The House passed a bill that is aimed at bringing movies and television show filming to Washington on last night of the regular session.

The bill, which I covered for Legislative Review earlier this year, would extend a program that grants tax credits for qualifying filmmakers to 2017. 

Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama) said motion pictures bring money and jobs to the state and that Washington’s Motion Picture Competitiveness Program is unique.

“We’ve got some terrific protections in here to make sure the benefit goes to citizens in the state,” Orcutt said. “In order to qualify for any of this benefit, they have to actually report and prove that the people who were working on it actually have residency in the state.”

The bill passed the House 92-6 and now heads to the Governor’s desk for her signature. 

You can watch my segment on this bill from earlier in the session below:

Tags: movies

The House is debating the bill to crack down on Medicaid fraud, a bill Sen. Cheryl Pflug has pushed for this year. The bill allows whistleblowers to collect a portion of legal settlements, called a “qi tam provision.” The provision currently exists at the federal level, but not on state actions here.

An amendment by Rep. J.T. Wilcox, which would have removed the qi tam provision, failed.

Rep. Deb Eddy, speaking on final passage of the bill, said it will allow the state to join in some existing federal lawsuits, which will mean more money for the state. “After several years, it’s now time to pass this bill,” she said.

Rep. Jay Rodney (R-North Bend) said this bill will increase healthcare costs and do little to combat Medicaid fraud. “We, as a state, are so exposed to lawsuits,” he said.

The bill passed 56 to 42.

Tags: Medicaid fraud

The House is debating the latest budget proposal now. Watch live on TVW.

First up: Amendments. Rep. Gary Alexander filed a striking amendment to Rep. Ross Hunter’s striker.

“We’re not that far apart,” said Rep. Richard DeBolt. He says that Alexander’s striker is the only budget that will get lawmakers out of Olympia today. “Let’s send that budget over to the Senate and let’s Sine Die tonight,” he said.

Rep. Bruce Dammeier said some of the budget cuts in Alexander’s amendment are “difficult…. At some point, we have to own up to our responsibility” to write an “honest” budget that doesn’t use accounting tricks.

Rep. Eileen Cody said the minority party wants to “kick 20,000 people off healthcare” so that they can avoid sending an apportionment payment to schools one day late. She said that’s not something she can vote for.

“This striking amendment will take us back in the right direction. It will bring some honesty and transparency back to this process,” said Rep. Barbara Bailey.

The amendment failed, 43 to 55.

Now, for debate of Hunter’s striking amendment.

Rep. Ross Hunter said he wants the House to adopt a budget and thinks this one strikes the right balance.

Rep. Gary Alexander said the chance to pass a bipartisan bill, however, is done. “I don’t think this bill has 50 votes in the House and 25 in the Senate,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know why they’re voting on it at all. He said the delay of payments to the school district is “an accounting error that will cause longstanding repercussions.” He said he’s pleased with a few of the changes in the budget, but not enough to earn his vote. (more…)

Tags: Budget, House, special session

Senate floor

Legislators and lobbyists converse on Sine Die

People mill about the hallways while the legislature is on break

(more…)

Tags: Photo Gallery, sine die

Reps. Ross Hunter and Gary Alexander talked with Jessica Gao this morning. They both talk about the striking amendment to the Senate-backed budget that House Democrats just unveiled.

Tags: Budget, House, Rep. Gary Alexander, Rep. Ross Hunter, The Impact, TVW

Last night, the House passed the teacher evaluation bill, 82 to 16. It now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire for her signature.

Read about the debate here. Or watch the full debate right here:

Tags: teacher evaluation

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

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

A bill heard in the House Labor and Workforce Development committee on Friday would give smaller farms in Washington the opportunity to offer internships. Though the farms would be able to pay the interns, it is not required by the legislation. This legislation re-authorizes a internship pilot program that was established in 2010 and extends it until 2017.

Under the original pilot program, only farms in Skagit or San Juan county with gross sales of $250,000 or less were eligible. This bill keeps the earnings requirement in place, but extends the program to 12 additional counties in the state, including King, Spokane, and Yakima counties.

Each farm can have up to three interns at a time after the state approves the farm’s application. To get interns, requirements include having an established curriculum in place and paying industrial insurance for the interns. In addition, the interns are not permitted to serve as a replacement for experienced workers.

Addie Candib, with the Washington Young Farmers Coalition, said the experience she got while interning on small farms in Washington was “essential to get where I am today.” Candib owns a small farm today, and said she wants to provide the internship opportunity to others.

One thing still up in the air is the program’s funding source.

The bill originally stipulated that the internship pilot program be funded through workers compensation funds. Sen. Holmquist-Newbry (R-Moses Lake) brought forth an amendment that would change the funding source to the state general fund. The amendment was adopted in the Senate last Saturday.

Representatives from the business and farm communities expressed their support at the meeting for designating money from the General Fund rather than Workers’ Compensation. Patrick Connor, from the National Federation of Independent Business, said he supports the program, but not if the funds backing it come from workers compensation.

Tags: Agriculture, farm, internship

The House considered a bill yesterday that would extend advertising disclosure requirements to ballot measure campaigns.

Under this bill, any political advertising of $1,000 or more that supports or opposes a ballot measure must include a listing of the name of the top five contributors that donated $700 or more during the year before the advertisement aired.

Rep. Andy Billig, the prime sponsor of the bill, said the current political climate is muddled by big corporation donations into initiative measures. He said this legislation would make it easy for voters to see which people and entities are behind an issue.

“I think we should add transparency and create informed voters — help voters to have easy access to information about who is sponsoring the onslaught of who is advertising in some ballot measures,” Billig said.

Five amendments, all of which were introduced by Republicans in the House, failed.

Rep. David Taylor spoke in opposition to the bill. He said he was concerned that this bill would create a “chilling effect” in the initiative process. He said top contributors for a ballot measure are bound to change, which could lead to inaccurate information being distributed. He also is worried that not everyone wants their name attached to an advertisement, and the bill doesn’t allow for a person to opt out. Taylor said this legislation could just create problems that the legislature would have to remedy next year.

“I understand where people are coming from in this bill and I understand why, but I just think that it’s unfortunate that we’re addressing this issue based on one entity, and that’s basically what this is,” Taylor said.

The bill passed 75 to 22.

Tags: advertising, ballot measure, initiative