“I am not advocating that the King County Council raise these taxes,” King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson says in her news release.

But she does want to put the increase on the ballot. So, ya think she wants voters to defeat it?

The word "veteran" appears very prominently in Patterson's news release. Being listed first might give one the impression that veterans are the primary beneficiaries of her tax increase proposal. But I'm guessing the stuff for veterans is a relatively small portion of the $45 million Patterson wants to spend each year. Vets have more appeal than "human services."

UPDATE(10 a.m. Tuesday): Al Sanders, who works for the County Council, e-mailed me a copy of the full proposed ordinance. It appears at the bottom of this post. It appears that 30 percent of the tax increase would be spent on veterans and the rest on other human services. So, I stand corrected on saying I suspected little money would be spent on vets.

Her news release says she wants to boost property taxes by 10 cent per $1,000 in valuation. And it's a six-year levy.

Patterson releases details of early renewal and
expansion of Veterans and Human Services Levy

Dedicated funding for public health would be added

=> Read more!

Pierce County Auditor candidate Julie Anderson called this morning to let us know that she discovered a couple of errors in one of her campaign fliers. (Due credit - Usually when we get such a call from a candidate, it's to point out a mistake in an opponent's campaign literature.)

Anderson was doorbelling down in University Place when she noticed the misstatements:

• The literature said she has been on the Tacoma City Council for nearly seven years. Actually, she came into office in 2004.

• The wording says she helped create the city's first ethics code. It should have said board of ethics.

"I pulled them back as fast as I could," after discovering the errors, she said. That meant having to scrap 50,000 items - about $4,000 worth of printing. About 250 to 300 fliers had already been distributed at her kickoff party and to some University Place voters.

Anderson calls the mistake a "big lesson" for her. "I just wasn't watching the editing process closely enough," she says. She acknowledges that paying close attention to details is an important attribute for a county auditor, who oversees elections, document recording and licensing. But when mistakes happen, she says, it's also important to disclose them and rectify them.

Our former colleague over at the state election HQ, Dave Ammons, sends us a heads-up about the status of Referendum 71. The folks who are trying to force a vote on the expansion of gay rights in Washington (in the hope voters will overturn what the Democratic majority in the Legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire did this past spring) say they want to turn in their signatures on Saturday afternoon.

As Ammons notes, we don't know yet whether they have enough to win a spot on the ballot. Saturday is the deadline for collecting 120,000-plus valid signatures.

FYI: Sponsors of Referendum 71, the challenge to the “everything but marriage” domestic partnership bill, SB5688, have requested an appointment for 2 p.m. Saturday to bring in their petitions. They did not mention how many signatures they have in hand as of now, or how many they expect to bring in. To secure a ballot spot will require 120,577 valid voter signatures (4 percent of last year’s vote for governor). Election officials suggest referendum sponsors also submit a 25 percent pad to offset any invalid signatures – or about 150,000 total.

http://blogs.secstate.wa.gov/FromOurCorner/index.php/2009/07/r-71-sponsors-plan-saturday-signature-turn-in/

=> Read more!

Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, who is vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has been nominated to become U.S. Marshal in Western Washington.

Ericks was Bothell police chief.

When the Republicans were in charge of the White House, then-state Rep. Eric Robertson, R-Buckley, got that same job. Robertson was a Washington State Patrol captain at the time.

UPDATE: (12:20 p.m.) Just got a "correction" on Eric's current job from a certain City Council candidate who is in the same line of work so he ought to know.

Joe,
Eric is the Administrator for Valley Regional Fire Authority. The fire department is the combination of Auburn, Pacific and Algona into a regional fire authority.

Keven Rojecki
Legislative Liaison
Washington State Council of Fire Fighters
1069 Adams Street Southeast
Olympia, WA 98501

Caroline Robertson, an Olympia lobbyist and wife of Eric, probably will call me to fill me in.

Here is Jerry Cornfield's story in The (Everett) Herald. Jerry reported it first in Sunday's paper.