This afternoon the Pierce County Council voted to cut spending $2.8 million as it tries to balance the county’s budget. Here’s what you need to know.

The problem: The economic recession has adversely affected sales taxes, planning fees and other sources of county income. That’s left an $8 million shortfall in the county’s $281 million general fund.

Spending cuts: The council approved spending cuts of 1.25 percent for most county departments. The sheriff’s department and the prosecuting attorney’s office will take smaller hits. The planning department will take a bigger hit.

The measure approved today also boosts spending in some areas. For example, the council will spend an extra $694,130 to address several problems that have arisen during the construction of the Foothills Trail from Buckley to South Prairie.

Other savings: To balance the budget, the county also will rely on pension savings and reduced payments to internal funds that pay for self-insurance and other services.

Another hit: It’s the second time this year the council has had to cut spending and make other adjustments to balance the budget. In March it plugged another $8 million hole in the general fund, which helps pay for law enforcement and other basic county services.

More to come: County officials hope this will be the last round of spending reductions in 2009. But more cuts are expected as the county prepares its 2010 budget.

These cameras will help, but I sure wish they had another camera, just south of the Nisqually River Bridge, around the corner so it would show the northbound traffic up the hill to the plateau for the afternoon commute.

The frequency of traffic accidents along I-5 and miles-long backups is definitely on the rise.

UPDATE: Turns out DOT already has a camera at Nisqually. My bad.

New Olympia online traffic cameras go live

Thurston County Traffic News e-mail alerts now available

OLYMPIA – WSDOT turned on several new traffic cameras in the Olympia area this week, providing Thurston County drivers with new tools to plan their commutes.

Four of the new cameras are on I-5 at Custer Way, Eastside Street, Sleater-Kinney Road and Martin Way. The other three cameras are located on surface streets at the intersections of Union Avenue and Plum Street, Martin Way and Sleater-Kinney, and Martin Way and College Street.

The new cameras are available on WSDOT’s Olympia area traffic flow map: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/olympia/.

Thurston County e-mail alerts

Motorists who would like to receive e-mail alerts about upcoming maintenance- and construction-related traffic impacts can sign up on WSDOT’s Web site at www.wsdot.wa.gov/. In the upper right-hand corner of the page, click on E-mail updates. Enter your e-mail address then find “Thurston County Traffic News” on the list of available e-mail alert services.

The ongoing legal battle between the Town of Ruston and the Point Defiance Café and Casino has taken an interesting turn in recent court filings.

In a case of dueling motions for summary judgment – asking a judge to settle the issue without a full trial – the town and casino are squaring off over whether the courts have the right to interfere in the town’s internal legislative process.

The two parties are battling over whether Ruston officials failed to follow their own procedures when they voted to raise gambling taxes on the casino, which was the only affected business and already paid the highest taxes of any business in town.

The facts of what happened aren’t being debated, only their interpretation.

“As regards Plaintiffs’ ‘failure to follow rules of procedure’ theory, the Town admits Plaintiffs’ factual allegations in support thereof...” reads the motion filed on June 5 by Ruston’s attorney, David Britton. However, based a recent state Supreme Court ruling, the town is arguing that the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches prevents the courts even taking up the matter.

Called for comment, Britton said, “The motions speak for themselves. My policy is not to comment on ongoing litigation.”

Joan Mell, the attorney representing casino owner Steve Fabre, argues in a counter motion that the Supreme Court case doesn’t really apply and asks Pierce County Superior Court Judge Vicki Hogan to rule against the town.

“What they’re basically saying is, ‘We can do whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it,’” she said Monday.

=> Read more!

That's essentially what state Auditor Brian Sonntag, through an agency spokeswoman, said about his April 24 trip to Dallas, Texas to speak to the Association of Government Accountants.

He spent $1,273.45 of taxpayer money to do so. And he didn't ask for permission from Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office.

Kara Klotz, who's filling in for Auditor's office chief spokeswoman Mindy Chambers, said Sonntag made the commitment to speak at the event back in 2008 and he felt obliged to follow through in 2009.

She said Sonntag contends that because he is a separately elected state official, he doesn't have to "get approval from the governor's office" for out-of-state travel.

The governor's budget office thinks otherwise.

"If the travel took place before the Legislature passed their freeze, then he would be correct, as the Gov's freeze was not mandatory for separately electeds," Glenn Kuper, spokesman for Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office, said in an e-mail earlier today. "If it was after the law was passed and signed, then we believe he is covered by the provisions."

The law took effect Feb. 18. Sonntag's trip was April 24. Looks as if Sonntage should have asked for permission.

Here's what the law says: (Section 9 of SB 5460): "State agencies of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches shall not make expenditures for the cost or reimbursement of out-of-state travel or out-of-state training by state employees where the travel or training is not related to (1) an emergency or other catastrophic event that requires government action to protect life or public safety, or
(2) direct service delivery, and the travel or training occurs after the effective date of this section and before July 1, 2009."

Is the auditor's office a state agency? I think so.

Here's the item I posted back in April on Sonntag's trip to Dallas.

I'm reminded of the outrage Sonntag expressed when the Legislature passed a budget that took about $16 million of the $26 million he wanted to spend to conduct performance audits over the next couple years. (The Guv gave some of it back to him, with conditions, sorta. We'll see what the Legislature does in the supplemental budget next January.)

I wonder if the lawmakers who voted to impose the travel freeze on state workers will ask him about the $407 for the hotel room, the $192 per diem for meals, the $288 for the rental car, the $314 for airfare or the $72 for airport parking.

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. And I'm thinkin' that particular expenditure would be disallowed if there were an audit of the Auditor.

That's the word out of Washington, D.C., where a group that represents a bunch of transportation unions sent out word that Congress might relax its initial set of rules for the economic stimulus funding in a supplemental budget.

As it stands now, they can buy more buses with the money, but they can't use it to pay salaries of bus drivers.

"New buses aren’t going to expand capacity if there are no employees to drive them." says Edward Wytkind, president of the union group. "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initially offered funds only for capital projects."

I don't know yet how this might affect local transit agencies -- Pierce, King County Metro, Inter-City.

Here's the rest of his news release.

Congress to Vote on Giving Transit Agencies Flexibility to Use Stimulus Funds for Operating Expenses in Supplemental Bill

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Tim Eyman alerted me and his "thousands of supporters" of this change, which gives initiative promoters one less day to gather signatures.

David Ammons, chief spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, confirmed it.

Yes, they’ve sent out a memo to sponsors saying the deadline is July 2, because Friday, July 3, is a state holiday since the 4th falls on the Saturday this year. State offices will be closed that day, and the attorney general’s office told the Elections Division recently that the submission deadline is July 2.

Best,
David Ammons
Communications Director
Office of Secretary of State

Here's the word from Eyman...

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This was the $200,000 after-thought for the new bridge. DOT officials decided about a year after the bridge opened they should build barriers to keep cars from careening across the plazas into on-coming traffic.

Editor's note: The attached photo shows the crossover barrier located on the east end of the Tacoma Narrows Bridges.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge median-barrier installation complete

TACOMA - Sumner-based Petersen Brothers, Inc., completed installation today of State Route 16 median barriers on the Tacoma and Gig Harbor ends of the two Tacoma Narrows bridges.

"The new bridge continues to be an enormous success in terms of congestion relief and safety," said Kevin Dayton, WSDOT Olympic Region Administrator. "These median barriers enhance that level of safety for motorists approaching the bridges."

Installation of the barriers is one of the final work items of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge project. Since the second bridge opened two years ago, safety and travel times have improved significantly. These new barriers reduce the likelihood that vehicles approaching the bridge will cross into oncoming traffic, while still allowing a U-turn route for emergency vehicles.

The barriers, installed for about $199,000, can be moved to divert traffic from one bridge to another in the event of a major blocking collision or bridge closure.

This program doesn't get a lot of attention, so when I got the news release from the Higher Education Coordinating Board I figured I'd shine a light on it in the blog. Some 22,000 kids have signed up so far.

The College Bound program tries to get low-income students to take a pledge that they will work hard in school, stay out of trouble and after they graduate from high school they will enroll in a college, university or trade school. If they do all that and are still low-income, the state will give them what amounts to a free ride, kinda like what top athletes get.

June 30 is the deadline to sign up.

College Bound Scholarship signups surge as June 30 deadline nears

OLYMPIA – Low-income middle school students are signing up by the thousands to take advantage of the College Bound Scholarship program before a June 30 deadline passes for eighth and ninth graders to maintain eligibility for the program.

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Plus the cost of fuel. It will come out to about $3.6 million for the upcoming fiscal year, July 1 through June 30, 2010.

I'm reminded of the $59-an-hour that Narrows Bridge tollpayers were paying to have those tow trucks on standby at the new bridge just in case anyone got disabled anywhere along the Highway 16 corridor between Olympic Drive and the Nalley Valley Viaduct. (That practice eventually was discontinued.)

So too, the standby tug on Neah Bay will be paid for by someone else after this final contract, according to the state Department of Ecology.

The state-funded tug has been deployed 42 times since 1999 to prevent disabled ships and barges from drifting onto rocks and causing oil spills in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and outer coast.

On March 24, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation shifting funding responsibility for the tug from the state to the maritime industry beginning July 1, 2010.

Here is the full news release from DOE:

Ecology awards final contract for publicly-funded Neah Bay tug

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It wasn't too long ago that I wrote about how Tacoma's general fund was $7.1 million under where the city had budgeted to be.

The latest report says the shortfall has grown to $11.1 million. (Thanks for birddogging that govwatcher.)

The city was already trimming its sails by not quite $12 million to make up for the shortfall -- but as you can see, the shortfall could soon eclipse the cuts... meaning Tacoma looks it might be heading for new cuts that could actually having significant impacts to city services.

Just a heads up -- I'm going to be following up with city officials about the state of things in the near future.

If you'll recall from previous posts, the state's chief economist, Arun Raha, has said he expects unemployment to peak at about 10 percent next year.

Washington’s unemployment rate up in May

OLYMPIA –Washington’s unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent in May, tying the U.S. unemployment rate, according to the state Employment Security Department.

The state’s employers eliminated another 6,700 nonfarm jobs, which contributed to the increase in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from April’s revised rate of 9 percent.

“The economic numbers are volatile right now, and at times contradictory,” said Dr. Greg Weeks, who heads Employment Security’s labor-market information office. “The recession has been deep and wide, and we’re likely to see ups and downs for awhile.”

=> Read more!