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Information Services Board
I serve on the Information Services Board, (ISB) a group of high-level state and private sector people who review and approve the state’s investment in information technology. Specific projects that are high risk get a lot of attention from the group. It’s interesting to me, and one of the few things I do that’s directly…
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National Popular Vote
The national popular vote proposal is an interesting approach to changing the 222 year old way we elect US Presidents.The idea is to have a compact between states totally more than 50% of the electoral college. We would all agree that we would allocate all of our electoral votes to the winner of the national…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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
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Important Bills
The Legislature is a cyclical activity. We go through a phase where everyone creates proposed new laws and files them. This is call “dropping” bills, because you drop the signed pieces of paper into a basket called the “hopper.” The bills are heard in committee, and the ones that are not patently ridiculous are passed…
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Local Government Financing Plan
Final Report of the Washington State Local Governance Study Commission. …the underlying structural problem for King County budgeting is the mismatch between tax base and service costs in the unincorporated areas. The solution to this, which is encouraged by the Growth Management Act, is to ensure that the remaining unincorporated areas within the urban growth…
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WACOPS Legislator of the Year
For some reason the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs has named me their “legislator of the year.” I’m always happy to be recognized for the work I do, and these guys are an important part of the fabric of our community. I’m receiving the award from Mike Pentony and Steve Lynch, two of Bellevue’s…
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HB 1410 Introduced – Basic Ed Funding
Rep. Pat Sullivan (D-47), Rep. Skip Priest (R-30), Rep. Glenn Anderson (R-5) and I released HB 1410 today. We have 38 co-sponsors at this point. It’s scheduled for a hearing next week. The bill is a huge effort – 110 pages that completely re-write school funding formulas, teacher compensation plans, and almost everything else about…