Ross Hunter

Author: Ross

  • Misc. Budget Notes

    I’ve answered a lot of mail on the budget so far. Some items come up over and over again – Adult family homes, family planning funding, Children’s Hospital, and the State Auditor and his I-900 audits. Here are some notes on these things. Family Planning There has been about $10 million in the state budget…

  • Sad duty

    Sad duty

    This week all six legislators from the 45th and 48th districts sent a formal letter to the chair of the Transportation Commission asking that the NE 116th Street Bridge over Interstate 405 be renamed the “Kollin Nielson Memorial Bridge.” Kollin Nielson was a Project Engineer with the Kiewit Pacific Construction Company when he tragically lost…

  • Tax Policy for the Internet Age

    Tax Policy for the Internet Age

    Tax downloads? What is he talking about? Let me explain. Today if you buy a copy of “Gladiator” at Barnes and Noble you pay sales tax on it. If you rent it from Blockbuster you pay sales tax. Rent from Netflix? Pay the tax. Download it from Amazon? Pay the tax. However, if you watch…

  • Hobbesian Choices

    The chairs of the House and of the Senate budget committees both introduced their budget proposals this week. The committees will vote on them soon, though none of us can say exactly when at this point. Typically the bills are introduced and passed in about 3 days. The minority party always whines that they don’t…

  • Updates to Basic Ed Financing

    The Senate released their budget yesterday. The House releases its today. I’ll opine later on the differences. Both are mostly no-new-revenue budgets. The Senate packages up closing some tax loopholes. The House comes out later this morning so I can’t comment on it now. Both bodies have passed a version of the Basic Education Finance…

  • Pages – A great experience for young people

    Pages – A great experience for young people

    I’ve had a number of excellent young people serve the Legislature this year as a page. If you’re between the ages of 14 and 16 you can serve as a page for a week. It’s a valuable experience for the young person and they do invaluable work while they’re here.

  • Tolling 520

    One of the issues that must be resolved this year is a plan to generate enough money to pay for the SR 520 bridge replacement project. There is no way to do this without tolling the 520 bridge. I am unhappy about this, but it is a reality we must deal with. It’s a complex…

  • Differences between the House and Senate versions of Ed Finance Reform

    The House and Seante passed VERY different versions of the reform legislation. Below is a staff summary of the differences in language that’s reasonably easy to understand, though still somewhat “inside baseball.” The Spokesman-Review in Spokane captures it in language that makes more sense to the casual reader when they say What’s emerged in the…

  • Town Hall Meeting – Sat March 14

    Rep. Eddy, Sen. Tom and I will host our second town hall meeting of 2009 tomorrow, Sat March 14th from 10:00 Am to Noon. Our focus will be Education, though we will take questions on other issues. Chinook Middle School 2001 98th Ave NE Bellevue, WA Click here for a map and directions

  • House Approves Ed Finance Bill

    Last night the House approved the current incarnation of our ed finance reform bill – HB 2261. I’m including links to some summaries of the bill, including the AP story from the Seattle PI site (out of nostalgia). It’s depressing that Curt Woodward was the only reporter physically present on the floor when we passed…