The House is debating its version of the supplemental budget now. Watch live on TVW. Each legislator is limited to speaking for three minutes.

Rep. Ross Hunter (D, Medina) was the first to speak. He said there are some in the House who want to spend more — and some who would rather try to save more, but that he believes this budget strikes the right balance.

Rep. Gary Alexander (R, Olympia) said the budget isn’t responsible to the state’s most vulnerable. He said the most divisive issue for Republicans is that the budget shifts responsibilities onto the next Legislature by delaying payments.

Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D, Tacoma) said this budget, like previous ones, seeks to implement evidence-based practices so that the right, targeted cuts are made. “We’ve tried to make our choices in a responsible fashion,” she said.

Rep. Charles Ross (R, Naches) said the budget writing committee has worked hard to define the core functions of government. He said Republicans created a budget to meet those core functions, but it was rejected. He said this budget will “create public safety concerns all across the state” by making changes to community corrections supervision.

Rep. Barbara Bailey (R, Oak Harbor) said real reform is “the only way we will be able to accomplish real sustainability in our budget.” She said year over year, the state spends more than it gets in tax revenue.

Rep. Bruce Dammeier (R, Puyallup) said the citizens in his district are “crying for leadership in Olympia … we’ve seen leadership budgets,” he said, including the governor’s budget, which would have cut services and put a tax package to voters to buy back services. He said that although he said he didn’t agree with her budget, he respected her for “putting it out there.”

Rep. Cathy Dahlquist (R, Enumclaw) said the state’s first priority is to fund education. “Mr. Speaker, I would argue that this budget does the exact opposite,” she said. She cited the Puget Sound Partnership as an example: It was created in 2007 and receives hundreds of millions in state funding. She said reviews of the agency have shown waste and mismanagement, and she suggests cutting funding for it altogether. “Why are we pitting schools, Mr. Speaker, against an irresponsible agency for the same dollar?”

Rep. Pat Sullivan (D, Covington) said this budget strikes a balance. He said he’s proud to vote for the budget and asked others to join him in supporting it.

The budget passed 53 to 45 and now heads to the Senate, where Democrats introduced their version of the budget yesterday.

Tags: Budget, House, operating budget

Washington state relies heavily on sales tax, which some say is regressive and unpredictable — particularly during a recession. On Wednesday morning, a group of 13 freshmen House Democrats held a press conference to introduce several proposals that they say would help reform the state’s tax code to make it more fair.

One proposal would end the sales tax exemption for out-of-state residents who shop in Washington state. Another bill would impose a 5 percent capital gains tax. And a third measure would allow hundreds of tax breaks to expire over the next 10 years.

Following the press conference, a House committee held a hearing on a handful of the bills.

Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, is the prime sponsor of the bill that would tax capital gains — or profits that most commonly come from the sale of corporate stocks and bonds. She says that the state’s reliance on sales tax means that the poorest residents are bearing the heaviest tax burden. “Capital gains is far more fair than the current system,” she said.

Supporters say 42 other states have a capital gains tax, and it would give Washington a steady revenue stream — unlike the sales tax. Mary Moore from the League of Women Voters said during the hearing that it could help the state avoid the “feast or famine” budget problems that have become all too common.

Opponents say that the measure would be detrimental to businesses who need access to capital to expand and grow their operations. They also warn that it could open the door to further tax increases. Washington does not have an income tax, but Amber Carter of the Association of Washington Business said the measure could be the beginning of one.

“Not only does it create a whole new tax, but it creates a whole new layer of appeals, filers, tax code and law that has not been fully tested in our state,” she said.

A House committee is scheduled to vote on it Thursday.

Tags: tax reform

January’s labor statistics came out today and the news is good: The unemployment rate has dropped to 8.3 percent, down from 8.6 percent in December. That represents a gain of 13,200 jobs.

The bad news: About 291,400 people in the state are receiving unemployment benefits. And as of the end of last week, 74,616 people have run out of unemployment benefits. 

Gov. Chris Gregoire sent out a statement after the announcement, saying the economy is showing “real and consistent signs of recovery.” She also said that as the economy improves and employers look to hire, she hopes they consider out-of-work Washingtonians for job openings.

“From the low point of the recession the state has regained about 98,000 jobs. These numbers are coupled with our decreasing unemployment rate, down significantly from a high of 10.2 percent in early 2010. That is good news and indicates we are in recovery, but we’ve still got to get thousands of Washingtonians back to work,” she said.

Tags: unemployment

Tonight, the Senate Ways and Means committee is hearing the proposed operating budget revealed in a press conference earlier today. I’ll be live-blogging with coverage of the hearing, so keep checking back for updates!

The budget, which doesn’t make any cuts to K-12 and higher education, was generally well-received by representatives in the education communities.

Ben Rarick, of the Washington State Board of Education, said he regards this budget as an “act of political courage.” He said the choice in the budget to make education apportionment payment delays permanent is sensible.

However, Mitch Denning, a representative from the Washington Association of School Administrators, did not agree that apportionment payment delays should be permanent. He said in tough times delayed payments help, but should not be looked at as a permanent fix.

Ramona Hattendorf, with the Washington State PTA, supports the proposed budget, but asked the committee to consider their cuts to the Office of the Educational Ombudsman. She said cuts would eliminate two positions in an office of six, which could adversely affect children who need an advocate.

Representatives from state higher education expressed similar support for the proposed budget.

Margaret Shepherd from the University of Washington said this budget will allow the university to accept approximately 500 students that were turned away from the engineering department this year due to lack of space.

A representative from the Evergreen State College said after 11 years working for higher education, this is the first time she’s signed in “pro” on a budget proposal.

Members from the health care community also expressed support for the proposed budget, but many said the state needs to look for more revenue solutions in the future.

Julia Weinberg, with the Washington State Nurses Association, said the proposed budget does the right thing in regards to public health, the health safety net, and higher education. She added that new revenue sources should be identified.

A representative from the March of Dimes also supported the proposed budget, and said today the legislature “took a step to protect the most vulnerable,” by keeping programs like maternity health services and Apple Health for Kids intact.

One item of concern was cuts in funding to clubhouse programs in Washington, which serve as community resource centers for people with mental illnesses. Seth Dawson, with Compass Health, said while he understands the reasoning behind disqualifying the clubhouses from certain funding sources, he hopes the legislature will find a way to fund these programs.

Erica Horn, who works with Hero House, said clubhouses have proven to be successful support networks for those with mental illnesses. She added that clubhouses in Washington have a placement and support rate of over 95 people a month of people working “competitive jobs at competitive wages.”

The proposed budget would increase license fees for adult family homes. One representative from the Washington State Residential Care Council said this license fee increase to $370 a bed is too abrupt for adult family homes to adjust to this year.

Check out Legislative Review on TVW tomorrow at 6:30 and 11 p.m. for full coverage of the Ways and Means committee.

Tags: education, Higher Education

The House just began debating amendments on the supplemental operating budget. You can see the full list here. And you can watch live on TVW.

“Hopefully, this is the last deep-cuts budget,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, “but I think it’s wise for us to set up a budget in such a way so that we leave some flexibility in our ending fund balance,” he said, speaking to an amendment on the delayed apportionment payment.

“This amendment says, literally, we’re going to fund our schools with our last dime,” said Rep. Bruce Dammeier, of the same amendment. “If we approve it, frankly it’s an embarrassment to me,” he said.

After amendments, the House moved on to other bills — they’ve got to wait 24 hours to take up the budget, according to the rules.

Tags: Budget, House, operating

The House is debating the bill to make some changes to the Discover Pass. One change would make the pass transferable among a household’s vehicles.

Rep. Kevin Van De Wege said the bill will set the price of the Discover Pass at $30, set up a mechanism where parks can sell the passes at wholesale to grocers and other retailers, and make other changes that “really bothered people.” For example: Now the Discover Pass will allow users to activate it — meaning if you purchase it in advance as a gift, the recipient can activate it later without losing time. He said it also raises revenue for parks, “which they desperately need.”

But Rep. Cathy Dahlquist (R-Enumclaw) said she’s opposed to the bill because it raises the price of a pass. “They have made a mess of this bill,” she said, adding that with her no vote, she’s “standing up for the 99 percenters.”

 The House passed the bill 54 to 44.

Tags: Discover Pass

Sen. Ed Murray kicked off the press conference for the unveiling of the budget written by Senate Democrats by saying that last year’s budget was bipartisan and that “the structure of the budget you are about to see is still that bipartisan budget.”

In higher education: “We make no cuts.” Same for K-12 education. In addition, they recommend two taxes — the first mortgage exemption and wind machinery exemption — be ended with a two-thirds vote and the savings be invested in basic education.

“In all other parts of the budget, we made cuts,” he said.

Murray said the “modest” improvement from the caseload and revenue forecast amounted to about $425 million. At that point, they decided not to pursue a sales tax. The budget includes $150 million from agency savings. The Senate budget makes a $330 million apportionment delay — including a permanent change in the date, which he says will prevent the state from doing something similar in the future.

Sen. Lisa Brown said the governor’s proposal made deep cuts in social services, education and higher education that weren’t acceptable to Senate Democrats. She said the only option at the beginning of session was to “buy back” the cuts through a tax package. Now, thanks to the revenue caseload forecasts, the tax package isn’t necessary.  “We are cautiously optimistic that we’re turning a corner here in the economy and making the statement that it’s time to turn the corner here in terms of cuts as well,” she said, particularly concerning education.

Now, for Sen. Derek Kilmer on jobs. (more…)

Tags: Budget, operating, Senate Democrats, supplemental

Senate Democrats will introduce their version of the supplemental operating budget Tuesday morning at 10:30. You can watch live on TVW — and we’ll be blogging along here.

Sen. Ed Murray will unveil the budget — unlike last year, he won’t be joined by his Republican counterpart, Sen. Joe Zarelli. He will, however, be joined by fellow Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Sens. Derek Kilmer and Jim Hargrove. In addition to unveiling the budget, they’ll discuss job creation strategies and government reform.

With just about a week and a half left of session, we’ll be watching tomorrow to see how close the Senate proposal is to the House-backed plan introduced last week.

Tags: Budget, Jobs, Reform, Senate

Monday: The Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee considered a controversial bill aimed at putting the Affordable Care Act into place — including implementing the healthcare exchange. On the show, we also looked at a bill that would make truck drivers who work at the state’s ports regular employees, rather than independent contractors. Dozens of truckers attended the hearing in support of the bill, saying they don’t have health insurance and often work in unsafe conditions.

Watch Monday’s Legislative Review.

Tuesday: House Democrats released a proposed supplemental budget that aims to close the budget gap though a combination of cuts, delaying some school payments into the next budget cycle, and asking local governments to pay more for services. More than 100 people testified later that afternoon about the budget proposal. Also, the Senate released its supplemental transportation budget.

Watch Tuesday’s Legislative Review.

Wednesday: On the show, we took a look at two bills spurred by high-profile crimes in Pierce County. In late 2009, Maurice Clemmons, who was out on bail, shot and killed four Lakewood police officers. One bill would make a number of administrative changes to the bail bond system: It would require bail bond agents to undergo a criminal background check. It would also add some additional sideboards to the bail bonds industry. Another bill would prohibit defense attorneys and defendants from viewing child pornography that’s part of the evidence in a criminal case. It stems from a case in Tacoma in which a man accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys acted as his own defense attorney — and was then able to watch hours of videos of the abuse without supervision.

Watch Wednesday’s Legislative Review.

(more…)

Tags: Budget, TVW

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made a quick stop by the Washington state capitol today to talk with Republican lawmakers and the press before heading out to a rally in Federal Way.

Energy policy was a major component of Gingrich’s statements, who cited high gas prices as evidence that President Barack Obama “has no interest in lowering gas prices.”

He said America needs a plan that will make the country energy independent and called Obama’s speech on energy policy yesterday “one of his more absurd speeches.” Gingrich said his goal is to get gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon.

When asked about the issue of same-sex marriage in Washington, Gingrich said that while he wouldn’t vote in favor of the legislation, the state is heading in the right direction by taking the issue to voters.

Gingrich said he’s had successful rallies in Washington so far, and said the presidential race this year has had some unexpected twists and turns.

“This is different from any previous campaign I’m aware of,” Gingrich said. “This is a much more complicated marathon than anyone could have guessed.”

Gingrich stressed his experience in politics, and said that under his lead, “we could turn the economy around pretty fast.”

Some changes in government he’d like to make include changing unemployment compensation to include a training program component and rethinking various environmental agencies, including the US Forest Service, which he said “does a really bad job.”

He said these changes would be “more than acceptable to more social conservatives.”

Click through to see more photos

Tags: newt gingrich, presidential election