Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 26 - 33 of 33
First the good news. Unlike during the great recession, state revenue is still increasing overall during the COVID pandemic. According to the September revenue forecast: “Forecasted Near GF-S revenue for the 2019-21 biennium is now $50.022 billion, 8.6% higher than 2017-19 biennial revenue, and forecasted Near GF-S revenue for the 2021-23 biennium is $53.737 billion, an increase of 7.4% over expected 2019-21 biennial revenue.” The bad news of course, this revenue growth is...
Voices across the state continue to ask the Governor to call a special session to allow lawmakers to balance the budget and address COVID-19 related policies. A special session would provide the legislative branch of government its first opportunity in more than five months to address problems caused by the pandemic. Sen. Hans Zeiger this week also sent his colleagues a letter calling on them to support a special session. From Sen. Zeiger’s letter (in-part): “I write five and...
California lawmakers addressed their COVID budget situation back in June. Oregon lawmakers are meeting this week in a special session to do the same. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), COVID related special sessions are also scheduled or have already occurred in: CT, ID, IL, KS, LA, MN, MO, NV, NM, SC, TN, UT and VA. Several other states are also reconvening regular sessions this summer. With other states across the country acting to balance...
Hopefully you’ve already voted or are soon heading to ballot drop box. Now let’s work to reduce the number of statewide elected offices. At present the people of Washington elect officials to nine statewide offices (not counting justices to the state supreme court). These offices are Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Commissioner of Public Lands and Insurance Commissioner. Yet for man...
Gov. Jay Inslee continues to extended the state of emergency related to the COVID pandemic and is re-issuing his prior coronavirus emergency orders. I initially believed that under state law, the "four corners" of the Legislature (House and Senate majority and minority leaders) were required to give consent to any extension of an emergency proclamation lasting longer than 30 days. That legislative check, however, is limited to only certain types of actions taken by the...
What once seemed inevitable is now growing unlikely – a special session to balance the state’s budget. This is why it was so important to act before the new spending increases took effect on July 1. Once we started the new fiscal year, the likelihood of a special session dropped. By waiting until August, the September revenue forecast is just around corner. Then after September, the November election is just a jump away. Then the temptation to delay until January becomes eve...
TVW recently interviewed the top budget writers in the Senate about the state’s outlook and the possibility of a special session. In one interview, Sen. John Braun (ranking member of Senate Ways and Means Committee) said the governor needs to re-open state employee contracts to cancel the 3% pay raises due July 1. In the other interview, Sen. Christine Rolfes (Senate Ways and Means Committee chairwoman) was asked if an income tax would be on the agenda for a special s...
When House Bill 1888 was proposed this year to help protect state employee unions from an ongoing battle with the Freedom Foundation, the media was strong in opposition against blowing a hole in the state's Public Records Act. Sadly, it looks like some in the "Fourth Estate" are now willing to play Solomon and cut access to public records in half by allowing some public records to be hidden from the public, as long as they are still able to receive them. The House State...
