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!

State Rep. Dan Newhouse is now Agriculture Secretary Dan Newhouse in Gov. Chris Gregoire's administration. He will be paid an annual salary of $122,478. Noteworthy: Newhouse is a Republican; Gregoire is a Democrat.

But then, Newhouse also is a farmer.

Gov. Gregoire administers oath of office to director of Agriculture

OLYMPIA—Gov. Chris Gregoire today administered the oath of office to former Rep. Dan Newhouse, who will serve as the director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

“Dan is a wonderful choice to oversee Washington’s incredibly important agricultural sector on behalf of the people of our state. As a farmer himself, he brings unique insight and knowledge of markets for Washington agricultural products,” Gregoire said. “This practical, hands-on knowledge will help our economy as Dan works to open more markets for Washington products — some of the highest-quality, most respected products in the world.”

=> Read more!