Category: 2007 Legislative Session

I don’t have much to report on the status of operating budget negotiations.  Members are making progress, but many big issues remain unresolved, including some major higher education spending items.

To insure I won’t be bored or restless, the “legislative gods” have kept me busy over the past 72 hours working on issues related to the State Route 520 bridge replacement project.  Senate Bill 6099 establishes a mediator-driven process to work with all affected parties on the Seattle side of the bridge (including the UW) to help resolve issues that will inevitably arise from various design options.

One issue that has cropped up of late is a concern among some that Sound Transit, DOT, King County Metro and the UW are not working closely together to insure that a new light rail stop at Husky Stadium can accomodate other forms of rapid transit.  Today’s Seattle P-I has a story on this subject.

Language my office has worked on during the past two days which was included in the version of SB 6099 (which passed the House floor early this afternoon), will hopefully insure a fair and balanced process for working on these multi-modal issues as they affect the new light rail station and other parts of the campus.  Without getting into a lot of details, some of the negotiations have been difficult, but then a wise person once told me “Life wouldn’t be any fun if it was easy.”

The House and Senate will work furiously tonight to meet a 5:00 p.m. deadline to pass legislation from the opposite chamber.  Both the House and Senate have scheduled full sessions for tomorrow so it looks like a long weekend ahead.  Sine Die is still Sunday April 22.

This morning Governor Gregoire signed SHB 1398 which expands the UW and WSU’s ability to issue debt backed by locally controlled revenues.  This expanded statutory authority is key to the long-term financing of the UW Tower and future University capital projects.

This evening, the state Senate passed SHB 2164 which would help to curtail unwelcome development projects within the boundaries of the UW Tacoma campus.  The vote was 46-3 and since the bill was not amended in the Senate, it can be delivered directly to the Governor for her action.

Not much new news today on the budget negotiations.  Conferees continue to trade offers and it appears that at least conceptual agreement has been reached on the overall spending levels in the operating budget and the size of the ending reserve.  Still no word of a formal agreement on the rainy day fund proposal.  Capital budget negotiators have indicated that they are getting close to a working agreement.

Lobbyists for the Seattle Supersonics new facility continued to work both chambers today as a new, and somewhat smaller public financing proposal is being worked on.  The Senate Ways and Means Committee has announced a Friday committee meeting to discuss and take action on the new proposal.

1.  The other three Walla Walla towns are in Australia.

2.  Kurt Russell.

3.  Boone “Boom Boom” Kirkman.

4.  Columbia Basin Community College in Pasco.

5.  The Ventures.

While we sit and wait for more conference action on the state budget, let’s have some fun with a little Washington State trivia.  In my spare time, in addition to co-hosting a local radio show with my friend Steve McLellan, we also write trivia questions for TVW — the state’s public affairs channel.  They run the trivia questions during breaks between broadcasts of floor and committee action and by the end of session, most everyone in town knows a little bit more about Washington State popular culture, and are sick to death of seeing the same 100 or so questions being repeated throughout the day.

So, to help breakup the monotony, here are five new questions to ponder.  I’ll provide the answers tomorrow.  (P.S., make it a bit harder on yourself and try to avoid using the internet.)

1.  Of the four cities in the world named Walla Walla, where are the other three outside Washington State located?

2.  This popular Hollywood movie actor was only 12 years old when he kicked Elvis Presley in the shin outside the Space Needle in the 1963 flick It Happened at the World’s Fair.

3.  Renton may be the new home of the Seahawks (and maybe the Supersonics) but what famous heavyweight boxer from that city fought both George Foreman and Ken Norton in the early seventies?

4.  When Indira Gandhi visited Washington State in 1962, at what college did she lecture?

5.  What Tacoma group was honored in 2005 by the Washington State Legislature and is the largest selling instrumental rock band in music history?

Since it has been more than 10 years since Olympia has seen a real operating budget conference committee, there is very little that can be visually observed during the waning days of session to give outsiders much sense of how things are really progressing.  All of the negotiations are done behind closed doors and in an age of email and spreadsheets, there are few face-to-face neogiations.  Offers are sent, received and responded to without legislators having to actually meet much and discuss much.  Quick, painless but a little antiseptic. 

Intelligence on budget matters is gathered by popping in to visit with staffers, pigeon-holing members as they pass in and out of their chambers and of course, the ever popular lobbyist rumor mill which too often has all the credibility of the latest Wikipedia entry.

David Postman, the Seattle Times chief political reporter noted in his blog today that the Governor this week informed House and Senate budget negotiators of her most important priorities and not surprisingly, the constitutional Rainy Day Fund has emerged as the biggest roadblock to a timely budget resolution.  As Postman reports, both the Governor, the Senate and a majority of members in the House favor passage of a constitutional amendment to establish a Rainy Day Fund reserve which would annually set aside 1% of general state revenues.

Rep. Helen Sommers (D-Seattle), chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, however, remains opposed to the measure and did not include the proposal in her budget which was released several weeks ago.  House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler (D-Hoquiam) has all but promised the House will deliver a Rainy Day Fund bill, but so far, there has been no official annoucement that an agreement has been reached with the House Appropriations Committee chair.

Sources on both sides have indicated that until the logjam is broken on the Rainy Day Fund, negotiations will continue to proceed at their current slow and deliberate pace.

The long-awaited floor action on the Governor’s Washington Learns bill for higher education came to a successful conclusion this morning with the overwhelming passage of SB 5806.  Since the bill was not amended in the House, it can be delivered directly to the Governor for her signature.

The bill contains several provisions of importance to the University including:

• A cap on tuition increases for resident undergraduates of no more than 7% per year.
• Establishment of the Global Challenge States as the official benchmark for comparing per student funding for higher education institutions in the state.
• Setting a goal of bringing per student funding for all higher education institutions to at least the 60th percentile of peer schools in the Global Challenge States.
• A requirement that tuition statements for public colleges clearly display the state taxpayer subsidy along with other relevant costs.

Rep. Maralyn Chase was the lone House member to vote against the measure.

The Governor’s Washington Learns higher education legislation (SB 5806) was pulled from the House Rules Committee last evening for possible consideration on the House Floor today.  The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) caps resident undergradaute tuition rates at no more than 7 percent, but also establishes the Global Challenge States (GCS) and the peer institution funding comparisons for higher education institutions and requires funding of higher education schools in the state at the 60th percentile of GCS schools within at least 10 years.

In other Olympia news, capital budget negotiators met briefly yesterday at noon to talk about their respective spending differences.  Operating budget negotiations are beginning more slowly but sources indicate that conversations are beginning, initially focused on the size of the ending reserve and whether the House will accept the Governor and Senate proposals for a constitutional rainy day fund.

The University’s primary request legislation for the 2007 session was permission to issue bonds or other forms of debt for any university purpose, to be paid from all locally controlled fees and revenues.  Such legislation would provide the UW with the capability to act with speed and certainty when issuing debt and to fund construction or acquire real estate.  In addition, broader local borrowing authority would permit us to streamline our borrowing process, reducing our overall cost of funds.

Two measures were introduced this session (HB 1398 and SB 5384) which expanded local borrowing authority for both the UW and WSU.  On Monday of this week, the State Senate unanimously passed HB 1398 and the bill will shortly be delivered to the Governor for her signature.

Passage of this bill will permit the University to finance the long-term costs of the recently purchased UW Tower at a lower cost than other options currently available.

Last week, I wrote about the saga of the Governor’s Washington Learns bill for higher education.  House Bill 1882 actually managed to pass the House Appropriations Committee early last week, but then ran into a buzzsaw of problems in the House Democratic Caucus.

The provision included in the bill by Rep. Jim McIntire (D-Seattle) which would have granted “limited” tuition setting authority to governing boards in the event the legislature failed to provide sufficient state funds to achieve the global challenge state funding benchmarks was the cause of the confusion.  Sources indicated that there simply weren’t enough votes in the caucus to pass the bill with this proviso included, but that there also were enough votes to take the provision out.  By the middle of last week, we were worried that the bill was in enough trouble that it might not pass this year.

The Governor’s office made it clear to legislative leadership, however, that the measure was important and she wanted it to pass.  Higher education representatives reinforced this message with a number of House members.  As HB 1882 sat motionless in the House, all eyes seemed to turn back to SB 5806 — the Senate companion measure sponsored by Republican Senator Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville).  Last Friday during a hastily called noon meeting of the House Higher Education Committee, SB 5806 was passed unanimously and sent to the House Appropriations Committee.

This afternoon (in what seemed to have all the familiarity of Groundhog Day), the Governor’s Washington Learns higher education bill (SB 5806) passed the House Appropriations Committee one week to the day they passed HB 1882.  Because this bill has not been amended in the House, if and when the full House of Representatives passes the bill, it can be delivered directly to the Governor.

The “floor watch” on SB 5806 begins tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

In a relatively rare Saturday morning session, the Senate passed their versions of the operating, capital and transportation budgets.  There were no changes in any of the budgets affecting appropriations for the University.

During debate on the Senate transportation budget, Senator Rosemary McAuliffe (D-Bothell) offered an amendment to provide an additional $6.2 million in funding for the Bothell/Cascadia CC offramp project which has experienced an increased construction inflation estimate.  Unfortunately, the amendment was defeated.

House and Senate fiscal committee leaders should begin to work out the differences in their respective spending proposals this week.  The 2007 legislative session is scheduled to adjourn on April 22.