The state’s unemployment rate dropped for the third straight month — to 8.9 percent. The unemployment rate is now the lowest since April, 2009.

“It’s just exciting to see something less than 9″ percent, Sheryl Hutchison, communications director for the Employment Security Department, said. I talked with Sheryl for today’s Q&A, which will be posted this afternoon — so check back here.

To read the full unemployment statistics, go here.

Tags: unemployment

TVW has partnered with the Secretary of State’s Office to produce a Video Voters’ Guide.

Pick a candidate, click on their name and watch their statement. Right now, all of Sen. Patty Murray’s challengers have videos available — Murray is taping hers this week.

The guide can also be viewed on air up until the Aug. 17 primary.

And, for the most complete primary night coverage, turn to a TVW for a special edition of The Impact. Host Jessica Gao will bring you the latest election results, interview political analysts and candidates, and preview the issues heading into the general election in November.  Don’t miss a special election season edition of The Impact on Tuesday, August 17th starting at 8 p.m.

Tags: video voter guide, voting

The Secretary of State’s Office is busy checking signatures on the six initiatives turned in at the beginning of the month. I-1100, which would privatize liquor sales, has already qualified for the ballot.

Now, signature-checkers have moved onto I-1082, which would allow private insurers to offer workers’ compensation coverage. Currently, that coverage is only offered by the state.  Backers of that initiative turned in 345,000 signatures, 3 percent of which will be manually checked to determine whether enough signatures are valid.

The Secretary of State’s office says the remainder of initiatives will be checked in this order:

I-1098, with 351,000 signatures, would create a high-earners income tax while lowering the state property tax and Business and Occupation tax.

I-1053, with 330,000 signatures turned in, would re-require the Legislature to pass tax increases with a two-thirds vote. (The Legislature suspended the previous two-thirds requirement in the 2010 session in order to raise taxes with a simple majority.)

I-1105, with 359,000 signatures, would also privatize liquor sales, but would require wholesalers to be involved (unlike I-1100).

I-1107, with 395,000 signatures, would repeal taxes added to candy, pop, bottled water and lower-end beer.

Read more here or go here for the full text of all initiatives.

The Supreme Court will hear a disagreement between State Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark and State Attorney General Rob McKenna — in November.

The short background: An Okanogan County utility wants to condemn some state forest land to put a power line through it. A district court judge ruled that the utility could do so, but the state — specifically, lands commissioner Goldmark, wanted to appeal. McKenna refused, and Goldmark took it to the Supreme Court (which meant getting another lawyer in the process).

On Nov. 18, oral arguments in the case will be heard in Olympia.

Goldmark said in a statement that he’s pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision to take up his case. “It is a critical constitutional question of whether or not the Attorney General has the discretion to make policy for issues under the purview of another statewide elected official.”

Tags: Attorney General, Goldmark, McKenna, public lands, supreme court

Just a reminder: Today, many state agencies are closed. For a full list, go here.

Employees at those agencies will not be paid — they’re temporarily laid off. The 10 closures this biennium will save tens of millions of dollars and were used to help balance the budget.

Tags: Budget, state closures

Yesterday, I visited state archivist Jerry Handfield at the State Archives. The building, across the street from Olympia’s capitol campus, holds about a billion records — including the state Constitution, official maps, governors’ proclamations, permit applications and more.

Here’s one box of records I found:

The archives building also happens to double as a bomb shelter. Handfield said the office was built in the early 60s, when Americans were building personal bomb shelters in their homes. The state decided it, too, needed a shelter. So they measured the blast radius for bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then put the archives building in what they deemed a safe spot based on those measurements, Handfield said. You’ll find signs like these throughout the building:

And here’s another photo of Handfield showing off some bomb shelter supplies:

But mostly, it houses records. Millions and millions of records. Here’s Handfield with some of those records in the back:

He said their “biggest customers” are lawyers. When they — or any member of the public — stop in to look at records, they lock their bags up and sit upstairs while a staff member retrieves the records, which are organized chronologically and by agency.

If you want to see the bomb shelter and storage area, you’ll have to sign up for a tour in October. Handfield said they’ll be doing small-group tours for archives month.

Want to know more? Find out all the info here.

Tags: state archives

The first quarter revenue results are in, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news: Retail trade increased 1.9 percent statewide over the first quarter of last year. That’s $10.2 billion in retail trade in the first three months of 2010.

Bad news: Overall taxable retail sales were down by 2.9 percent, to $22.6 billion, according to the Department of Revenue.

The difference: “Overall taxable retail sales” includes industries like construction, which has been hit hard by the recession. Retail trade excludes that and other services.

Overall results continued to be held down by weakness in the construction sector, which was down 18.3 percent to $3.5 billion over year-earlier results.  Sales by new and used car dealers were up 1.8 percent to $1.7 billion, while accommodations and food services sales were up 1.8 percent to $2.5 billion.  Building materials, garden equipment and supplies sales were up 8.3 percent to $921 million.

Tags: revenue, state budget

Washington will begin accepting applications to the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan in early August and coverage will be provided through the Washington State Health Insurance Pool starting Sept. 1.

The insurance pool is part of the federal healthcare reform. It will be funded by the federal government.

The program will run until full healthcare reform takes effect in 2014, at which point it will be prohibited for insurance companies to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

To be eligible for the federally funded program, you must:
• Be a citizen or national of the United States or a legal resident of the United States
• Have been uninsured for at least six months before applying
• Have one of the pre-existing conditions listed here.

Tags: healthcare reform

As part of the cost-cutting measures passed by the Legislature last session, most state agencies will be closed on Mon., July 12.

Offices will also be closed Aug. 6, Sept. 7, Oct. 11 and Dec. 27 this year, as well as Jan. 28, Feb. 22, March 11, April 22 and June 10 next year. The closures — or temporary layoffs to employees — will save $70 million.

For a full list of the agencies, boards and commissions to be closed, click through to the jump. (more…)

Tags: budget cuts, state agencies

This week’s Q&A is with Secretary of State Sam Reed. The deadline for filing initiatives for the November ballot is tomorrow — and it’s looking to be a banner year. I talked to Reed today about the initiative process, why the primaries matter and more.

Q: This year, it looks like six or more initiatives could make it on the ballot — a near-record. Do you attribute that to anything in particular?

Reed: We always get more initiatives filed when the citizens are unhappy with what the Legislature is doing. Of course that is exacerbated when there is a situation like now – the economy being bad, revenues falling way short, and the citizens out there having very strong ideas about what the Legislature ought to be doing and then being disappointed that they aren’t doing it. And then I think kind of seizing on the situation and what they would view as good timing to bring these issues up and get them on the table to vote.

Q: Two of the initiatives are identical in scope — they deal with privatizing liquor sales in Washington. But they go about it differently. If both pass, is there any precedent for what to do with state law?

Reed: Actually, there is. What the law says is the one that gets the most votes prevails. However, it’s a little more complicated than that because the two of them have some different language in different places. Say one gets more votes but the other has some language the one that got the most votes didn’t have – then that would be included. In other words, this is going to give the attorneys a lot of fun. It is very interesting. It’s such an unusual circumstance.
(more…)

Tags: Q&A, Sam Reed