Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam has

asked the county prosecuting attorney’s office to investigate allegations that the assessor’s office falsified records to cover up skipped property inspections under his predecessor, Ken Madsen.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Washam asked Prosecuting Attorney Gerald Horne to investigate the accusations that the office skipped inspections required by state law and falsified various documents to make it appear the inspections had been conducted. Among the documents: county tax records and progress reports submitted to the state Department of Revenue.

You can download a copy of the letter here or at the assessor’s web site.

Washam has claimed for years that the office under Madsen failed to conduct physical inspections of properties for tax assessment purposes. Washam won election to the office in November and in March announced that his suspicions were true. He now says the office may have skipped inspections of more than 181,000 properties from 2001 to 2008.

Madsen has said his office did not conduct “boots on the ground” inspections of every property, but used accepted statistical methods to assess property values. Madsen said the state Department of Revenue was aware of his practices, though the department has denied it knew the office was not physically inspecting properties.

Washam previously asked several state agencies to investigate the skipped inspections. Each declined. Now he’s asking the local prosecuting attorney to take a look.

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When I wrote this morning that I was going to keep updating this blog post with highlights and interesting tidbits, I lied. I'm just not going to have time today. So, as a peace offering, here's a copy of the report's executive summary and key findings.

My original post is now after the jump.

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This comes from King County:

Blue-Ribbon Committee to interview prospective King County Executive appointees on May 13

Panel to evaluate four nominees and make recommendations to the King County Council

Now that the U.S. Senate has formally confirmed King County Executive Ron Sims for a Cabinet-level post, a blue-ribbon panel will meet next week to assist the Metropolitan King County Council in the evaluation of four nominees for interim County Executive:

Wednesday, May 13
6:30 p.m.
Chinook Building, Room 123
401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle

The Blue-Ribbon Committee will meet with the candidates for Executive who received nominations from at three County Councilmembers. Those nominees are:

· Former County Councilmember Steve Hammond
· Former County Councilmember Louise Miller
· Former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer
· King County Executive Chief of Staff Kurt Triplett

When the office is officially vacated, the King County Council under the County Charter will appoint an executive to serve until the next general election in November. The Council created the Blue-Ribbon Committee to interview candidates and forward at least two recommendations. The committee is chaired by former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice and Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke, with bipartisan membership representing the economic, geographic and ethnic diversity of the county.

That 583 bills surpasses the previous record of 536 bills passed by the 1987 Legislature, which passed 11 more during a subsequent special session that same year. So 547 was the record.

Marty Brown, the governor's legislative liaison, is the source of that bit of legislative trivia and history. Brown, who also was budget director for former Gov. Gary Locke, Secretary of the Senate and holder of various other legislative jobs since the territorial days, knows all that stuff first-hand. (And he's still a few years younger than me.)

Here are some that cleared both the House and Senate, but still await action by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

PASSED LEGISLATURE; AWAIT ACTION BY GOVERNOR

Teachers pay raises: HB 2363 would suspend the cost of living raises that public school and some two-year college workers are automatically entitled to in 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. However, the bill also obliges the Legislature to make up for the estimated 4.2 percent raise that teachers are losing no later than the 2014-15 school year.

Fees for parks: HB 2339 would direct the state Department of Licensing on Sept. 1 to start collecting $5 from people when they register their vehicles unless owners “opt out” of that donation. If half of motorists pay up, no state parks will close. Otherwise, some are likely to be mothballed.

Alaskan Way Viaduct: SB 5768 would authorize the state to spend $2.4 billion to bore a 1.7-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle to replace the elevated structure, make Seattle property owners pay for any cost overruns beyond $2.8 billion and commission a study to see if tolls can raise $400 million of the total $4.24 billion project cost.

Toll 520 bridge: HB 2211 would allow the state to impose tolls on the Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington as early as October 2010. Tolls would vary based on time of day and must be high enough to pay off $1.2 billion in loans for the estimated $4.65 billion project. No decision yet on whether to toll I-90 bridge, too.

Family leave: SB 6158 would delay until Oct. 1, 2012 payment of any benefits under a program that would give families $250 a week for up to five weeks to care for a newborn or adopted child.

=> Read more!

Nearly 600 bills were passed by the Legislature and two-thirds of them already have been signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire. The remainder will be signed -- or vetoed -- by May 19.

Here are some of the bills that I tracked this session. (I've included 2 bills that will be signed later today and 1 other that will be signed on Friday.)

GOVERNOR SIGNED INTO LAW

Bigger unemployment checks: HB 1906 will raise the minimum weekly benefit check to $200 and boost other payments by $45 a week across the board. Money from Congress will boost weekly benefits by an additional $25 for the rest of the year. Higher amounts will show up in checks this week.

Nalley Valley Viaduct: HB 1978, the 2007-09 supplemental transportation budget, includes $70 million to put back on schedule construction of the eastbound portion of the viaduct for 2011-13. The governor had delayed that project until 2013-15.

Hiring freeze: HB 1694 puts a partial freeze on all state hiring, but prison workers and some other groups of employees are exempt.

Car sales fee: HB 1939 allows auto dealers to triple the maximum fee they can charge their customers for processing sales paperwork, to $150 from $50. The fee falls back to $50 in 2014.

Vancouver-Portland transit: SB 5540 allows Clark County and Vancouver to create a high capacity transit taxing district similar to Sound Transit in Puget Sound and impose a sales tax of 0.9 percent to help pay for light-rail or buses over the Columbia River to Portland.

Tacoma Dome parking garage: SB 5045 will let Tacoma set up special taxing district, probably downtown and in Tacoma Dome district, to raise up to $500,000 a year for 25 years to pay for parking that will be displaced by the LeMay Car Museum. Bremerton and Auburn also have permission to get some state money, too.

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This just in from House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown:

May 7, 2009
Statement from House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown regarding special session:

“After a conversation today between Gov. Gregoire, Speaker Chopp and Majority Leader Brown, the three leaders decided against a special session.”

“The few issues left on the table in the education and corrections budgets can be taken up when the Legislature next convenes, and after future revenue forecasting provides a clearer picture of the lasting effect of the recession on our state.

“That being said, we stepped up to the challenge presented by what is generally considered to be the worst recession in 70 years. The Legislature approved three balanced biennial budgets, and key legislation that will affect the future of our education system, protect working families, position us toward a greener energy future, and help Washington businesses create jobs.”

Here is the reaction of Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt:

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I lost track of this issue during those final hectic days of the legislative session, but the 82,000-member Washington Education Association certainly didn't lose sight of a bill they wanted to take the sting out of their frozen salaries.

House Bill 2363 is the measure that actually suspends the cost-of-living adjustments that some 150,000 public school and two-year college workers are automatically entitled to in 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. Voter-approved Initiative 732 says they get pay raises pegged to the Consumer Price Index. By suspending I-732, the state saves about $380 million because the Legislature doesn't have to give teachers a 4.2 percent raise this fall or a slight raise in the fall of 2010.

However, the bill also obliges the Legislature to make up for that estimated 4.2 percent raise that teachers are losing no later than the 2014-15 school year.

You'll hear over and over down here at the state capital that one Legislature can't bind another Legislature to act on something. That's the reason given to discourage interest groups from even trying to exact a promise out of the Legislature. But the WEA doesn't believe that.

At the very least, they will force the 2013 or 2014 Legislature to remove that promise language from HB 2363.

Although legislative budget-writers claim they cut K-12 funding by only 2.6 percent, the WEA says the cuts actually are 7.3 percent if you count the lost pay raises and the skipped payments into their pension fund. The Legislature did use a lot of federal stimulus money to make up for some reduction in state funds.

I'm working on a roundup of what passed, what got signed into law, what got vetoed and what died or was killed in the 2009 legislative session.

And I realized there is no way all this stuff will fit into the print edition of our newspaper on Sunday, so I'm posting as many as I can on line.

I'll probably update this list over the next couple days.

UPDATE (11:46 a.m.): Since there will be no special session, I've added 4 bills to the "dead" list. Scroll to the end of the list.

FAILED
Tax referendum: HB 2377 would have increases the state sales tax to 6.8 percent from 6.5 percent to raise $1.1 billion over the next three years to “buy back” some cuts to nursing homes, hospitals and health care programs. A portion of the money would have been given to poor families. Passed by a House Committee but never came up for a vote in the House.

Millionaires income tax: SB 6147 would have imposed a 1 percent tax on single incomes over $500,000 and couple’s incomes over $1 million. It never received a public hearing. Other income tax bills were introduced or proposed by Sens. Lisa Brown and Rosa Franklin, but did not advance.

Enhanced 911 tax hike: HB 2029 would have raised the monthly telephone tax to support Enhanced 911 emergency telephone service to 95 cents from 70 cents but it failed to get a two-thirds majority needed to pass the House. A subsequent proposal would have asked voters to approve the increase at an August election, but it did not come up for a vote.

Oil tax: HB 1614 would have levied a $1.50-per-barrel tax to raise $115 million a year for prevention and cleanup of pollution from storm water runoff. Passed by House. Died in Senate.

=> Read more!

Gov. Chris Gregoire is scheduled to take action on a couple dozens bills this afternoon. Among them are two that I wrote about during the legislative session. SB 5391 will require tattoo artists and body piercing (artists?) to be licensed by July 1, 2010.

House Bill 1362 will let cities and counties designate certain areas for beefed-up enforcement of prostitution laws. For crimes committed in those areas, law officers are allowed to impound any vehicle involved in the act of prostitution, which means a "john" (customer) could have his (or her, that would be "jane", I guess) car impounded.

It would cost $500 to retrieve the vehicle.

Gov. Gregoire to take bill action
Event Date: May 7
OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire tomorrow will take action on several bills.

1:30 p.m. Gov. Gregoire to take bill action
Governor’s Conference Room
Legislative Building - 2nd floor
Olympia
Gregoire will take action on the following bills:

=> Read more!