State teachers union spokesman Rich Wood sent this in response to a press conference called today to urge passage of House Bill 2261, the basic education finance task force bill.

Teachers, the professional educators who work with students, are focused on the impact the Legislature's huge budget cuts will have on our state's students and the education they receive. HB 2261 may allow adults outside the classroom to think they're doing something good for kids, but they're ignoring the immediate and real problem. There's no money.

$1.5 billion in K-12 education cuts are going to have a devastating impact on our students and classrooms. Trying to change teacher certification and evaluation or implementing a new school accountability system totally misses the mark. It suggests that TEACHERS are the problem, rather than the huge budget cuts. That's an insult.

We're losing thousands of teaching positions and students will be in overcrowded classrooms this fall. Meanwhile, the Legislature is poised to spend $3 million on work groups to study teacher certification? And teachers are supposed to accept promises that someday down the road the state might actually fulfill its constitutional obligation to fully fund education? We've heard enough promises.

That's why teachers and other education staffers oppose these bills. Today, the Legislature introduced bills that wipe out the voter-approved initiatives for smaller class sizes and school employee compensation. If we care what the voters think, then the Legislature should be finding ways to protect those investments instead of spending money on work groups. We urge the Senate to defeat this bill.

Three weeks ago, Gov. Chris Gregoire sent a letter to legislative leaders with a detailed critique of bills to change the definition of basic education and put the state on the hook to pay for it, The letter was considered a gut punch to the two-year-long efforts to reform the state's schools.

But Gregoire has now met with Senate Democrats to urge them to pass House Bill 2261. What changed? Gregoire spokesman Pearse Edwards said this afternoon that the governor has asked for a received assurances that the bill will be alterned. Included will be language to make sure it won't expose the state to lawsuits if it doesn't immediately meet its constitutional duty to fully fund the broader definition of basic education.

The bill will have a phase-in schedule that says the money won't be flowing fully to school districts until 2018.

The bill could come up for a Senate vote at early as Thursday.

See below for more information on the bill and the politics behind it.

State Rep. Eric Pettigrew today introduced a bill that would raise the state sales by 0.3 percent for three years to "buy back" some of the cuts the Legislature is going to make to health care programs.

The temporary tax increase, which would not expire until Dec. 31, 2012, also would pay for the Working Families Tax Rebate. That program would give low- and moderate-income families a tax rebate for some of the money they pay in state sales taxes.

The proposal would be put to voters on the November general election ballot.

Pettigrew, D-Seattle, chairman of the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee, said he's sponsoring the bill because he saw first hand what damage will be done to health programs for the poor and elderly if the Legislature adopts the budget now before it.

His committee was in charge of finding an estimated $1 billion in cuts to health programs to help plug a $9 billion gap between state tax collections and spending over the next 27 months.

Rep. Gary Alexander of Olympia, top Republican on the main House budget committee, said he found it ironic that the Democratic majorities in the Legislature would choose Tax Day, which was protested by 5,000 visitors to the Capitol, to introduce a tax incease.

"We Republicans continue to believe that we do not need new taxes to balance this budget," he said. "We can balance it by reprioritization and elminination of some programs that we do not think serve the most vulnerable populations of our state."

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State schools chief Randy Dorn led a press conference this morning to push the Senate to pass the House version of a basic education finance bill before Friday.

House Bill 2261 is opposed by the Washington Education Association but supported by just about every other education group from superintendents to parents to minority student representatives. It is what is left of the report of the Basic Education Finance Task Force and broadens the definition of basic education and of what the state is legally responsible to pay for.

Friday is the deadline for the Senate to act on House bills. So far the Senate has been pushing a much-weaker bill that has little of the teacher and school accountability measures in the House bill. But in the last few days, Gov. Chris Gregoire has gotten more involved. One reason is a poll of federal money that is available to states that move to reform schools - not just put stimulus money into the current system.

"I'm encouraged by the work that has gone on the last 48 hours," Dorn said. But he also said he would refuse to take part in any more task forces or studies.

"We're either going to do this and mean it or we'll be mediocre," he said.

Mary Jean Ryan, the chairwoman of the state school board, called the bill "historic but not radical." She said the bill would help the state defend against a lawsuit that claims it is violating its constitutional duty to fully fund basic education.

"The prudent course to take legally is for the governor and the Legislature to pas the strongest legislation possible," Ryan said.

Added Cheryl Jones of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable: "It is urgent. It is compelling. And it has to happen now."

Among the groups represented at Wednesday's press conference were the PTA, the League of Education Voters, the Public School Employees Union, the Service Employees International Union Local 925, Stand for Children, the Urban League, Paternship 4 Education and the Washington Technology Industry Alliance.

Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam’s recent declaration of independence hasn’t dissuaded the Pierce County Council from putting a few string’s on Washam’s budget.

In a recent budget ordinance, the council trimmed Washam’s budget by $150,000 but stipulated that he not lay off any appraisers. The council also requested he work with the state Department of Revenue to develop a new plan to comply with a state law that requires assessor’s to physically inspect every property at least once every six years. Washam recently announced his office skipped tens of thousands of inspections under his predecessor, Ken Madsen.

Washam didn’t take too kindly to the budget provisions. In a letter earlier this month, he noted he is an autonomous elected official and asked council Chairman Roger Bush, R-Graham, to cite the authority that gives the council the right to impose the budget provisions.

On Monday Bush responded, citing provisions of the county charter. One authorizes the council to “exercise its legislative power by adoption and enactment of ordinances or resolutions.” The other limits the council’s authority over other branches of government “except in the performance of it legislative functions…”

“Adopting a supplemental budget is clearly a legislative act contemplated by the charter,” Bush wrote. “The provisos adopted as part of the budget are expressions of policy direction in relation to the appropriation of revenue and the adoption of budgets, whether they are restrictions on the number of FTEs allowed to be filled or directions to officials to take specific action relative to the dollars appropriated, they are clearly within the contemplation of the charter as a legitimate exercise of legislative power.”

You can download a PDF copy of Bush’s letter here.

ProPublica, an independent, non-profit news agency, has launched an interactive bailout Web site. You can, for example, check out which banks in Washington are getting money.

The total bailout committed to Washington-based institutions is $957.6 million, which is 0.2% of the total bailout so far committed.

Here are the two in Tacoma that are getting funds:
Columbia Banking System, $76.9 million
Pierce County Bancorp, $6.8 million

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma compared the Center for Urban Waters to the first hydroelectric dam on the Nisqually River, the Tacoma Water pipeline from the Green River watershed, the Click telecommunications network, and the University of Washington Tacoma campus.

"This is a transformational event," Baarsma said Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the multipurpose lab planned for the east side of the Thea Foss Waterway.

Elected officials and dignitaries said Urban Waters will create new jobs by establishing Tacoma as a center for marine biotechnology, and serve as a focal point for cleaning up Puget Sound.

Speakers included U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, and his son David, who is executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership. The partnership was created to clean up the Puget Sound, and it will be among the tenants of the building.

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There are lots and lots of groups that select their "legislator of the year" for various awards. Generally, it's cops who reward the lawmaker who sponsors a bill to sweeten pension benefits for retired cops.

Or it's the Realtors, who give that award to the lawmaker who tries to repeal real estate excise taxes or gets rid of impact fees or anything else that might affect the cost of a house.

But this particular award is made by the legislative staffers and aides, the people who have to deal with legislators day in and day out, into the wee hours of the morning, over weekends. LA's, as they are called, see the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So when they choose someone, you know they are not bad or ugly.

Here are the criteria:

"The Legislator of the Year exemplifies Democratic values in the workplace by striving always to...
Listen
Be loyal
Legislate effectively
Respect others
Build strong teams
Promote and protect staff
Manage resources productively
Wield power prudently and justly
Be mindful of professional boundaries
Keep appointments and other commitments
Recognize the accomplishments of others
Communicate clearly, courteously and effectively
Create partnerships extending beyond party, chamber or region
Cultivate policies for the long-term benefit of all citizens of our state
Inspire others through generous, stalwart and trustworthy leadership."

For all these reasons, the aides and staffers chose Rep. Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, former chief of staff for King County Councilman Dow Constantine.

(Now, if she can just get rid of that gravel pit back home.)

Senate Republicans have a similar award. It's called the Pam Roach Award, although the criteria are somewhat different.

House Bill 1517, in its original form, would have allowed prison inmates get back their right to vote once they got out of prison, even if they still owed money for court costs, fines and-or restitution to victims.

Current laws says all their financial obligations must be paid off before they can vote.

HB 1517 says they can vote once they no longer are under the authority of the state Department of Corrections. That means, after they get out of prison AND after their community supervision ends, they can vote.

However, Sens. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, and Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, persuaded their colleagues to put in an extra provision. Their amendment says ex-convicts almost must live up to the terms of their release by making progress on payments on their financial obligations. If the offender misses 3 payments over a 12-month period, the person who is owed money from the ex-convict or the county clerk can ask the prosecutor to go to court to yank the offender's voting rights.

After that amendment was approved, the bill was passed on a 29-19 vote and was sent back to the House for concurrence. Word is, the House will go along with the change just so it can finally be sent to the governor.

Prime sponsor of the bill is Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma. She's been working on this bill for most of her 9-year career in the House.

This is the bill report for the almost-final version of the bill. It doesn't include the amendment about missing payments on financial restitution.

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks was telling the Tacoma City Club today that he was having a good time serving in the U.S. House.

"I still love the work," the 6th District congressman said. "I still have a desire to stay in the job."

Then he realized that his words sounded a bit too nostalgic, that they might portend a change in career. So he quickly added: "I'm not announcing anything."

In fact, Dicks said he is now a record holder: the longest serving member of the U.S. House from Washington state. Former House Speaker Tom Foley served for 30 years while Dicks is now in his 17th term and 33rd year.

Dicks claims another record that isn't as rewarding. He served on the House Appropriation Committee for 30 years before winning the chairmanship of one of the 13 subcommittees – a longer wait than any other chairman.

"That's why I can't quit," Dicks said. "I finally got there."

Feel free to call me a nerd. There are lots of reasons: I buy books on chess, watch Battlestar Galactica and fall asleep most nights listening to dharma talks on my iPod. Recently, I read the budget for the town of Ruston line by line.

When I got to the section on money collected by the police department, a few items jumped out at me. It's small potatoes overall, but the percentage increases caught my eye.

First, what stayed the same: Traffic infraction penalties in 2007 were $42,736 and in 2008 rose to $44,066. For 2008, $40,000 was budgeted. For 2009, $40,000 was budgeted. Ho hum.

DUI collections dropped by about a third, from $6,370 to $4,196. For 2008, $5,000 was budgeted. For 2009, $5,000 was budgeted. Yawn.

Now the fun stuff.

In 2007, $1,615 was collected in parking fines. In 2008, $2,669 was collected. That's a 65 percent jump! (And more than two and a half times the $1,000 that was budgeted for 2008.) The department expects to collect $2,000 this year.

Criminal traffic misdemeanors (like driving without a license, I'm guessing) jumped from $4,660 in 2007 to $7,606 in 2008. A 63 percent increase. Police budgeted $2,500 in 2008, but expect to collect $6,000 in 2009.

The "other non-traffic" category rose even more. $1,804 was collected in 2007. Last year, they got $6,021 -- a 234 percent bump. They budgeted $1,500 for 2008 and raised that to $4,500 for 2009.

What does it all mean?

I asked acting police chief Sgt. Jeremy Kunkel that very question. He replied to my e-mail saying there may have been increased from older cases that were sent out to collections agencies. Other differences might come from conservative estimates used for budgeting.

(Photo: p_a_h)

That's my latest nominee for Quote of the Session. And "members" are, of course, members of the Legislature.

It was uttered today by a lobbyist who wishes to remain anonymous so he (or she) can keep his (or her) job.

And, of course, it is a reference to the whole hubbub over the Worker Privacy Act and subsequent finding by the State Patrol that no crime was committed by the Labor Council in an e-mail that suggested (aka "threatened") campaign contributions be withheld until or unless the Privacy Bill was passed into law.

Here's an earlier post that explains the joke.

Okay, not just any Grays River Grange Master. But when the head of the Grange in southwest Washington, any state Grange actually, happens to be Krist Novoselic, it gets a bit more attention.

Novoselic, the former bass player for the iconic rock band Nirvana, has been playing politics recently. After an aborted run for lieutenant governor he has become active in voting reform – namely ranked choice voting.

His opposition to the state's current Top Two primary is even more interesting because it was the Washington State Grange that led the defense of the old blanket primary and helped replace the much-disliked Pick-a-Party Primary with the Top Two.

In a recent e-mail, Novoselic explained his support for ranked choice voting this way:

"I advocate reforms like RCV out of altruism. The idea is to make the democratic experience more inclusive and compelling.

"I get a lot of visitors down here on the mouth of the Columbia during elk-hunting season. Last fall, most everybody told me how they were ready for the election to be over. It was like, “I’m sick of the TV ads!” They were tired of the negative campaigning. I even know PETA-supporting vegans who grew weary with the election season for the same reason - so the feeling was universal!

"But back to my hunter friends - I never got a chance to tell them about RCV. I was too busy making sure they cut me in when they came back from the butcher! I bet they’d perk up if they knew there was an election system that encourages positive campaigning."

Said constitutent then pays a visit to your office.

At least, that's what happened to state Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia. Hunt said he and seatmate Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, had a restraining order against a woman who kept harrassing them, their families and their respective staffs.

It prevented her from coming any closer to them than 50 feet or so.

Three days after the no-contact order expired, the woman paid a visit to Hunt's office. His staff called security. Security got her to leave. But then, she later showed up in the wings of the state Senate. Security was called. She was escorted out in handcuffs.

She made her way back to Hunt's office in a different building. Security was called again. Then, they called the Washington State Patrol. Woman kicked trooper in the ....(where a man least wants to be kicked).

She reportedly later assaulted the booking officer at the jail.

All of this happened last Tuesday, but the story was just making the rounds among the lobbyists.

Hunt said his stalker is a fired state worker.

I'm not the first one to point this out, but some people may not realize that trappings of the conservative Tax Day Tea Party contain a dirty double entendre popular with the under 25 set.

References to 'teabag Obama' or just plain 'tea bagging' have especially been causing giggles among the video-game playing crowd. A humiliating move by the same name often follows a kill in shooter games like Halo as a way of showing disrespect to the corpse of your enemy.

An animation of this ritual follows the jump -- click at your own discretion.

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Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam isn’t having much luck getting state authorities to investigate skipped property inspections here.

The state Department of Revenue already has indicated it can’t do much but express its dismay about the fact that Pierce County did not comply with a state law requiring assessors to physically inspect every property at least once every six years as it values them for tax purposes. (The department has offered to assist Washam as he tries to comply with the law from here on out).

Earlier this month the state Attorney General’s Office notified Washam that it does not have the jurisdiction over “matters of local concern.” Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Moran suggested Washam consult the local prosecuting attorney’s office.

Finally, last week the Washington State Auditor’s Office declined to investigate the matter.

“We have contacted the state Department of Revenue officials, why told us they are aware of the issue,” wrote Jan Jutte, the office’s director of legal affairs. “They said the department is working with your office and the Pierce County internal auditor to bring the county into compliance with state law.”

It’s not the first time the agencies declined to look into skipped property assessments. Washam first raised the issue in 2005, when he filed a recall petition against his predecessor, Ken Madsen, citing missed property inspections.

Now that he’s in office, Washam says the office skipped tens of thousands of residential and commercial property inspections over at least six years.

A county performance audit staff report concluded there is no evidence that property owners were harmed because of the skipped inspections.

If you own Weyerhaeuser stock, you already know that University of Washington president Mark Emmert is running for election to the board of directors. (He joined the board last summer.)

This was news to me, but it was brought to my attention by a lobbyist who does hold stock in the Federal Way-based timber company.

I recall reading somewhere that Emmert said his own salary and compensation package were "on the table" when it comes to making cuts to the UW's budget. Maybe that's why he's pushing for legislative authority to raise tuition by as much as 14 percent in each of the next two years.

Emmert makes $905,000 a year in total compensation from the University of Washington. He gets an additional $140,000 a year for sitting on the Weyerhaeuser board.

I guess he's just supplementing his income in case he has to cut his own state salary. He has a couple other part time jobs, too.

Here's the much more detailed story from the Seattle Times in May 2008.

Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, said she was just trying to give House and Senate budget negotiators some leeway in working out a tuition rate increase when she introduced House Bill 2344.

The bill gets rid of the 7 percent cap on tuition increases. With that cap gone, budget-writers can just insert a new maximum about into the budget for 2009-11.

The Senate budget assumed 7 percent increases for the 4-year colleges. The House budget assumed 10 percent increases for that group. The governor is now calling for a 14 percent hike.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said people shouldn't freak out because the cap is being removed. The 4-year universities probably will be allowed to raise their tuition by 10 to 14 percent in each of the next 2 years when the final budget is written, she said.

Here's Haigh's news release from Monday:

Rep. Kathy Haigh introduces legislation to let colleges raise tuition beyond current limits

Haigh says cost of not letting colleges offset crippling budget cuts is too great

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Dozens of people are celebrating tax day in Tacoma by gathering at the Krispy Kreme near the Tacoma Mall.

They're waving signs at commuters on Interstate 5, and gathering signatures from a steady stream of folks who stop by on their way to or from work. Those who can't stay are signing their names on tea bags that organizers plan to distribute to legislators in Olympia.

Later this morning, many in the group plan to caravan to Olympia to join with other protesters from around the state as part of a national Tax Day Tea Party.

Gary Smith of Anderson Island was on his way to mail his taxes when he stopped to sign a tea bag.

"I've had enough on taxes," said Smith, a contractor. "Every year it goes up and I owe more and more. It's ridiculous. They're killing the small-businessman."

Fred Gustafson, who works the night shift at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, stopped by the Krispy Kreme parking lot on his way home from work.

He said he's tired of lawmakers choosing to cut essential services with the expectation that tax-payers will agree to a tax hike to spare them.

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