That's what state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, said today at a noon-hour news conference to elaborate on his proposal to borrow $3 billion and use the money to fix up public schools, colleges and make many of them, plus state agency buildings, more energy efficient.

Oh yeah. And it would create 90,000 jobs for a year, or more likely 45,000 a year in 2010 and another 45,000 in 2011.

More than $2 billion would be given to the state's 296 school districts, $100,000 each at a minimum -- plus more based on student count. Tacoma, for instance, would get $55 million for energy projects. Federal Way and Puyallup school districts would get about $42 million apiece.

Here is the full list of money for each school district.

Dunshee compared it to the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s because of its job-creation and its focus on public buildings.

Right now, there is no tax source to make payments on the money that Dunshee wants the state to borrow. He said he's waiting for the folks who are writing the operating budget to decide on what taxes they might want to offset some cuts to the operating budget. If they use the sales tax, then he probably would use sin taxes -- cigarettes, liquor, etc.

Sin taxes don't raise enough money for over a 2-year period to help out the operating budget -- say $90 million from a $1-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes -- because they want somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion over two years.

But sin taxes would provide enough money to make payments on the 20-year $3 billion loans, he said. Dunshee is chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee.

Washington State Treasurer Jim McIntire threw cold water on Dunshee's proposal, which is embodied in House Bill 2334.

“The $3 billion of added debt called for in HB 2334 is too much,” McIntire said. “It would threaten our credit rating and would affect the rest of our investments in transportation and public infrastructure.

"The maximum (the state should borrow) would be $1 billion -- and that would be pushing it," McIntire said.

The state already borrows about $4 billion every two years, mostly for highway projects and K-12 and college buildings, he said. To add $3 billion to that probably would risk a lower credit rating for the state, which means Washington would be paying a higher interest rate, not only on the $3 billion of new loans, but also the other $4 billion the state would be borrowing, he said.

Dunshee said he expected that.

"There's going to be some consternation about doing something of this size, but we need the jobs," he said.

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I wish I'd thought of that. And I'd like to tell you who actually thought of it first, but I can't tell.

I heard Gov. Chris Gregoire mention parts of that idea Monday at her morning news conference. (Her mention of it reportedly surprised her staff, too.)

But two weeks earlier, a lobbyist told me to look for something like that coming out of the Legislature. I even interviewed new state Treasurer Jim McIntire to see what effect borrowing money and raiding other state funds and a whole bunch of other things would have on the state's bond rating. (Pretty much none, he said.)

UPDATE: Dave Ammons, who is now over at state elections HQ, has a memory for past voter-approved bond issues and access to the one he can't personally remember. Check out his blog posting from earlier today.

And I heard the Legislature might make a raid on the Public Works Trust Fund to help balance its 2009-11 operating budget in the face of an $8 billion-ish shortfall. There's would be almost $400 million to be grabbed from there. (They would take that money for the operating budget, but then go borrow money the same amount to lend out to cities, counties, fire, water, sewer districts, etc. So, presumably, no one would get hurt. I was wondering how they could do all this. More later.)

(Quick explanation of that account: It's a revolving fund created in 1985, fed by some real estate excise taxes, utility taxes and the repayment of low-interest loans to cities, et. al. who use the 1-percent interest money to build stuff, and pay it back over 10 years, I think. Tacoma's second pipeline from the Green River got about $50 million from that pot of money.)

But I digress...

So, then I asked state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, about that possibility and Dunshee said there is talk about grabbing that money and other funds to come up with $500 million more than the governor did in her budget proposal.

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I seriously expected to read news accounts of legislators and state officials being trampled to death by each other in the stampede to appear before the state Salary Commission and beg them "Please, don't give us a raise!"

The announcements were coming in such quick succession that I couldn't keep up....the governor, Republican lawmakers, Democratic lawmakers, new state treasurer Jim McIntire. House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, rather than risk reinjuring her aching neck, avoided the fray. She wrote a letter.

And then, of course, I saw what Randy Dorn had to say. (If anyone can figure out what he was saying, would you please tell me?)

It sounded as if he really, really, really wanted to get paid more but couldn't come right out and say that because everyone else was being so, well, self-sacrificing. So instead, he started building a case for a humongous raise in 2011 and 2012. (See, if you're a state employee, your retirement is based on your highest two years of pay in your final five years of work.)

There's still time, Randy. All you have to do is hang on for two years, get a pay raise for the final two years of your term after the economy improves, and you can accomplish through legitimate work what you couldn't do through special legislation.

Here's what Brad Shannon wrote in his story about the salary commission vote. And here's what Brad wrote about Dorn's appearance.

There will be public hearings through May, then a final decision by the commission.

And here's the story I wrote last year about Dorn trying to boost his pension by about $90,000 a year.

Questions on candidate pension
A candidate for state schools superintendent tried for two years to get lawmakers to boost his pension. He says costs cited by the state were exaggerated.

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Wolfgang Opitz, who has been deputy budget director for the past 8 years, is going to work for new state Treasurer Jim McIntire.

The new job starts in mid-January, when McIntire, a former state legislator, will be sworn into office. McIntire beat longtime state chief economist ChangMook Sohn in the Democratic primary election this year, and Republican Allan Martin, who was Treasurer Mike Murphy's assistant treasurer, in the November general election.

Opitz, 47, who lives in Tacoma's North End, was the No. 2 budget guy for former Gov. Gary Locke for 4 years and for Gov. Chris Gregoire for the most recent 4 years. His actual job title was deputy director of the Office of Financial Management.
Before then, he was budget director for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services. He's worked for the state for 20 years in all.

Secretary of State Sam Reed today certified the results of the Nov. 4 general election.

We set a record for turnout and number of ballots cast, 3,071,587.

The 84.61 percent turnout of registered voters was record and a couple counties had a turnout higher than 91 percent.

Reed certifies Washington’s record election turnout

Secretary of State Sam Reed has certified Washington state’s 2008 General Election results, capping a watershed election year that included a hotly contested presidential primary, the first-ever Top 2 Primary, and a record voter turnout in November. Governor Chris Gregoire also certified the vote tally on three statewide initiatives.

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This is the group that will set salaries for all the statewide elected officials -- governor, attorney general, etc. -- Supreme Court judges and legislators.

The new salaries probably will take effect on Sept. 1, 2009 and Sept. 1, 2010.

Right now, the governor's salary is $166,891. Legislators make $42,106.

The 2009 meeting schedule has been set for setting the salaries for Washington State’s elected officials.

The meetings are as follows:

January 20 and 21 (Tuesday / Wednesday) -- 9 am Olympia Phoenix Inn

February 17 (Tuesday) -- 6 pm Vancouver Downtown Hilton

March 17 (Tuesday) -- 6 pm Bellingham Best Western Lakeway Inn

April 23 (Thursday) -- 6 pm Richland Red Lion Hotel

May 19 (Tuesday) -- 9 am Tacoma Downtown Courtyard

une date TBD --Phone Conference Call will Originate in Olympia

Please visit our website at www.salaries.wa.gov for additional information.

State Rep. Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, is wasting no time getting ready to start his new job. He's beating deputy state treasurer Allan Martin, a Republican, by about 50,000 votes out of 2.7 million ballots cast.

For those of you who worried because McIntire favors a state income tax, don't. The state treasurer can't enact a state income tax all by himself. At least, I don't think so. I think it takes a constitutional amendment.

Looking at the current personnel in the Washington treasurer's office, I'm thinking one of the first things McIntire might do is get a new executive assistant. I mean, unless he wants to keep Susan Martin. She's married to his election opponent.

She has been executive assistant to current state Treasurer Mike Murphy's for quite a while. And some of you may recall Murphy, a Democrat, was featured in radio ads, asking fellow Democrats to vote for Martin (not McIntire) even though Martin is a Republican.

For Immediate Release: Monday, November 17, 2008
Contact: Christian Sinderman (206) 683-8380

McIntire Assembles State Treasury Transition Team

Leaders from local and state government, private sector will assure smooth transition to new leadership.

SEATTLE—State Treasurer-elect Jim McIntire has announced a team of finance leaders from throughout the state to assist in the transition to new leadership in the office. The team of 14 is led by Tim Kerr, who served as Deputy State Treasurer and the current Treasurers of Whatcom, Thurston, and Clark Counties.

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Pierce County posted more results at 7:20 p.m. Here's a look at notable races:

Congress
8th District
Dave Reichert, R 85,852 51%
Darcy Burner, D 83,985 49%

Governor
Christine Gregoire, D 989,804 54%
Dino Rossi, R 857,314 46%

State superintendent of public instruction
Teresa Bergeson 774,993 49%
Randy Dorn 809,179 51%

State lands commissioner
Doug Sutherland, R 859,736 49%
Peter Goldmark, D 880,274 51%

State treasurer
Allan Martin, R 833,319 48%
Jim McIntire, D 896,215 52%

Sound Transit
Prop. 1 - mass transit expansion
Approved 337,957 58%
Rejected 242,577 42%

City of Lakewood
Prop. 1 - casino ban
Yes 3,838 38%
No 6,184 62%

City of Tacoma
Prop. No. 1 - term limits
Yes 16,224 50%
No 15,987 50%

Pierce County Council
District 3
Bruce Lachney, D 11,154 49%
Roger Bush, R 11,596 51%

Legislature
2nd Legislative District, Senate
Marilyn Rasmussen, D 16,090 50%
Randi Becker, R 16,215 50%

25th District, House position 1
Bruce Dammeier, R 13,345 51%
Rob Cerqui, D 12,582 49%

26th District, House position 1
Jan Angel, R 18,657 52%
Kim Abel, D 17,382 48%

That's my math. Assuming Secretary of State Sam Reed is correct in his prediction for an 83 percent turnout.

I tallied the number of votes cast in the presidential race. That's 459,497 votes. An 83 percent turnout in those three counties would put the total turnout at 1,567,886 ballots.

(Reed's office says the three counties have a total of 1,889,019 registered voters.)

So that's 29.3 percent of the presidential ballots counted. There will be a falloff down the ballot.

I'm mystified by some of the returns. For instance, there are only 11,000 to 13,000 ballots counted in some of the King county legislative races, and you must know the total is going to be close to 50,000 for many of those districts.

Incumbent Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, has a very comfortable lead over Democrat John Ladenburg, who is Pierce County's executive.

Randy Dorn, the former Eatonville principal and school worker union chief, has a 15,000-vote lead over incumbent Schools Superintendent Terry Burgeson with 922,000 ballots counted so far.

State Rep. Jim McIntire, a Seattle Democrat, has a slight lead over deputy state treasurer Allan Martin. Both are seeking the top job.

Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland, Auditor Brian Sonntag, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen and Secretary of State Sam Reed appear headed for reelection.

This is with roughly 33 percent of the vote in.

David Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, passes on this update on voting in the general election.

It looks as if 10 percent of the ballots statwide -- 300,000 of 3 million -- already are in. That's 10 percent of those who are expected to vote in the Nov. 4 general election.

(Seems strange saying "Nov. 4" election when hundreds of thousands of ballots are in 12 days before the official election date.)

FYI: Here are some mail-back voting stats from the counties we’re monitoring by their Web sites, seven counties with about 65 percent of the population. Also, I learned something new by reading the King County elections site and seeing info about what amounts to another method of early voting. I was reminded that counties are required by federal law to maintain at least one poll site with voting equipment (usually touch-screen) for use by voters with handicaps -- and any voter registered in that county is free to use it. Communications Director Bobbie Egan says they’ve seen modest in-person usage of their machine at county election center at Renton. In-person voters, of course, may not cast a mail ballot as well, and the counties are able to make sure that two votes are not counted for the same person. http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/earlyvoting.aspx

David Ammons
Communications Director
Office of Secretary of State
360) 902-4140

Ammons was forwarding an email from David Motz:

As of this morning, the seven counties that show counts of ballots received on their websites show a total of nearly 298,000 in so far.
(*King, Pierce, Snohomish [with lag of 1 day behind], Spokane, Clark, Yakima, Kittitas. These counties total about 65% of all voters.)

Of our nearly 3,622,000 voters, it looks like about 456,000 – or about 12% - will be poll voters (366,000 in King & 90,000 in Pierce).

As of last night, the percentage of absentee and vote by mail ballots that have come in for the seven counties are:

King................15%
Pierce..............10.5%
Snohomish...........10.5% (without Oct. 23 numbers)
Spokane.............21%
Clark...............16%
Yakima..............22%
Kittitas............23%

CAUTION: almost every number in this email can/will change.

Stuart Elway's latest poll, which contacted 405 registered voters Oct. 16-19, shows that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 (traffic congestion) is leading 49-33 with 18 percent undecided.

Elway's poll has a 5 percent margin for error. (If you did the poll 100 times, it would turn out this way 95 times.) Elways said this is his last poll before the election.

Booth Gardner's Initiative 1000 (assisted suicide), is leading 55-37, with 8 percent undecided.

The SEIU's Initiative 1029 (homecare worker training), is leading 72-10, with 18 percent undecided.

(My colleague, Jason Hagey, is posting an item about the governor's race, so I'm looking down the ballot.)

There are so, so many undecideds with only two weeks to go.

"That's what keeps them up at night," Elway said of the other statewide office seekers.

Rob McKenna leads John Ladenburg 48-29 in the attorney general race, with 23 percent undecided.

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