Ross Hunter

Month: November 2014

  • Man Bites Dog

    I got the following email from WA State Auditor Troy Kelley today. It’s part of the performance audits his office does to improve the functioning of state agencies. The audits have skewered lots of agencies over the years since initiative 901 passed. We don’t see too many emails like this because the auditor tends to (quite appropriately)…

  • Scary “Drones” or Annoying Neighbors with Model Airplanes?

    I’ve gotten a lot of mail recently from ACLU members supporting regulation of drone use in Washington, which I support. However, I won’t support ANY bill on drones. I think the environment is more interesting than just the current ephemeral technology concern of cheap ubiquitous model airplanes. There was a bill last year on this…

  • Printable version of budget post

    2015-17 WA State Budget (PDF File, requires Adobe Reader)

  • WA Budget 2015-17: High Degree of Difficulty

    WA Budget 2015-17: High Degree of Difficulty

    When writing about the budget it’s important to share good news as well as bad. First the good: (it’s short) the revenue forecast picked up a little bit. The bad is that we face one of the most difficult budget cycles of my time in the Legislature, and perhaps worse than we’ve seen in many…