacting.

I see your schedule says you'll be watching the Huskies play the Cougars today, so I'm urging you to restrain yourself just a tad.

It's because I heard you at the bills-signings early this week, and your voice was just above a whisper. Save youself. Get healthy. Recover from that bug most of us have gotten. Let First Mike cheer.

You're holding a news conference on Monday and we'd like to hear you.

(This is the news conference where Gov. Chris Gregoire will announce the program that will allow citizens to sign up and be notified by e-mail when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood.)

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday will hold a media availability to give an update on the success of the sex offender address verification program during its first six months, and the launch of the updated statewide online sex offender registry, Offender Watch. She will also answer questions about this issue and the legislative session.
Joining Gregoire will be Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Executive Director Don Pierce, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum, Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball, Pacific County Sheriff Jon Didion, Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick and Port of Seattle Police Department Chief Coleen Wilson.

Here's the guv's schedule:

Gov. Gregoire’s Schedule March 7 - 13, 2009

Saturday, March 7
2:30 p.m. Gov. Gregoire attends WSU-UW Basketball game
University of Washington
Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmondson Pavilion
3870 Montlake Blvd
Seattle

=> Read more!

It's true. The House did vote unanimously on Friday night in favor of a bill that would forgive $40 million in sales tax that tollpayers are supposed to start paying off in 2012 and continue through 2022, paying 10 percent each year.

The tax, so far, has just been deferred. (Also, if it's only the $40 million referred to in the news release below, only the state's 6.5 percent sales tax would be forgiven. Tacoma, Pierce County and Pierce Transit could keep their shares of the tax. That's because the total amount of tax owed is about $59 million.)

Anyway, the reason I say "Don't get your hopes up" is because it's highly unlikely the Senate will go along with this proposal. It takes money out of the general fund, even though it's still several years off.

Still, it was nice of Rep. Larry Seaquist's colleagues to make him look good to his Gig Harbor constituents by passing the bill. And Republican Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard, too.

Here is the news release.

House unanimously votes to remove Narrows Bridge sales tax
Measure would save toll payers $40 million

OLYMPIA – Legislators in the House have again voted to exempt the Tacoma Narrows Bridge project from having to pay sales tax, currently being deferred. Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, introduced the legislation receiving a unanimous vote off the House floor.

“This is a taxpayer fairness issue,” Seaquist said. “We’re being asked to pay tolls to build our own bridge—fine. But asking us also to kick in sales tax that will end up in the general budget is not right.”

=> Read more!

CORRECTION: The headline that first appeared on this item was wrong! The bill does not delay the start of coverage for children whose families earn as much as three times the federal poverty level.

The bill they passed, HB 2128, instead delays a plan for people whose income is HIGHER than 300 percent of FPL. That was done because the House decided to change the benefit package to something less generous than that afforded to folks under 300 percent of poverty. Otherwise, it would have been so expensive that probably nobody would have bought it.

For a family of four, three times federal poverty level is $63,600 a year. Children in those families can now get state subsidized health insurance, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009. (Thanks to President Obama, who reversed Bush Administration directive that blocked that program.)

The Washington state House of Representatives vote was 68-28. A few Republicans joined majority Democrats voting in favor.

The programs is just for the kids, not their parents. The delay to the program for kids above 300 percent of poverty level is until Jan. 1, 2010.

The state Department of Social and Health Services has until then to design that program and, if HB 2128 passes, it won't have to be as generous in benefits as the ones below that threshold.

Families whose income falls between 2.5 and 3 times Federal Poverty Level will have to pay a modest co-pay on premiums to cover their children. I think it's a sliding scale with a max of $30 or $40 a month.

Minority Republicans say Democrats aren't really making health care coverage available to more kids because such coverage already exists in the private sector. They are just expanding how much the state pays for. Here is Rep. Doug Ericksen's rebuttal.

House Bill 2128 also would rename the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has the snappy acronym CHIP, to the Apple Health for Kids Program, which henceforth shall be known as AHKP.

It's part of the Legislature's long-term plan to give all state programs unpronounceable acronyms. Lawmakers briefly considered calling Apple Health "WASL" but that has become sorta pronounceable. It will, however, soon be available for use because school chief Randy Dorn is getting rid of the WASL. (That last paragraph was a joke, by the way.)

House Bill 1362 would let cities and counties impose harsher penalities on prostitutes, pimps and johns if prostitution occurs in particular areas designated by the councils or commissioners.

If the vehicle were used somehow in the act of prostitution or promoting prostitution or some other related offense, law officers could impound the vehicle. Besides having to pay all the towing and impound fees, the hooker, pimp or customer also would have to an extra $500 "administrative fee" to the city or county.

Imagine coming home and trying to explain why you no longer have the family.

"Honey, I lost the car!" or "Honey, our car was stolen and I gotta go down to the towing yard and reclaim it. Can I borrow the checkbook?"

I suppose for pimps and hookers it would just be an additional cost of doing business.

Rep. Roger Goodman's bill was passed by the House Friday on a 91-4 vote and was sent to the Senate for consideration.

Senate Bill 5556 would prohibit district court judges or commissioners form reducing any of the $12 toll surchage that is part of the current $52 traffic ticket for failing to pay the toll to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

That $12 goes to help pay off the bridge. The remaining $40 fine still can be reduced by the court.

The Senate passed Sen. Derek Kilmer's bill Friday on a 42-3 and sent the Gig Harbor Democrat's measure to the House.

The Senate on Friday passed a change to the state Consumer Protection Act that will allow private citizens, as well as local governments, to collect up to $50,000 in damages if they win civil cases.

Senate Bill 5531, sponsored by Sen. Debbie Regala (D-Tacoma) was approved on a 28-17 vote and was sent to the House.

The bill report suggests the bill is designed to give private citizens more of an incentive to lodge consumer protection complaints by giving them the possibility of a reward if they win. Supporters of the bill said few private cases are brought now because there is not enough of an incentive.

The $50,000 amount would replace the current $10,000 and $75,000 damage limits in superior and district courts. The bill also appears to make it easier to prove a consumer protection violation.

The state Attorney General's office is the main enforcer of consumer protections today.

The bill was opposed by a coalition that includes the insurance industry and the defense trial lawyers.

The House on Friday passed a simiar measure, House Bill 1683, on a partyline 59-36 vote (with Democrats in the majority), but it appears to be more narrowly written and has lesser amounts for damages.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said these town hall meetings are the kind of "polling" legislators do. They ask their constitutents what they want the Legislature to do.

Here's the complete list of House Democrats who are holding town meetings NEXT weekend.

I will update this list later. I need to get the Senate to send out a similar list. Here are the meetings for Democrats Eide, Keiser and Kauffman.

Here is the House Republican list:

Rep. Dammeier – District 25:
Tele-town hall meeting
Thursday, March 12
7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Please join in a community conversation over the phone. Call in by dialing 1-877-229-8493 and entering PIN number 14660.

Traditional town hall meeting
Saturday, March 14
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Puyallup Public Library
324 South Meridian

=> Read more!

There apparently is no special consideration given to a former member of the Washington State Senate, not after he takes out full-page ads in multiple newspapers and attacks his former colleagues.

That's what former state Sen. Brian Weinstein, Mercer Island lawyer, has learned after he and his law partners paid for ads in The News Tribune, The Olympian, Skagit Valley News, Everett Herald and a lot of smaller newspapers. The ads accused Sens. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island and Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, of blocking a bill that Weinstein and his colleagues at Bergman Draper and Frockt really wanted to get passed.

For the record, Hargrove had not signed onto the amendments that Kastama and Haugen were promoting, changes that Weinstein's firm did not want. But he apparently was targeted in his local papers, too.

(Confidential to B.W. in M.I.: It was Hatfield, not Hargrove.)

Here is a link to my blog post of yesterday. But let me get to the retaliation first.

Not only is the Senate not going to vote on that asbestos liability bill that Weinstein and Co. wanted (SB 5964) -- "It's terminal," Haugen said. -- they also apparently have killed off SB 5895, more commonly known as the Homeowners Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights was Weinstein's pride and joy when he was in the Legislature and he got the Senate to pass it, and almost got it through the House. So killing that bill this year, even though it is now sponsored by Rep. Rodney Tom, D-Mercer Island, was more of a symbolic message than anything else.

"My caucus is totally outraged," Haugen said this afternoon. "The bills are terminal - dead."

Here is the letter of disavowal signed by both of the lobbyists for the Washington State Association for Justice (formerly the Trial Lawyers Association) as well as president John Budlong and past president Janet Rice. (Rice's firm, I'm told, is very, very active in asbestos litigation.)

"We are writing on behalf or our organization to express our sincere regret for the advertisements in your papers regarding your alleged positions on Senate Bill 5964," the letter begins.

=> Read more!

Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson sent an e-mail to council members this morning telling them he doesn't believe now is the time to increase his salary.

He asked them to pull a resolution from the Tuesday council agenda that would have raised his salary 14.5 percent over the course of two years.

The move would have raised his salary from $200,450 to $215,779 this year, and raise it to $229,611 next year. Anderson also receives a $6,600 car allowance.

Anderson said he's heard back from a couple council members who said they understand the decision.

"I presume they will" pull the item from the agenda, Anderson said.

Anderson said he made the decision last night after talking about it with his wife "for quite some time." Although the City of Tacoma is in better financial health than many other governments, Anderson said it was better "fiscally and symbolically" if he did not receive the raise right now.

"If I'm going to be in a position to lead this organization this year and next, I need to be able to do that," he said. "I wouldn't be if I accept this now." Anderson said earlier that he planned to give half of the raise to charity.

Mayor Bill Baarsma said he spoke with Anderson about the decision, and expressed his appreciation -- both for the decision to forgo a raise, and for decisions Anderson has made that have put Tacoma in relatively good shape financially.

=> Read more!

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

There will be about 2,000 more students in public schools and about 8,700 more people on welfare over the next three years, which will drive up state spending.

Overall, the growth in people in programs for which the state covers the cost, will add $175 million to state spending in the 2009-11 biennium.

That means the current budget shortfall for the next 28 months has risen from roughly $7.5 billion to $7.7 billion. That assumes the Legislature leaves about $400 million in savings, but Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is talking about socking away $1 billion in savings to hedge against an uncertain economy. So, the shortfall could still be above $8 billion.

That word came this morning from the state Caseload Forecast Council. The council is meeting right now to inform legislators how many more students they will have to pay to educate and how many more people will need Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which replaced the old welfare program.

The prison population is expected to drop slightly.

=> Read more!

Another day, another stimulus program rollout. Today it's $2 billion for Justice Assistance Grants (JAG). Washington's share is $36.7 million, which will be split 60-40 between state and local governments.

The list of eligible programs is wide-ranging: "hiring and support for law enforcement officers; multijurisdictional drug and gang task forces; crime prevention and domestic violence programs; and courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives," according to the press release.

The local money is being divvied up using a formula based on population and violent crime statistics. This seems to help the City of Tacoma, which is eligible for nearly $1.4 million. Meanwhile, Pierce County gets about half that. If it were based only on short-term need, you could argue that the county, which is having a budget crisis and runs the jail, sheriff's patrols and part of the court system ought to have a bigger share. Tacoma is one of the few local governments that seems to be weathering the economic storm.

Here are the eligibility numbers for local jurisdictions.

TACOMA CITY	       $1,394,464
PIERCE COUNTY	         $773,319
LAKEWOOD CITY	         $340,124
FEDERAL WAY CITY	 $211,276
AUBURN CITY	         $185,913
PUYALLUP CITY	          $83,106
UNIVERSITY PLACE CITY	  $63,179
SUMNER CITY	          $32,835
FIFE CITY	          $27,853
BONNEY LAKE CITY	  $26,268
EDGEWOOD CITY	          $12,228
GIG HARBOR CITY	          $11,322
FIRCREST CITY	          $10,643
YELM CITY	          $10,190
	
Local statewide total $14,304,690
	
State of Washington   $22,401,901

Total for Washington  $36,706,591

Click here to see the entire spreadsheet for the state.

We're working on a story for tomorrow's paper. Key questions:

=> Read more!

That's what the state Senate decided Thursday night by passing Senate Bill 5391. The bill takes effect on July 1, 2010, apparently to give state agencies a chance to figure out what those folks should know before they get a license.

What a lot of parents really want is to force kids to get their parents permission before they pierce their eyebrows, lips and more intimate body parts. Good luck with that.

It's easier for the state to regulate artists than it is to raise other people's children, although lawmakers do try from time to time.

Sen. Jim Kastama's bill is headed for the House.

Oh yes. The vote was 47-1, with Sen. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, casting the lone dissenting vote. Hmmmmmmm. Well, she does have a tattoo (or so I'm told) and she probably is about 40 years younger than the average senator. But I missed the floor debate, so I'm not sure why she voted as she did.

Maybe Moses Lake is like Ground Zero for tattoo artists and body piercers. Ya think? Or maybe they're just into branding cattle over there and the ranchers are afraid they'll have to be licensed to do that. Ya gotta vote your district or your conscience or both, right?

UPDATE (3:45 p.m.): Sometimes asking one more question just ruins an otherwise good story. Such was the case today. I caught up with Holmquist over by the sundial today and she said she voted "no" on the bill solely because of Initiative 960. The bill imposes a fee to get the tattoo license. Kinda of a buzz kill on the humor.

(Oh, and her tattoo is a rose, according to everyone who saw her in the low-cut sleeveless gown she wore to Gregoire's 2nd Inaugural Ball.)
CORRECTION: Holmquist said it's a stargazing lilly.

Here is the bill report for SB 5391.

Senate Bill 5340, which was requested by state Attorney General Rob McKenna, is intended to stop teenagers from buying cigarettes, chewing tobacco and snuff online. It also is aimed at the teenagers' moms and dads who buy tobacco products on line and get them shipped to them and don't pay taxes on them.

SB 5340, which was passed by the Senate Thursday night on a 47-0 vote, says that tobacco products purchased online must be shipped to a retailer or wholesaler, not to homes.

Violations carry a possible 5-year prison sentence and $5,000 fine, although more than likely McKenna would use the $5,000 civil fine provision.

Of course, cigars, are exempt from the bill, as they often are. Cigars are not really made of tobacco. Didn't you know that? They're made of rolled up hundred dollar bills and stuffed with tarragon or marjoram leaves. Otherwise, I'm sure the Legislature wouldn't exempt them from tobacco enforcement and taxation laws all the time.

(Yes. That was sarcasm. The cigar folks just have a very good lobby.)

The bill now goes to the House. I don't know how many of the 98 representatives smoke cigars.

Senate Bill 5540 was approved last night by the state Senate on a 30-17 vote.

Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, is the prime sponsor. The measure would let the locals create a high capacity corridor to pay for transit stuff - aka light right or buses across the Columbia River to Portland -- and use a 0.9 percent sales tax to do so.

Clark County would become like Pierce, King and Snohomish.

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, was Pridemore's chief adversary on the bill, which passed pretty much along party lines. I say "pretty much" because one Mason County Democrat, is considered a Republican in some quarters. Right, Tim Sheldon?

Here is the bill report.

Just what I needed for next week, the loss of another hour.

I think this is the first year that Daylight Savings Time starts so early, a few weeks ahead of when it used to start.

Just a reminder.

Jennifer Sullivan at the Seattle Times blogged on it yesterday.

That's when the House approved a bill.

I know the Community Corrections (aka 'parole') officers wanted broader authority to do random, unannounced searches of the offenders under their supervision, including their homes and apartments. But it looks as if the Legislature is going to approve such searches only when ex-cons show up at Department of Corrections reporting centers or before an offender gets into a CCOs vehicle.

That's the figure we reporters have been using since the Feb. 19 "preliminary" revenue forecast, which said the state is going to collect $2.3 billion LESS than what its chief economist thought back in November.

That "$8 billion" isn't quite accurate, but it's close and it's mostly a placeholder in the ever-changing financial picture of the state.

For instance, later today, the Caseload Forecast Council will meet to give all of us an idea of what the other side of the ledger (the spending side) looks like. The council, a combination of governor's top staff and legislative leaders from both parties, will see just how many more students are expected to enroll in school, how many more (or fewer) inmates will be housed in Washington prisons, how many more Medicaid-eligible citizens will sign up for health care, etc.

Right now, I put the "budget gap" at $7.5 billion. I subtracted about $220 million of new spending that Gov. Chris Gregoire had in her budget proposal (to lessen the impact of even bigger cuts to health programs) and I also chopped off $290 million in cuts made by the Legislature when it passed the "belt-tightening" bill.

But today, even that $7.5 billion figure is going to change because Victor Moore, the guv's budget director, will give us a quick estimate of how much more it will cost to pay for those higher (or lower) caseloads.

=> Read more!

It's a blank slate right now. As blank as Senate Bill 6117, which most likely will be the main vehicle to give Boeing most of what it wants to keep the company from moving its "second line" of production for 787s to Kansas or China or something.

To keep the "first line" of 787 production here, mostly in Everett, then-Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature gave Boeing (and some smaller players in the aerospace space) a $3 billion tax break over 20 years. They also made some changes that Boeing wanted to the state unemployment system, and other stuff.

This time?

"We are wanting to put the best case forward to have the next line of the 787 built in Washington," Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, told reporters yesterday.

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That's what Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, told reporters at noon Thursday during her weekly news conference.

"By the time the budget comes out . . . major pieces of it should already be agreed to," she said.

That would be a departure from years past, when an entire $70 billion two-year budget has been dumped on rank-and-file lawmakers, reporters, stateholders and lobbyist, then hurriedly voted on before most of us even understood it.

"This isn't like any other year," Brown said.

If this does, indeed, come to pass, I'd have to give credit to Democratic sympathizers who have been complaining about "shadow boxing" with rumored cuts. And I have to give Brown credit for taking some risks. Majority Democrats' job of writing a budget in the face of an $8 billion deficit (25 percent of state revenues) is going to be that much more difficult if stakeholders get early warning on how deep cuts will be for their particular programs.

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I haven't checked this out myself, because I'm not about to look up the prime sponsor for all 229 bills awaiting action in the House Rules Committee.

But I'm told that Republicans are prime sponsors (the lead person) on 10 bill. Democrats are prime sponsors of 219 bills.

That's a little less than 4.4 percent. Working together for One Washington.

And just for the record: If Republicans were the majority party, the split most likely would be pretty much the same, with them on top 95-5.

The majority party always runs roughshod over the minority party. It's a legislative tradition.

Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson defended a proposed consultant contract worth as much as $321,000 before members of the City Council's Government Performance and Finance Committee on Wednesday, saying it was part of an on-going effort to change the culture of city government.

Scaling back the contract or opening it up to bid could set back the effort, Anderson said.

"I'm very concerned we'll lose ground," he said, adding that council members hired him in 2005 to be a "change agent."

"If you don't want a change agent, you don't want me," Anderson said. "That's why I'm here."

Council members held up the proposed contract with The Orion Partnership last month, saying they weren't prepared to approve in part because of its size. If approved, the contract will raise the total amount of money Tacoma has paid to the Issaquah-based husband-and-wife consultant team to more than $600,000.

"It is a lot of money," Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg said at the Feb. 24 council meeting.

Council members said they wanted Anderson to come before the committee and provide more information.

Anderson told the committee that he expects to use the consultants for at least two more years, possibly three. After that, he hopes to no longer need their services.

=> Read more!

This report is half truth and half rumor.

First, state Rep. Deb Eddy, D-Kirkland, is the one with the idea to set up a network of outlets for electric cars in Washington. That's the thrust of House Bill 1481.

The rest of mere conjecture and rumor.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's big environmental bill this session, featuring greenhouse gas reductions as its centerpiece, reportedly is unraveling.

And to salvage a "win" on that front, she may have to shift gears -- literally and figuratively.

Maybe she and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger and whoever is Oregon's governor will buy a bunch of electric cars for their respective state fleets and then set up a network of plug-ins all along I-5 to so they can recharge their batteries -- again, literally and figuratively.

That is, take Eddy's bill and multiply it by California and Washington, the three West Coast states with those rigid pollution emission standards for cars and trucks.

I got a call into the guv's enviro adviser, but no call back yet. Just as well. I'd rather not kill this rumor just yet. Sounded pretty good.

Here is the bill report for House Bill 1819. It's still stuck in the House. And chances are the details of the bill will undergo some big changes before it gets out.

Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, says he is trying to rein in unrelated spending by the state Department of Transportation, which is using toll monies to pay for out-of-state conferences by DOT personnel and cell phone usage.

Hence, Senate Bill 5795. It was just passed on a 45-0 vote and now goes to the House for consideration. The Citizen Advisory Committee and some regular bridge commuters also had complained about DOT personnel spending toll money on stuff not directly related to the bridge. From the bill:

The Tacoma Narrows Toll Bridge Account may only be used to pay required costs that contribute directly to the financing, operation, maintenance, management, and repair of the facility. The account may not be used for expenditures that do not contribute directly to the financing, operation, maintenance, management, and emergency repairs of the facility. The Transportation Commission
determines by rule what is an authorized expense and what is an unauthorized expense. The Washington State Department of Transportation provides quarterly expenditure reports
to the public on the department's website, using current resources.

The bill leaves it to the Washington Transporation Commission to decide what's allowed and what is forbidden when it comes to expenses.

Here is the bill report.

Kilmer told me he also got some language into the supplemental transportation budget to close the books on bridge constructions and loans. As I recall, the final cost for the bridge was $735 million, but there are a few more things to wrap up.

Here's the new release from his office:

=> Read more!

I started asking around about this when I heard the rumor, and finally I tracked down a senator who said, "On the advice of my lawyer, I'm telling you to go read her blog."

Sure 'nuff. State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, talks about the Legislative Ethics Committee investigation herself.

Here. Read what the good senator has to say in her own words.

Roach says she's being investigated because the person who lodged the complaint was "put up to it." The senator also says she was just trying to help out a constitutent who asked for help, as so many do.

I'm just guessing here, but I think writing about that attempt in so much detail on her blog might be what ultimately gets Roach in trouble.

You might as well bookmark Roach's blog. She'll probably keep you posted on every twist and turn of the investigation. If it gets around to sanctions or exoneration, I'll write about it.

Oh, yeah. I said "again." Here's link to a story I wrote about Roach in 2003. She got scolded for some stuff and dismissal of complaints for other stuff back then.

You heard that collective sigh of relief at about 11:30 a.m. today, didn't you?

Think about it. If the Supreme Court had ruled that it takes only a simple majority vote in the House and Senate to raise taxes, the unions, poverty lobby and every other group that is getting its lunch eaten by the $8 billion budget shortfall would be all over the Democratic majorities.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 62-36 in the House and 31-18 in the Senate, so their allies would press them to raise taxes by $1 billion to $1.5 billion BECAUSE THEY COULD to avoid making those deep budget cuts. And Democratic leaders would have to say "No!"

Or, they could raise the taxes. Yeah, right. And in November 2010, Democrats would get their collective butts kicked and might lose their majorities in both chambers.

Whew! I heard it.

UPDATE: (I should have added this viewpoint to my post yesterday, but I got distracted). Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said the ruling had no bearing on the direction Democrats are heading.

"That decision doesn't change the outcome of where we're heading..." Brown told reporters right after the ruling came out. "Any major revenue option would have been presented to the voters anyway, regardless of the ruling."

She did, however, say that some smaller tax increases, such as the liquor tax surcharge that was the subject of the I-960 test case, are things the Legislature might have done on its own.

Anyway, Democrats get to put their bigger tax package on the ballot, which puts it at arm's length when it comes to blame for raising taxes. "Will of the voters," and all that.

The Associated Press' Rachel La Corte wrote the story for our main page, but I'm providing that story and additional links here, for those of you who go to Political Buzz first. (I'm really late, too. Sorry. Got busy.)

Here is a link to the 9-0 Supreme Court Ruling.

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Pierce County Auditor Jan Shabro has selected four equine facilities to temporarily house abused and neglected horses and other large animals.

Winning the contracts are E & K Stables, Pegasus Program, Rusty Bar Ranch and Tacoma Equine Hospital.

You can read the press release announcing the selections below:

News Release: From Pierce County Auditor, Jan Shabro

Subject: Request for Proposal Equine Care Finalists

Contact: Jan Shabro, w -253.798.3188; c – 253.318.3209

Date: 3/03/09

Jan Shabro, Pierce County Auditor, announced the selection of four owners of equine facilities to contract with the county as temporary housing for rescued, abused and neglected horses and other large animals. They include: E & K Stables; Pegasus Program; Rusty Bar Ranch; and Tacoma Equine Hospital. These are five year, annual renewable contracts, and the county will pay only for services used.

The decision followed months of research and two “horse summits” in Graham and on the Key Peninsula to discuss how to handle this growing problem.

=> Read more!

Latest celebrity sighting from D.C. correspondent Les Blumenthal:

WASHINGTON - It wasn't just another day at the office for Sen. Patty Murray.

Brad Pitt dropped by.

Pitt was in town talking about a sustainable housing project he's working on in New Orleans. Murray chairs the Senate appropriations housing subcommittee. According to aides, the meeting lasted about 20 minutes. They also said he smiled and shook a few hands as he passed by staffers on the way to Murray's office. The hallway outside was lined with interns.

Pitt also met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Harry Reid to talk about the "Make It Right" project that involves affordable and environmentally sustainable housing for low income people living in New Orleans' lower 9th Ward.

No word on the other half Brangelina, though Angelina Jolie is in D.C. filming a movie.

AP story on the "Pitt stop" and bonus Brad photo below:

=> Read more!

If you keep throwing balled up proposals against a wall, one day one of them might stick. But probably not today.

State Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources, Oceans and Recreation Committee, is the only sponsor of a bill that would authorize Keno games every 4 minutes to raise some money for the Wildlife Account, which like everything else is hurting for money.

Here is a link to Senate Bill 6107.

"Keno for Kritters, I like that," Jacobsen said in a voice mail he just let. "Yeah, we have a bill that would raise about $40 million to $45 million and fill that (budget) hole quite nicely."

This is similar to another proposed floated by Democrats in 2003 (the Rossi Budget Year!) to raise money for children's programs. Back then, we in the Press Corps called it "Keno for Kids." It died. This bill will die, too. (Sorry, Jake.)

The state Parks and Recreation Commission is meeting right now to go over criteria for deciding which other parks should be mothballed because of the state budget crisis. That would be in addition to the 15 parks that Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed turning over to other entities or shutting down.

Word is, Parks Director Rex Derr will announce next week that 25 more parks could be mothballed -- for a total of 40 parks.

Right now, the commission has developed a list of 32 parks that are candidate for being mothballed. Seven will be spared. Recreational boaters might come to rescue of some by volunteering their tax stream to the parks, or so I heard.

Of course, the final decision is up to the Legislature, but you can see what's about to happen.

Among those on the list (with the amount of annual savings in parentheses) are:

Dash Point near Northeast Tacoma-Federal Way ($268,365)
Jarrell Cove down here in the South Sound ($152,987)
Rainbow Falls in Lewis County, near Debolt's home ($205,035)
Potlatch in Mason County Commissioner Tim Sheldon's area ($164,328)
Flaming Geyser in South King County, Black Diamond ($381,688)
Peach Arch in Blaine by Canadian border ($230,720)
Saltwater in South King County ($187,253)
Millersylvania in Thurston (not sure on this one; amount of savings is blank)

Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, said I owed him a vote of thanks for the attack ad that appeared in today's News Tribune (and in the Olympian, too) because a full-page ad put something like $10,000 into the newspaper's coffers.

Kastama didn't pay for the ads. He, um, inspired them.

The Seattle law firm of Bergman, Draper and Frockt, on behalf of a client, also paid for ads attacking Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, that accuses them of blocking a bill (SB 5964) that would benefit their client, whose husband died after exposure to asbestos while working in the Bremerton shipyards.

"Why is Senator Kastama blocking this important legislation designed to help those working men and women sick and dying from asbestos exposure?" the ad asks.

By the way, former state Sen. Brian Weinstein, D-Mercer Island, is a member of that firm. He has been seen on campus. We think he has been lobbying passage of the bill, but he told the Associated Press he is not lobbying at all. He left the Senate at the end of his term in 2008 to go back to the practice of law, which he did in Texas. Suing companies over asbestos.

Kastama said the law firm is going after him because he has sponsored an amendment to SB 5964 that would remove a couple provisions, provisions that Weinstein's colleagues want to keep in the bill. Kastama said he would get rid of a provision that would make the bill retroactive.

(I tried to reach Weinstein at his new law office, but was told by the receptionist that, even though Weinstein is a member of the Bergman firm, all calls for Weinstein are being referred to a public relations firm, Mark Firmani at 206-443-9357. You can call him if you want. I just wanted to confirm that Weinstein worked with Bergman.)

=> Read more!

I don't usually cover Eastern Washington legislative races, but when I saw the name "Fagan" I thought it might be someone related to Jack Fagan or Mike Fagan, the father-son team who are the Eastern Washington partners of professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman of Mukilteo.

Susan Fagan, from Pullman, said she is NOT related to those other Fagans.

She is, however, one of the Republican precinct committee officers who selected former state Rep. Don Cox to replace the late Rep. Steve Hailey in the Legislature after Hailey's death. Now, she is running in the special election to select a permanent replacement. Primary will be in August; runoff in November this fall.

FAGAN REPORTS $20K RAISED IN FEBRUARY

9th District legislative candidate Susan Fagan is off to a strong start in her campaign for the state House of Representatives. Fagan raised $20,150 in February, garnering strong support from voters excited about her candidacy. Announced candidates’ first financial reports are due to the Public Disclosure Commission by March 10.

=> Read more!

Forgive me. I don't know what the case says. Reading the Supreme Court cases can be pretty heavy sledding. So, I'm just gonna post it so you can read it along with me.

More later. It was a 6-3 decision. The case looks to be a fight between the Mariners, the public facilities district and the contractor who built the ballpark in Seattle.

Here is the majority opinion.

Yes. Ryan Mello, who used to try to keep state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, on the straight and narrow for a few years as his legislative aide, has gotten a "Shrammie" from KOMO commentator Ken Schram.

(I just heard it on the drive down to Olympia this morning.)

It's because Mello so heartily endorses a smoking ban in Tacoma parks, as reported by The News Tribune's Jason Hagey. Mello is a commissioner for the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma.

I always knew he'd amount to something. Getting a Schrammie is just a milestone on the way to even bigger things.

Just like Tim Farrell, former aide to Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup. Farrell has gone on to become executive director of the Port of Tacoma. Ooops! I mean, he's a Pierce County councilman. (Sorry, different Tim Farrell.)

Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Lynnwood, said she's ready to legalize small amounts of dope for grown-ups, and she noted that California taxes marijuana that is used for medical purposes and brings in $100 million a year.

"The state is just as goofy as ever," Roberts said, "but there hasn’t been any upsurge in crime."

Read the rest of what she had to say back on Jan. 13, the second day of the legislative session. Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, was looking for co-sponsors for HB 1177, which would lower the penalties for possession just a liddo bit o' dope to a $100 fine.

Roberts, 61, (that makes her a child of the '60s) said it didn't go far enough. She and 10 others did, in fact, sign onto the bill. But it's dead now.

On the other hand, the Senate version, SB 5615, sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, still has legs. It would do pretty much the same thing as Upthegrove's bill and it's awaiting a vote by the full Senate.

UPDATE: Another child of the '60s just e-mailed to say the House DID vote to decriminalize marijuana in 1975-76-77 and among the 53 "yes" votes was Pullman farmer Rep. Otto Amen, a Republican. My source said, "His floor speech included this quote: 'anything that grows wild on my ranch cannot be illegal'...."

(I've asked the Bill Room to try to find the rollcall for that vote.)

(By the way, "HDC" and "HRC" in the e-mail addresses are shorthand for the entire 98 members in the House, Democratic Caucus and Republican Caucus.)

From: Upthegrove, Rep. Dave
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 5:25 PM
To: @HDC Members; @HRC Members
Subject: please consider signing onto...

Dear colleagues;

I would like to invite you to co-sponsor (via pink slip) House Bill 1177 on Wednesday’s introduction sheet.

This legislation would make possession of a small amount of marijuana by an adult a civil infraction rather than a misdemeanor criminal offense.

=> Read more!

I'm told the House Finance Committee on Thursday will pass out 2nd Substitute House Bill 2029, a measure that will raise the monthly fee on telephone service for E-911 to 25 cents (from 20 cents) for the state share and to 70 cents (from 50 cents) for the counties' share.

Here's a bill report for HB 2029, but it isn't up to date. This 2nd substitute has only one increase.

The original bill called for a 3-stage phase-in, until it got to $1.50 a month in 2014.

It will give you the background on the E-911 taxes (which would changed to "fees" in this bill) and will show that Verizon, T-Mobile, ATT and the the Broadband Cable Association opposed the earler versions of the bill. The tax-that-would-be-a-fee also applies to cell phones and voice over internet phone service.

The emergency operators obviously are hoping to raise a lot of money, but I don't have a fiscal note yet.

The Law Enforcement Support Agency, the main record-keepers and dispatch center for Tacoma and Pierce County police, sheriff and fire, supports the fee. So does the Tacoma City Council, as long as the money goes to the call centers, said Tacoma lobbyist Randy Lewis.

Only one-third of the money goes there now, he said.

More on this later. I got a late start on covering this bill. The tax vs. fee label is important: Taxes need a two-thirds vote of approval from the Legislature or a public vote; fees need only a simple majority vote and no public vote.

I'm sure Tim Eyman will weigh in on this bill some time soon.

I found out the hard way that the best way to attract lots of calls and e-mails is to say that Dixy Lee Ray is from Tacoma.

Sure, she graduated from Stadium High School but the place that claims her as their own – even when others were rejecting her – is Fox Island. That's where she lived for most of her adulthood (when not in Olympia as governor or Washington, D.C. as chairwoman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Her home there also was her escape while serving as the state's first female governor from 1977 to 1981.

So it is appropriate that the historical museum would gather some Dixy stuff and put it on display.

Here is an article on the exhibit in our sister paper, the Peninsula Gateway.

The bill that just passed the Washington Senate on a 48-0 vote, adds those electrical shock devices to the list of things students can't bring to school in their lunch boxes or back packs.

Here is the full text of Senate Bill 5263.

And here is the item I posted back on Feb. 9, when I saw that Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, had introduced it.

House Bill 1978 is the state supplemental transportation budget for 2007-09, but it contains an extra $344 million in federal stimulus money.

UPDATE: The governor says she's going to sign the bill at 2 p.m. Thursday.

And of note to Pierce County, it also shifts some federal and state money around. The net effect is to put construction of the second half of the Nalley Valley Viaduct back on schedule.

Gov. Chris Gregoire had proposed delaying construction of the eastbound Nalley Valley bridge until 2013-15. The rewritten budget puts that project back in the 2011-13 time frame.

Here is a link to our TNT home page, which has the story that AP reporter Curt Woodward wrote after the bill passed the House this morning.

Here's a state Senate news release, which also notes the Alaskan Way Viaduct bill the Senate passed a few minutes earlier. See my earlier post with the "greenest guy on the floor of the Senate" headline.

The budget bill goes to the governor. The viaduct bill goes to the House.

Senate passes transportation stimulus and viaduct replacement bills
OLYMPIA — Today the Senate passed one bill identifying projects throughout Washington that will receive the state’s portion of federal transportation stimulus funding and another to approve a deep-bore tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

=> Read more!

This is my new nominee for best quote of the session:

"I guess I've become the greenest guy on the floor of the Senate," said Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.

(Who woulda thunk?)

Hargrove made that remark during debate on a bill that gives the Senate's blessing to a deep-bored tunnel to replace Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct. That's the deal the Gov. Chris Gregoire worked out with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and (still) King County Executive Ron Sims.

Hargrove actually was explaining why he was voting "no" on the bill.

Basically, it perpetuates the use of the automobile, which flies in the face of all the climate-change, green jobs and everything enviro that Senate Democrats are doing this session.

"And we’re going to be spending $2.4 billion on a transportation corridor for the automobile," Hargrove said.

Senate Bill 5768 passed on a 43-6 vote.

Prime sponsor, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, said even though the cost now will be an estimated $4.24 billion, the state still is committed to no more than $2.4 billion. The state may get an additional $400 million for the project from tolling, but that still in not a certainty. The bill calls for a study to further examine the feasiblility of tolling the 1.7-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle.

I have a list of taxes that legislators probably are examining to determine which ones are best suited to help them get out of their $8 billion budget hole, assuming voters approve of them, of course.

It's on paper, so I have to retype it, and I'm not going to type all of them into this blog post. But I'll try to give you a flavor.

UPDATE: Here is a more recent list, November 2008.

"This is a list of options for raising revenues that have been commonly requested. The Department (of Revenue) does not advocate these options; we consider them to be administrable."

I'm using numbers from the July 2008, which may overstate amounts since we really went into the tank afterward. The chart shows how much money would be raised from each of the taxes in the 2009-11 biennium, as well as for each single fiscal year in the biennium. It also assumes the effective date for any of the taxes would be July 1, 2009, the first day of the 2009-11 biennium.

Mike Gowrylow of the Department of Revenue says his agency does this list every quarter, so it wasn't ordered up special by legislative leaders this time. That said, it must be awfully helpful to them in the tax deliberations that they are not having.

I'll be using some elements of this for a story I'm writing about the budget deficit, a story that probably will run in a week or so.

Anyway, here ya go! (All figures are for 2-year period.) Does anyone feel as if they are in the cross-hairs of a tax increase?

NEW TAXES
Soft drinks: 5 cents per 12 oz. can at wholesale: $277 million.
Bottled water: 1 cent per ounce at wholesale: $366 million.

REAL ESTATE EXCISE TAX
Raise rate to 1.6 percent from 1.28 percent: $381.4 million.

CIGARETTE TAX
Raise by 25 cents per pack (net gain): $56.4 million

OIL SPILL TAX
Boost oil spill tax to 5 percent value of barrell: $1.278 billion

ESTATE TAX
Double estate tax rates: $237.5 million.

RETAIL SALES AND USE TAX
--Raise state sales tax from 6.5 to 6.6 percent: $225 million.
--Raise state sales tax to 7 percent: $1.12 billion.
--Raise state sales tax to 7.5 percent: $2.23 billion.

=> Read more!

That $8 million Pierce County revenue shortfall keeps getting bigger.

Budget Director Pat Kenney confirms that sales tax revenue from January and February are down 13 percent from the same period a year ago. He cautioned not to read too much into that figure.

“You can’t just take those two months and prorate it for the whole year,” Kenney said, but added. “It obviously makes us more concerned than we were two months ago.”

Bottom line: Kenney now estimates a revenue shortfall of $10 million to $12 million for 2009.

“If the world continues to worsen, of course, it will be more than that,” he said.

The news comes as the County Council prepares to consider budget cuts and other measures to plug what was thought to be an $8 million hole. The council will meet as a “committee of the whole” next Tuesday and Wednesday morning to discuss the budget.

On the agenda: County Executive Pat McCarthy’s plan to balance the budget in part by cutting spending in numerous departments. The sheriff’s and corrections departments would see cuts of less than 1 percent. Other departments – including the council, executive, auditor and assessor-treasurer’s offices – would see 3 percent cuts.

You can download an Excel spreadsheet detailing the cuts here.

For now, Kenney said his office is not asking the council for additional cuts.

Council Chairman Roger Bush, R-Graham, said he’s not sure yet whether the council will seek to fill a budget hole beyond $8 million when it meets next week.

But he said next week’s budget hearings are the kind usually held only in the fall as the council is preparing the annual budget. And he said cuts the council made last year have left the county in a better position than it otherwise might have been.

“I’m confident we’ll work through this and the core missions of Pierce County government will be fulfilled,” Bush said.

Apparently, we didn't have room for this in today's print edition, so I'm posting The Associated Press story on state Rep. Tami Green's proposal to make breast-feeding in public places a constitutionally protected civil right. House Bill 1596 passed the House on a 93-0 and has been sent to the Senate.

By BRIAN SLODYSKO
Associated Press Writer

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ Breast-feeding mothers would gain civil rights protections against discrimination for nursing in public under a bill approved by the state House on Tuesday.

Mothers already are protected from public indecency criminal charges for publicly nursing in Washington. But under the measure approved Tuesday, women also would be protected from discrimination when nursing in movie theaters, parks, shopping malls, concert theaters, schools and hospitals _ just to name a few.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Tami Green, D-Lakewood, was approved unanimously by the House. It now moves on to further consideration by the state Senate.

Although breast-feeding is the healthiest way to nourish infants in their early months, women who breast-feed have been stigmatized in the past, and even encouraged to use bottled milk or baby formula while in public, bill supporters said.

=> Read more!

OK. That probably wasn't the best use of the language there, but I was trying to reach readers in the generation of Cheech and Chong. And I was in a hurry.

My second choice for a headline was: "Smoke Dope. It helps alleviate budget pains at all levels of government."

Anyway, the American Civil Liberties Union Washington sent out an e-mail news release yesterday, showing how lowering the penalty for possession of marijuana would actually save the state, cities, counties, courts, prosecutors money because of lower costs.

Plus, the $100 fine would raise even more money. About $17 million a year (?) or biennium. Read the fiscal note.

Here is the bill report for Senate Bill 5615. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and now awaits a vote by the full Senate.

Marijuana Reclassification Will Generate Significant Savings and Revenue

Senate Bill 5615 would reclassify adult possession of no more than 40 grams of marijuana to a civil infraction imposing a $100 penalty earmarked for the Criminal Justice Treatment Account.

According to the fiscal note prepared by the Washington State Office of Financial Management, passage of SB 5615 is projected to bring significant revenue and savings to government.

Reduced Costs:
City court costs.....$2,350,000
County court costs....2,190,000
State court.............185,000
Prosecution...........4,667,520
Public defense........4,936,800
Jail sentences........1,679,040
TOTAL SAVINGS.......$16,008,360

=> Read more!

This is a follow-up to my post from Tuesday.

House Republicans wanted to put Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, on the spot and force him to make a ruling on whether it takes a two-thirds supermajority vote to eliminate a tax break. Alas, Chopp's stand-in, Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon, said as acting speaker he wasn't going to make a ruling because the bill that Republicans chose as a test case was not up for a final vote. So it was too early.

Here is the GOP take on things. Their news release has the full verbatim exhange, all of which was pretty much scripted to make a clear record.

House Democrats refuse to say whether they will respect the will of the people, I-960
House Republicans press for answers, taxpayer protection

House Republicans are asking House Speaker Frank Chopp to rule on whether the Washington State House of Representatives can repeal an established tax exemption with a simple majority vote. They believe it should take a two-thirds vote, as outlined by voter-approved Initiative 960. Speaker Pro Tempore Jeff Morris ducked the underlying question in the following exchange with Republican House Floor Leader Doug Ericksen on the House floor today:

=> Read more!

The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) sure is staying busy.

Just a few days after one PRSC subcommittee narrowed down the list of local road projects that may receive stimulus money, another has done the same with local transit projects.

The PSRC estimates it is receiving $136 million in funds from the federal stimulus package to distribute throughout Pierce, King, Snohomish and Kitsap Counties for transit projects.

On Tuesday, the group's Transit Operators Committee approved a list of transit projects within that budget to recommend to the PSRC Executive Board. That executive board will have to approve the list March 12 before any projects can receive stimulus funds.

So what's still in the running in Pierce County? There are three ferry projects and three Pierce Transit projects on the list.

-$1.3 million for the preservation of the Christine Anderson Ferry, which runs between Steilacoom and Anderson Island;
-$15,000 for Ketron Island Ferry Terminal Preservation;
-$25,000 for Anderson Island Ferry Terminal Preservation;
-$4.4 million for Pierce Transit to perform preventative maintenance;
-$1.6 million for Pierce Transit to build a compressed natural gas fueling station and backup power upgrade at its agency headquarters;
-$5.4 million for Pierce Transit to buy hybrid buses.

Sound Transit is also requesting $4.6 million to build commuter rail from M Street in Tacoma to Bridgeport Way SW in Lakewood.

Click here to see the complete draft list of transit projects in Pierce, King, Snohomish and Kitsap Counties.

This exchange of e-mails (which was sent to every member of the House, including lawmakers and staff) was forwarded to me. (You can't tell hundreds of people something and expect it to remain a secret.)

Anyway, House Counsel Tim Sekerak sent an advisory to lawmakers and staff to be careful about how they use a new Web site, one that was encouraging House members to visit and use it. And Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Kent Fireman, got burned over what he apparently saw as a Big Brother attempt to tell him what he could and couldn't do.

And House Clerk Barbara Baker pulled off the gloves and defended her staff.

I rearranged the e-mail train so it's easier to follow, but what's here is verbatim. (Don't be put off by the long, long intro. The good stuff is at the bottom.) Make your own judgment about who's right, wrong and petty.

From: Sekerak, Tim
Subject: TrueLobby website

Many of you have received a message from the principal behind the website TrueLobby informing you that his website has been “approved for use” by the House and Senate. Let me clarify:

The website called TrueLobby is not currently blocked. We simply raised some questions about its use and needed to make clear to former Rep. (Mike) Sherstad that the use of this site by members and staff would be bound by ethics laws and House policies.

=> Read more!

After I shamelessly wrote a story about how Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget proposal would eliminate a couple programs for the downtrodden, (General Assistance Unemployable) I somehow got onto the e-mail list for the Washington State Coalition for the Homeless.

(I know, I was doing just what the Democrats and SEIU 775NW wanted.)

Anyway, now I get all kinds of news from them.

Here is the homeless newsletter.

Coalition Director Mia Navarro Wells (of Tacoma) said "I am tired of dwelling on the bad news we hear every day."

So she notes there is $25 million of federal simulus money for Washington to help prevent homelessness and that they've enjoyed decent press in newspapers (including editorials) about preserving the GAU and ADATSA programs.

Anyway, read the newsletter.

Yes, Yes and (suprisingly) No.

I have only fragmented results for the polling that is being done by interest groups to gauge public support for taxes to help the Legislature get part way out of its $8 billion budget hole.

But "Survey says..."

....Putting a sales and use tax on professional services, such as doctors, lawyers, architects is the kind of tax that would raise a sizeable amount of money.

....A tax on bottled water suprisingly was not that popular. Go figure. I guess it's just way too popular.

....What to spend that tax money on? Parks, education in general, K-12 in particular, and children's health care.

All this will be useful information when it comes time to put together a tax package for voters later this session.

I'm told there are several groups out there holding focus groups and doing polling to see what will pass muster with voters, so stay tuned.

House Bill 2281: Relating to the visitor destination campus act of 2009.

That's what they call a "title-only bill." Please read it. It says almost nothing. It's what lawmakers do when they can't reach agreement about what to do about something, but they know they just might reach agreement later on. And just in case they do reach agreement, they pass a bill that has only a title to meet some self-imposed deadline for taking acting. It makes things easier down the line. (They basically write the rest of the bill (under the title) later on.)

Anyway, that "visitor destination campus" is code for "Seattle Center and Key Arena."

Seattle wants the state to let the city have some of the hotel-motel tax that now goes to the state Trade and Convention Center, and legislators so far want Seattle to use it's own darn money to do whatever the city has to do to get another $30 million out of Clay Bennett and Co.

It's an impasse right now. But hope springs eternal.

State Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, is sorta the go-between for the two parties that still have not yet reached agreement. I suppose this bill also might be the vehicle for doing something to attract a replacement team here for the long-gone Seattle Sonics, now the Oklahoma Thunder.

House Republicans want Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, to make a ruling on whether the House can repeal tax breaks with a simple majority vote of the 98 representatives, or whether it takes a two-thirds supermajority.

(The layman lawyer in me says if you're not paying taxes today, but you have to start paying taxes tomorrow, your taxes have been raised. But I get it wrong too often to be confident in that assessment.)

The GOPers think Initiative 960 and Initiative 601 say a two-thirds vote in needed. But what really matters (at least early on during a legislative session) is what the Speaker of the House rules and what the President of the Senate rules for that chamber.

Minority Republican Floor Leader Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, says about 2:30 p.m., the minority party (they're outnumbered 62-36 by Democrats)will ask Chopp to issue a ruling on House Bill 1504. It has something to do with gas taxes.

I-601 and I-960, which say any tax increase requires a two-thirds vote by the Legislature or a public vote for approval, are being challenged by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. But the Washington Supreme Court doesn't appear as if it's going to issue a ruling on its constitutionality in time to help the Democratic majorities. That's why they are talking about a ballot measure.

UPDATE: This was just brought to my attention: House Bill 2212. It appears to be an attempt to "clarify" that repealing a tax break isn't really raising taxes for anyone.

Last week, a Tacoma City Council committee heard a report urging them to ban smoking in city parks.

This week, a different Tacoma council committee heard a report from city staffers about how to go about banning smoking in apartments and other multi-family housing units.

Officials from the city's Human Rights and Human Services Department studied the issue and briefed members of the city council's Neighborhoods and Housing Committee about what they learned.

Second-hand smoke is responsibles for the early deaths of 65,000 Americans each year, and second-hand smoke is the third-leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., surpassed only by smoking and alcohol consumption, the report states.

But the officials made no recommendations, and council members took no action.

Mayor Bill Baarsma said the city would continue looking at the issue and revisit it in the near future.

The report laid out a variety of options, ranging from enacting a total ban on smoking to taking no action and allowing the market to decide whether to create smoke-free apartments.

(Photo via flickr user CURSIVEBUILDINGS)

=> Read more!

Friday morning, Eatonville's Rural Town Corridor project was listed as one of the top local road projects in Pierce County that should receive federal stimulus money.

But by that afternoon, officials from several Pierce County jurisdictions decided to recommend funding a different rural project that wasn't on the list of project finalists.

The project, an asphalt overlay in unincorporated Pierce County, was put on the list, even though it hadn't made it past previous
project-vetting sessions.

The reasoning? County officials said a rural project should be represented.

Even though Eatonville's town corridor project is considered "rural" by federal standards, a group of Pierce County officials decided to recommend the Pierce County project instead.

Now Eatonville officials feel they've gotten the shaft.

"I obviously believe we should have got it," Eatonville Mayor Tom Smallwood said this morning. "I wasn’t really happy about adding a project in at the last minute that wasn’t on either the A list or the B list."

=> Read more!