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.”

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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.