OLYMPIA -- The House Appropriations Committee is likely to vote this afternoon on whether to advance the budget plan Democrats released yesterday, setting up debate on the floor on Friday. After a marathon hearing Wednesday, a few hours after the $34.5 billion spending plan was…
OLYMPIA – House Democrats want to spend about $1.9 billion more on education over the next two years, paying for much of it by extending some taxes set to expire in June and closing more than a dozen tax breaks now on the books. As…
OLYMPIA -- House Democrats released their 2013-15 budget proposal this afternoon with calls for adding $1.9 billion to public schools, extending taxes set to expire at the end of June and closing a series of tax preference. It's in sharp contrast to a budget that…
Spokane County’s loss of more than $1 million in a land deal with the Spokane International Airport was completed Monday by the Spokane City Council. In 2008, the county paid $3.2 million for nearly 400 acres between the airport and Fairchild Air Force Base to…
OLYMPIA -- House Democrats will release their proposals for two-year operating and capital projects budgets at noon today. As dismissive as leading House Democrats have been about the Senate budget which passed last Friday, we can expect that it will have some new revenue, probably…
OLYMPIA -- Products that contain asbestos would have to be labelled in Washington state stores under a bill that passed the House Tuesday. Approving a bill that already passed the Senate, the House voted 65-28 to support a bill first introduced by Sen. Andy Billig,…
OLYMPIA -- The Senate's plan to spend some $3.6 billion on projects large and small, known as the Capital Budget, was released today with nearly $67 million for projects in Spokane County. Among the largest Spokane-area projects are $8.5 million for the Extended Learning Center…
Sen. Mike Baumgartner and Rep. Jeff Holy, two Republicans who represent Spokane's 6th Legislative District, are holding a town hall meeting by phone this evening. The session will feature a live poll of those on the line and a chance to ask questions of the…
OLYMPIA -- Victims of child sexual abuse could report their assaults up to the age of 30 under a bill approved today by the Senate. The bill extends the statute of limitations for charging suspects in child sexual abuse cases, which currently require a victim…
Last night’s City Council meeting boiled down a debate on the definition of shall. The Spokane City Council’s creation of 13 new public safety departments appears to violate the City Charter. But city attorneys insisted that “shall” does not always mean shall, at least not…
OLYMPIA -- Just because legislative budget committees are under the gun to get their work done doesn't rule out a few light moments. The Senate Ways and Means Committee was discussing a bill that would expand primaries so that any office up for election is…
OLYMPIA -- The ability to set tolls on bridges, ferries and some special highway lanes would stay with the appointed Transportation Commission rather than the Legislature under an amendment rejected Monday afternoon. The House Transportation Committee rejected an amendment to the 2013-15 budget that would…
OLYMPIA -- The House Appropriations Committee is expected to release its general operating budget sometime Wednesday, giving everyone a chance to see how far apart that chamber is with the Senate, which passed its "no-new taxes" budget on Friday. There may actually be two full…
Friday’s four-hour budget debate in the Senate was mostly about programs that get cut or taxes that don’t get raised. But there were brief detours into other topics, including cigar lounges and Spokane Indians baseball. . . To read the rest of this item, or…
OLYMPIA – For the next three weeks, at a minimum, legislators will be throwing around the word “sustainable” more than a bunch of organic farmers hectoring an executive from Archer Daniels Midland. It is the go-to cudgel for anyone who doesn’t like a budget proposal,…
OLYMPIA -- The state budget office is questioning some parts of the 2013-15 operating budget proposal released earlier this week by the leaders of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The budget uses some assumptions that may not be legal, and others that don't have…
OLYMPIA – Legislators began hearings Thursday on competing but similar multi-billion-dollar spending plans for the state’s highways, bridges, ferries and mass transit. Prepared separately by the House and Senate, the two $8.4 billion transportation budget proposals have many things in common. Described variously as “bare…
The woman who led the city’s arts department for 15 years before it was dismantled last year won’t be the permanent leader of the new agency promoting the arts in Spokane. Karen Mobley said Thursday that she decided to step down as the interim director…
OLYMPIA -- The Washington State Liquor Control Board started the process to set a new rule ban the use of marijuana in bars. One might say that Initiative 502, which legalized marijuana use by adults, was pretty clear about that by saying it's illegal to…
OLYMPIA -- The House Transportation Committee released an $8.7 billion spending plan for the next two years, and like the Senate plan released Wednesday it projects no tax increases. In February, Committee Chairwoman Judy Clibborn and a group of other Democrats did produce a separate…
Councilman Mike Fagan was within his rights to call Gov. Jay Inslee “a lying whore,” the Spokane Ethics Committee ruled on Wednesday. The committee voted unanimously that the slur, which was part of a letter signed by Fagan and two others, didn’t violate city ethics…
Sen. Andy Hill describes the budget proposal with Sen. Jim Hargrove waiting nearby in the State Reception Room. OLYMPIA -- Leaders of a Senate committee released a $32.5 billion operating budget that spends more on education, less on programs for the poor and doesn't raise…
OLYMPIA -- The Senate Transportation Committee released an $8.7 billion spending proposal for the state's highways, bridges, ferries and state patrol Wednesday, but said its bipartisan leaders said they have no plans right now for any possible tax increases for new projects. While acknowledging there…
Lilac Queen Brett Rountree addresses the state Senate. OLYMPIA -- The Senate and House took a not too controversial stance this morning, passing resolutions in support of the Spokane Lilac Festival and it's 75-year anniversary. With Lilac Queen Brett Rountree of Central Valley High School…
OLYMPIA -- The Legislature is considering changes to the initiative that got the state out of the liquor business, changing some of the fees charged distributors and retailers. Liquor distributors told the House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee Tuesday they wouldn't fight a plan to…
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