Category: Legislative Advocacy

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Lake Washington teachers latest to walk out in protest of inadequate education funding

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Teach­ers in the Lake Wash­ing­ton School Dis­trict — which serves 26,700 stu­dents in NPI’s home­town of Red­mond along with the neigh­bor­ing cities of Kirk­land and Sam­mamish — have vot­ed to walk off the job on Wednes­day, May 6th in protest of the Leg­is­la­ture’s com­plete­ly inad­e­quate response to the Supreme Court’s McCleary deci­sion, and its refusal […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy

Analysis: State Treasurer’s grand tax reform plan is fatally flawed, shouldn’t move forward

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, State Trea­sur­er Jim McIn­tire — who is respon­si­ble under state law for man­ag­ing and over­see­ing the invest­ment of the pub­lic’s mon­ey — unveiled a rather grand and ambi­tious plan for reform­ing the state’s tax code, which he says he hopes will be a “con­ver­sa­tion starter”. The plan would dra­mat­i­cal­ly alter Wash­ing­ton State’s tax structure […]

Posted inElections, Legislative Advocacy

Push poll creator Tim Eyman doesn’t want fiscal impact disclosures added to ballot titles

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A bill that would add fis­cal impact dis­clo­sures to the bal­lot titles of many future ini­tia­tives has drawn the ire of polit­i­cal prof­i­teer Tim Eyman only a week after pass­ing the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate by a three-to-one mar­gin. Sub­sti­tute Sen­ate Bill 5715, orig­i­nal­ly prime spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Joe Fain (R‑47th Dis­trict; Kent, Cov­ing­ton, Auburn) seeks […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen upholds majority rule in the Washington State Senate

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

In a vic­to­ry for democ­ra­cy, sense, and the rule of law, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Brad Owen today ruled that a Repub­­li­­can-engi­neered Sen­ate rules change to require two-thirds votes to advance rev­enue-rais­ing bills is unen­force­able because it vio­lates the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion. Owen, who pre­sides over the state Leg­is­la­ture’s upper cham­ber in his capac­i­ty as President […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Policy Topics, Public Planning

House Transportation Committee narrowly advances HB 1180 — after watering it down

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

This after­noon, the House Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee report­ed out House Bill 1180, one of NPI’s pri­or­i­ty bills for this leg­isla­tive ses­sion, with a “do pass” rec­om­men­da­tion… but not before adopt­ing a Repub­­li­­can-backed amend­ment that sub­stan­tial­ly watered down the bill for no good rea­son. In its now-amend­ed form, HB 1180 would grant new rev­enue author­i­ty to Sound […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Our region needs Sound Transit 3: NPI founder’s testimony in support of HB 1180

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Edi­tor’s Note: On Wednes­day, I trav­eled down in Olympia to tes­ti­fy before the House Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee on HB 1180, which would give Sound Tran­sit the author­i­ty it needs to pro­pose an ST3 pack­age to vot­ers in urban King, Sno­homish, and Pierce coun­ties in 2016. The fol­low­ing is the text of my pre­pared tes­ti­mo­ny. Good afternoon, […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy

Proposed constitutional amendment to thwart unfunded mandates should be discarded

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

On Wednes­day of this week, Repub­li­can State Sen­a­tor Joe Fain intro­duced a new con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment intend­ed to pre­vent the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton from propos­ing and pass­ing any more ini­tia­tives that the attor­ney gen­er­al’s office deems to be an unfund­ed man­date. The amend­ment, which is offi­cial­ly known as Sen­ate Joint Res­o­lu­tion (SJR) 8201, has an impressive […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Legislative Advocacy

Democrats settle score with Tim Sheldon by electing Pam Roach as President Pro Tem

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton State’s Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus made the most of an oppor­tu­ni­ty to hold Tim Shel­don account­able for his treach­ery at the end of 2012 by join­ing forces this after­noon with mil­i­tant Repub­li­cans Don Ben­ton and Pam Roach to elect the rene­gade Roach as Pres­i­dent Pro Tem of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate. Shel­don had expect­ed the […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics

California’s experience proves Governor Inslee is right to pursue cap and trade

by Robert Cruickshank

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s bold yet sen­si­ble step to bring Wash­ing­ton State into the grow­ing North Amer­i­can cap and trade sys­tem is pre­dictably gen­er­at­ing oppo­si­tion from Repub­li­cans. State Sen­a­tor Cur­tis King, the Repub­li­can chair of the Sen­ate Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee, took to the pages of the Seat­tle Times to denounce Gov­er­nor Inslee’s plan. Unfor­tu­nate­ly for King, his attack on […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Curtis King’s response to Governor Inslee’s transportation plan is devoid of substance

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

With the upcom­ing long ses­sion of the six­­ty-fourth Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture set to begin in a week, The Seat­tle Times has opt­ed to devote a por­tion of its edi­to­r­i­al page to com­men­tary on state issues, instead of the usu­al syn­di­cat­ed fare. Read­ers of this morn­ing’s paper may have noticed that the Times invit­ed the chairs of […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

U.S. Senate passes $1.1 trillion, giveaway-stuffed “cromnibus” bill in late night vote

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ear­li­er this evening, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the Unit­ed States Sen­ate passed the mas­sive appro­pri­a­tions bill that has become known as the CRom­nibus, send­ing the leg­is­la­tion to Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma, who is pre­pared to sign it with­out delay. The final vote was fifty-six to forty; four sen­a­tors did not vote. The […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

U.S. House passes massive appropriations bill laden with gifts for Wall Street and K Street

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A short time ago, the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives nar­row­ly vot­ed to pass a mam­­moth-sized, Repub­­li­­can-engi­neered appro­pri­a­tions bill loaded with good­ies and gifts for Wall Street and K Street. Nick­named the CRomin­bus (con­tin­u­ing res­o­lu­tion + omnibus appro­pri­a­tions bill), it would keep most of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment open till Sep­tem­ber, but at an unac­cept­ably high cost. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Tim Eyman once again goes fishing for media coverage, using an obscene image as bait

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Tim Eyman may not have an ini­tia­tive on the bal­lot this year, but he has no inten­tion of keep­ing a low pro­file this autumn, as he demon­strat­ed yes­ter­day when he went fish­ing for media cov­er­age using an obscene image for sto­ry bait. In an email to reporters sent yes­ter­day after­noon, Eyman engaged in quite a show […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

State’s editorial boards continue to call on lawmakers to make “difficult choices” — without saying what those choices should be

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, while doing some week­end read­ing with the help of Pacif­ic NW Por­tal, I came across an edi­to­r­i­al by the Spokesman-Review which remind­ed me of at least a dozen dif­fer­ent plat­i­­tude-laden Seat­tle Times edi­to­ri­als I’ve read over the years that attempt­ed to pass for insight­ful com­men­tary on the state’s fis­cal sit­u­a­tion. This edi­to­r­i­al, “State’s fiscal […]