Category: 2007 Interim

By now, most of you know that the Governor has called for a special session of the legislature to be held for one day, this Thursday November 29.  The legislature was already scheduled to be in the state capital this week for their regularly scheduled late November committee assembly.  With the one day special session, previously scheduled committee hearings had to be quickly reorganized.  For your information, here’s a preview of higher education related hearings for the upcoming week.

On Wednesday November 28, the House Higher Education Committee will hold a joint meeting with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education at 9:30 a.m. in House Hearing Room A.  Topics on the agenda include community college budgets, financial barriers for students and an update on the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) master plan.

The Senate Higher Education Committee will hold a hearing later that afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3.  Topics include a presentation on the HECB strategic master plan and a presentation on the siting recommendations and preliminary academic plan for the UW North Sound campus.

On Friday November 30, the House Higher Education Committee will meet at 10:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room D to discuss key issues for the 2008 legislative session.  Following a staff recap of the 2007 session, the HECB’s strategic master plan will be discussed and the each of the higher education system representatives (state board, COP, faculty, students, etc.) will be given time to discuss 2008 priority issues.  The final item on the agenda will be a presentation by OFM the and the University on the North Sound campus planning reports.

The House Capital Budget Committee will hold a hearing at 3:30 p.m. that same day in House Hearing Room A.  Topics on the committee’s agenda include an updates on the joint task force on school construction funding and the public infrastructure study committee and another presentation from NBBJ, OFM and the UW on the North Sound campus planning reports.

Most of the local political blogs seem convinced the Governor will call the state legislature into special session sooner rather than later to act to reimpose some sort of local property tax limitation in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to toss out Initiative 747.  The Associated Press said today that Democratic leaders were preparing for a special session on property taxes and that House Speaker Frank Chopp has indicated that like the Governor, his caucus favors reimposing the 1% limit called for in Initiative 747.  Senate Democrats also seem to indicate that a special session on property taxes is inevitable, but have not yet publically endorsed the 1% limitation.

The Governor’s Republican challenger Dino Rossi has called for a special session on this issue as has Initiative 747 sponsor Tim Eyman.  The state legislature has a regularly scheduled assembly in Olympia at the end of the month and that would be a likely target date for a special session since most members have already re-arranged their schedules to attend.

For the first time in several years, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council has reduced the state revenue forecast.  At their quarterly meeting in Olympia yesterday, the Council voted to reduce state general fund revenue collections available for the current biennium by $132 million.  Dr. Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief revenue forecaster, said that most of the downward change was due to the expected slowdown in real estate activity.

The change in the revenue forecast is less than one half of one percent of total general fund revenues and Dr. Sohn emphasized that the Washington State housing and construction sectors are still outperforming the U.S. as a whole.

With the recent passage of resolution 8206 which establishes a constitutional rainy day fund, the projected $1.4 billion in state reserves now consist of $430 million in the newly created “budget stabilization account” and $954 million in so-called “unobligated” revenues.

This morning, after five months of study, analysis and a lot of public outreach, two reports were released regarding the future of a new UW campus in North Puget Sound.

The first report, was prepared by the University and is the preliminary academic plan for the new campus.  In a nutshell, the plan calls for the establishment of a four year comprehensive UW branch campus by 2025 to serve approximately 5,000 students with a broad array of arts and sciences academic programs as well as a strong concentration of degrees in the so-called “STEM” disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math).  The campus would serve not only residents of the Snohomish, Island and Skagit county areas but it also intended to draw students from throughout the state and northwest region, attracted primarily to obtain four year STEM degrees.  Students attending the campus would also benefit from academic programs that included an “experiential learning” component which will involve working in the community with private or public partners on real world projects tied to their field of study.  The plan also calls for an ambitious K-12 outreach effort because a significant portion of the future demand for the campus will depend on the ability of the University and the state to increase college participation rates, particularly in this geographic area.

The second report, prepared by NBBJ consultants, contains siting options and recommendations for the new campus.  This report evaluates the sites suggested for the new campus and provides a detailed description and analysis of the four final sites in Lake Stevens (Calavero); Marysville (Smokey Point) and Everett (Pacific Station and Riverside).  The report concludes that the Everett Pacific Station site is the most preferable given that it leverages the region’s existing urban infrastructure and current and forecasted employment opportunities, promises the most sustainable campus development strategy in the 21st century and is among the least costly solutions for on and off campus infrastructure improvements.

So, what happens next?  Hopefully, everyone involved in the process of building this new campus will carefully review both of these new reports.  The Governor’s 2008 supplemental budget recommendations (which are due no later than December 20), could contain some funding for the new campus in the form of monies for new programs which might be offered in the Fall of 2008 as well as for the K-16 outreach effort.  It is not yet clear if the Governor will endorse the consultant’s site recommendations.

Ultimately, the final decision on both short and long term funding for the new campus rests with the state legislature.  They are also charged with making the final decision on where the new UW North Sound campus will ultimately be located.  The 2008 legislative session convenes on Monday January 14, 2008.

• Late Friday afternoon and in response to the Supreme Court decision which declared Initiative 747 unconstitutional, Governor Gregoire announced that she would seek to reimpose the 1% property tax limitation during the upcoming 2008 legislative session.  Here’s a link to a statement from her office announcing the decision.
• Representative Jon Lovick (D-Mill Creek) who serves as Speaker Pro Tempore is the new Snohomish County Sheriff.  According to this morning’s Everett Herald, Lovick plans to announce his resignation from the House tomorrow in a letter to the Governor.  The paper further identified three candidates for Lovick’s 44th district seat.  They are former Snohomish Mayor Liz Loomis, 2006 state Senate candidate Lillian Kaufer and county Democratic party chairman Mark Hintz.
• Representative Brian Sullivan (D-Mukilteo) won a seat on the Snohomish County Council will announce his resignation from his 21st district seat this Friday.  The three individuals vying for his position include Snohomish County Labor President Darrell Chapman, Mulkiteo City Councilman Marko Liias, and Lynnwood City Councilman Mark Smith.  Sullivan served as chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee.

As many of you have already read, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Tim Eyman’s 2001 Initiative 747 was unconstitutional on a close 5-4 decision.  That initiative limited increases in property tax collections to 1 percent per year unless voters approved higher amounts.  The Supreme Court upheld a June 2006 King County Superior Court ruling that found voters were deceived by the initiative because the text of the measure misled voters about the substantive impact of the intiative on existing law.

While it is impossible to tell what this ruling means for your own property taxes in the short or long term, the ruling clearly puts the property tax issue right on the front burner for the 2008 legislative session.  Already Governor Gregoire has asked local governments to resist raising property taxes, attempting to calm homeowner fears that in the words of Tim Eyman local governments “will be like pigs at the trough.”

Both Democrats and Republican legislators seem to agree that some sort of property tax cap will need to be re-enacted, but the question is what sort of cap can get enough votes in both chambers?  Given the failure on election day of tax increases for transportation in Proposition 1 and a sales tax increase for social programs in Thurston County, many members are sensing the public is back in a strong “no tax” mood.  Expect some pushback from local government officials, though, who have struggled to maintain service levels for the past several years while having to live within the constraints of the 1 percent limit.

Been a very busy week for me as the deadline for the UW North Sound academic plan recommendations approaches.  Hope to get a couple of items posted here on the blog before the Veterans Day Weekend kicks in.  Here are some items you may or may not have caught in the news the past few weeks.

• Rep. Richard Curtis (R-La Center) has resigned his 18th district seat in the state House as a result of allegations that he had sex with a man he met at an erotic boutique while attending a meeting of Republican legislators in Spokane.  Curtis was serving his second term from the southwest Washington district.  No one has yet been appointed to finish his term.
• As expected, Sharon Nelson, chief of staff to King County Councilmember Dow Constantine was sworn in as the newest member of the state House from the 34th district in West Seattle.
• The House Republican Caucus has stripped Rep. Jim Dunn (R-Battle Ground) of his committee assignments and curtailed his legislative per diem in response to inappropriate behavior towards a female staffer at a recent legislative meeting.  So far, Dunn has refused to step down from his House seat.
• Freddie Hatfield, the wife of state Senator Brian Hatfield (D-Raymond), died of cancer this month at a hospital in South Bend, Washington.  She had battled the disease for several years.
• Andy McLauchlan, a former staff director for the Senate Ways and Means Committee in Olympia in 1989 and 1990 died of liver cancer on October 29.  On a personal note, Andy was my boss during those two years when I was a new budget analyst fresh from a five year stint in Sacramento.  He was smart, savvy and an awful lot of fun to work with and I will miss him greatly.  Andy was also a former staff member for Dan Evans when he served in the U.S. Senate and has been working in the shipping industry for many years.  He was 51 and leaves a wife and two young children.

Governor Christine Gregoire was honored this month by Governing Magazine as one of the nation’s top public officials.  The Governor actually appears on the cover of the November issue which singles out nine prominent leaders around the nation for their transformational impact on their respective public organizations.  Gregoire was the only governor to make the list.

Governing Magazine mentioned Gregoire’s Government Management Accountability Program known as “GMAP” and her “negotiator-in-chief” style of dealing with tough problems.  She plans to personally attend the award ceremony in Washington, D.C. next Wednesday.

Harold Clarke, the head of the state Department of Corrections (DOC) announced his resignation today effective November 23.  He is leaving to become head of the Massachusetts prison system said a DOC spokesman.

Clarke was hired by Governor Gregoire in January 2005 after having served as head of the correction system in Nebraska.  He has recently been under fire from DOC employees who were openly critical of his job performance.  According to the Seattle Times, the Governor’s office did not ask for his resignation.  There was no announcement about who will take Clarke’s place.

The Seattle Weekly reports that Sharon Nelson, chief of staff to King County Councilmember Dow Constantine will get the nod from local Democrats to succeed Joe McDermott as a House member in the 34th legislative district (West Seattle, Vashon Island).  McDermott was recently appointed to the State Senate to complete the term of Erik Poulsen who resigned last month to become Executive Director of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association.  Nelson is expected to focus a lot of attention on transportation issues.