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Peter Callaghan: Education bill’s unheralded details will need attention | Peter Callaghan | The News Tribune
Peter Callaghan: Education bill’s unheralded details will need attention | Peter Callaghan | The News Tribune. Peter does a good job here exposing some of the hard work remaining in figuring out school funding details for 2015. He drills into a number of key issues: Local school levies being used for compensation. This is an…
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Follow-up from Telephone Town Hall – Foster Care and 520 Bridge Schedule
Thanks for the 4000-5000 folks who listened to a segment of our telephone town hall last week. There were a lot of questions asked. If you have an extra hour and want to listen to the recording of the questions I answered here it is. I said I’d answer questions left on voicemail at the…
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2014 Supplemental Budget
The House and Senate introduced budgets about two weeks ago that were similar in some ways, but radically different in others. We negotiated and came to a bipartisan solution that pleases no one except our families who get us back home again. The votes were lopsided in favor – 85-13 in the House and 48-1…
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Use of “economic models” to mislead the public
The Washington Policy Center, a right-leaning think tank, published a report today with a terrifying title: “Economic model shows Superintendent Dorn’s proposed tax increases would cost 18,500 jobs“. This is “truthy”, AN economic model did show this. Of course, THIS economic model ALWAYS shows job losses from proposed public policy proposals. Economic model shows Superintendent…
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Pay It Forward
Recently a number of people have written to me about the “Pay it Forward” concept for funding higher education in Washington. The basic idea as described on the Economic Opportunity Institute website: (www.eoionline.org) Pay It Forward: A Debt-Free Degree Students attend college with no upfront tuition or fees. Instead, students contribute a small, fixed-percentage of their…
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Early Learning
I visited a family child care provider in Bellevue last week. I’ve been working with Representative Ruth Kagi on trying to figure out how to improve both the reach and quality of our early learning system for at risk kids, and seeing how stuff works in person is pretty valuable. This wasn’t a facility for…
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Boeing, Special Sessions, Tax Policy, and Transportation
I’m in Olympia today at the behest of Governor Inslee. He called us in to, in his words: “I am asking lawmakers to pass a package of legislation that will guarantee that the Boeing 777X and its carbon fiber wing are built in Washington state,” Inslee said at a press conference today where he was…
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Visiting Prisons
I’ve been trying to visit everywhere we spend a billion dollars or more per biennium, and the prison system definitely makes the list. This month I got a chance to visit McNeil Island, a very creepy place. We have a treatment facility on the island for dangerous sex predators, and a former prison. We closed…
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Seattle Times Op-Ed on Internet Sales Taxes Misses the Mark
In a Seattle Times Op-Ed today, Peter Ollodart throws up his hands at the prospect of filing sales tax returns in 45 states, and consequently is lobbying against the Marketplace Fairness Act if Congress. If he really had to do that, I’d agree with him. Of course, under the structure of the bill in Congress…
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Champion For Early Learning!
I’m pleased to report that the Children’s Alliance named me a “Champion for Early Learning” this year and presented me with this nice box of stale Wheaties. We made significant moves in early learning for low-income this year and I’m glad to be recognized for it. We expanded the state’s program for low-income 3 and…