While those watching out for the release of the Washington State Legislature’s final state budget were sorely disappointed this afternoon, details were bubbling out about the Legislature’s plans to address McCleary. Legislative staff, however, are still scrambling to actually produce a budget that negotiators have agreed to in order avoid a state government shutdown. Then […]
Tag: Budgeting
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Budgets need scrutiny: State Legislature’s lack of fiscal transparency is unacceptable
Yesterday, without fanfare, Governor Jay Inslee’s office announced that the majority caucuses of the House of Representatives and the Senate had reached agreement (“in principle”, at least) on a go-home budget deal that would avert a state government shutdown following the end of the day on Friday, June 30th, the last day of the current […]
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Kansas Republican legislators override their Norquistian governor, restore income taxes
Kansas Republicans were warned that Sam Brownback’s Norquistian plot would only lead to disaster. But they did not listen. And so they had to learn a hard lesson.
Posted inEducation, Policy Topics
House Democrats unveil “Families First” budget proposal, embrace capital gains tax
Lawmakers representing Washington State’s House Democratic majority took the wraps off of their budget this afternoon, offering a starkly different plan for the next biennium than the Senate Republicans did last week. “Our approach to the budget is ‘what’s best for kids?’ This budget and our [education funding] plan is what’s best for kids,” the caucus […]
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Tim Eyman vigorously endorses Senate Republican budget that raises property taxes
Sounding very much like a spokesman for top Republican Senator Mark Schoesler of Ritzville, Tim Eyman this morning sent out an email offering a ringing, fervent endorsement of the Senate Republicans’ proposed budget for 2017–2019, which would increase property taxes on many Washingtonians. “Here’s how my day went yesterday: drove to and from Olympia through […]
Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning
Trump regime declares war on rail: Budget would eviscerate Amtrak, light rail funding
Passenger rail service in the United States of America is now officially under an unprecedented assault following the release of neofascist Donald Trump’s regime’s “budget blueprint”, which proposes gutting most of what’s left of Amtrak’s national network of intercity rail routes and yanking away funding promised to regions like ours for the expansion of badly […]
Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics
Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1550 would enrich the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us
As Washington homeowners received their most recent property tax bills, disgraced initiative promoter Tim Eyman couldn’t resist trying to exploit their concerns by announcing his intent to qualify an initiative to the November 2017 ballot that would cut property taxes by twenty-five percent. Like Eyman’s I‑1366, which was struck down as unconstitutional last year, its […]
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Tim Eyman offers tacit backing of Republican levy swipe scheme he once opposed
Disgraced initiative promoter Tim Eyman today revealed midway through an email to his followers that he’s on board with Washington State Senate Republicans’ plan to swipe property tax school levy dollars from urban and suburban school districts and send them to rural school districts they happen to represent. After shaking his fist at the Senate […]
Posted inElections, Legislative Advocacy
Rural Republicans: Tim Eyman’s I‑747 is choking the life out of our cities and counties
Yesterday, the Senate Committee on State Government held a hearing on legislation that would replace Tim Eyman’s arbitrary cap on property taxes with more reasonable limits tied to drivers of local governments’ costs. The legislation, Senate Bill 5772, is prime sponsored by Senator Jamie Pedersen and cosponsored by Republican Senator Maureen Walsh, among others. As […]
Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Open Government, Policy Topics
Progressive Ideas We Need: Biennial budgets that record tax breaks as state expenditures
Editor’s Note: Today and throughout this weekend, NPI is running a special series here on the Cascadia Advocate called Progressive Ideas We Need, highlighting proposals that would raise quality of life in our region and in the United States as a whole. Each post is contributed by an NPI staff, board, or advisory council member. […]
Posted inEducation, Policy Topics
Why isn’t Stuart Elway asking about revenue fairness when he polls on funding education?
Yesterday, just in time for the 2017 legislative session, pollster Stuart Elway released new results from a recent survey in which his firm asked Washington voters about how and whether we should invest in Washington’s K‑12 schools, which have been badly underfunded for years in defiance of the Washington State Constitution. The Supreme Court has […]
Posted inEducation, Policy Topics
Go Jay Inslee! Governor proposes $3.9 billion in new revenue for our K‑12 public schools
Declaring that we have a duty to follow our Constitution and provide a quality education to every child in our state, Governor Inslee today unveiled a bold plan to fully fund our state’s K‑12 public schools and end the McCleary litigation. “We face an opportunity — and an obligation — in this upcoming session to […]
Posted inAnnouncements, Elections, Legislative Advocacy
Washington voters want revenue bills decided by a simple majority vote, NPI research finds
Over the course of the past twenty-five years, right wing Republicans in Washington have been on a mission to sabotage the majority vote clause of our state’s Constitution. Through a series of statewide initiatives sponsored by Linda Smith and Tim Eyman, they’ve repeatedly attempted to grant themselves the power to block any bill that would […]
Posted inAnnouncements, Legislative Advocacy
Washingtonians really, really want a capital gains tax to address education funding crisis
Washington voters believe our public schools are underfunded and strongly support raising revenue at the state level to address the problem, according to a new survey conducted last week by Public Policy Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute. 63% of the likely voters who responded to the survey agreed that Washington’s schools need more funding. […]