What happened today, had it been successful, is one reason one can never pronounce a bill dead. Many of them have a tendency toward resurrection.

Such was almost the case for a bill sponsored by Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources, Large Bodies of Water and Having Fun in the Great Outdoors Committee. Jake's original bill to gut the state Fish and Wildlife Commission passed the Senate but "died" over in a House committee.

But today, Sen. Jacobsen tried to amend another Fish and Wildlife bill, House Bill 1778, to include his proposal to reuced the size of the commission from 9 members to 5 members and let the governor appoint the director and deputy director. (This is controversial stuff among hunters and fishers.)

Alas, Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, who has a few hunters and fishers in his legislative district, challenged what Jake was trying to do, and Senate President Brad Owen agreed with Zarelli.

Owen, who's also lieutenant governor, ruled that Jake's reorg was "beyond the scope and object" of HB 1778. (It didn't fit.)

So now, Jake's bill really is dead. (Did I just say 'never say never?')
It's dead, unless, of course, he can get some language into the state budget, or some other trick.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who presides over the state Senate, just made a ruling on one aspect of the Senate transportation budget bill and a non-ruling ruling on another part.

Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, contended it would take a two-thirds vote to pass the budget, SB 5352, because it contained language to let the Washington Transportation Commission set new tolls on the Narrows Bridge and the HOT lanes on Highway 167.

Stevens was arguing that Initiative 960 requires a two-thirds vote. Owen said the tolls are fees -- not taxes -- so it takes only a simple majority vote to raise them.

Stevens also argued the Legislature should be specifying a toll amount in the bill instead of delegating that authority -- as the bill does -- to the commission.

Owen said he wasn't going to get into that because I-960 is "far from a model of clarity" (take that, Tim Eyman!) and the issue of whether the Legislature can delegate toll-setting to another body is a matter for the courts, not him, to decide.

Here's the full text of Owen's ruling:

RULING ON SSB 5352:
APPLICATION OF I-960
(April 1, 2009)

In ruling upon the point of order raised by Senator Stevens as to the application of Initiative Number 960 to Substitute Senate Bill 5352, the President finds and rules as follows:

Senator Stevens argues that this bill improperly delegates toll and ferry rate setting authority to the Transportation Commission. Her argument seems to be first, that this open-ended grant of authority amounts to a tax requiring a super-majority vote; and second, that the actual delegation of this authority to an agency is improper under I-960.

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That is, budget-writers spent almost $3 billion in federal stimulus funds, took $800 million from building projects and plowed the money into other state programs and spent most of the $700 million Rainy Day savings account.

"We are using federal money, which has been a godsend," said Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

She said the House budget proposal would be balanced, but she expects a tax package to be put to voters at some point, perhaps providing additional funding for education and-or long-term care.

"It's very likely that a proposal will come," Linville said. "(But) the revenue package is not something we're pinning all of our hopes on."

=> Read more!

The parliamentary procedures in the state Senate can get pretty cumbersome and have tripped up more than one senator, but occassionally it can be pretty funny when the senator is tongue-tied, but quick on his feet.

Such was the case last Friday when Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, was trying to substitute a rewritten bill from an old bill before the vote on Senate Bill 5555.

Here's a link to Kilmer's interaction with Senate President Brad Owen.

Just click on the video.

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.

=> Read more!

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, (D-Lincoln High School), is sporting a new beard (with lots a salt and not much pepper) and it's such a change from the usually clean-shaven Owen that it knocks the good senators off their stride.

Just about everyone who stood to speak on the floor of the Senate today remarked on it. And they kept telling Owen how good it looked.

Sen. Jim Hargrove did.

Sen. Mike Hewitt did.

Finally, Sen. Karen Fraser stood up to speak.

"You want to tell me how good I look, too?" Owen asked her.

"I've known you for a long time and you always look good," Fraser said.

Where's Billy Crystal when you need him?

An alert reader (lobbyist Jim King) pointed out that Auditor Brian Sonntag gets to fill in for Gov. Chris Gregoire this weekend because all the people ahead of him are out of state this weekend.

The Washington constitution lays out the order of succession of who takes over as governor in the event of "disablility" of the real governor (I guess being out of state counts as a disability.)

1. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen (but he's leaving Friday).
2. Secretary of State Sam Reed (he's in Oregon for the weekend).
3. Treasurer Mike Murphy (he's out of state now and isn't back until Jan. 6.
4. Auditor Brian Sonntag (Bingo! He's a homebody for the holidays.)

After that it would have been Attorney General Rob McKenna, Schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson and, finally, Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland.

So, the governor wasn't scraping the bottom of the barrel for her temporary replacement. She scraped the middle.

Here is my earlier post about Sonntag filling in for the guv this weekend.

OK. It's only for a few days, but, yes, it's true.

Brian Sonntag, darling of the conservative radio talk-show circuit, will take over as governor while both Gov. Chris Gregoire and Lt. Gov. Brad Owen are out of state. (Who knew the auditor was next in line of succession?)

Gregoire sent Sonntag a note, informing him that she'll be gone Dec. 26-29 and Owen will be gone after the 26th, so Sonntag will have to fill in from 3:45 p.m. Friday until 5:55 p.m. Monday.

How much trouble can he get into over a long weekend? I suppose he can call out the National Guard and invade Canada, but most of the Guardsmen are otherwise disposed.

If nothing else, now we know why John Carlson and his listeners believe in Christmas. They finally got their wish. Yes, Virginia, there really is a . . . oh, nevermind.

(If he has any questions, Sonntag is supposed to call Gregoire's chief of staff, Cindy Zehnder. But I noticed she didn't give out Zehnder's super secret number, just the main number for the governor's receptionist. Some things are on a need to know basis.)

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.

=> Read more!

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.

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.