Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Belligham, today introduced a bill that would protect the identities of the people who administer lethal injections to death-row inmates at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. His bill was prompted by last month's mass resignation of the state death penalty team.

Brandland, who was sheriff of Whatcom County for 11 years before his election to the state Senate, said he's worried about the privacy of the people who perform a necessary but "thankless job" for the state.

"I'm concerned about the officers and maintaining their anonymity in their communities, and maintaining their safety," he said.

The four people who were designated to administer lethal injections resigned March 31 because they were afraid their names would be revealed in the course of a lawsuit that contends lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

March 31 was the deadline set by a Thurston County judge for the state to turn over records that showed the credentials, qualifications and experience in administering lethal drugs.

Darold Stenson is the death-row inmate who filed the suit. He had been scheduled for execution in September but was postponed. Two other death-row inmates have joined the suit.

The bill, which has not yet been assigned a number, says, "Records materials and other information that reveal or could reasonably lead to discovery of the identity or persons who directly participate in an execution under this section and the physician who pronounces death, are confidential and privileged, are not subject to public disclosure under Chapter 42.56 RCW and are not subject to subpoena or discovery in a civil suit."

=> Read more!

House Majority Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, told me earlier today that budget negotiators are continuing to work behind the scenes to reconcile differences between the House and Senate budget proposals.

But the Senate Ways and Means Committee is planning to pass a 2009-11 budget bill out tomorrow. That budget bill will reflect what parts of the budget already have been agreed upon, but there aren't many, so the budget mostly will be what the Senate introduced a few weeks ago.

Tomorrow will be only Day 94 of a 105-day session, and things don't really get serious on the budget front until the last 5 days or so. Then again, what are odds that the Legislature will get around to putting a tax package on the ballot when polling on public attitudes toward a tax increase is still under way?

What happened today, had it been successful, is one reason one can never pronounce a bill dead. Many of them have a tendency toward resurrection.

Such was almost the case for a bill sponsored by Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources, Large Bodies of Water and Having Fun in the Great Outdoors Committee. Jake's original bill to gut the state Fish and Wildlife Commission passed the Senate but "died" over in a House committee.

But today, Sen. Jacobsen tried to amend another Fish and Wildlife bill, House Bill 1778, to include his proposal to reuced the size of the commission from 9 members to 5 members and let the governor appoint the director and deputy director. (This is controversial stuff among hunters and fishers.)

Alas, Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, who has a few hunters and fishers in his legislative district, challenged what Jake was trying to do, and Senate President Brad Owen agreed with Zarelli.

Owen, who's also lieutenant governor, ruled that Jake's reorg was "beyond the scope and object" of HB 1778. (It didn't fit.)

So now, Jake's bill really is dead. (Did I just say 'never say never?')
It's dead, unless, of course, he can get some language into the state budget, or some other trick.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 14-8, along party lines, to raise recording fees for real estate transactions to $30 from $10 to raise more money for the homeless programs.

Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, said the recent economic downturn is likely to add 20,000 more people to the ranks of the homeless, so raising the fee is timely.

The fee increase is contained in House Bill 2331. Here's the report that says how much money would be raised in 2009-11. It would be more than $20 million.

I haven't checked this out yet, but I'm told the House budget raises a whole slew of fees, enough to bring in somewhere between $100 million and $200 million. It could be more. (See earlier post about health care professions fees.)

Rep. Gary Alexander of Olympia, top Republican on that committee, served notice that he plans to challenge that fee when the bill comes up for a vote by the full House because he believes it is a tax. A tax increase would take a two-third majority vote in favor to win approval. A fee hike needs only a simple majority.

Alexander said including all the other surcharges on recording fees, it now costs $62 to file a document, up from only $5 several years ago.

The Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs is objecting to proposals to let inmates out of prison early, and to close McNeil Island prison.

In a letter to legislators, the two groups argue instead in favor of reducing some -- but not all -- supervision of inmates after their release from prison. That will save money and pose less of a threat to public safety, they say.

They don't want to shut down the McNeil Island prison until there is space in another prison. Prosecutors for years have argued that the state should build more prisons because the one sure way to make sure criminals are not committing more crimes is to keep them locked up.

In recent years, the Legislature has moved more toward early release coupled with varying degrees of post-prison supervision.

"All of the proposed budget cuts to the criminal justice system will have an adverse impact on community safety," the letter says. "We are writing to urge you to direct the cuts in the least damaging way possible."

This is largely a response to Sen. Jim Hargrove's proposal to cut 30 to 60 days off the sentences of thousands of inmates. That would free up space in other prisons and allow the Department of Corrections to transfer the 1,300 inmates at McNeil Island to other prisons and shut down McNeil. Here's a link to that story.

Hargrove said the governor "is warming to the idea."

Here is the letter the two groups sent to House and Senate members last week.

Tacoma businessman Marty Campbell formally announced today that he's running for Tacoma City Council.

Campbell is seeking the District 4 seat currently held by Councilman Rick Talbert, who is barred by term limits from running for a third term.

Campbell owns Stadium Video and Buzzard's Discs. He is running on a back-to-basics theme, saying in a press release that he would bring a "get the job done" attitude to the City Council.

"We need to rebuild our economy and create sustainable jobs, eliminate gangs and the criminal activity that surrounds them," Campbell said in a statement. "We need to make sure that, above all, city government is transparent and accountable to the citizens of Tacoma."

In 2007, Campbell lost in the primary in his bid for the District 8 seat being vacated by Bill Evans. Marilyn Strickland went on to defeat David Curry in the general election.

Campbell received the 2007 City of Destiny Award for Leadership.

A campaign kick-off event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. April 29 at the VFW Post No. 969 Community Hall, 3510 McKinley Ave.

The Washington Research Council just issued a report today. It was hired by the Washington ACE (Alliance for a Competitive Economy).

Well, for one, Boeing has a multiplier of 4 jobs for every Boeing job. That is, there are 3 other jobs for every Boeing. So, if all 72,000 Boeing employees were to move to South or North Carolina or Texas, Washington would lose 285,000 total jobs, according to the report.

And whoever asked, "Again?" just remember: it was only the headquarters that Boeing moved to Chicago.

Of course, it's no coincidence that this report should come out now. Boeing is being wooed by other states and makes no secret that in many ways other states have more to offer than Washington does.

The report that leaked out last week basically said to make Washington more competitive with other states, Washington would have to change its unemployment benefits, injured worker benefits and collective bargaining laws to tilt the field away from workers and more decidedly in Boeing's favor.

(I'm sure David Groves at the Washington State Labor Council will resend his raft of e-mails in response to this posting. Then, I can link to them again.)

Boeing appears to be batting .500 this session. They won when the Worker Privacy Act died, but lost when the House passed that bill to restore the pre-2003 formula for computing weekly unemployment benefits. I'm not counting the state Department of Boeing bill yet because it is more window dressing than substance and I'm not even sure the aerospace industry gives much of a hoot.

(BTW, Boeing doesn't like to bat only .500. That's a decent season for the Mariners but downright crappy for the aerospace league.)

Here is a link to the whole report.

And here is last week's missive from the Labor Council, with its observations on an earlier consultant's report that says how poorly we stack up against the Carolina Panthers, or something like that. It's for balance.

Consultant's competitiveness report, recommendations deserve skepticism

=> Read more!

House Bill 2348 is the measure that the House is looking at to raise about $8 million year to help pay the cost of operating local health agencies, such as the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Some 320,000 health care providers in 70 professions would pay an extra $7 a year for their licenses. Those are doctors, nurses, chiropractors, physical therapists, dentists, etc.

In addition, an $8 surcharge would be tacked onto the cost of getting a certified birth or death certificate from your local health department.

And finally, restaurants would pay $10 more as an "inspection fee" by local health authorities.

There are no expiration dates on any of these surcharges, as lobbyists pointed out during today's testimony on the bill. That means, they may be here to stay.

Oh yes. It also appears that license fees for most health care professionals were doubled over the past year or two. I've got a call into the state Department of Health to verify this.

Remember, the state's chief economist, Arun Raha, is predicting unemployment will peak at 10 percent next year.

Washington’s unemployment rate grew to 9.2 percent in March

OLYMPIA – Washington’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent in March 2009, up from February’s revised rate of 8.3 percent, according to the state Employment Security Department.

The state lost an estimated 20,000 non-agricultural jobs last month, seasonally adjusted.

There was no significant job growth in any major industry or sector. The largest monthly declines were in construction, down 5,100 jobs, durable goods, which lost 2,400 jobs, and education and health services, down 2,100.

The state lost 99,100 jobs from March 2008 to March 2009, a 3.3 percent decrease. Only the education and health-services sector (up 1.3 percent) and government services (up 0.8 percent) added jobs in the past 12 months. Nationally, employment declined by 3.5 percent over the past year.

An estimated 344,069 people (not seasonally adjusted) in Washington were unemployed and looking for work in March. The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people is 327,442, showing that some of the unemployment is expected at this time of year, but the vast majority is due to the recession.

=> Read more!

"Kicked off" sounds so harsh. Perhaps I should have used the phrasing the House Ways and Means Committee staffer just used: ACTIVE DISENROLLMENT.

House Bill 2341 is the measure that gives the state Health Care Authority the wherewithal to trim $250 million from the program. That includes reducing enrollment from 106,000 today to no more than 65,000 by Jan. 1, 2010.

That short of a deadline doesn't give the authority the luxury of just letting natural attrition reduce the rolls. They will have to actively boot people off the program. (That's another indelicate phrase.)

The Health Care Authority also can consider how fat people are and how much they smoke and set higher insurance premiums for them if they want to receive state-subsidized health care coverage.

Here is the bill report.

This is another of several bills that are considered "necessary to implement the budget." It's a precursor to passage (tomorrow?) of the House version of the state budget for 2009-11. (Actually, the House is lumping the supplemental 2007-09 budget in with the next biennium.)

The House Ways and Means is holding a public hearing right now on House Bill 2339, the measure that would levy a $5 charge on your license tab renewals, but let you "opt out" of the charge if you don't want to pay it.

I'm still not sure what to call it, despite my use of the word "fee" in the headline. And one of the committee members did ask for a ruling on whether it will be a tax, a fee or a donation. (That will come later.)

Anyway, both the House and Senate assume that half of 6.8 million vehicles would participate and would generate $28 million over the 2009-11 biennium. However, the state Department of Licensing said it can't set up the program until Sept. 13 and it would not be collecting the new fee until vehicle registration renewals until December 2009. That would shave $6 million from collections, so now it appears budget-writers may have to change some of their assumption for parks funding.

Stay tuned.

House Bill 2351 was introduced yesterday and was referred to the House Finance Committee.

As I reported before, this bill also would raise the monthly tax on your phone bill to 95 cents from 70 cents. This one would go on the ballot in August because parts of it take effect on Oct. 1.

Because it is considered a tax increase, it needed a two-thirds majority vote in the Legislature. The original bill got a majority in the House, but failed to get the two-thirds, so the sponsors are taking a different tack, going to voters.

I'll keep you posted on hearing schedules.

Here is the full text of the bill.

Received an interesting message from a longtime employee of McNeil Island prison, which the state legislature is considering shutting down to save millions.

His idea: Don't close it, make it self-sufficient.

While his idea sounds a little bit like B.F. Skinner's utopian promise of Walden Two, he may be on to something.

Back in the day, the man, who has 27-years of experience, there was livestock on the 6.6 square mile island. If the prison's security level was lowered to make it a work camp, it could again. And, as federal land deeded to the state, it might be eligible for some federal stimulus cash to build green power generating equipment.

(Photo: scragz)