Yet more, um, aggregation this morning: Senate Democrats' senior staff director Rich Nafziger, writing on his personal blog, offers a session overview:The real shock was the extent to which the session hit the friends and allies of the legislative democrats...The Governor and the legislature abandoned…
More catching up (and thank God for tabbed browsing):-Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, after a drubbing during election season from The Stranger, continues to get no love from Seattle. Writes Horsesass.org founder David Goldstein:To those fondly speculating about Gov. Chris Gregoire being on the list of…
Lots -- LOTS -- to catch up on:-The Everett Herald's Jerry Cornfield says that two-time GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's got a new job that's a return to his commercial real estate roots. He won't rule out running for office again ("Never say never") but…
As expected, Washington Values Alliance president Larry Stickney this afternoon filed a ballot measure to overturn Senate Bill 5688, which grants state-registered domestic partners most of the rights of married spouses. More than 5,000 couples have registered in the past two years, including many same-sex…
(Photo: people waiting to testify at a House hearing re: domestic partnerships in February.)Foes of the state's new "everything but marriage" law plan to file a referendum at noon today at the Secretary of State's elections office in Olympia, according to Dave Ammons, a spokesman…
From my weekly print column:It always astounds me how quickly the state capital becomes a ghost town when a legislative session ends.On Sunday, lobbyists were still swarming the Senate and House doors. Lawmakers rushed toward midnight in a mad scramble of last-minute deals, deadlocks and…
There are no known cases of swine flu in Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Wednesday, as health officials elsewhere confirmed dozens of cases -- including one toddler death -- in 10 states."Right now, we have no confirmed cases in Washington state, and we are doing…
From this morning's paper:OLYMPIA – All eyes were on state spending in Olympia this year, as lawmakers wrestled with their greatest budget problem in decades. But it’s not all that Washington lawmakers did. By the time they ended the session early Monday morning, they had…
-Andrew Villeneuve at the Northwest Progressive Institute blog has the much-predicted news that Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, is in fact going to run for King County executive. Also running: fellow lawmaker Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island.-Spokesman-Review editorialist Gary Crooks weighs in on the state's tax…
From this morning's paper:OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday she intends to call Washington lawmakers back into a special session to finish budget-related bills left undone when midnight struck Sunday night, ending the 105-day legislative session.But the governor said she first wants wrung-out lawmakers…
Gov. Chris Gregoire said she intends to call a special session, but wants to talk to lawmakers first.She said she hopes the session is soon -- not waiting for the June revenue forecast, for example -- short, and limited in scope. She wants to hash…
Lawmakers wrapped up around 1 a.m., adjourning even though several bills necessary to implement the budgets never made it to a vote. Among them: bills affecting school levy rates and another to require the deportation of non-violent foreign criminals.Gov. Chris Gregoire sent out a statement…
Gov. Gregoire’s statement on legislative session OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire released the following statement tonight on calling a special session of the 2009 Washington Legislature: “The 2009 legislative session completed the most difficult regular session in a generation with a balanced budget, very significant…
Lawmakers are on track tonight to end a grueling legislative session that saw two lawmakers hospitalized and left the state facing $4 billion in cuts to schools, adult day care centers, colleges, hospitals, and health coverage for the working poor."It has been a brutal year,…
Tensions have been brewing for days over an already-very-controversial bill: Sen. Chris Marr's SB 5840, which would retool parts of Initiative 937. Environmental groups have been unhappy with the changes, which they see as a wrongheaded softening of the goal of I-937: to spur investments…
It's clear from reviewing the proposed budget documents that in addition to major changes for schools, colleges, social services and health care, budget writers also did some work with the fiscal equivalent of a scalpel, trimming spending on things like the governor's bodyguards, classes on…
Washington legislators are very close to approving tens of millions of dollars in new buildings and other work in the Spokane region.The capital budget, expected to be approved by Sunday, includes new community college buildings, $4.3 million for a central Spokane YMCA/YWCA, and $350,000 in…
Also Friday, lawmakers released a transportation budget that includes $28 million more for the North Spokane Corridor project and $250,000 for a turn lane at the dangerous intersection of Highway 195 and Cheney Spokane Road.Lawmakers had hoped for more for both projects. But in a…
Just 10 hours after unveiling the details, House lawmakers on Friday night approved a $35 billion state budget that includes about $4 billion in cuts.The budget, which now goes to the Senate for approval, passed on a largely party-line vote, 54 to 42. It includes…
Is here.Tip when looking for your piece of the pie: Adobe's search function is your friend.UPDATE: Here's the more-helpful Agency Detail and highlights. Start with these, rather than the budget bill itself.
Lawmakers, as has been written, reached agreement on the budget last night. $4 billion in cuts, we're told. People will die. Big tuition hikes. Cuts to the Basic Health Plan, to mental health, to hospitals, to the social safety net. "Everything got whacked," one lawmaker…
Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, confirms that his plan for a third-of-a-cent sales tax hike to offset deep budget cuts has collapsed. Proponents, including House Speaker Frank Chopp, have been unable to round up enough votes. "We looked at the vote count, and it didn't look…
This is an idea that legislative advocates should have had weeks ago: The folks at the private Washington State Budget and Policy Center have put together a handy online calculator to estimate how much a person would receive if the state working families tax rebate…
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, who had earlier proposed a state income tax on high-earners, now says that changing the state's tax system is still the right thing to do, but that this is not the year to do it."Many members of the Senate…