Via the Seattle Times:
The Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday afternoon approved Senate Bill 6843, which would suspend Tim Eyman’s Initiative 960 and let lawmakers increase taxes with a simple majority vote.
The measure now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
The full story, right here.
*UPDATE* - Sigh. Just, sigh. This post was wicked interesting uncle Transit Works spokesman Jason Heck just phoned to let me know he wasn’t sure what happened with the PDC reports, but that they actually raised $1,200, not $175. That information is indeed on the PDC filings, though each contributor is listed individually and not part of their “funds raised at low-cost fundraiser” filing, which included just the $175.
So there you go, Transit Works actually raked in a healthy $1,200 at the event.
The pro-tax increase group supporting Whatcom Transportation Authority raised just $175$1,200 at their campaign kickoff on Wednesday, Feb. 3, according to their most recent state Public Disclosure Commission reports.
Those who went to the event and commented on this blog said the event was well-attended. But it looks like so little was raised, in such small amounts, that they weren’t required to name those who contributed.
The group, however, has so far outraised their opposition by a hefty amount, with $22,311.12 in the bank so far.
Much of the cash comes from transit union workers in Whatcom County as part of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 843 and the Olympia-based state organization the Amalgamated Transit Union Legislative Council. Two other locals in Spokane and Olympia have also contributed. Combined, the organizations have given $12,500 of the campaign’s total contributions.
Meanwhile, conservative activist and former KGMI talkshow host Brett Bonner’s People for Progressive Transit have not filed any information yet on campaign contributions. I also e-mailed Bonner last week to see if a Web site was forthcoming for the organization but I haven’t heard back.
Weimer
Weimer, more liberal than some of his counterparts, is concerned that the conservative members of the County Council will vote against the funding, like some did on spending $50,000 to help store goods at the Bellingham Food Bank. Council members Sam Crawford, Kathy Kershner and Ward Nelson voted against spending the money.
Said Weimer:
If our last meeting is any indication this program may be on the chopping block this week. At our last meeting Sam Crawford, joined by Ward Nelson and Kathy Kershner, tried to chop the funding for that outrageous waste of taxpayer dollars the Food Bank.
I spoke with Nelson briefly last week as to why he voted against it and he said he is concerned about how the food bank checks to ensure that those who use the service are actually in need of it, while also noting the budget issues of the county government right now where more money is being spent than is being taken in. That was a sentiment echoed by Crawford.
Said Crawford:
The thing I’m concerned about is we have to cut services by laying off employees but still fund some of these other things,” Crawford said. “I would prefer to cut the non-mandated programs, I call them elective programs, first, so that we can keep essential services like public health, law enforcement and that sort of thing.Crawford
The field of Republican candidates seeking to oust Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, keeps on growing.
Over the weekend, state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, announced he’d challenge Murray.
Now, Whatcom County resident Paul Akers is in the race, too, though he hadn’t planned to officially make that public yet. Instead, he was outed by conservative political pundit Dick Morris, a frequent guest on Fox News programs, who mentioned him during an interview with Sean Hannity on the conservative talkshow host’s radio program.
Akers looks to live just south of Toad Lake, which would make him neighbors with Whatcom County Councilman, and fellow Republican, Sam Crawford. I’m not sure if they know each other, but I’d wager there’s a good chance.
Akers hasn’t put out a press release, even still, so I don’t have much on him at this point. We do, however, have his Web site, which someone e-mailed me on Saturday … when I don’t work. That’s OK, though.
And, here’s the clip of Morris on Sean Hannity’s program mentioning Akers. It’s a very, very brief mention in which Morris only says Akers has a “good shot” against Murray. I’m unclear why, because there’s no detail, but also because there are six other GOP candidates also running, including a state Senator. So why does Morris single out Akers? And how the heck did he even hear about him? All questions for Akers in the future.
From state Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale:
A measure that would dismantle voter-approved Initiative 960 and allow the Legislature to raise taxes on Washington citizens with a simple majority vote was introduced yesterday. Senate Bill 6843 received a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee today and is expected to move quickly through the legislative process. Rep. Doug Ericksen had this to say about the legislation:Rep. Ericksen
Via MSNBC.com:
Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails that Todd Palin exchanged with state officials, which were released to msnbc.com and NBC News by the state of Alaska under its public records law, draw a picture of a Palin administration where the governor’s husband got involved in a judicial appointment, monitored contract negotiations with public employee unions, received background checks on a corporate CEO, added his approval or disapproval to state board appointments and passed financial information marked “confidential” from his oil company employer to a state attorney.
The full story, over here.
These days it’s hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on a news program without encountering stern warnings about the federal budget deficit. The deficit threatens economic recovery, we’re told; it puts American economic stability at risk; it will undermine our influence in the world. These claims generally aren’t stated as opinions, as views held by some analysts but disputed by others. Instead, they’re reported as if they were facts, plain and simple.
Yet they aren’t facts. Many economists take a much calmer view of budget deficits than anything you’ll see on TV.
Full story, right here.
Q: After having read the full op-ed by the Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, what are your thoughts?
Bellingham City Council members on Monday, Feb. 8, will consider a resolution to support a sales tax increase to bolster the Whatcom Transportation Authority coffers.
But the information in the resolution isn’t all accurate.
As with any resolution, there are plenty of “whereas” remarks throughout acknowledging various bits of information.
One happens to be a bit off, though.
On the second page of the resolution, third “whereas” from the top, it states:
“WHEREAS, as an additional measure, the WTA Board implemented a 25% across-the-board increase in fares.”
The increase, in actuality, was not across-the-board, and varied depending on the type of ticket. For instance, hopping on the bus and paying with exact change went from 75 cents to $1. That’s a 33 percent increase, not 25 percent.
Fares for monthly bus passes went from $20 to $25. That is a 25 percent increase.
There’s actually a document that WTA staff members provided to board members to show them the fare increases. That chart actually shows percentage changes. Growth and Transportation reporter Jared Paben provided a blog link to that at the old incarnation of his blog, right here.
By my calculations, the average fare change was about 27.8 percent, though the percentage changes ranged from 0 percent to 50 percent (monthly student passes increased from $10 to $15).
There is a way they *may* be considering it an across-the-board increase, however. If you add up all the original fare prices as well as the money Western Washington University pays to WTA, and then you compare it to all of the new fares combined, plus the increase Western is paying, that’s a total 25 percent increase.
But that’s not an across-the-board increase to all fares of 25 percent. Each fare changed in its own way and had its own percentage increase (or no change).
Via John Stark before he headed out the door to a meeting on Lummi Island:
Lummi Nation and Whatcom County officials have announced an apparent breakthrough on a new long-term lease for the Gooseberry Point ferry dock, which could end the threat of major disruption of ferry service to Lummi Island.
The agreement was revealed in a press release issued Thursday, Feb. 4.
Details of the deal were not immediately announced, and some of those details still need to be worked out. But the announcement was the first real good news for the island’s roughly 1,000 permanent residents after many months of seemingly fruitless negotiations on an extension of the current lease that expires Feb. 14.
The full story, right here.
First, from our AP wire a snippet of a story about the U.S. House of Representatives approving on a party-line vote a measure that increases the federal debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion more to about $14.3 trillion. That’s the biggest focus of most stories out there, anyway. But Democrats, and President Obama, are focusing on new pay-as-you-go rules that were enacted, too.
Democrats are pleased, but Republicans aren’t. The snippet from AP:
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said: “In place of real fiscal discipline, it offers a phony pay-as-you-go rule that is more loopholes and exceptions and does nothing to tackle our government’s long-term structural deficit.”
Skeptics say lawmakers also will find ways around the new rules fairly easily. For example, Congress can declare some spending an “emergency” — a likely scenario for votes later this month to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
And here’s the point of view of your own U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett:
Washington, D.C. —Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02), a member of the House Budget Committee, voted to restore fiscal responsibility by supporting statutory “pay-as-you-go” legislation. This measure (H.J.Res. 45), also known as PAYGO, passed the House by a vote of 233 to 187, and will now be sent to the President to be signed into law.Rep. Larsen
“Our nation is facing an unsustainably high deficit,” said Rep. Larsen. “PAYGO led our country from deficits to record surpluses during the late 1990s and will be a critical tool as we work to rein in spending and clean up this fiscal mess.”
*NOTE: As of 1:30 p.m. this post has been updated with detail of when the bill will drop and how the new proposal will work.
A proposed state law that would create a $1.50 fee on barrels of oil sold in the state is dead, but a new bill is heading on its way to dance and sing on the steps of Olympia.
Rep. Ericksen
The goal of the legislation was to provide a source of funding for local governments who have to figure out ways to prevent pollution in stormwater runoff from entering streams, rivers, lakes and the Salish Sea. According to the state Department of Ecology, petroleum products, like oil in cars, are the main source of such pollution.
Ericksen and oil company officials believed the legislation was unfairly targeting petroleum products and the representative specifically said the proposed law might send Whatcom County refineries packing for other places. While oil company officials wouldn’t go that far, they still opposed paying the fee.
Read my previous December article on this issue, right here.
Bellingham City Councilman Stan Snapp just posted this to Whatcom County Councilman Ken Mann’s public Facebook page (set up for his campaign and now used to communicate with constituents):
Snapp
Ken,
Are you going to comment on the Council member Brenner travesty Tuesday? I caught Sam’s intro of her, then her explanation for the packet being inaccurate and I couldn’t believe it. Then, she comes on and says that we (meaning the entire world I guess) know that she’s computer illiterate so we shouldn’t have expect…ed her to have her request make the packet? WHAT? Doesn’t the Council President, Executive and staff review packets before they are printed and circulated? Then Sam decides to hold a hearing on unpublished information. This mess reflects on all of you and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I sent a note to the Herald asking why none of this made the paper.
Q: Are you concerned that the Whatcom County Council had a public hearing on legislation they weren’t going to vote on and wasn’t what they intended to discuss?
Facing a $2.6 billion operating budget deficit, Democrats in the state Legislature have as expected introduced a measure that would suspend the two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases.
Senate Bill 6843 was introduced Wednesday. It would effectively cancel Tim Eyman’s voter-approved Iniative 960, requiring a two-thirds legislative vote or voter approval for tax hikes
The full story, over here.
Former Florida Gators quarterback and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, center, listens during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Washington (CNN) – College football’s Tim Tebow, a Heisman trophy winner, attended the National Prayer Breakfast with President Barack Obama Thursday and delivered the closing prayer, continuing his foray into the political spotlight.
Tebow recently came under fire for appearing in an issues-oriented ad that will run during Sunday’s Superbowl game. The ad will feature Tebow and his mother Pam recounting the decision to continue her pregnancy with Tim despite recommendations from doctors to do otherwise.
The full story, over here.
Q: Tim Tebow and his mom have been in the news a lot lately but I haven’t posted about it. What was this football fan thinking? My opportunity to post a Super Bowl-related political story! I’d like to get your thoughts on the anti-abortion ad from Focus on the Family. As a journalist, I’ve been curious about the ad, too, in terms of marketing perspectives. Will people pay attention to an ad while they’re drinking beers and eating hot wings? What other ads will it be smooshed up against? Is it an appropriate ad for an event traditionally known for comedic commercials? Your thoughts below.
For those who haven’t heard, the pro-WTA-tax-increase group Transit Works has their campaign kickoff tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Blue Horse Gallery, 301 W. Holly St., in Bellingham.
The venue is a popular campaign event spot for the Whatcom County Democratic Party.
*UPDATE* - And here’s the Transit Works Web site, which you can’t find on Google yet, but I’m sure it’ll be a top result once I link to it. Find it at PreserveOurPublicTransit.org. There are a few other “Transit Works” organizations, too. This one is the one for Whatcom County. Also, this Web site clearly isn’t finished yet but is supposedly going to have more content by tonight.
