In fact, it would go down 56-39.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, mentioned this poll at noon today during his weekly meeting with reporters. The polling was done over just last weekend, so it's fresh

On the other hand, Moore's polling folks didn't know they should have been asking about a 0.3 percent hike in the sales tax.

(And, yes, I know, it's not a 1 percent hike. It's a 1 percentage point hike.)

UPDATE: And just for you, Randy, I put Hewitt in his rightful place, minority leader.

April 8, 2009
TO: Moore Information Clients and Friends
FROM: Bob Moore & Hans Kaiser
RE: Sales Tax Hike will be a Tough Sell to Washingtonians

Results of our recent survey of Washington voters show that a sales tax increase, even if it’s only temporary, will face an uphill battle.

Specifically, we asked voters if they would vote for or against a “temporary increase in the sales tax, from 6.5% to 7.5%, lasting two years, to ensure that education and other important state programs have adequate funding.” By a 56% to 39% margin, this proposal is opposed, and just 5% are undecided.

Temporary Sales Tax Increase

“Would you vote for or against a temporary increase in the sales tax, from 6.5% to 7.5%, lasting two years, to ensure that education and other important state programs have adequate funding?”

Not surprisingly, the most notable differences in opinion about the sales tax increase are by party and region. Regionally, Seattle residents are divided about the sales tax increase but there is majority opposition elsewhere in the state, with Eastern Washington residents most widely opposed.

=> Read more!

The Tacoma City Council has agreed to terminate a lease agreement with Park Choi, owner of the defunct UPS shipping store inside the city's convention center, less than four years into a 10-year deal.

Choi closed the store at the end of Feburary, citing a lack of business at the location.

A Starbucks across the street recently closed, as well.

In August 2005, Choi entered into a 10-year lease with the city. The store struggled from the beginning, however, and in April 2007 the City Council agreed to cut the rent in half for one year. A year later, the council agreed to another year of reduced half-price rent.

Councilman Mike Lonergan voted with the rest of the council to let Choi out of his lease and extend the rent reduction into the first two months of this year. But he questioned whether the owners of the Tacoma Mall would agree to let a failed business owner out of an agreement.

"What we're doing is not a normal business practice," Lonergan noted at Tuesday's council meeting.

By agreeing to let Choi out of the deal, the city gave up just under $37,000 per year in revenue through 2013, totaling $181,248.

David Bobo, general manager of the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, said the store's owners tried hard to make a go of it. "I know what their losses are," he said.

Bobo said officials will try to rent the space for use as meeting space to recoup some of the money.

The House failed to pass a bill that would have boosted the monthly charge for Enhanced 911 emergency telphone service to 95 cents from the current 70 cents.

The House could not come up with the two-thirds majority need to approve a tax increase, so it failed.

But I'm told there is a substitute bill in the works that would refer the increase to voters in an August election, that's the primary.

Putting that on the ballot would take only a simple majority vote.

Stay tuned.

Here is a more detailed story I wrote a few weeks back.

The vote in the Senate about an hour ago was 42-3 in favor of House Bill 1939. The measure will let vehicle dealers collect about $100 million a year collectively, money that goes directly to their bottom lines.

I wrote about this earlier this session.

Today, that so-called "document fee" is $50. It's supposed to be an optional items

"Like the bill before, this is one that is trying to help some of our businesses through some trying times," Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, said in his floor speech just before the vote.

He said it will especially provide some relief to car dealers located on the borders of Oregon and Idaho. Dealers in other states can make a lot more money by charging their customers "doc fees" right now. So this will put Washington dealers on equal footing, he said.

That's what is in the works down here, although nothing has yet been decided.

The figures I got from Adam Glickman, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 26,000-plus home care workers.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown told reporters the 3/10th figure is "just an idea out there" right now. That would boost the sales tax from 6.5 percent to 6.8 percent. Glickman and Brown both said it would be for only two years.

Brown said the money would be used to restore cuts to the Basic Health Plan, a subsidized health care program for the working poor. Enrollment in that plan might be in for a big cut, from 106,000 today to about 60,000 to 65,000. Money also would be used to restore state funding for nursing homes, hospitals and clinics that take care of poor patients for the state.

Brown said there is no plan yet from the Legislature. Others say the measure would be on the November ballot.

She said a proposal to increase the sales tax, even one that would be put to voters, would not win approval from the Senate unless it also is paired with a tax break for poor. That's the Working Families Tax Credit that was approved, but not funded, last year.

More in tomorrow's paper.

Here is a link to what Austin Jenkins at National Public Radio put on his blog a few hours ago.

And here is what I posted this morning about the TV ad campaign by the same group that will be pushing the tax increase.

The activists over at the Bill of Rights Defense committee won a small victory today in a fight over "adopting" a spot right outside Tacoma's federal immigration lock up.

King 5 TV did a piece on it recently.

Tim Smith forwarded me an e-mail exchange he's been having with the city and apparently the disagreement about the property has been resolved. The group will once again be keeping the strategic strip free from litter.

Here are some highlights from the exchange:

Smith wrote:

That sign became dislodged and was propped up against another private property for many months until we had it re-installed and then de-installed again at the behest of GEO [Group, the private company that runs the facility].

We have never blocked entrances to the NWDC and would not do so. When we have large clean-up's we mark all the boundaries with yellow hazard tape to prevent group members from trespassing or entering dangerous ground.

We would appreciate it if the GEO group did not respond to such peacfeul clean-ups with their private employees in riot gear and brandishing tear gas and pepper spray. Many of our members have allergies and other medical conditions and the implied use of force is disturbing and threatening.

The city:

Our Real Property Services Division contacted NWDC and explained that everything west of the railroad tracks at 1623 E. J does in fact belong to the City. Documents reflecting the property boundaries are being sent to the warden. After I notify Mr. McHatton, I will be putting in a request to have the Adopt A Spot sign reinstalled on the south end.

I appreciate your desire for a peaceful and successful clean up and appreciate the work you and your group do to keep Tacoma clean.

This comes to us from the PR newswire.

TV anchor Susan Hutchison to run for King County executive

At a time when voters are looking for a new direction in government, Susan Hutchison has announced her bid to run for King County Executive. Best known as a distinguished TV news anchor, Hutchison has served the Puget Sound region as a trusted broadcaster and community activist for more than 25 years.

Hutchison serves as Executive Director of the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, where she has directed operations of the $100 million international foundation since 2003.

In speaking with voters, Hutchison will emphasize the need for fresh ideas in county government. "With hundreds of millions in projected deficits and critical services on the chopping block, our county’s financial house is in disorder," said Hutchison. "We need a new direction in King County, with new leadership that does not believe the answer to every problem is a new fee or a higher tax."

=> Read more!

The Pew Research Center has developed a News IQ Quiz to measure our knowledge of current events. It is a 12-question test that then lets you compare yourself to others.

It is relatively easy (at least for someone who types for a living) but the average score of about 1,000 randomly selected adults who were asked the same question was just 50 percent.

Men score higher than women, old people like me do better than younger people. And there is a correlation between education levels and scores.

Take it in the privacy of your cubicle and see how you compare.

I've got only sketchy info right now. At 11 a.m. today the coalition of health care worker unions, hospitals, clinics and maybe some others will be paying for television ads that, I'm told, are intended to bring more attention to the budget cuts that are in the offing.

The Washington State Hospital Association, whose members would take a pretty hefty cut of $300 million or more from reduced state reimbursement rates and from the state pulling back from providing health care coverage, is one of the main players. I'm not sure who else is still part of the coalition. Maybe the Washington Education Assocation, the 82,000-member union for the teachers. Surely the Service Employees International Union and at least its home care 775NW and nurses 1199 locals.

I image the Federation of State Employees and state Labor Council will come back to the fold once things are up and running, but last I heard they had pushed their chairs back away from the Big Table, and had put their hands in their pockets, figuratively speaking. (And I told think they were reaching for their wallets.)

I'm told the ads will air pretty broadly -- KING, KONG, KCPQ, KOMO.

Of course, I won't be anywhere near a regular TV, so if anyone sees them, let me know. The ads also are supposed to be posted on line soon, too.

The coalstion, of course, has been sticking its collective toe in the water to see what sorts of temporary tax increases voters might support to stave off even deeper cuts to education and health care programs funded by the state.

The state faces a $9 billion shortfall over the next 27 months. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn by April 26, so there isn't much time for lawmakers to put together a referendum for the ballot in November.

UPDATE: (11:34 a.m.) Here's the news release from the coalition. Notice at the bottom there are no education groups, only health care groups.

Coalition Launches Major TV Ad Campaign on Proposed Health Care Cuts;

Olympia proposals to slash health care funding by more than $1 billion will severely impact quality of care for families across Washington State

=> 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

As expected, the Tacoma City Council voted Tuesday to extend a moratorium on offering the city's multi-family housing tax incentive to developers who want to build near the Tacoma Mall.

But the move came despite objections from council members Mike Lonergan and Spiro Manthou.

Lonergan questioned the logic of the moratorium, particularly in a recession. He noted that the Tacoma Mall area is the only one of Tacoma's mixed-use centers where the city is not offering the tax break as an incentive to spur economic development.

He added that council members said the suspension of the tax break would be only for a short time. Council members adopted an ordinance last June suspending the tax break, and they extended the moratorium in October.

Councilman Spiro Manthou said he did not support the action for similar reasons.

Councilwoman Lauren Walker, who supported the move, said the delay was needed because the city is close to finishing a comprehensive review of the rules for all of its mixed-use centers, and it would be in front of the City Council soon.

Developers can still build townhouses and other multi-family units in the Tacoma Mall area, but they are not eligible for the tax break the city offers in other parts of town.

The council enacted the moratorium over concerns about how the area near the Tacoma Mall was being developed, and what they believed to be a lack of neighborhood planning.

The ordinance extended the moratorium through Aug. 31 was approved 6-2. Lonergan and Manthou voted no. Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg was absent.

Former Gov. Mike Lowry was in Ulcer Gulch with the rest of the lobbyists yesterday. Citizen Mike has a particular interest in all things related to low-income housing, so he had a little concern about some budget provisions that might affect how his organization could borrow money to build said housing.

I think he is with the Renton Regional Housing Program.

He also asked me, "Is cynicism a course in journalism?"

(Must have been something I said.)

I told him "no." It is a course in life, and I come by it honestly. It is a byproduct of a lifetime of dealing with all kinds of elected officials and public figures, some more truthful than others.

From Jeff Reading, Senate Democrats' chief spokesman:

Good morning,

Today, the Senate will run some bills off the attached order of consideration, then caucus. We’ll be on the floor all day until around 5, adjourning early for Passover. Expect a late night tomorrow, however.

Best,

Jeff

OK. I took a little journalistic license in paraphrasing the news release I just got from the Washington Student Lobby. I was just trying to give more of a voice to the ones who would be most affected by tuition increases: parents.

(Steve, you know where to find me.)

The students, of course, are reacting to Gov. Chris Gregoire's announcement yesterday that she is recommending the Legislature let the 4-year colleges raise tuition by as much as 14 percent in each of the next two years and let the 2-year colleges go up by 7 percent each year.

That would boost tuition and fees at the UW to about $7,500 next year, and to $8,300 or so the following year.

UPDATE: Zach Peterson, student body vice president at Washington State University, just sent in this Facebook page link for students opposed to the cuts.

Here is the student lobby's press release:

STUDENTS RESPOND TO GOVERNOR’S TUITION PROPOSAL

OLYMPIA, WA— Yesterday, April 7th Governor Gregoire announced a proposal for funding Washington’s public higher education system, increasing tuition 14%. This is the same solution that has been used in every legislative session during an economic downturn; lawmakers run out of ideas and turn to tuition to fill in the gap.

=> Read more!

Jim King, Mr. Parks Advocate, has his own take on all this. He says the House budget would not give the state Parks and Recreation Commission enough money to keep all the parks open, but still orders them to be kept open.

I disagree. I know that King wants parks to get all the money it needs, but the fact of the matter is the Legislature basically is just telling the commission what its priority is. "If you can't get by on what money we give you, then find some other way to cut your expenses, a way other than closing parks."

It's the same fiat lawmaker issued to colleges. Cut, but don't cut the number of classes. Find other places to cut.

Keep in mind, this is the same "chicken little" parks commission that threatens to close parks at the drop of a hat. The same commission that wanted to charge a $5 parking fee to enter a state park. (And they did.) That fee allowed state parks to beef up its work force -- ostensibly to enforce fee collection. It also drove away about 10 million visitors a year by doing so. But there were lot more people on the payroll.

So, what the Legislature really telling the parks commission is this: "Don't threaten us with park closures just because we're not giving you all the money you want."

Here's King's take on things. (And I'm sure he and his bad self will come back with a rebuttal to my remarks.)

=> Read more!