-
48th Legislative District Town Hall Meeting set for Jan. 4
Sen. Rodney Tom will join Rep. Ross Hunter and Rep. Deb Eddy in a town hall meeting Wednesday, Jan. 4, to discuss the 2012 legislative session. The 48th District lawmakers will solicit constituents’ concerns and priorities and answer questions from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the council chamber room of Bellevue City Hall at…
-
Data on State Employee Compensation
I’ve answered a lot of mail in the past few weeks and one theme that threads through many of the emails is that the number of state employees is increasing rapidly, that they are paid way too much, and that their benefits are vastly greater than private sector workers. The conclusion is that we should…
-
Washington State and local taxes drop to lowest level in 50 years
The DOR released this as part of their “Revenue Update” for the month. Washington’s state and local taxes (as a percent of personal income) dropped to their lowest level in 50 years in Fiscal Year 2009, according to new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Washington taxes dropped to $93.24 per $1,000 personal income…
-
Internet Sales Growth Explosive, Compared to In-Store Sales
The following article was sent to me by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Governing Board, an organization representing more than half the states that charge sales tax. In it you see the shift to Internet retailing and the consequent loss of sales tax revenue for the state. We are attempting to convince Congress that…
-
Budget “down-payment” will be heard today
OLYMPIA – A bipartisan plan to take a big bite out of the projected $2 billion state budget shortfall will be heard Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill, sponsored by Chair Ross Hunter, D-Medina, makes $479.7 million in cuts to the 2011-13 budget, which was initially adopted last spring. Since then,…
-
Slow-Motion Default in Wenatchee
I’m disappointed that the Legislature failed to address the slow-motion financial default in progress in Wenatchee. 7 cities and 2 counties got together and agreed to build an arena in Wenatchee. They used a stream of money from the state plus the expected “operating profits” from the arena to get a construction loan in 2008,…
-
520 Tolling to Start Dec 29
WSDOT sent out the following press release today. You may want to get your Good to Go pass soon.The pass offers a significant discount on the toll. Ross ————- SR 520 tolling to start on Thursday, December 29 Today we announced that tolling will start on SR 520 on Thursday, December 29. If drivers haven’t…
-
K-12 Funding Proposal – Additional Data
I am posting CSV versions of the two data tables as several people have requested the data in searchable formats. We are typically careful about doing this as people can manipulate the data in ways that say different things than the original presentation did, and I’m hoping people are careful with it. The proposal will…
-
K-12 Funding Proposal – Local Levy Swap
I’m stepping outside my role as Ways and Means chairman to put out a personal proposal for comment. The idea described below is a big one, moving around about a billion dollars in property taxes that are used for the support of public schools. I’m giving a speech on this topic Saturday morning at the…
