OLYMPIA — TheSenate approved temporary jumps in state sales and business taxes, narrowly passing a tax plan that may not survive the weekend in the House.

Senate Democrats made some changes in the plan they passed during the regular session which also was gutted in the House. Instead of a three-tenths of 1 percent increase in the sales tax for the next three years, they approved a two-tenths of 1 percent increase for that period.

They approved temporary increases to the business and occupation tax, but also increased the credit for small businesses with sales of less than $72,000.

They also amended the bill to give exemptions from the business tax increases to researchers, non-profit hospitals and realtors.

Democrats emphasized that the tax increase was the smallest part of their budget solution, which also includes federal funding and cuts of some $5 billion from the budget they would have carried forward from the last biennium.

Republicans argued those aren’t all real cuts, but reductions in anticipated increases, brought on by overspending in previous  years.

Oh right, the census.

That’s why former Washington Gov. and current Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was on the Daily Show Thursday night.

The Commerce Department, see, is in charge of the Census, which is underway. It’s in that government envelope you received in the mail and put with the sweepstakes, credit card touts and other stuff you’ll open some time, when you get around to it … but may just throw out because the stack is getting too tall and it’s late tonight and trash pickup is tomorrow morning.

Which means you are going to cost the federal government a bazillion dollars because they’ll have to send a census taker to your door  (about a gajillion times because you’re just never home) to get the answers to the 10 little questions you could answer in about two minutes if you’d just Open the Darn Envelope and Fill Out the Damn Form.

But we digress. Locke’s appearance is apparently part of the huge marketing effort underway for the census. The marketing effort seemingly did not spend a lot on writing Locke’s jokes and practicing his delivery; but then, Locke was always a bit of a wonk, so he makes a decent straight man for Stewart, and manages to slip in a few interesting bits…like the  question that was on the form in 1790 that isn’t on the form in 2010. Answer at about 2:40 in the first clip.

And Locke does get two segments, which is more than Snoop Dogg got on Wednesday night. Second segment is below.

OLYMPIA — Both houses of the Legislature start at 10 a.m.,  plan to break fairly quickly for caucuses, then come back for votes on “bills necessary to implement the budget.”

Does that mean they, you know, have a budget?

Not necessarily. But the Senate may have a revenue bill — read tax plan — that they will vote on after lunch.

(Editor’s note: Previous notice from the Senate said they’d vote “after a dinner break.” That’s been changed.)

Gov. Chris Gregoire wants them done by Sunday. They’d have to work Saturday and Sunday to do that, but there’s no firm weekend schedule yet.

 Early numbers aren’t looking good for Spokane and other local governments hoping to avoid more budget gloom.

Sales tax distributions for the first two months of 2010 were the lowest since 2005 for Spokane, Spokane County, Spokane Valley and the Spokane Transit Authority.

Because of the increased cost of doing business, largely from of salary increases and the spiking costs of health insurance, local governments usually need rising tax revenue to maintain services with the same number of employees.

Sales taxes are only one source of revenue, but they are a signficant one, especially for STA, which doesn’t have property or utility taxes.

Continue reading Early sales tax numbers show continued rough times for local governments »

OLYMPIA – As the Legislature crawled through its fourth day of a special session without a solution to its budget problems, Gov. Chris Gregoire was among those expressing frustration with the progress, or apparent lack of it.

The session could be done by Sunday, which would be the absolute last day Gregoire said she wanted them to spend in this legislative overtime.

“I thought I was giving them a couple days extra time, just in case,” she said at a press conference called to tout the state’s growth in environmentally friendly or green jobs. “To talk about going another week, to me, is inexcusable.”

To read the rest of this story, or to see the list of legislators not taking a per diem during the special session,  go inside the blog.

Continue reading WA Lege SpecSess: Gregoire frustrated at slow pace »

OLYMPIA – Washington counted twice as many people working in “green” jobs last year as in 2008.

Although changes in the way jobs were counted are responsible for much of that growth, the state still saw an increase in people building wind turbines, constructing new energy-efficient buildings or retrofitting old ones, and manufacturing or shipping the supplies needed cut energy use or clean up ecologic messes.

Gov. Chris Gregoire hailed the new figures as rare economic good news in the midst of the recession.

Continue reading Green jobs in the Evergreen state »

Gary Locke, the state’s former governor and the country’s current commerce secretary, is the featured guest tonight on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Really. Spin Control can’t make this stuff up. (And if we were going to make stuff up, would  this be it? We think not.)

Anyway, alert eyes in the Capitol Building tipped us to the note on the Comedy Central site that list Locke as tonight’s guest. Last night’s guest? Snoop Dogg.

Talk about diversity.

OLYMPIA — The Legislature has another light day scheduled, with a 10 a.m. start for the House and a noon start for the Senate, with breaks for caucues coming shortly afterward.

The House Finance Committee holds a hearing this morning on a plan to give tax credits to small businesses that hire new employees and a few other bills; and an executive session on several other bills in the afternoon. House Ways and Means Committee has a late afternoon meeting on a couple of bills, including one to add a surcharge to auto insurance policies to fight car theft.

Maybe they’ll be revealing a compromise worked out between House and Senate Democrats to fill that $2.8 billion hole in the budget. And maybe not. There’s no solid evidence that such a compromise yet exists.

In other action, Gov. Chris Gregoire has a 1 p.m. event at the Port of Olympia to announce the latest study on “green” jobs. This is not to be confused with jobs created by all the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations on Wednesday. These are jobs that are somehow good for the environment.

OLYMPIA — A bill to offer tax breaks for the construction and outfitting of data centers in rural counties passed the House Tuesday, a day after it passed the Senate.

Amendments to allow the tax breaks to be extended to other areas of the state, such as Pierce County, were turned down, and the bill passed 91-2.

OLYMPIA — A growing number of legislators say they will refuse the $90 per day they can receive for food and lodging during all or part of the special session.

Twenty-one senators, out of the total of 49, have notified the secretary of the Senate they won’t be accepting their per diem. In the House of Representatives, 26 members have said they’ll turn it down for the full session and 23 are refusing it for one or more days.

That lowers the daily cost of the special session from $18,300 to at least $14,000. Mondays are going to be the cheapest day, about $12,700, because so many reps are refusing the per diem that day.

To be fair to legislators, their per diem is less than what state workers travelling to Olympia would receive to stay there. The state employees’ per diem is base on a federal formula that rates different areas based on cost of living, and amounts to $150 per day.

(That’s about the same a state worker from Olympia would get for a trip to Spokane. But the rest of the East Side is a better deal, with a maximum per day of $116.)

Full list for the two chambers is inside the blog. Click here to see it. 

Continue reading WA Lege SpecSess: More saying no to per diem »

OLYMPIA — Republican leaders of both house in the Legislature showed clear frustration with the pace — or lack of it — thus far in the special session.

A few minutes after the state Senate recessed for the day, GOP leaders in the House and Senate held their weekly “sit down” with the news media to insist they were being shut out of the process of writing a budget and tax plan. Democrats who control both houses and the governor’s office are in charge, and aren’t telling them nothing, they said.

That’s no surprise, they said. But they apparently aren’t telling each other very much, either, and there’s no reliable schedule that anyone can look at to see what or when something might happen.

“We’ ve been here 60 days and we haven’t been involved in the budget yet,” Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, said. “But you would think they’d talk to each other.”

Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, pointed ot a schedule for today’s Ways and Means Committee that lists a series of bills that might be heard, if they are referred to the committee. “Either you’re going to do these things or  you’re not,” he said.

They’re clearly hoping that whatever combination of tax increases and program cuts comes out of the special session will give them a big boost in the November elections. “I promise we will not operate like this,” Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla said.

So if they do take over in 2011, are they promising right now to repeal any taxes imposed this year?

“Probably not,” Hewitt said. “We’d have to look at the budget and see where we’re at.”

They also sought to answer a challenge from Gov. Chris Gregoire, issued last Thursday evening when she called for a special session amid criticism from Republicans that Democrats had wasted the regular session and were forced into “costly and embarassing” overtime. Gregoire challenged them to show a state that has done a better job.

On Wednesday, the GOP thought they had the state…

Continue reading WA Lege SpecSess: GOP leaders wait, fume »

For a little background music today…

President Obama is predicting that Florida State will beat Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Obama released his NCAA picks today. He also expects Michigan State and Texas A & M to make it out of Spokane into the Sweet Sixteen.

He says Kansas will beat Kentucky in the National Championship game.

OLYMPIA—The Special Session goes into Day 3 with floor, with more than the  usual amount of green shirts, blouses and ties on display, and some very bad attempts at an Irish brogue. Some St. Patrick’s Day banter is being mixed in with fairly routine morning business, but more serious debate and votes are expected in the afternoon.

There’s a Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing at 12:30 p.m. Last night the tentative schedule included possibe hearings on a tax on home and community based services, making certain school and local government mandages optional and changes to the higher education loan program

It might also vote on whether to send about bills on healt savings accounts, eleimnate certain boards and commissions, forest fire prevention.

OLYMPIA — Secretary of State Sam Reed will have cancer surgery Monday in Seattle, his office announced this morning. He’s expected to return to work after a brief recovery period.

Reed, 69, was diagnosed recently with the early stages of kidney cancer: “Thanks to early detection and diagnosis, my doctors say my prognosis for successful surgery and recovery is excellent.” 

When Census forms arrive in the mail this week, remember, pride may be at stake.

In the middle part of the last decade, fears rose that Spokane would lose its rank as Washington’s second largest city. But Spokane ended the Aughts (is that what we’re calling them?) about where it started — about 2,000 people ahead of Tacoma, at least according to state estimates

Census figures, however, are what counts most. The numbers for 2010 won’t be released until next year.

Yi Zhao, Washington’s chief demographer, said that because Spokane has about 8,000 more residential units than Tacoma, it appears unlikely that Tacoma will pass Spokane in the near future. But, she added: “You never know.”

OLYMPIA — Legislators continue to say “no, thanks” to the $90 per diem they can receive for the special session.

Among those who aren’t taking it are:

Rep. Kevin Parker, R-Spokane
Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Des Moines
Sen Paull Shin, D-Mukilteo
Sen. Randy Gordon, D-Bellevue

Add them to the names reported earlier here.

OLYMPIA — Debate sometimes gets so heated in the Legislature that the honorables mix their metaphors or jumble their allusions.

Today’s House debate on the Democrats’ “Jobs” bill, which asks for $861 million in bonds to do energy refits in schools around the state, was one of those times.

Rep. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, warned about the mounting debt, and taking on even more, particulary when the state faces growing health care and pension costs. “Mr. Speaker, the cash register is ticking.”

Clocks tick. Bombs tick. But seems like even in the days of manually cranked cash registers, they didn’t tick, although they sometimes when ka-chunk, and sometimes went ka-ching.

Rep. David Taylor, R-Oak Harbor, tried a topical literary and cinematic allusion, although he prefaced it by saying he didn’t get around to seeing “Alice In Wonderland” on his weekend away from the Legislature. The bond bill was putting money, Wonderland-like, down a bunny  hole, he said.

“This may be the bunny hole of doom,” he warned.

Bunny hole of doom? Go ask Alice. Don’t eat the pills, stay away from the Mad Hatter but remember what the doormouse said.

OLYMPIA – Legislators retraced some of their steps Tuesday from the regular session, re-approving some bills that one chamber supported but the other didn’t before time ran out last week
The House passed an $861 million bond measure to retrofit public schools and make them more energy efficient. Democrats said the bill would provide 38,000 jobs, and save the schools money on their utility bills; Republicans said it was an example of the state spending what it doesn’t have, borrowing money to pay for temporary construction jobs.
Rep. Kevin Parker, R-Spokane, said the state will take money from taxpayers, which will hurt jobs: “The people have reached deep down into their pockets and there’s no more to give.”
But Rep. Timm Ormsby, R-Spokane, argued government spending does have a role in helping the local economy. “We’re talking about smart government investment,” he said, like federal polices of the New Deal in the 1930s and the interstate highway construction under President Eisenhower.
It passed 54-39 (click here go inside the blog to see the Spokane area votes) and was sent back to the Senate. If the bill passes, voters would have to approve the bonds in November by agreeing to raise the state’s debt limit.
The Senate passed a bill that tells state agencies to find a certain level of savings or send workers home without pay for 10 days over the next 15 months. There are some exceptions for low-paid staffers, and the number of furlough days has dropped from the initial proposal in January, which called for 16 furlough days, or one a month from this month through June 2011.
The Senate also approved tax exemptions for data centers in rural areas, giving strong support to a bill that didn’t pass before time ran out last week. The bill would forgive the taxes on construction and equipment for large data centers built between next month and July 2011, and is designed to draw the facilities to the Wenatchee-Quincy areas, boost construction in those areas temporarily and create long-term jobs that pay at least 150 percent of the county’s per capita income.
Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, argued the tax exemptions should be available in any county with high unemployment, including Pierce County where a data center project is underway but could be stopped if it has to compete with facilities in rural counties that get an exemption. The Senate turned down Kastama’s amendment on a voice vote before approving the rural county exemption 39-4.

Continue reading WA Lege SpecSess: Day 2 report »

OLYMPIA — The House of Representatives resurrected a bill — and the arguments for and against — to sell state bonds to pay for energy updates at school.It was one of the earliest bills to pass the House during the regular session, but stalled in the Senate.

It passed 54-39, and heads back to the Senate.

OLYMPIA— Both the Senate and House start up around 10 a.m., with some housekeeping stuff, some caucusing and then plans to “run bills.”

Which is to say vote on them and likely pass them. Because everything “rebooted” for the special session, each house will have to pass bills that it previously passed but the other chamber did not pass.

That allows those bills to head back to the second house where work to amend or replace them can pick up where it left off last week.

Go inside the blog for the morning list of bills the House plans to take up today. Senate list should be forthcoming

Note: the list is tentative, and subject to change on short (or next to no) notice.

Continue reading WA Lege SpecSess: Running with the bills »

The eventual owners of 279 proposed residences in Kendall Yards will not have to pay property taxes on new construction for 12 years.

The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 5-0 to accept Greenstone Corp.’s application for multifamily tax exemptions on the portion of Kendall Yards west of Maple Street. Kendall Yards is a 78-acre development west of Monroe Street, just north of the Spokane River. About 200 residences east of Maple Street are eligible for exemptions as well, but Greenstone has not yet applied for them.

Continue reading Spokane City Council approves tax exemptions for Kendall Yards »

Continue reading WA Lege SpecSess: Rebooting budget bill »

OLYMPIA — The list of senators refusing their $90 per diem for the special session right now stands at 15 — 12 Republicans and 3 Democrats.

Alphabetically, they are:

Randi Becker, R-Eatonville
Don Benton, R-Vancouver
Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood
Karen Fraser, D-Olympia
Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla
Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake
Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside
Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor
Curtis King, R-Yakima
Chris Marr, D-Spokane
Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley
Bob Morton, R-Kettle Falls
Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee
Val Stevens, R-Arlington
Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgeview

Fraser, it should be noted, never takes per diem, regular or special session.

OLYMPIA — Senators have been called into a caucus, where Democratic members at least will hear of discussions that took place over the weekend and talk about plans to re-introduce several “jobs” bills — proposals designed to boost the economy.

Among the jobs bills is an exemption for certain data centers.

Negotiators were busy over the weekend, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, said before going into the caucus, and the two houses “exchanged paper” and got closer on the amount of taxes they believe they’ll have to raise to balance the budget.

“They’ve gone up a little on their revenue; we’ve gone down a little,” Murray said.

 Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said there has been movement, but no agreement. “We’ll have to get together in a room with the governor and work things out.”

The plan is for the Senate to pass its budget bill from the regular session, send it to the House, where majority Democrats will drop their proposal on top of it, thus creating a vehicle for discussion.

OLYMPIA — The Legislature trundled into its special session at noon with a “pro forma” agenda. For the opening roll call in the Senate, there were just 10 senators on the floor when the call started, although 16 had shown up by the time the roster reading was done.

They’re running process resolutions, which set the time limits for introducing and reviewing bills, and suspending some of those requirements. Ordinarily, a minority party would object, but Republicans aren’t this time, in the interests of getting stuff done as quickly as possible.

“We don’t plan to be obstructionists,” Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, said. “Many of us have taken ourselves off per diem.”

Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said there’d be plenty of time to review legislation.

During the regular session, some of the requirements for review and scheduling seemed to be honoried in their breach, anyway, with “ghost” bills being used to introduce major legislation, and an income tax proposal popping up in a hearing before anyone had a chance to read it.

OLYMPIA — The Legislature cranks back up at noon today in an effort to pass a supplemental budget. Most of the honorables were given the weekend off, which meant many of them blew town, but some budget negotiators and leaders hung around.

Gov. Chris Gregoire called them into session for seven days, but they’re not bound by that. Technically, a special session can last as many as 30 days, and since the Legislature is a separate, co-equal branch of government, it can hang around for a whole month if it wants.

Estimated cost per day is about $18,300 if all legislators take their $90 per diem. Republicans suggested a bill late last week that would have stripped the per diem for everyone; Democrats countered that the bill was introduced so late that it couldn’t be considered, but everyone was free to reject the per diem voluntarily, if they want.

Democratic Sens. Chris Marr and Derek Kilmer have said they won’t be taking the per diem. Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla said that many GOP members were also foregoing theirs.

No special events or groups are scheduled for the Capitol today…apparently no one thought there’d be any legislators around to cajole.

OLYMPIA – When the Legislature clattered to a close on Thursday, so much attention was being paid to the budget left undone over the previous 60 days that there wasn’t much left to consider what was done.
Talking on your cell phone while driving might get you ticketed, all on its own. The Legislature made it a primary offense, but Gov. Chris Gregoire said she has to read the bill to decide whether to sign it.
A getting a prescription for medical marijuana might become easier, although finding a legal way to fill it won’t necessarily. Legislators expanded the list of people who can recommend pot to treat a medical condition, but stubbed out a proposal to legalize it, tax it and sell it at state liquor stores.
Fewer committees, boards and commissions will be giving advice to state officials. A bill to do away with such things as the State Board on Geographic Names, Migratory Waterfowl Art Committee, K-20 Network Technical Steering Committee, Community Transition Coordination Networks Advisory Committee, Interagency Integrated Pest Management Coordinating Committee, Olympic Natural Resources Center Policy Advisory Board, Strategic Health Care Planning Office Technical Advisory Committee…there are 49, but you get the picture. Gregoire’s been after legislators to streamline government, odds are she’ll sign this.
Voters will get a chance to let judges keep more people accused of really dangerous crimes in jail without bail. A constitutional amendment on that will be on November ballot.
Patients in state mental hospitals because they were found not guilty by reason of insanity probably won’t be going on many field trips. That bill moved back and forth as the two houses tweaked the wording, but got sent to Gregoire on Wednesday. On Friday she signed a bill requiring the hospital to send out word when one of those patients escapes.
The crush of legislation also meant that some things that got mentioned early in the session faded away before the end. For example, motorcyclists aren’t put on the same level as minorities when it comes to profiling by police. Bikers got a committee hearing and a sympathetic ear in the House, but the Senate pretty much ignored the whole issue. A proposal to ban phosphorus in lawn fertilizer passed the Senate, but stalled and died in the House. All the “state sovereignty” bills were essentially bottled up in House committees and never got a hearing, let alone a vote.

OLYMPIA — It is traditional at the end of a session to pick winners and losers. But with a special session starting Monday, that list seems premature. It seems better, then, to end with a question bandied about Thursday night, between the time the regular session was gaveled to a close and Gregoire issued her call for a special session: What is the right sports metaphor to use for this next legislative phase?
Overtime works on a self-explanatory level. But football and hockey overtimes have a “sudden death” factor, and Democrats can’t get a “W” just by passing one bill. Unlike a basketball OT, they won’t be done when time runs out if they get some and not all the tax and spending bills done.
Extra innings has an appropriate “this could go on forever if someone doesn’t figure out a way to score” feeling. But again, it suggests that a single run, whether an over the fence homer or some combination of a bunt, a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch could end it all.
Stoppage time, which in soccer extends a game to account for time lost to injuries, and is solely at the discretion of the referee, may be an option. That makes Gregoire as the referee, which seems appropriate, but most Americans have a terrible time with soccer rules.
Maybe we should toss sports metaphors and go with something more 21st Century. Since this isn’t a completely new session, but a chance to create a better version of the one we had, let’s borrow from tech jargon.
Coming next: Session 2.0.

OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire is calling the Legislature back into session starting noon Monday to solve the state’s projected $2.8 billion budget shortfall and telling them to do it in seven days.

Democratic leaders say ageement, and budget negotiators from both  houses will work over the weekend in an effort to get numbers at least a simple majority in each chamber can support.

“We know we still have our big task of balancing the budget. We’re not that far apart,” Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said at the press conference with Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp to announce the special session.

“We’re very close to reaching certain agreements,” Chopp said.

Although technically a special session called by the governor can last 30 days and cover any topic legislators want, Gregoire said she had an agreement from the leaders of both parties in both houses that this special session will be about the budget and a jobs program, and will aim at getting out in seven days.

And if they can’t get done in seven days? “We’re going to get done,” she insisted.

As to criticism from Republicans that a special session was a “embarassing and costly” and a result of disorganization on the part of Democrats who control both chambers by wide margins, Chopp replied the Legislature has managed to avoid overtime special sessions in seven of the last eight years. Even when the sesssion ends on time “they basically always say negative things.”

Gregoire, too, defended the work that was done last year and this year in the face of a slumping economy and multi-billion dollar shortfalls. Last year, 22 states needed special sessions, but Washington avoided one.

“We haven’t shut down government, we haven’t sent out IOUs,” she said. “To my friends on the other side of the aisle, explain how any state has done better than us.”