Getting tough on toxic toys

OLYMPIA – A month after supporters inflated a 20-foot-tall rubber ducky on the steps of the Capitol, lawmakers this week approved tough limits on lead and other chemicals in children’s toys.

With passage of the so-called toxic toys bill “Washington will have the strongest toy standards in the country,” said prime sponsor Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle.

The measure, already approved by the Senate, passed 92-2 and now goes to Gov. Chris Gregoire to be signed into law.

The final version of the much-negotiated bill includes a provision that excludes retailers who unknowingly sell toys that violate standards.

“I don’t think it’s a big loophole,” Dickerson said. “It’s not the retailers we’re going after. It’s the manufacturers.”

A tax break for newspapers?

A hardy perennial topic for capitol reporters: the constant pressure on lawmakers to approve tax breaks. From Boeing to beekeepers, peas to polysilicon, pretty much every industry is constantly looking for a way to pay less. And that often means that everyone else pays more.

So it only seems fair to note that this year’s seekers of tax breaks include the newspaper industry.

House Bill 2585 would give newspaper companies a $946,000 tax break in this budget cycle, rising to $1.4 million annually.

For year, publishers of newspapers and magazines have paid a business tax of just under half a percent. This applies to subscriptions, newsstand sales, ads and so on.

But if you’re a publisher who doesn’t also print things – hello, bloggers – you pay three times as much: 1.5 percent. When newspapers sell ads for online content, they pay that higher rate.

The bill – which was moving quickly ahead when this column went to press – would apply the lower rate to a newspaper’s online ads. But the online version must “share content with the printed newspaper” and the two must be prominently identified as being linked.

Late night debates

Lawmakers debated late into the night last week on a global warming bill, finally passing it just before 1 a.m.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the floor speeches. The speaker: Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane, who is arguing that the Earth’s climate has a long history of warming and cooling every 500 years or so.

“…We also had global cooling from 250 A.D. to roughly 750 A.D. Prior to that, we had global warming from 350 B.C. to 250 A.D.,” he said. “And during that period, we had some great peoples that had empires, such as your Alexander the Great, now of course it’s Greece, Macedonia; we had the Israelites … and we also had the, uh, Persian Empire … that was the warmest period in about half a million years, something like that…”

During this, Democrats began tittering, then openly laughing until House Speaker Pro Tem Jeff Morris gaveled them down. Ahern continued:

“Earth goes through a climate change every 500 years without fail. So mankind, we’re not causing that much of a problem.”

The Supremes take their time, as usual

The state’s highest court last week rejected Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown’s request for quick action on her lawsuit challenging a voter-launched requirement that two-thirds of the state Legislature approve tax increases. The court will get to it, it said, but at the regular pace.

In the short term, the decision means the death of the bill that triggered the court challenge: renewing a lapsed 42-cents-a-liter liquor tax. The resulting $10 million would have paid for more drunken-driving enforcement and substance-abuse treatment.

After years of both parties finding ways around this requirement, last year’s Initiative 960 reaffirmed it. Now, legislative budget writers face the prospect of being hamstrung next year, on the eve of an expected $2.4 billion state budget deficit.

Brown said the court’s decision was good news. She sought speedy review to avoid a replay of 1994, when the court tossed out a similar challenge because the Legislature wasn’t in session at the time. This time, the suit’s been put on the court’s regular docket.

“I’m pleased the court will hear the case thoroughly and completely,” she said.

Not surprisingly, Brown’s taking a lot of flak for being the figurehead on a lawsuit that, in essence, would make it easier for the state to raise taxes. What is surprising, though, is the personal tone of some of those attacks: “Not so fast there, toots,” one Eastern Washington blogger wrote recently, describing the scheduling decision as a “smackdown.”

Schoesler to hold unusual town-hall meeting

Lawmakers like to hold town-hall meetings periodically to meet voters and tout their achievements in the puzzle palace that the Statehouse can be.

This is no easy feat, however, for some of the sprawling rural legislative districts in Eastern Washington.

So Sen. Mark Schoesler, a Ritzville farmer whose district covers all or part of six counties, wants to try something new. On Monday at 7 p.m., he’s asking interested constituents to call (866) 447-5149 for a “telephone town-hall meeting.” To participate, you’ll also need this code: 13556. Residents can listen in, ask questions and take part in instant polls, he said.

The technology saves money, time and gasoline, he said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to have even a meeting in one county that is practical for everyone to attend,” he said.

Schoesler’s district includes the following counties: Whitman, Adams, Asotin, Garfield, southern Spokane and northern Franklin. (By city: Pullman, Colfax, Colton, Connell, Medical Lake, Othello, Ritzville, Cheney, Clarkston.)