Baby, It's Cold Outside...

Please to enjoy, a short photo gallery of the capitol from Snowpocalypse 2008.

Happy Holidays from the HDC.

Times set for opening ceremony, inaugural address and more

Mark your calendars! We know you've been waiting to see the plans for the opening ceremonies and speeches of the 2009 legislative session, and we're happy to share.

Just in from the Chief Clerk's office:

The 2009 session -- and opening day ceremonies -- will commence promptly at 12:00 noon on Monday, January 12 in the House Chambers. Opening day ceremonies will include the administration of oaths of office to members of the House and the election of Speaker, Speaker Pro Tempore and Chief Clerk.

Opening Day ceremonies will be broadcast across the state on TVW.

Joint Session - On Tuesday, January 13 at 11:30 a.m., the House and Senate will meet in joint session to canvass the 2008 general election returns and to honor statewide elected officials Mike Murphy, Terry Bergeson and Doug Sutherland.

Inaugural Address - On Wednesday, January 14 at 11:30 a.m., the House and Senate will meet in joint session in the House Chambers for the swearing in ceremony of the statewide elected officials and to hear Governor Gregoire deliver the Inaugural address.

State of the Judiciary - On Friday, January 16 at 11:30 a.m., we will meet in joint session in the House Chambers to hear Chief Justice Alexander give the State of the Judiciary address.

State agency, industry respond to Hudgins call for emissions reductions

Are big businesses being rewarded for polluting more?

That’s the question State Representative Zack Hudgins (D - Tukwila) posed to the Department of Ecology (DOE) when he called for the creation of the Toxics Reduction Advisory Committee (TRAC) last legislative session. Hudgins tasked the committee with addressing the way in which DOE collects fees from businesses that release toxic industrial pollution into our air, land, and water.


State officials and business leaders recently reported back to the members of the state House Committee on Environmental Health, of which Hudgins serves as the Majority Leader, on their efforts to revamp the outdated system perceived by some to be allowing bigger polluters to get away with larger quantities of toxic emissions.

Here’s how the system works: Currently the state DOE can collect fees from companies for toxic emissions up to a certain limit. That limit is what has many smaller companies, as well as environmental advocates, calling for change. The more a company pollutes, they argue, the less impact the fee has.

Hudgins challenged DOE’s experts and lobbied his legislative colleagues in the House and Senate to come up with a new way of funding the program, as well as the incentives for pollution-reduction strategies adopted by businesses. His efforts led to the creation in the 2008 state budget of TRAC, the stakeholder advisory group that weighed in on the fee cap, as well as efforts to reduce all toxic emissions in the state by 50 percent.

Read the full story here.

Click here to learn more about the Toxics Reduction Advisory Committee and their findings and recommendations report.

Balancing the budget – ideas from the left and right

Finding ways to address an almost $6 billion revenue shortfall isn’t a job for the faint of heart. That's like cutting at least 500 programs that cost $10 million each. Or imagine it this way - if you combined our state's entire higher education budget ($3.8 billion) and Department of Corrections budget ($1.9 billion), you could get to the magic number. The bottom line is that balancing the budget will take a lot more than a few nips and tucks (and Washington isn't the only state sharpening its budget knife).

When it comes to ideas, though, there seems to be no shortage. Legislators coming to Olympia next month are getting an earful from, well, pretty much everyone. Below is a small sampling from two prominent think tanks - one conservative-leaning group and the other progressive. It shows the range of diverse ideas floating about.

Ideas from the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank:

• Don’t ask for federal bailout money.
• Cut salaries versus layoffs.
• Get the state out of the liquor business.
• Increase state employee health care cost sharing.
• Merge state agencies with similar responsibilities (L&I/ESD).
• Eliminate prevailing wage.
• Re-negotiate the union contract and eliminate pay raises for all employees – managers, elected officials, everyone for the next 4 years.

Ideas from the Budget and Policy Center, a progressive think tank:

• A withdrawal from the Rainy Day Fund.
• A temporary general sales tax increase.
• Fully offsetting the sales tax increase for lower-income working families through the Working Families Rebate.
• Careful consideration of budget choices including tax expenditures.

Governor Gregoire is expected to release her budget proposal on Thursday and it will be our first look at exactly what it will take to balance the budget.

Goodman taking aim at Electoral College with national popular vote bill

As the state’s Electoral College delegates met today at the capitol, two state legislators announced their intention to move the country towards electing the president by a national popular vote.

State Sen. Joe McDermott, D-West Seattle, and Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, will sponsor the legislation leading to a national popular vote for president and want to remind the state that the President of the United States is not elected by a direct vote of the people, but rather by 538 presidential electors.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It’s so far been enacted by states possessing 50 electoral votes, 19 percent of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect. Those states are Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey.

No changes to how the state allocates its presidential delegates would occur until the law is passed in states totaling to 270 electoral votes or more.

“The principle of one person, one vote is ingrained in the mind of every citizen,” Goodman said. “Even when explained, it’s impossible, with a straight face, to explain why the Electoral College should trump this cherished principle. When we vote for president, we don’t vote as Washingtonians—we vote as Americans.”

Link: National Popular Vote

Seeking students who want to work a week in Olympia as a page

Noting some rather embarrassing results from a recent civics survey of young people, many legislators, including Rep. Jim Moeller, are urging students to consider working as legislative pages in the upcoming 2009 session.

Moeller, who represents the Vancouver area, was struck that most 15- to 26-year-olds could name the reigning “American Idol” and that a big majority also knew that the cartoon “Simpsons” live in a fictional town called Springfield. Sadly, though, not nearly as many young people could say much about their own nonfictional state government.

“We need to get more citizens engaged in the government process – and that certainly includes young citizens,” the lawmaker explained. “Students who serve as a legislative page in Olympia learn a great deal about their state’s political system.”

The Legislative Page Program provides a week-long, hands-on lesson in civics for students between 14 and 16 years old. Pages are paid a salary and work a regular business day, delivering messages, distributing documents on the legislative floor, and taking care of other errands. They also attend page school for two hours during the workday, where they learn key concepts about government. For young people traveling from distant parts of the state, private housing is available through host families who live in the Olympia area.

The 2009 session will run from January 12 through late April. Students who want to be considered for a page position should apply as soon as possible. To find out more about the Page Program, go to www.leg.wa.gov/legislature/StudentsPage and click on either the House of Representatives Page Program or the Senate Page Program. Applications can be downloaded from the Web site and must be sent to a representative or senator for consideration. From this Page Program Web site, interested young people can navigate to Web sites (with addresses) for their local legislators.

Another budget casualty - preschool rating system

Washington's Department of Early Learning is putting the brakes on its new Seeds to Success pilot program. It's another sign of what's to come as state leaders figure out how to manage the state's projected $5 billion revenue shortfall.

Seeds to Success is a pilot program recently launched in five communities around the state. The state evaluates preschools who opt-in to the program and assigns a quality rating that is made public. In exchange for participating in the program, preschools gain access to resources that help them improve the quality of care they provide. The idea is to help families find quality care for their children while helping providers improve their services.

The Department of Early Learning is hoping to save about $2.8 million and instead minimize cuts to the state-funded preschool program known as ECEAP (early childhood education assistance program).

Like the cuts to the state's Basic Health Plan, this is one more example of the tough budget decisions state agencies will face in the coming months.