-
Budget Update and Thoughts on Teacher Compensation and Levy Reform
I write this on Tuesday April 21st. At this point I do not expect that the Legislature will agree on a budget before the regular session ends on Sunday April 26th. The Seattle Times published a lot of articles this weekend about the budget, and I’m structuring this newsletter around them. The first article in…
-
Week 10 of 4th Grader Advice for Legislators
These advice cards make me smile every time. They’re from Linda Myrick’s 4th graders at Somerset Elementary in Bellevue.
-
House and Senate Budget Differences on K12
I’ll be posting a handful of high-level summaries of budget differences with the Senate over the next few days. As usual, K12 is my first post in this sequence. House Democrats are investing $3.2 billion more in K-12 education with this budget over the amount we spent in the last biennium, a 21% increase. People…
-
Budget Negotiations to Start Monday
We’re now entering the budget negotiation phase of the session. The Senate and House are in pretty significantly different places. The top level difference is only about a billion dollars, but the underlying differences are much greater than that. We need to come to agreement by Wednesday the 22nd to be able to get the…
-
Final 520 Pontoons to Arrive Thursday!
If you are crazy enough to actually want to track the arrival of pontoons to the new 520 bridge project online – here are the links. These are the last 3 pontoons. In addition, WSDOT is running a photo contest about pontoons. Here’s the link. The journey from Grays Harbor is nearly complete and we expect…
-
Timely Advice from 4th Graders
This week’s gem is particularly timely as we are about to spend the next two weeks debating bills on the floor and arguing about budgets. The advice comes from Linda Myrick’s 4th graders at Somerset Elementary in Bellevue.
-
Advice from 4th Graders – Week 8
I think I missed a week. This week’s advice card is also excellent. I’m sad I have to white out the names of the kids due to privacy laws. These cards are from the 4th graders in Linda Myrick’s civics club at Somerset Elementary in Bellevue.
-
Debtors Prisons – Legal Financial Obligations
Just before session started this year I had a chance to attend the Facing Race legislative forum. Hosted by several local and national organizations, it was a chance for me to hear stories and facts about a variety of social justice topics, including Legal Financial Obligations. Some of the repeating themes were how hard it…
-
Advice from 4th Graders – Week 7
I am really enjoying these posts from Linda Myrick’s 4th graders at Somerset Elementary in Bellevue. This particular piece needs broad circulation, and I will be sending it to all the members of the House. We have three more days of floor debate this week and the advice is very topical.
-
Fiscal Cutoff
State legislatures typically meet for a relatively short period of time each year and consequently are very deadline driven. Congress works on things until they are ready to be brought forward, but in most states (including Washington) the dates are relentless and serve to help the body focus on what is likely to get done…
