“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!

A sampling of the signatures that Tim Eyman turned in on Initiative 1033 petitions shows the measure has more than enough valid signatures and will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Secretary of State Sam Reed's office issued a news release to that effect a few minutes ago.

Eyman claims it sets a record for its relative low level of invalid signatures. It might be a record for Eyman's many ballot measure petitions, but state election officials can't confirm it's a record for all initiatives.

Scroll down below the "More" to read Eyman's take on things, which includes useful explanation of some parts of his ballot measure.

Election ’09: Eyman’s Initiative 1033 cleared for November ballot

OLYMPIA…Secretary of State Sam Reed announced Wednesday that Initiative 1033, Tim Eyman’s measure dealing with revenue limits and property tax relief, has enough valid signatures to qualify for a spot on the statewide ballot in November.

=> Read more!

The tunnel boring machine pictured below was built by Herrenknecht AG (which has an office in Tacoma), for a tunneling job in Madrid, Spain. Below the picture are links to three companies that are in the business of building these huge machines (they're about 55-60 feet in diameter) and which are likely to be interested in getting the job to build a "drill bit" for the 1.7-mile deep-bore tunnel under First Avenue in Seattle to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Here is a link to Herrenknecht AG. This is a German firm with an office in Tacoma.

Here is a link to RobbinsTBM in Kent. Company HQ is in Ohio.

Here is a link to NFM Technologies. This is a French firm that recently was sold, to Mitsubishi, I think.

Most of you -- owners of more than 300,000 parcels -- will get a notice mailed to you July 17 (that's a Friday), but the value that Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam and his staff have assigned to your property will be available on line next Monday at:

www.piercecountywa.org/atr

Owners of mobile and manufactured homes will get their notices next week in the mail.

Here's the release from Pierce County.

Notices of Value cards mailing earlier than expected

Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam has announced that, through the hard work of the office staff, Notice of Value cards stating the assessed real property value for 2009 will begin to be mailed as follows:

The value notices for all mobile/manufactured homes in Pierce County will be mailed on June 30, 2009.

Real property parcels valuations notices for all real property (approximately 300,000) are scheduled to be mailed on July 17th, 2009.

=> Read more!

Professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman is offering his followers bobble-head dolls (of him, or course) as incentives to get more signatures on the home stretch. He correctly points out that his may be the only measure to make it onto the November ballot.

The bobbleheads aren't free, by the way. (I wonder if I should get one for Sen. Adam Kline? I'll bet the anti-Eyman would just love a memento of the campaign.)

Eyman writes, "We ordered a few more "Super Eyman" bobbleheads as a fun way to inspire more June donations to I-1033. Send me an email (tim_eyman@comcast.net) and make me an offer (100% of the proceeds go to I-1033 -- we really need the $$$) -- it's a great conversation starter, a unique gift, and a neat memento from this year's campaign."

Here's part of an e-mail he sent to supporters today:

RE: We've hit 270,000 signatures for I-1033 -- need at least 22,000 more before July 2 deadline -- difficult, but doable.

Over the weekend, we reached a major milestone in the signature drive for the Lower Property Taxes Initiative I-1033. Jack and Mike worked all weekend in Spokane to fully review and process all the petitions we've received so far. Late last night they reported that we've hit 270,000 signatures (270,055 to be exact). We need at least 22,000 more in the next 11 days to make it.

Difficult, but doable. Working together, we can do this.

It's clear that we're going to need every single one of those 11 days so we've made an appointment with the Secretary of State to turn in our petitions on the last day which is Thursday, July 2nd. The media has reported that we're the only initiative that's got a shot at qualifying for the ballot.

=> Read more!

Admittedly, this is a lopsided story. But I couldn't get a return phone call from the Powerball folks.

Here's a link to Powerball. I left a couple voice mail messages for Doug Orr, the Multi State Lottery Association marketing director, and a third message with the MUSL CFO. But no word back yet from either of them.

UPDATE (4:12 p.m.) (That's 6:12 p.m. Central Time) Still no return call from the Powerball folks.

Here's the story that will run in Tuesday's print edition of The News Tribune. And below that are a news release from the Washington Lottery and a column written by The News Tribune columnist Peter Callaghan on the topic. It ran about a month ago. Peter took issue with the lottery's seat-of-the-pants estimates.

BY Joseph Turner
The News Tribune

Washington has been blackballed by Powerball.

The 30-state consortium that runs Powerball, the nation’s largest lottery game, notified Washington State Lottery officials late last month that Powerball tickets cannot be sold in any of the states that are part of the rival Mega Millions lottery game.

=> Read more!

This story is likely to run in Sunday's June 7 print edition of The News Tribune. I'm posting it here, too, for you on-line only readers. Also, I have more room to put more information. Scroll down below the story for some e-mail correspondence I had with the Department of Revenue. They shed more light on the issue.

Also, here are some links that will come in handy for businesses, especially contractors and others in the resale business. This one will take you to the Washington Department of Revenue, so you can get the right forms.

BY Joseph Turner
The News Tribune
Washington tax collectors figure state and local governments are missing out on more than $100 million a year in unpaid sales taxes, so they’ve begun to overhaul the way merchants, builders, wholesalers and retail customers handle items that are purchased for resale at a later date.

Basically, it’s changing from “an honor system with audits” to a permit that must be obtained from the state Department of Revenue. It’s a huge change that will affect about 56,000 retailers and 19,000 wholesalers in Washington. Overall, some 190,000 businesses are going to be notified of the upcoming changes. And it’s all supposed to happen over the next seven months.

The new rules take effect Jan. 1, but “reseller permits” will be mailed out in September to most businesses that buy items for resale.

The problem is this: State law requires sales tax be paid only by the final customers. Some businesses don’t have to pay sales tax on their purchases if they plan to re-sell the items themselves at a later date and collect sales taxes from their own customers. But some businesses are not reselling the items. They’re using the items themselves. They’re not paying the sales tax, and they’re not collecting it.

=> Read more!

On Sunday I take a look at one of Tacoma's first public relations efforts to entice people and business from Seattle.

It happened in and around the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition that opened 100 years ago this week on what is now the University of Washington's main campus. Tacoma boosters used the fair to make a pitch for Tacoma - even though the fair itself was a celebration of Seattle's dominance in the battle to dominate the Puget Sound economy.

Even though it happened 100 years ago, the competition exists today from the rivalry between the ports of Tacoma and Seattle and the attempts by Seattle to entice Russell Investments to move its headquarters.

The centerpiece was a huge illuminated sign mounted on the lakeshore in such a place that it could be seen from the fairgrounds. That's the story I try to tell in my next column.

In the meantime, here are some great links about the exposition.

A performance of the song "You'll Like Tacoma" as performed by the Cecile Farmer of the UW's Collegium Musicum.
http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=47677

An interactive map that compares the fairgrounds to the current UW campus, compliments of University Libraries.
http://content.lib.washington.edu/aypweb/

Another University Libraries map of the grounds. The lifesaving station would be in the lower left-hand corner.
http://content.lib.washington.edu/extras/images/Viewer/viewer.html

HistoryLink's suite on the exposition
http://historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=results.cfm&keyword=ALYuPaEx

Tacoma Library's Northwest Room postcard collection. (search for Alaska Yukon Pacific)
http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/postcard/

The Museum of History And Industry in Seattle. Search for Alaska Yukon Pacific).
http://www.seattlehistory.org

I got a call yesterday from Tim Schmidt of Bonney Lake who lives in the 98391 ZIP code and was wondering where his refund check from Sound Transit was.

Bad news, Tim. Not everyone in the 98391 ZIP code gets a refund. Only those who live outside the boundaries of the Sound Transit taxing district. And, I afraid, you don't.

My colleague Ian Demsky wrote a story last December about how Sound Transit owed about $3 million to some vehicle owners because they were mistakenly listed on the tax rolls as people who have to pay an excise tax when they get their license tabs. The money goes to Sound Transit for the regional bus and rail system in most of Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

Anyway, I figured it was time for an update on that issue, so I put in a call to Geoff Patrick at Sound Transit. The agency has paid out almost $3.7 million so far. Patrick's e-mail response is below.

Hi Joe. Got your voicemail. Here is an overview of where we are at with the refunds. There are a total of about 115,000 transactions identified for refunds. Of those, we have issued checks for all but approximately 8,000. With these 8,000 we are in the process of manually handling each individual record.

=> Read more!

The city of Tacoma reached a settlement Monday with retirement director Patricia Pabst, allowing her to retire after 26 years with the city rather than be ousted by the Retirement Board and City Council, Mayor Bill Baarsma said Tuesday.

The settlement will allow her to spend the rest of the year on a combination of paid sick and personal leave and includes a $10,000 payout in exchange for her agreeing not to sue, said Baarsma, who is also chairman of the board.

Despite serious managerial concerns raised by the board at a meeting last month at which members voted 6-2 with one abstention to remove her, Baarsma said she would also be given letters of recommendation if she asked for them.

“There were many, many areas in which she had excelled,” he said. “She had published and won awards.”

Pabst did not return a call seeking comment.

Before voting on a recommendation to the City Council to remove her, the board raised serious concerns about Pabst’s abilities as a manager and her interactions with the board, a recording of the meeting reveals.

=> Read more!

The state Department of Revenue just released this bit of news:

Plumbing Contractor Pleads Guilty to Stealing Sales Tax, Operating Business After License Revoked

Tacoma, Wash., May 28, 2009 — A Tacoma plumbing contractor plead guilty today to stealing sales tax he collected from customers and continuing to operate a business after his license was revoked.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Susan K. Serko sentenced James. O. Beni Jr to one year in jail on each count but suspended the sentence after Beni paid more than $23,000 in restitution, penalties, and court costs.

Beni was charged in March after continuing to operate Pacific Plumbing and Heating, Inc., 5039 S. Washington St., despite repeated warnings by the Department of Revenue that such post-revocation activity was illegal.

Beni was accused of collecting and keeping at least $16,319 in state and local sales tax from customers after the Department closed his business in 2006 for nonpayment of taxes.

=> Read more!

Brian Zylstra, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, gave us a heads-up about Tim Eyman filing another proposed initiative to the people.

As Zylstra notes, Eyman & Co. would have only 5 weeks to collect almost 250,000 signatures on the measure if they're shooting for the November 2009 ballot. Not even Eyman cuts it that close. In truth, he would have fewer than 5 weeks. And what if someone challenges the ballot title?

Methinks he's doing his usual warmup for next year, getting the state Code Reviser to show him what his ballot measure would look like. Then he'll file another version, and perhaps another, until he gets it right (for him.) I sent him an e-mail, asking him to clarify his intentions.

UPDATE(3:23 p.m.): Eyman replied via e-mail: "It's research and development -- one of several ideas for initiatives that we have for the future. It's your call on its newsworthiness, but to me, it's not even worth a blog posting."

So, here's a glimpse at the future, hispetition. And Zylstra's e-mail to the press.

FYI, Tim Eyman today filed another initiative to the people that deals with car tabs. (Attached is a PDF of his affidavit and the initiative text.) The title he gave it is “Car Tabs: $30 plus whatever amount voters approve.” Mike and Leo Fagan are co-sponsoring the initiative.

=> Read more!