‘Supermajority’ rule faces fire

After years of trying, Democratic lawmakers launched a full court press in the Statehouse last week to knock down a 75-year-old hurdle for school districts seeking property tax dollars.

“This is the year that we have got to address this,” state Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, said of the constitutional requirement that school districts must win approval from a 60 percent “supermajority” of voters to collect special levies. School districts statewide rely heavily on local property taxes for large slices of their operating and construction budgets. The rule is absurd, education advocates and many lawmakers say, in a state where voters can OK the building of a jail or stadium with just a simple majority vote. The change would require voter approval and is proposed in various pieces of legislation already introduced this year.

Push for new Sonics stadium begins: A delayed plan for a state-of-the-art arena in the Seattle suburbs that would seat approximately 18,500 and cost more than $500 million – including $300 million from taxpayers – will reach the state Legislature by month’s end, SuperSonics and Storm owner Clay Bennett promised late last week.

Although Bennett renewed his intent to keep the teams in the region, his proposal still carries the not-so-veiled threat that has hovered over the Sonics and Storm since his purchase of the teams last year: Without taxpayer money for a new arena, they will leave for his native Oklahoma. Legislative reaction was mixed: “That sounds like a lot of money to me,” said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, who stressed that lawmakers need to see a specific plan before proceeding.

Worries over shoddy construction: Rotted, buckled siding. Sodden floors. Sagging roofs. Filled-in wetlands. A house built in the wrong place.

It was a parade of horror stories Tuesday in a darkened Senate hearing room, as one homeowner after another described major building flaws they’d discovered after buying their dream homes.

“You can see the droppings there. … We have dead rats all over the house,” one man told the Consumer Protection and Housing Committee, illustrating his point with a photo projected onto a screen.

Over the vigorous protests of the state’s home builders, committee Chairman Sen. Brian Weinstein, D-Mercer Island, is proposing several laws designed to make it easier to hold contractors accountable for shoddy or dangerous construction.

Veterans cemetery: A state veterans cemetery would be established in the Spokane area under a bill introduced by Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane. The bill would create a cemetery in Spokane County comparable to Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent. The veteran population in the Spokane area is too small to meet federal requirements for a federal cemetery, so Marr feels the state should step in.

The cemetery would be maintained through a combination of state, federal and local funds, including proceeds from the sale of state armed forces license plates. Gov. Chris Gregoire has included $7.8 million in her 2007-09 capital budget, plus $926,000 in her operating budget, for a cemetery. The state Department of Veterans Affairs is considering two possible sites: McFarland Road near Fairchild Air Force Base, and Salnave Road off Interstate 90 near Medical Lake.

Objectionable protesting: Appalled by a Kansas anti-gay group’s picketing of military funerals – including one in Yakima – more than half the state House of Representatives has signed on to a bill banning “disruptive behavior” within 500 feet of a funeral.

From staff and wire reports