Sen. Tim Sheldon, who's also a county commissioner in rural Mason County, told the local weekly that he felt that his well-armed constituents would dampen the effect of proposed budget cuts at the county sheriff's office.“There is no bag limit. There’s always an open season…
This morning, Sen. Karen Keiser and Sens. Brown, Prentice and Tom introduced Senate Bill 6158, which would delay for three years a planned $250-a-week stipend for workers who take time off to bond with a new child.These payments, which were championed by Brown and other…
...which this morning hit its 100th question. The site has also logged nearly 4,000 votes for best question.Perhaps not surprisingly, the most popular question asks for more details about a possible state income tax being floated by Senate Democrats:"Can you describe your vision for how…
Remarkably emotional floor speeches today on the House floor at lawmakers debate changes in unemployment insurance. Rep. Hasegawa was just moved to tears, recollecting what it was like when he had to collect unemployment, and how an extra $10 or $12 mattered so much.With equal…
Really.Taxable retail sales statewide declined nearly 11 percent during the 4th quarter of 2008, the state Department of Revenue said today. What's dropping: construction was down 12 percent, cars and car parts were down 27 percent, hotels and restaurants were down 5 percent and building…
Meeting with reporters today, House Speaker Frank Chopp said that a proposed third-of-a-cent sales tax increase to reduce cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and health care programs is "better than 50/50 to be on the ballot" in November.Income tax?He sounded less enthusiastic about a "high-earners"…
When Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed 14 percent tuition hikes over the next two years, I and most of the other reporters in the room reported that as a total 28 percent hike."Totally incorrect," writes alert reader Pamela Dixson. She points out, quite correctly, that the…
A study of how Washington stacks up in the view of companies like Boeing has been leaked to Leehamnews, an aerospace blog. Here's a copy.The governor has called a 2:45 p.m. press conference to discuss the findings "as well as proposed aerospace legislation" presumably aimed…
As I mentioned yesterday, Senate Democrats have set up a website to take budget-related questions from the public.So far (11 questons from 23 people), the questions range from friendly:"When is the legislature going to wake up and realize we have a revenue collection shortfall problem…
A quick wrap-up on a busy day:-The Association of Washington Business points to a new report by Forbes magazine that ranks Washington 8th highest for tax burden:Washington: Average tax burden per person: $2,553. Thanks to California, the West Coast has a reputation for heavily taxing…
-Pollster Bob Moore's firm, Moore Information, recently asked 500 Washington voters whether they'd support an increase in the state sales tax from 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent "to ensure that education and other important state programs have adequate funding."The results are not promising for lawmakers…
David Spring, a teacher and former legislative candidate, is trying to convince lawmakers to embrace a tax plan that he says would add billions of dollars for schools and state services while touching only the wealthiest 5 percent of Washingtonians."We don't need to be raising…
Months ago, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown talked about opening a dialogue with the public about how to bridge a multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall over the next two years. She has faith in the voters, she's repeatedly said, and feels that when they're shown a problem…
A coalition representing hospitals, nurses, health-care workers and Group Health Cooperative has launched TV ads in Seattle and Tacoma, urging people to call lawmakers and protest budget cuts."What Olympia is proposing should alarm families across Washington State," said Cassie Sauer, vice president of the state…
That's what Brown says in an interview to be aired tonight at 7 and 10 p.m. on TVW, according to Niki Sullivan. The tax would be on earnings above $250,000.
Sen. Lisa Brown, responding to a report that Senate Democrats "are backing off the idea of a state income tax" on the wealthy, says the idea is still in play."I've always been realistic about the fact that it's a short time frame for putting a…
-Publicola's Josh Feit, who's been riding herd all session on a bill to rewrite environmentalists' Initiative 937 (he hates it), has the Easter-eve story of how Sen. Chris Marr's controversial bill died and was resurrected in a surprise move in the House.-NPI's Andrew Villeneuve writes…
At the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Mike Reitz comes up with an interesting scenario if an income tax bill is follows the format (if not the details) of the trial balloon offered by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles.In what I assume is an effort to get around Washington's…
David Goldstein, from the political blog Horses Ass, adds his voice to the call for an income tax on the wealthy -- and says it's time for House Speaker Frank Chopp to get behind the idea:I know Chopp understands the issue. I know he knows…
From my weekly column in tomorrow's paper:OLYMPIA _ With less than three weeks to go in the legislative session, Democrats seem near-unanimous in being unhappy with the cuts in the budgets they're proposing.But now, as the clocks ticks down, they're struggling to reach agreement on…
Also this morning, Gov. Chris Gregoire said that 75 school districts across the state have millions of dollars in voter-approved levies that they cannot collect, because they're butting up against a law that puts a "lid" on such levies.Gregoire's proposal: why not lift that lid…
Saying that Washington cannot allow the sort of deep budget cuts proposed by lawmakers for higher education, Gov. Chris Gregoire this morning met with the state's top lawmakers and proposed letting the state's four-year schools boost tuition by 14 percent a year over the next…
Today, full page ad in the Olympian: 31 mostly out-of-state economists sign a Washington Policy Center ad urging lawmakers not to raise taxes because it "will thwart the state's economic recovery. Leaving earnings in the hands of individuals and businesses is the best way to…
Rep. Hans Dunshee has proposed House Bill 2334, which would raise $3 billion for construction/renovation work on public buildings around the state. Voters would have to approve it first. The money would mostly go toward work on schools, from K-12 to the state's universities. It…