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Basic Ed Finance Task Force does a press conference
The “Big Six” legislators did a press conference about releasing our bills into the wild. It was a bit of a stumbling performance – none of us do these things regularly, but it seemed interesting to the crowd that was in Olympia to attend the hearings. I hear they filled two rooms in the Senate…
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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…
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More Toxic Chemicals
In 2007 I passed a bill I had worked on for 3 years, banning a toxic flame retardant called PBDE in Washington. This year a group of legislators is working on a different compound – Bisphenol-A. It’s found in polycarbonates and other hard, clear plastics, and like PBDE, it damages the reproductive systems of human…
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Taxable Retail Sales
Cindi Holmstrom, the Director of the Department of Revenue, sent me this chart and the associated comments last week. It’s a sobering indicator of economic conditions. Taxable retail sales provide a strong indication of the economic conditions in the state of Washington. The chart below illustrates the decline in retail sales tax collection over the…
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Basic education funding task force releases final report to the Legislature
Ed system overhaul would include changes to teacher pay, additional class time  For immediate release – January 14, 2009 The task force that spent nearly two years reviewing Washington’s definition of “basic education†and the funding structure to support it has released its final recommendations for an overhaul of the state’s K-12 funding system.…
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Viaduct Proposal – Deep Bored Tunnel
Governor Gregoire announced a proposed solution to the viaduct problem today, and I think she’s got the best of a bad bunch. Click here for her press release. She proposes building a “deep-bored” tunnel under Seattle. I’ve tried to stay out of Seattle’s design decisions because that keeps their members from messing around in Eastside…
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Worth Reading
Michael Lewis (Liar’s Poker…) has a great op-ed in the New York Times this week about the total lack of adult supervision in the other Washington and the culture that makes getting along with Wall Street more important than actually regulating them. It’s awful to think that this kind of behavior is what has caused…
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2009 Legislative Agenda
This year will be particularly difficult due to the national economic disaster. Unlike the federal government, Washington is required to have a balanced budget. Our budget situation is dire, and will require dramatic measures. I try to be organized about how I approach a legislative session, particularly one as difficult as this is likely to…
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Global Warming – Cap and Trade?
Last year the legislature instructed the governor to negotiate our entry into the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) and come back with a plan we would have to approve. She has, and now we get to make some very big choices for Washington and the rest of the country. The WCI is a “cap and trade”…
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Unwinding the Stadiums
Lo these many years ago the Kingdome was created, and it was good… but only if you liked watching baseball in a concrete mausoleum. Since then we’ve built Safeco Field, Qwest, the remodel of Key Arena, and a convention center. The Kingdome was blown up, but the taxes that paid for its new roof are…
