Washington Votes Forum

The first action of the Special Session, which begins today in Olympia, was a vote by the Senate to modify transparency rules. The rule change by the Senate would allow for immediate floor action on bills after they pass a committee. Here is a good blog post describing today's action: Senate adopts...

Special Session will begin on Monday, March 15, 2010. Legislators failed to finish their work in the provided 60-day session and will use the additional time to pass a budget and increase taxes. What are your thoughts on this?

The Seattle Times is reporting this morning that lawmakers in Olympia have determined that a special session will be needed to finish the supplemental budget and tax packages. Do you think that lawmakers should have more time?

Don't be fooled by this bill. It is just a disguised tax increase - disguised in an attempt to get around the constitutional limits on taxation. The public streets are not a utility service, like water, sewer, gas, telephone, etc. The public streets are a public service, like public safety, police...

The state income tax bill scheduled for public hearing today at 4:30. SB 6250, which would create a graduated income tax, has been scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate Ways & Means Committee today at 4:30. It is our understanding the an amendment will be offered, but it is not yet available...

The Senate Ways and Means Committee passes SB 6871. Along with increasing court filing fees the proposal would also add a surcharge to car insurance policies to fight auto theft. According to the I-960 fiscal impact statement, the new charge is expected to collect $9.6 million annually from auto policyholders...

Governor Gregoire signed SB 6130 as adopted by the Legislature . There was some question as to whether the Governor would veto the 2-year repeal of the non-binding advisory votes. She said that she delayed the bill signing today to consider the requests to veto that section of the bill. As a result of...

Today, both the Senate and House of Representatives released their 2010 supplemental budget proposals. Each budget relies on both tax cuts and reduced spending. To see the details for each bill check out SB 6444 and HB 2824. As more details regarding these budget proposals become available we will post...

These aren't taxes that you pay. They are paid by tourists, people who rent cars. Yet our communities benefit. Why on earth would you be opposed to that? Do you recall that the Governor cut over $3 billion in services last year? There is only so much fat you can cut, and we're already into bone...

In the wake of SB 6130, which would repeal voter protections in Initiative 960, Washington Policy Center today announced it will publish the public disclosure information that would have appeared in the voters’ pamphlet if Initiative 960 had remained in place. Click here to read the full release...