Category: Uncategorized

Those of you who wrote to me from all over the state asking me to not support HB 1668 (which required paid signature gatherers to register with the Secretary of State) will be happy to know that it never came up for a vote and consequently didn’t pass out of committee. This happens every year to this bill, and is likely to continue to happen in the future.

Regardless of the content of the bill, in general it works better if you contact your own representative, rather than blanket all of us with email. Once we read the first 20 or so of these and realize that they’re from everywhere many legislators will stop reading them. If you include your address we can check to see that you’re our constituent and respond to you personally.

Toning down the level of vitriol is also something that’s likely to get you a personal response. Just like most people don’t really want to have conversations with people who are astoundingly rude, most legislators don’t either. Not all of the email I received on this topic was rude, but a fair amount was over the top.

I’m pleased to report that I won this year, and will be back serving the residents of the 48th district for another 2 years. I expect these to be difficult years as we work through the tail (we hope) of the worst economic downturn since WW II. Our budget work this year will be difficult. I’ll continue to post detailed policy thoughts on this website over entire term, and will attempt to release monthly email newsletters. Signup info will be availble soon.

Our nation is in its worst economic crisis since World War II, 75 years ago. Washington is not immune to the national economy. Like almost every state we face crippling unemployment and many people have lost significant portions of their asset base – their home, their retirement portfolio, and the money they were saving to send their kids to college. Total peak to trough job losses in Washington were over 210,000. 5.5% of the labor force lost their job, almost twice as bad as the next worst post-war recession.

We are starting to come out of the recession, but very slowly. Boeing is ramping up their 737 and 777 production significantly and is bringing some work back to the state. Microsoft is hiring again and the software sector is growing. Our state economist predicts that we will perform better than the national economy, but this is faint praise.

Task number one is to do everything we can to restore our job base. We should approach this task with humility – our state government can help job creation, but private businesses will do most of the heavy lifting. We must focus our strategy on those areas of the economy that are growing rapidly, offer competitive wages and take advantage of the unique elements of Washington State.

Continue reading “Jobs Strategy”

I had the opportunity to say a few remarks at the opening of a new branch of the King County Library System in the Lakehills neighborhood of Bellevue on Saturday. It’s lovely. I’ve opened many new facilities, from skateboard parks to low-income housing and it’s always difficult to come up with something that’s relevant, interesting and brief.

In this case I resolved to not say anything about the 9/11 tragedy as I was sure other people would and we were opening a library – it didn’t seem relevant. I talked about how the KCLS had evolved way beyond being just a box of books. The Internet has changed how libraries function, and KCLS has done a great job of staying relevant.

One of the other speakers brought in a comment I though particularly valuable, and I wish I had thought of it. Libraries are symbolic – they represent the best of us. They are a place open to everyone (even, or perhaps especially the homeless person who came through looking for the snacks,) they don’t serve any single political ideology, and they are quiet. On the day the nutjob in Florida was going to burn Korans, we opened a new facility that holds information about everything and everyone, including copies of the great books for every major religion in the world. It’s the ultimate expression of what we believe to be important.

Go visit the new branch. It’s great. http://www.kcls.org/bond/lakehills/

British Columbia is making a minor change in their sales tax today that for some incomprehensible technical reasons winds up exempting all of their residents from paying sales tax in Washington. The City of Bellingham and Whatcom county will be heavily impacted by this and have sued the Department of Revenue to get them to change their interpretation.

The Court issued an injunction on the Department of Revenue (DOR) June 30th enjoining them from providing advice to retailers while this gets worked out. Retailers are kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place here – if they collect the tax and the customers are eventually found to be exempt they could get sued by the customer. If they don’t collect the tax and the city and county win their lawsuit they WILL be held responsible for the money by the DOR.

Here’s what the DOR is allowed to say:

I’m very sorry, but the Department has been sued by the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County. 

The City and County are challenging the Department’s interpretation of RCW 82.08.0273, the nonresident retail sales tax exemption statute.

The Skagit County Superior Court has issued a temporary restraining order barring the Department from providing advice to retailers on whether British Columbia residents qualify for the nonresident exemption.

The outcome of the pending litigation is unknown.

However, if a retailer sells goods to a B.C. resident without collecting tax, the retailer may be liable for the unpaid tax if the court eventually determines that B.C. residents do not qualify for the nonresident exemption.

If I were a retailer I’d collect the tax. I’ll try to unwind this situation in the Legislature next year, but won’t be able to do anything about the first 9-12 months of implementation of whichever way the court orders. It does not make sense to me that out of state people get an exemption from paying tax and in-state residents have to pay more as a result.