Offering daily news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, March 9th, 2017

Washington State House of Representatives sends revised “levy cliff” rescue bill to Inslee

Legislation that would rescue school districts in Washington State from the so-called “levy cliff” is on its way to Governor Jay Inslee following an overwhelming vote of approval in the Washington State House of Representatives.

By a vote of eighty-seven to ten, the House voted to give its assent to Engrossed Senate Bill 5023, originally sponsored by Senator Lisa Wellman (D-41st District: Mercer Island, Bellevue, Sammamish, Issaquah). ESB 5023 cleared the Senate last night in a near unanimous vote after difficult negotiations between Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats were successfully concluded.

The Senate officially summarized the bill as follows:

  • Delays for one year changes to the formulas for calculating school district maximum maintenance and operation levy authority, and corresponding local effort assistance.
  • Requires local levy revenue to be deposited in to a separate sub-fund beginning in calendar year 2018.
  • Provides that the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction must approve the use of maintenance and operation levy proceeds prior to a levy proposition election.

The House’s official summary was a bit more detailed:

  • Delays for one year changes to the formulas for calculating school districts’ maximum maintenance and operation levy authority, and corresponding local effort assistance.
  • Requires districts to submit a report to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction detailing the programs and activities to be supported by a maintenance and operation levy, prior to submittal to the voters for approval.
  • Declares that enrichment beyond the state-provided funding in the omnibus appropriations act for the basic education program components under basic education funding statute s is a permitted use of maintenance and operation levies.
  • Requires school districts to establish a separate sub-fund for levy revenues.

ESB 5023 is similar to HB 1059, which the House passed back in January, but which has languished in the Senate ever since. ESB 5023 was passed without hearings in either house, although HB 1059 received a hearing on January 11th.

The roll call was as follows:

Roll Call
ESB 5023
Schools/excess levies
Final Passage
3/9/2017

Yeas: 87, Nays: 10, Excused: 1

Voting Yea: Representatives Appleton, Barkis, Bergquist, Blake, Buys, Caldier, Chapman, Clibborn, Cody, DeBolt, Dent, Doglio, Dolan, Farrell, Fey, Fitzgibbon, Frame, Goodman, Graves, Gregerson, Griffey, Haler, Hansen, Hargrove, Harmsworth, Harris, Hayes, Holy, Hudgins, Irwin, Jenkin, Jinkins, Kagi, Kilduff, Kirby, Klippert, Kloba, Koster, Kraft, Kretz, Lovick, Lytton, MacEwen, Macri, Manweller, Maycumber, McBride, McCabe, McDonald, Morris, Muri, Nealey, Ormsby, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Pellicciotti, Peterson, Pettigrew, Pollet, Reeves, Riccelli, Robinson, Rodne, Ryu, Santos, Sawyer, Sells, Senn, Slatter, Smith, Springer, Stambaugh, Stanford, Steele, Stokesbary, Stonier, Sullivan, Tarleton, Tharinger, Van Werven, Vick, Volz, Walsh, J., Wilcox, Wylie, Young, Chopp

Voting Nay: Representatives Chandler, Condotta, Dye, Kristiansen, McCaslin, Orcutt, Pike, Schmick, Shea, Taylor

Excused: Representative Johnson

Democrats voted unanimously in support of the bill and were joined by thirty-seven Republicans. Ten Republicans refused to lend their support.

Governor Inslee is expected to sign ESB 5023 in due course.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 11:50 AM | Leave a comment | Email to a friend
Wednesday, March 8th, 2017

Congratulations, Tanika Padhye, and welcome to the Redmond City Council

Yesterday evening, at its March 7th business meeting, the Redmond City Council selected Tanika Padhye to fill the vacancy created by the January resignation of NPI Advisory Council member Kim Allen, who stepped down due to having an increasingly travel-centric work schedule.

Padhye, forty-three, was previously a member of the city’s Planning Commission and has served more recently on the Parks and Trails Commission. She holds degrees in law from Northeastern University and psychology from Texas A&M.

In the mid-2000s, Padhye worked for the city of Seattle as a civil rights investigator and for K&L Gates as a staff attorney.

“I feel strongly about connecting with Redmond residents because it creates a healthier government that is a reflection of the people it represents,” said Padhye in a news release published by the city.

“I have complete confidence in Councilmember Padhye’s ability to serve the people of Redmond, and I look forward to working with her as a new Council colleague. Her years as a resident of Redmond and experiences as a Commissioner on the Planning and most recently the Parks and Trails Commissions have prepared her for this role,” said Council President Hank Margeson.

The Council selected Padhye from among three finalists. There were thirteen applicants for the position following Allen’s notice of resignation.

Padhye will serve through November at least, and longer if she runs for and wins a full four year term. The position she’s been appointed to is normally open in local election years that follow a presidential election year — like 2017.

Positions #2 and #6, currently held by Councilmembers Byron Shutz and John Stilin, will also be subject to election this year.

The City has yet to update its Council roster page with Padhye’s official contact information, biography, or portrait — and we hope that can be done no sooner than the close of business tomorrow.

Congratulations, Councilmember Padhye, and best wishes in your new role.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 10:12 PM | Leave a comment | Email to a friend
Saturday, March 4th, 2017

House Transportation Chair not interested in messing with Sound Transit’s governance

A bill recently passed by the Washington State Senate that would oust Sound Transit’s current board of directors and set the stage for a hostile takeover of the agency by right wing, anti-rail forces is destined to die in committee, House Transportation Chair Judy Clibborn indicated in an interview published this morning.

Speaking to the Seattle Times’ David Gutman, Clibborn (D-41st District: Mercer Island, Bellevue, Issaquah Sammamish) made it clear she doesn’t like the bill. She had previously committed to giving it a hearing in remarks made to Melissa Santos of The News Tribune. But it sounds like that’s all the bill will get.

As Sound Transit embarks on a decades-long project to add 62 miles of light rail to the Puget Sound region, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill last week that would revamp the agency’s leadership, likely resulting in all current board members being replaced in 2018.

That proposal appears dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled House, where Rep. Judy Clibborn, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, the bill’s next destination, says she has no interest in it.

“I don’t know that we get a lot of efficiency by going down that road,” said Clibborn, D-Mercer Island. “I’m not real intrigued by that idea.”

It’s great to hear that SSB 5001 is unlikely to advance in the House of Representatives. But it’s still important we show up to speak out against this bad bill. Proponents dominated the hearing on the Senate side because they were organized and the transit community didn’t show up in opposition.

A hearing on SSB 5001 is likely to be scheduled for the week of March 13th.

Clibborn has (to her credit) shown a willingness in the past to put the kibosh on inappropriate schemes to mess with Sound Transit’s governance.

Ten years ago, this organization was fighting against a similarly bad bill – SB 5803 – which had sailed out of the Senate under the radar of transit advocates. NPI began working to organize opposition to the bill following the Senate vote. Thankfully, Clibborn and the House Transportation Committee put the brakes on the bill, and it unceremoniously died when they decided it did not deserve to move forward.

As a result of that decision, Sound Transit was able to continue rolling forward free of misguided interference. It successfully won approval for a Phase II expansion the following year and then won approval for a Phase III expansion last year (2016) utilizing new revenue authority granted to it by the Washington State Legislature — revenue authority that SSB 5001 prime sponsor Steve O’Ban voted for.

The Seattle Times’ David Gutman also reached out to the governor’s office regarding the bill and found out that Inslee opposes SSB 5001 too:

Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, likewise, is not gung-ho on reorganizing Sound Transit. “He’s confident the current board structure can get the job done,” said Tara Lee, an Inslee spokeswoman.

So are we.

We concur with Clibborn that the Legislature has serious, actual priorities that need attending to. Empowering Sound Transit to more fairly collect vehicle fees is certainly worth a discussion. The current archaic formula that Sound Transit inherited from the state stinks, and it ought to be scrapped and replaced. There’s a better formula that’s actually already on the books, as Gutman pointed out.

Sound Transit needs to be able to build the system that it promised, and vehicle fees are an important part of the financing mix. Sound Transit has sold bonds that older vehicle fee revenues are pledged to. The Legislature must not jeopardize Sound Transit’s funding or credit rating if it takes any action to address this issue.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 3:57 PM | Leave a comment | Email to a friend
Friday, March 3rd, 2017

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 ramifications would be devastating.

Eyman’s Initiative 1550 is really a form of reverse Robin Hoodism – take from poor and middle income families and give to very rich.

Those who own multimillion dollar homes would suddenly see their tax obligations reduced by tens of thousands of dollars. However, if you own a more modest home, say in Kent, you would only save a mere $75 a year.

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, author of this guest post, speaks at Permanent Defense’s Fifteenth Anniversary Celebration on February 15th in Kent (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI).

Eyman wants to make our worst in the nation, upside down tax code even more regressive by gutting the closest thing we have to a progressive revenue source.

But the false allure of Initiative 1550 doesn’t stop there. In King County, it would slash general fund revenues by about $116 million a year.

Although Executive Dow Constantine and Deputy Executive Fred Jarrett have done a great job of promoting efficiencies and cost saving, taking that much money out of the county’s budget would force horrific, draconian cuts – in public health, public safety, transportation, best starts for kids, and aid to refugees and the homeless.

And that Kent homeowner would get whacked twice.

First, that $75 would hardly cover family dinner out at Olive Garden.

Second, vital services that family might depend upon – for their kids in K-12 schools, for keeping their community and environment safe, and providing transportation so people can get to work, school and recreation – would be gutted.

Forced to suddenly cut $116 million out of the budget, that’s the only choice the people of King County would have. Imagine if your household budget was abruptly by 25%. What would you do? What could you do?

And for other communities and counties, it would be even more dire.

Eyman’s I-1550 would also eliminate the personal property tax that businesses pay. This would be devastating to communities like the City of SeaTac. I-1550 would deprive city coffers of $10.4 million annually – 16% of the city’s budget.

And other corporations around the state would reap multimillion dollar tax cuts, too. Indeed, some of the largest corporations in King County would end up paying no property taxes. This is tax revenue that supports vital public services.

And for smaller counties across the state, Eyman’s initiative could well effectively drive them into bankruptcy. More rural counties, dependent upon forestry, fishing and agriculture, would find themselves hard pressed to provide basic law enforcement and fire protection. Schools would be robbed of the resources needed simply to pay teachers to educate our children. Even basic maintenance of critical infrastructure — sewer, water roads — would become impossible.

And who would run those bankrupt counties? Well, not the locally elected commissioners. More likely federal bankruptcy judges in Seattle or Spokane.

For those in rural counties across Washington, it would be a devil’s bargain – get an illusionary property tax cut at the very real risk of being robbed of self governance. For the state’s wealthiest homeowners and corporations, Initiative 1550 would be a windfall. But for everyone else, especially taxpayers in central and eastern Washington, it would be a lose-lose catastrophe.

I understand the raw appeal of an initiative that would cut property taxes to frustrated homeowners trying to survive on modest or fixed incomes. Our tax code is broken and unsustainable. We have become way too reliant on property taxes. Compounding that, King County’s red hot real estate market, that combined with property taxes, makes housing more and more unaffordable.

I’ve talked to far too many seniors and homeowners who are sincerely worried they are being taxed out of their homes. That’s totally unacceptable.

But so is Eyman’s meat axe approach. Eyman’s I-1550 sales pitch creates a false sense of benefit without any consideration of the impacts. Instead of letting Eyman monopolize our public discourse like he’s been allowed to in the past, we need to restart a statewide discussion about modernizing our antiquated tax code.

John Arthur Wilson is the King County Assessor. In addition to serving the people of King County as Assessor and Deputy Assessor, he has contributed to the well-being of Washington State as a public affairs consultant and a journalist.

POSTSCRIPT: One way to actually make property taxes fairer would be to implement a homestead exemption. Last year, an NPI research poll found broad support across Washington for this idea. We asked:

Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose legislation that would reduce property taxes for middle and lower income households, while slightly increasing them for wealthy families, with no loss of revenue to public services?

These were the answers:

  • Support: 67%
    • 42% “strongly support” property tax fairness
    • 25% “somewhat support” property tax fairness
  • Oppose: 31%
    • 14% “somewhat oppose” property tax fairness
    • 17% “strongly oppose” property tax fairness
  • 2% answered “not sure”

Our survey of 679 likely Washington State voters was in the field from June 14th-15th, 2016; all respondents participated via landline. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.8% at the 95% confidence level.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 9:30 AM | Leave a comment | Email to a friend
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017

Jeff Sessions must resign — immediately

When Jeff Sessions was being scrutinized by the United States Senate for the vitally important position of United States Attorney General, he was asked by Senator Al Franken what he would do if “anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign” was found to have communicated with officials of the Russian Federation.

Sessions answered: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

We now know that Sessions perjured himself. Via The Washington Post:

Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

The United States cannot have an attorney general who lies under oath to Congress. Jeff Sessions must resign, immediately, for the good of the office he holds and the good of the country he professes to love.

Top Democrats are, thankfully, calling for just that. Nancy Pelosi:

Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, ‘I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.’ We now know that statement is false.

Attorney General Sessions has never had the credibility to oversee the FBI investigation of senior Trump officials’ ties to the Russians. That is why Democrats have consistently called for Sessions to recuse himself from any oversight of the investigation.

Now, after lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign. Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign. There must be an independent, bipartisan, outside commission to investigate the Trump political, personal and financial connections to the Russians.

Elizabeth Warren:

It’s a simple q: “Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election?”

Jeff Sessions answered “No.” Turns out he met with the Russian Ambassador. Two months before the election.

Now Jeff Sessions is AG – the final say on the law enforcement investigation into ties between the Trump campaign & Russia?

What a farce.

This is not normal. This is not fake news. This is a very real & serious threat to the national security of the United States.

We need a special prosecutor totally independent of the AG. We need a real, bipartisan, transparent Congressional investigation into Russia.

And we need Attorney General Jeff Sessions – who should have never been confirmed in the first place – to resign. We need it now.

Elijah Cummings:

It is inconceivable that even after Michael Flynn was fired for concealing his conversations with the Russians that Attorney General Sessions would keep his own conversations secret for several more weeks. When Senator Sessions testified under oath that ‘I did not have communications with the Russians,’ his statement was demonstrably false, yet he let it stand for weeks — and he continued to let it stand even as he watched the President tell the entire nation he didn’t know anything about anyone advising his campaign talking to the Russians. Attorney General Sessions should resign immediately, and there is no longer any question that we need a truly independent commission to investigate this issue.

We agree. Jeff Sessions must resign immediately. And if he refuses to resign, Congress should remove him through impeachment.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 11:36 PM | Comments (1) | Email to a friend
Wednesday, March 1st, 2017

Washington State Senate approves new Republican scheme to sabotage Sound Transit

With the “aye” votes of four Democratic senators, the Washington State Senate this morning passed a bill originally sponsored by Republican Steve O’Ban that would wipe out Sound Transit’s federated board and replace it with a panel of transportation czars hailing from eleven specially-drawn districts.

The roll call was as follows:

Roll Call
SSB 5001
3rd Reading & Final Passage
3/1/2017
Yeas: 29 Nays: 20

Voting Yea: Senators Angel, Bailey, Baumgartner, Becker, Braun, Brown, Conway, Darneille, Ericksen, Fain, Fortunato, Hasegawa, Hawkins, Honeyford, King, Miloscia, O`Ban, Padden, Palumbo, Pearson, Rivers, Rossi, Schoesler, Sheldon, Short, Walsh, Warnick, Wilson, Zeiger

Voting Nay: Senators Billig, Carlyle, Chase, Cleveland, Frockt, Hobbs, Hunt, Keiser, Kuderer, Liias, McCoy, Mullet, Nelson, Pedersen, Ranker, Rolfes, Saldaña, Takko, Van De Wege, Wellman

Senate Republicans had signaled recently that they were going to make SSB 5001 a priority bill, so today’s floor action was not unexpected. The bill passed out of committee several days ago with the help of Steve Hobbs and Kevin Van De Wege. Both of them voted against the bill on final passage.

What was incredibly disappointing was that four Democratic senators who should have known better — Bob Hasegawa, Guy Palumbo, Steve Conway, and Jeannie Darneille — voted for SSB 5001.

In doing so, they betrayed Sound Transit and the progressive movement.

It is vital to understand that the purpose of this legislation is to give the right wing an opportunity to gain control over Sound Transit, its projects, and its revenue streams starting in 2018. The bill kills off the current Sound Transit Board starting next year and requires that a set of eleven new districts no one will be able to keep track of be drawn for the purposes of electing a panel of transportation czars.

These czars would then assume control over Sound Transit.

As structured now, the Sound Transit Board is invulnerable to a Kemper Freeman Jr.-funded hostile takeover. It has eighteen members, seventeen of whom are local elected officials. These include the King, Pierce, and Snohomish county executives, and fourteen city/county councilmembers or mayors appointed by the executives. The eighteenth member is the Secretary of WSDOT.

This federated board model was actually created by the Legislature back in the 1990s, and it’s working just fine. There’s no reason to do away with it. Unless, of course, you’re an anti-rail Republican who wants to mount a hostile takeover of Sound Transit with the aim of thwarting Link light rail from expanding.

We have defeated bills like SSB 5001 before and we can do so again. But this is an all hands on deck situation. Every activist and every organization who was involved in helping to pass Sound Transit 3 last year needs to pitch in to ensure that this bill gets a burial in the House of Representatives.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 11:37 AM | Comments (7) | Email to a friend
Monday, February 27th, 2017

Three days ago, HuffPost asked: What would happen if a presenter announced the wrong winner at the Oscars? Now we know…

Talk about foreshadowing.

On Friday, the Huffington Post ran an article asking, What would happen if a presenter announced the wrong winner at the Oscars? The article, written by Matthew Jacobs, discussed several hypothetical scenarios that might result in the kind of gaffe that loomed over the finale of last night’s Oscars telecast.

Jordan Horowitz corrects the record at the 89th Academy Awards

La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz holds up the correct Best Picture envelope, showing that Moonlight has won. (Photo: Eddy Chen/ABC, reproduced under a Creative Commons license.)

Quoted in the article was one of the two people responsible for the tabulation and distribution of the awards envelopes: Martha Ruiz of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who currently shares the responsibility for Oscar balloting with Brian Cullinan. Ruiz told Jacobs that they have safeguards in place to ensure there are no snafus.

It’s him checking me and me checking him, and we do it multiple times against each other to make sure that when we leave and are ultimately handing the envelopes to someone, we’re very confident they’re getting the right envelopes and the contents in them are accurate.

Evidently, those safeguards failed last night, because Ruiz’s partner Cullinan somehow managed to give Warren Beatty of Bonnie and Clyde fame the wrong envelope before he walked out on stage with Faye Dunaway.

Screen captures from last night’s telecast prove that Beatty was given a second copy of the envelope and card for Best Actress in a Leading Role — an award that went to Emma Stone for La La Land — instead of the Best Picture envelope.

Some viewers have expressed confusion at why there is more than one envelope for each award, but the simple explanation is that redundancy is very important. Presenters enter from different sides of the stage, and if something were to happen to one set of envelopes, there’s a second set that can serve as backups.

Beatty’s reaction upon opening the envelope he’d been given was one of confusion. He looked up and then at his co-presenter Dunaway without disclosing what he’d seen. Then, after she prompted him to speak (“You’re impossible. C’mon!”), he showed her the card. Without pausing to study it closely herself, she mistakenly pronounced La La Land the winner.

“I want to tell you what happened,” Beatty said a couple of minutes later to a shocked audience. “I opened the envelope and it said, ‘Emma Stone, ‘La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye, and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.”

The unanswered question now is why no one ran out on stage immediately after Dunaway’s pronouncement to make an immediate correction.

“It doesn’t sound very complicated, but you have to make sure you’re giving the presenter the right envelope,” Cullinan himself wrote on Medium not long ago.

He failed to do so, and this may be his last Oscars gig as a consequence.

Cullinan also boasted “we always do a good job” and declared the Academy has “absolute trust in us and what we do”. It would seem that trust has been shaken.

Cullinan spent a portion of last night excitedly tweeting photos from backstage. He has since deleted those tweets, apparently out of embarrassment.

His firm, meanwhile, was forced to issue a public apology and promise to investigate what happened. But even the apology was in error: it claimed the mistake had been “immediately corrected”, when in fact it had not been. It was a full two minutes before the audience at the Dolby Theater and millions watching around the globe were informed that Moonlight, not La La Land, had really won Best Picture.

Congratulations to Moonlight, the real Best Picture winners for 2017!

POSTSCRIPT: PricewaterhouseCoopers has taken full responsibility for its error and confirmed that they and they alone were at fault.

This is the statement they should have released to begin with:

PwC takes full responsibility for the series of mistakes and breaches of established protocols during last night’s Oscars. PwC Partner Brian Cullinan mistakenly handed the back-up envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner.

We are deeply sorry for the disappointment suffered by the cast and crew of “La La Land” and “Moonlight.” We sincerely apologize to Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and the Academy, none of whom was at fault for last night’s errors.

We wish to extend our deepest gratitude to each of them for the graciousness they displayed during such a difficult moment.

For the past eighty-three years, the Academy has entrusted PwC with the integrity of the awards process during the ceremony, and last night we failed the Academy.

Better late than never. Props to PwC for owning their failure and being willing to say We failed. That’s important. Accountability matters.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 12:59 PM | Comments (2) | Email to a friend
Friday, February 24th, 2017

Excavate away: Digging begins on tunnel that will carry East Link under downtown Bellevue

Let the mining begin!

That was the sentiment today at an event hosted by Sound Transit for media outlets around the region in downtown Bellevue, where Atkinson Construction is beginning the excavation of the tunnel that will eventually carry ST’s East Link light rail under downtown. The tunnel is being partly financed by the City of Bellevue, which contributed $100 million to make the sequentially excavated tunnel a reality.

Interior of the East Link construction site at Main Street and 112th Avenue NE in Bellevue

A post shared by NPI (@nwprogressive) on

Several members of the Bellevue City Council were on hand to praise the project’s progress, along with U.S. Representative Adam Smith and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, who also represented the Sound Transit Board. (Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff and Board Chair Dave Somers were not able to participate in the event due to other obligations.)

Sound Transit staff and East Link project contractors take questions from the media

A post shared by NPI (@nwprogressive) on

Unlike the tunnels that carry Central Link trains underneath Capitol Hill and points north, the downtown Bellevue transit tunnel will be somewhat short — less than half a mile long, in fact. Trains will enter the tunnel through a portal just south of Main Street and exit the tunnel as they pull into the Downtown Bellevue Station at NE 6th Street. From there, they cross I-405 to reach the Overlake Hospital station.

Here’s a video showing this segment of the alignment:

“Because of the short tunnel length, and to minimize impact on neighboring homes and businesses, Sound Transit is constructing the tunnel using the Sequential Excavation Method (SEM) rather than using a tunnel boring machine or digging a large trench that is later covered,” Sound Transit explains.

“SEM removes soil in small sections or bites using an excavator and cutting equipment. As soon as soil is removed, pressurized concrete, called shotcrete, is sprayed on the tunnel’s sides, ceiling and floor.”

“Lattice girders provide additional structural support for the tunnel. Advantages of SEM include minimizing disruption to traffic, reduced noise and dust impacts to neighboring residents and businesses versus cut-and-cover tunnel construction, and elimination of utility service disruptions.”

Vital tunnel statistics:

  • Tunnel is approximately 2,000 linear feet long (one-third of a mile)
  • Height of the tunnel is 27 feet, 10 inches
  • Overall width (north and south-bound sides) is 34 feet.
  • Each side is 16 feet, 3 inches wide, with a center dividing wall.
  • Tunnel is 30 to 60 feet below the surface.

SEM, also known as the New Austrian Tunnelling Method, was invented in Austria in the 1960s, and has become a rather popular method of digging tunnels. It has seven basic elements that make it both practical and cost-effective.

There are several basic steps involved in digging a tunnel using SEM. As explained to NPI by Chad Frederick of Sound Transit, they are:

  1. Excavate earth (not more than four feet at a time)
  2. Spray with two inches of shotcrete
  3. Put a lattice girder in — that’s a steel rib
  4. Come back and put on another eight inches of shotcrete (in order to fully encapsulate that lattice girder)

Construction teams will start by digging the top heading of the tunnel first, and then advance to the bench and invert sections. “We call it [the middle section] the bench because we set up on top of it,” Frederick says.

In this NPI photo, you can see the digging has begun at the south portal. The big block in the middle of the hole is the face wedge. It consists of dirt and concrete and it’s there to hold the face in. Structural integrity is important to a tunnel dig!

Closeup shot of the south portal of the yet-to-be-dug downtown Bellevue light rail tunnel

A post shared by NPI (@nwprogressive) on

Because Sound Transit and the City of Bellevue opted against a “cut and cover” tunnel, it won’t be necessary to shut down and rip up 110th Avenue NE in order to construct this segment of East Link. To minimize noise pollution, Atkinson has set up large noise walls around the construction site.

During today’s media briefing, reporters were allowed to ask the contracting team questions about the project. I asked about the possibility of sinkholes.

Here’s a transcript of our exchange:

NPI’S ANDREW VILLENEUVE: What’s the risk of sinkholes, and what can be done to mitigate against that? I remember there was a sinkhole on the Beacon Hill project.

CHAD FREDERICK, SOUND TRANSIT: So there’s always the risk of minor sinkholes. We have settlement monitoring in place that will catch that well before it happens… or it should.

That settlement monitoring runs all along the alignment of the tunnel, out here in the 110th right-of-way.

ARCHIE COLE MORGAN, ATKINSON CONSTRUCTION: We also have people in the tunnel all the time who are watching that. We got experts out here that can see what’s going on. Unlike [with] a machine job, where you got a big machine and you can’t see what’s going on outside the machine, [with] this tunnel project, you’ll be able to see the ground — you’ll be able to see what’s going on. If you’ve got an issue going on now, you should be visually able to see it.

CHAD FREDERICK, SOUND TRANSIT: And of course, it’s continually monitored now.

BOB ADAMS, ATKINSON CONSTRUCTION: One of the other concerns about [tunneling here] — [is] not necessarily sinkholes, but utilities — there’s some very mission-critical utilities that are underneath 110th [Avenue]. And particularly at the north end of the tunnel, it gets fairly shallow, the cover, and so there’s a lot of concern about those utilities. So one of the early work items we did on this job was to dig all the soil out from around those utilities, and bury it in a low-strength concrete. CLSM was the term for it. But we wanted to make sure that area where we had the least cover was very secure and would not collapse as we mined underneath it.

All in all, it was an exciting afternoon in Bellevue. It’s nice to see East Link construction is on track and proceeding as planned. Atkinson Construction are tunnel-building veterans, having been involved in mining many of our area’s most famous and well-used highway and rail tunnels.

FURTHER COVERAGE:

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 11:00 PM | Leave a comment | Email to a friend
Thursday, February 23rd, 2017

Senate Republicans advance new scheme to mess with Sound Transit’s governance

Picking up where Mary Margaret Haugen and Ed Murray once left off, Republicans on the Senate Transportation Committee voted today to advance a bill that would wipe out Sound Transit’s federated board of city and county leadership and replace it with a panel of transportation czars elected from eleven newly drawn transportation districts in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.

Substitute Senate Bill 5001 moved out of the Senate Transportation Committee today with support from all of the panel’s Republican members, plus Democrats Steve Hobbs and Kevin Van De Wege. Democratic Senators Marko Liias, Annette Cleveland, Rebecca Saldaña, and Dean Takko voted against moving the bill.

SSB 5001 is the latest in a long series of failed attempts by the Washington State Senate to shred the governance structure for Sound Transit that the Legislature originally created in the 1990s. A decade has now transpired since NPI first took up the cause of fighting these counterproductive proposals.

In that time, Sound Transit has opened and thrice expanded its first light rail line, expanded Sounder commuter rail, expanded ST Express bus service, and twice won approval from regional voters to keep on expanding service in all directions. Ridership across the system is booming, and Sound Transit has kept on rolling, delivering projects at a brisk and steady pace.

Senate Republicans don’t like that and have this ridiculous, perverse desire to mess with success. Sound Transit is rolling along and they want to derail its progress.

Prior to this year’s legislative session, Republican Senator Steve O’Ban (R-28th District; Lakewood, University Place, Tacoma) served notice that he would be bringing a bill to dissolve the Sound Transit board and replace it with a panel of transportation czars elected from a set of newly drawn districts that no one would be able to keep track of (except, of course, for the campaign consultants whose job it would be to get people elected in those districts).

O’Ban’s Senate Bill 5001 underwent some modifications when it was replaced with a substitute in committee, but it’s basically the same awful bill.

Ahead of the vote, NPI sent a message to all of the members of the Senate Transportation Committee asking that O’Ban’s 5001 be abandoned and that the committeemembers turn their attention to more productive tasks. We even gave an example of how the Legislature could be of service:

We ask that as legislators with a focus on transportation, you direct your energies to supporting the work voters have authorized Sound Transit to do instead of messing with how ST is governed.

Sound Transit 3 (ST3) will be even more beneficial if we can accelerate the timetable for the delivery of projects, and add value by extending projects further with some state funding.

For example, we’re going to be spending quite a bit of money to bring Sounder south to DuPont. That investment will make even more sense if Sound Transit were permitted to expand Sounder service all the way to Olympia in a partnership with WSDOT and Intercity Transit.

Olympia is not that much further than DuPont, but it’s outside of ST’s service area. The Legislature should offer to help make Sounder to Olympia a reality by passing legislation to enable the necessary, long-term interlocal cooperation.

Imagine being able to commute to Olympia by train in the future from King and Pierce counties, bypassing that horrible JBLM traffic and being able to step off the train in downtown Olympia and catch a Dash shuttle to the campus. Wouldn’t that be great? Exploring what’s necessary to make that future a reality is what you should be be spending your time on, not this legislation.

Sadly, a majority of the members of the committee did not heed our request. We will therefore step up our efforts to ensure that SSB 5001 is defeated.

It is important to understand that the organizations pushing for this bill, like the Washington Policy Center, are on a long-term mission to undermine and destroy Sound Transit. They are not motivated by a desire to make transit work better.

Sound Transit is funded by multiple voter-approved revenue streams, and ideological, anti-rail right wing Republicans are desperate to get their hands on that money. They’d like to redirect as much of it as possible into roads — or, at least, in the words of John Carlson — “rubber tire” transit, which has to operate on roads.

Wiping out Sound Transit’s federated board and mandating that its replacement be a panel of transportation czars from nineteen separate districts would give them a decent chance of taking control of the agency, its projects, and its revenue.

A majority of the eleven districts the revised bill calls for (the original bill specified nineteen) would conceivably consist of turf either very friendly to right wing candidates, or at least winnable by right wing candidates.

The federated board Sound Transit has now is essentially invulnerable to a Kemper Freeman Jr.-funded hostile takeover, because its members are appointed by the county executives of King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties, who are also themselves members, along with the chieftain of WSDOT (currently Roger Millar).

The Democratic Party has been successful in keeping the executives of King and Snohomish counties in Democratic, pro-transit hands for many consecutive election cycles. Republicans have done better in Pierce County, and now have one of their own as Pierce County Executive, but he is just one board member out of eighteen.

When O’Ban and others talk about the need for Sound Transit to have a “directly elected” board, they’re being disingenuous.

Except for Millar, ST’s board is already directly elected. Its other seventeen members are all mayors, county executives, and city or council councilmembers…. people that we in Puget Sound elected to make important decisions about land use, stormwater runoff, and yes, transportation.

Sound Transit would have a tough time delivering projects smoothly without the cooperation of city and county governments. It therefore makes perfect sense that ST is governed by representatives of its city and county partners.

After a rocky start, Sound Transit is now doing very well. It has experienced leadership and sound governance. Its public approval ratings are higher than WSDOT’s. The federated board model the Legislature originally came up with for Sound Transit clearly works. There is no need to discard it.

Washington already has thousands upon thousands special districts that most voters cannot keep track of. Fire districts, hospital districts, water districts, sewer districts, even cemetery districts… we’ve got a plethora of each. That’s on top of our city governments, county governments, school districts, and ports, which all operate below the state and federal governments.

Republicans are constantly saying that we need less government, but as we have seen, their actions belie their words. They are not for smaller government at all. In fact, it is big government that they like, as was proved during the Bush error, and will be proved again over the course of the next few years.

How many times have you heard a prominent Republican say we should slash funding for the Department of Defense, or the FBI, or the NSA, or the Secret Service, or the DEA? It’s rare. Plenty of Republicans are for gutting public agencies and departments that were formed using the logic of progressive values, like the Environmental Protection Agency. But very few want to take an axe to the defense budget and reform procurement or eliminate wasteful contracts.

Similarly, at the state level, you won’t hear Republicans say we should stop putting money into highways or prisons. You will hear Republicans grumble endlessly about Sound Transit and its “choo choo trains”. It doesn’t matter to them that Sound Transit went out and won voter approval for its projects and financing mix. Republicans resent that Washington State is investing heavily in light rail, and they’d like to pull the plug on that before the systems are built out.

This bill would create more government, but that’s not a problem for Senate Republicans, because once set up, they’d have a chance of controlling it. Never mind that it doesn’t comport with their stated principles. It is political power they desire, and this bill is a vehicle for allowing them to get what they want.

We can’t let them win. A society in which people are forced to drive to get where they want to go is not a free society. Mobility matters. The regional transit network Sound Transit is building, with a rail spine at its core, is vital to the future health and prosperity of our region. The Legislature gave Sound Transit life over twenty years ago; now, it must allow ST to carry out its voter-approved work.

If the Legislature desires to be helpful, that is welcome. Nefarious attempts to sabotage Sound Transit’s work such as SSB 5001 are not helpful and not welcome.

There’s a legitimate argument to be made that Puget Sound would benefit from having its own equivalent of TriMet (which provides service to greater Portland, Oregon) as opposed to four local transit agencies and one regional transit agency.

There is actually less duplication now than people think, because ST’s services are all operated by partners. King County Metro operates Central Link light rail, for instance, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe operates Sounder. ST Express buses are operated by Metro, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit. Sound Transit primarily exists to plan and build transit service that links the region together.

At some point down the line, it may make sense to unify our transit agencies. But we are not at that point now. Such a discussion will be more appropriate years from now when the regional system we’ve voted for is built out. As we learned from the merger of Metro and King County, such moves are very, very difficult to smoothly orchestrate. Sound Transit’s important, voter approved work deserves to be supported, not sabotaged. SSB 5001 can and must be defeated.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 9:50 PM | Leave a comment | Email to a friend
Thursday, February 23rd, 2017

Camp Wellstone returns to Seattle this May — don’t miss this premiere training opportunity!

Camp Wellstone — the signature training offered by the organizing geniuses at Wellstone Action — will be returning to Seattle for the twelfth consecutive year, Executive Director Edith Sargon tells us.

The 2017 camp has been scheduled for May 19th-21st, coinciding with the end of Filing Week here in Washington State. It will take place in Seattle at a venue to be announced. As in the past, there will be three main tracks:

  • Being a Candidate: How to Run and Win a Progressive Campaign
  • Electoral Campaigns: Tools and Tactics for Success
  • Citizen Activism: Grassroots Advocacy and Organizing

All the tracks are excellent – they’re just a bit different in what they cover. The first track is ideal for any activist planning to work on a campaign in the near future. The second is ideal for activists who are engaged in working on issues long-term. And the third is perfect for any progressive planning to run for office.

Here is a longer description of each:

Candidate Track: Are you currently running for public office or interested in running in the future?

We teach candidates the nuts and bolts of running—and winning—a progressive campaign. Topics of focus include: Message; budgeting and fundraising; writing and delivering a stump speech; fundraising; and canvassing.

Campaign Track: Are you managing, working on, or volunteering for an electoral campaign?

We teach campaign workers and staff the skills it takes to manage a successful progressive campaign. Topics of focus include: message development and delivery; earned and paid media; targeting; and direct voter contact.

Grassroots Organizing Track: Are you organizing within your community, coalition, or nonprofit? Are you working on a ballot initiative?

We teach organizers the nuts and bolts of winning progressive change on community-based issues. We believe that the only way to build power is in partnership with others—not by ourselves. If you are connected to a group or organization that wants to make real change on a particular issue in your community, this is the right place for you.

Wellstone will also be experimenting with a fourth track this year, which is very exciting. It’s called Intro to Movement Technology. This track will only be available at two camps, and it looks like Seattle will be one of them. The synopsis:

In the era of hashtags, member databases, and email list-building, the possibilities are growing for organizations, both large and small, to use technology to boost the capacity of their campaign work and community organizing. This track introduces the fundamentals of data, digital organizing and analytics to support base-building and policy organizing campaigns. It does not require previous experience or skills in movement tech and is for anyone who wants to get started or expand their skillset.

Most of NPI’s staff and board have been to a Camp Wellstone, whether in Seattle or another city. Without a doubt, it is the best training opportunity a progressive activist can take advantage of. It is incredibly empowering and rewarding.

We simply can’t recommend it enough.

If you’re not already a Camp Wellstone alumni, you need to become one. Registration is not yet open for this camp, but we advise putting a “Save the Date” notice on your calendar so you can be ready to register when the time comes.

Registration costs $450, which is a fraction of the true cost of putting on camp. Scholarships are available at reduced prices for activists on limited incomes.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 3:21 PM | Comments (1) | Email to a friend
Friday, February 17th, 2017

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 David Kroman recounted for Crosscut, a number of rural Republican elected officials showed up at the bill’s hearing (watch on TVW) to testify in support of it, including many who admit to having voted in favor of Tim Eyman’s I-747 when it appeared on the ballot just over fifteen years ago. For example:

Kittitas County Commissioner Paul Jewell remarked to the committee, “How difficult it is to appear in support of this bill. We don’t want much of government services and we certainly don’t like talking about tax increases as a rule.” He voted for the cap in 2001.

“I was wrong,” he said.

It’s very refreshing to hear that Republicans like Paul Jewell now understand the destructive ramifications of I-747. For most of the last fifteen years, NPI’s Permanent Defense has maintained a profile of I-747 on its website, under our Dangerous Initiatives section, which discusses the impacts of I-747.

The I-747 opposition campaign warned voters that passage of the initiative would lead to cutbacks in public services. From the voter’s pamphlet statement:

“King and Snohomish County residents are sick of gridlock. I-747 means intersection and county highway improvements won’t get made,” says Snohomish County road crew worker Roger Moller. Klickitat County Fire Commissioner Miland Walling is concerned that “we will be unable to purchase safety equipment for rural firefighters.”

Pierce County library employee Patti Cox says a three- year loss of $1.5 million means “we will have to shorten library hours and cut services like children’s reading hours.”

Yakima County Prosecutor Jeff Sullivan invites “anyone to come look over the budget and suggest which felony crimes I shouldn’t prosecute.”

Sure enough, in the wake of I-747’s passage, cities and especially counties were forced to cut back, to the detriment of all Washingtonians’ well-being.

And in the years since, demand for public services has continued to grow, but cities and counties — particularly in rural Washington — have not been able to keep up because I-747 is slowly choking them to death.

Tim Eyman sneers that any local government that wants to raise property taxes can simply put a proposition on the ballot and get voters to sign off on an increase. But that costs money… money rural counties and cities often do not have.

David Kroman explains:

The city of Rosalia, about 40 miles south of Spokane, brings in $660 dollars a year in property taxes. A good chunk goes to paying the roughly $200 phone bill of city manager Jenna McDonald. They’d like to ask voters for money to help fund roads, but it costs $1,200 just to get a measure on the ballot.

Emphasis is mine.

You won’t hear Tim Eyman admit it, but elections are a public service, too. Elections cost money. It’s not possible to hold an election for free. There are significant costs associated with designing, preparing, printing, and mailing ballots, and then tabulating those ballots when they come back.

How are the leaders of a city like Rosalia supposed to pay for an election to ask its voters for a revenue boost when they can’t afford the costs?

Tim Eyman’s I-747 has been hurting Washington’s communities for a very long time. It needs to be repealed. It ought to have been repealed back in 2007, when Democrats held supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature.

The Supreme Court had just struck down the initiative as unconstitutional and gifted then-Governor Chris Gregoire, then-Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, and Speaker Frank Chopp an opportunity to strike a blow for progressive tax reform.

But instead of replacing I-747 with more progressive property tax policy and implementing a homestead exemption or circuit breaker to make the tax code fairer for middle and low income families, the trio rushed to reinstate I-747 in a one-day November special session… to the great joy and delight of Tim Eyman.

We lobbied fiercely against the move, but our admonitions were ignored. Numerous Democratic legislators promised that they would work on coming up with a viable replacement for I-747 down the road. Those promises were not kept. I-747 has remained in place and has continued to slowly inflict harm, year after year.

Death by a thousand cuts is very painful, and local elected leaders are finding it increasingly hard to deliver public services.

That’s especially true east of the Cascades.

The cosponsors of SB 5772 are an interesting group. All but one of them (Rebecca Saldaña) were serving in the Legislature when I-747 was reinstated ten years ago.

Of the other cosponsors, only one voted against reinstatement — Senator Jamie Pedersen, who at the time was serving in the House. The other four cosponsors — Senators Keiser, Hobbs, Takko, and Walsh — voted for reinstatement.

It is reassuring to see their names on this bill. But the list of cosponsors ought to have been much, much longer. Hopefully that will be the case will be during the next go-around. Heavy lifts such as this often require sustained multiyear organizing.

In addition to getting rid of I-747, the Legislature should work on making property taxes fairer. One way to do this would be through a homestead exemption, which would slightly lift tax obligations on middle and low income families while slightly raising them on wealthy families. NPI research finds broad support for this idea.

In June of 2016, in a statewide poll of Washington voters, we asked:

Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose legislation that would reduce property taxes for middle and lower income households, while slightly increasing them for wealthy families, with no loss of revenue to public services?

These were the answers:

  • Support: 67%
    • 42% “strongly support” property tax fairness
    • 25% “somewhat support” property tax fairness
  • Oppose: 21%
    • 14% “somewhat oppose” property tax fairness
    • 17% “strongly oppose” property tax fairness
  • 2% answered “not sure”

Our survey of 679 likely Washington State voters was in the field from June 14th-15th, 2016; all respondents participated via landline. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.8% at the 95% confidence level.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 11:29 AM | Comments (1) | Email to a friend
Thursday, February 9th, 2017

Trump loses again: 9th Circuit refuses to reinstate discriminatory travel ban

Donald Trump’s unconstitutional and discriminatory travel ban will remain unenforceable for the time being, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today.

In a unanimous decision, a three judge panel ruled that Trump’s regime “has not
shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury.” The decision by U.S. District Court Judge James Robart to grant a temporary restraining order thereby stands.

“No one is above the law, not even the President,” said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a statement lauding the decision, reiterating comments that he made last week. “The President should withdraw this flawed, rushed and dangerous Executive Order, which caused chaos across the country. If he refuses, I will continue our work to hold him accountable to the Constitution.”

“Bottom line: This is a complete victory for the State of Washington,” Ferguson added during a press conference following the release of the ruling. “We are a nation of laws. And those laws apply to everyone in the country.”

Ferguson noted that the 9th Circuit had expressly rejected the inJustice Department’s argument that Trump’s order was unreviewable.

“There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability,” the judges wrote, “which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.” They pointed readers to Boumediene v. Bush (2008), “rejecting the idea that, even by congressional statute, Congress and the Executive could eliminate federal court habeas jurisdiction over enemy combatants, because the ‘political branches’ lack “the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will”.

“Within our system, it is the role of the judiciary to interpret the law, a duty that will sometimes require the “[r]esolution of litigation challenging the constitutional authority of one of the three branches… We are called upon to perform that duty
in this case,” the 9th Circuit judges declared.

“Today’s decision to uphold Judge Robart’s order is a victory for Washington State and indeed the entire country,” said Washington State Governor Jay Inslee.

“The decision underscores the serious constitutional issues with President Trump’s executive order and emphasizes what Attorney General Ferguson has said throughout this case: that no one is above the law, not even the president.”

“Since the restraining order was issued, in our state we’ve seen a Somali man reunited with his wife, an American citizen. An Iraqi global health leader able to rejoin his colleagues at the University of Washington. And a graduate student studying HIV vaccines to return to continue his important work. I’m proud of that Washington is a national leader in this fight. We were the first state to stand against this executive order. But all Americans need to be willing to stand and fight for our democracy, everywhere, every time, and in every way it is threatened.”

“I am glad the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals thinks Washington state got it right,” said Senator Maria Cantwell. “Thanks to the Washington State Attorney General, Washington state businesses and all involved in the U.S. District Court case, these important Constitutional issues will be addressed. And in the meantime, travel will continue and families can be reunited.”

“Today’s ruling heartens all who believe in the rule of law,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “The actions by this president run counter to our community’s core values: compassion, opportunity, and equity. We will not rest until this wrong-headed executive action is permanently reversed.”

“This is a big win today for the Constitution,” said Washington State Democratic Chair Tina Podlodowsk, echoing the statements of other Democratic leaders.

“As a daughter of refuges from World War II, I want to personally thank those who led this effort – Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Governor Jay Inslee, and Solicitor General Noah Purcell, and of course everyone in the Office of the Attorney General. Their dedication to human rights and equality has made possible this win today.”

“I especially want to thank the millions of Americans – Democrats and Republicans alike – who have stood up in protest of Trump’s order,” she added.

“This is not just a movement of lawyers and elected officials – this is a movement of the people. It’s inspiring to see how the American people react to injustice perpetrated against our Muslim brothers and sisters. The record-breaking crowds marching in the streets are a testament to America’s commitment to our values, our constitution, and to the promise engraved on the Statute of Liberty, and no executive order from the White House can shatter that.

“While this case isn’t over yet, every court victory we have along the way makes it clearer that our law and Constitution stand on the side of justice and equality – not on the side of Trump.”

NPI thanks the 9th Circuit for its sensible ruling today and urges Justice Anthony Kennedy and his seven colleagues on the Supreme Court to sustain it should Trump order the Justice Department to appeal.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 4:15 PM | Comments Off on Trump loses again: 9th Circuit refuses to reinstate discriminatory travel ban | Email to a friend
Friday, February 3rd, 2017

State of Washington wins restraining order against Trump regime’s immigration ban

Handing Attorney General Bob Ferguson a preliminary victory in his efforts to stop neofascist Donald Trump from stomping all over the United States Constitution and federal law, U.S. Federal District Court Judge Judge James L. Robart today granted the State of Washington’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of key provisions of Trump’s executive order on immigration, including those sections that ban immigration from certain countries.

Robart’s decision will affect the entire country, not just the Pacific Northwest or the States of Washington and Minnesota (Minnesota joined the suit yesterday).

“The Constitution prevailed today,” Ferguson said in a statement hailing the decision. “No one is above the law — not even the President.”

The news release went on to say:

The Temporary Restraining Order will remain in place until U.S. District Court Senior Judge James L. Robart considers the Attorney General’s lawsuit challenging key provisions of the President’s order as illegal and unconstitutional. If Ferguson prevails, the Executive Order would be permanently invalidated nationwide.

To obtain the Temporary Restraining Order, the state needed to prove that its underlying lawsuit was likely to succeed, that irreparable harm was likely to occur without the restraining order, and that halting the President’s order immediately is in the public interest.

The State also needed to establish that the potential injury to Washington residents caused by leaving the President’s order in place outweighs any potential damage from halting it.

Judge Robart, who was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush in 2003, ruled that Ferguson had met the high standards necessary to block the Executive Order until the court reaches the merits of the lawsuit.

“This is a tremendous victory for the State of Washington,” said Governor Jay Inslee in a separate statement. “Thank you to AG Ferguson and his team for making the case that no person – not even the president – is above the law.”

“There is still more to do,” the Governor added. “The fight isn’t yet won. But we should feel heartened by today’s victory and more resolute than ever that we are fighting on the right side of history.”

NPI congratulates Attorney General Bob Ferguson on today’s victory and wishes his office success in obtaining a permanent injunction.

Today’s victory is a reminder that abuses of power can be stopped. America is a country of laws. Our Founders gave us a system of government with checks and balances. It is the responsibility of the judicial branch to interpret the law and ensure the executive branch does not overstep its authority.

Today, Judge Robart upheld his oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

We thank him for granting the temporary restraining order and urge him to grant Ferguson’s prayer for relief in the underlying lawsuit.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 4:21 PM | Comments Off on State of Washington wins restraining order against Trump regime’s immigration ban | Email to a friend
Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

Washington State Senate passes Republicans’ school levy swipe scheme on a party-line vote

Thanks to the arrival of newly-minted Senator Shelley Short (R-7th District; northeast Washington) and the return of Doug Ericksen from the District of Columbia, Republicans in the Washington State Senate were today able to pass the school levy swipe scheme they introduced late last week with no votes to spare.

Substitute Senate Bill 5607, concerning education (see text), passed out of the Senate on a party line vote just a little bit ago. The roll call was as follows:

Roll Call: SSB 5607
3rd Reading & Final Passage
2/1/2017

Yeas: 25; Nays: 24

Voting Yea: Republican Senators Angel, Bailey, Baumgartner, Becker, Braun, Brown, Ericksen, Fain, Fortunato, Hawkins, Honeyford, King, Miloscia, O`Ban, Padden, Pearson, Rivers, Rossi, Schoesler, Sheldon, Short, Walsh, Warnick, Wilson, Zeiger

Voting Nay: Democratic Senators Billig, Carlyle, Chase, Cleveland, Conway, Darneille, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hobbs, Hunt, Keiser, Kuderer, Liias, McCoy, Mullet, Nelson, Palumbo, Pedersen, Ranker, Rolfes, Saldaña, Takko, Van De Wege, Wellman

Portions of SSB 5607 have a referendum clause, because Senate Republicans apparently aren’t comfortable making the changes they seek themselves. (They were elected or appointed specifically to legislate, but they’d rather pass the buck…)

Were SSB 5607 to become law in its current form, a referendum would be submitted to the people of Washington this autumn for their approval or rejection.

The portions of the bill with the referendum clause would only go into effect if a majority of the electorate voted Approve.

It is important to understand that SSB 5067 would lead to a net loss of revenue overall. Yes, you read that correctly: the bill the Republicans call an education funding plan would actually take money away from our schools. What a scam!

The Budget & Policy Center explains:

The Senate’s plan, called the Education Equality Act, features as its major funding source a new Local Effort Levy – basically, an increase to the statewide property tax of $1.80 per $1,000 of assessed value. As details about the plan emerge, however, it appears that the plan does not actually raise additional dollars for schools. That’s because the proposed statewide property tax increase is coupled with cuts to local property tax levies that currently fund a significant portion of basic education costs. As we’ve said in the past, levy swaps like this are schemes that change the source of the money flowing to schools but don’t actually make new investments in Washington’s kids.

As it is structured, the plan could deepen the shortfall in school funding because the plan does not pay for itself. It leaves a $1.4 billion hole in the 2019-2021 budget, for which its authors have yet to identify a source of funding. Promising to pay for education without identifying a funding source is a prescription for damaging cuts throughout the rest of the budget. And while the plan would dedicate future revenue growth to funding basic education, it would use any revenue growth in addition to the dedicated funds to decrease the new Local Effort Levy to a rate of $1.25. In short, the proposal is not only short on revenue now, but it is also designed to restrict revenue growth for schools and other public investments in the future.

Pretty Orwellian. We call SSB 5607 a levy swipe scheme because it would change where existing dollars are coming from, but not result in any new investment in our schools, which is completely and totally unacceptable. It’s smoke and mirrors.

If that weren’t bad enough, the bill is loaded with bad policy provisions. For example, at the end of Part I, in Sec. 106, there’s a number of subsections which are intended to ensure that taxpayer dollars are funneled into charter schools, even though the state Supreme Court has ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional.

Later on, there’s Section 505, which kills off state-provided bonuses for National Board Certified Teachers such as my father, who have undergone the rigorous process of demonstrating mastery of their subject matter and effectiveness as instructors. This bill is a slap in the face to our state’s hardworking educators.

And there’s more. There’s so much bad stuff in here I’ll have to do another post.

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, student, or concerned citizen, you should be appalled by this travesty of a bill that Senate Republicans have cooked up.

Democratic senators spoke eloquently against SSB 5607 during floor debate. After, they lamented Republicans’ unwillingness to accept any of their amendments.

“Really hard floor time today,” Senator Lisa Wellman wrote on Facebook after the vote. “[The] Republican Senate majority forced passage of an education bill that is loaded with elements I cannot support — ever! Included is a provision for allowing anyone passing a background check to teach your kids. No certification. No education degree. This is so disrespectful to the talented, committed men and women in the profession — I’m beyond words. However — please know this. I will never stop fighting for teachers, schools and most of all, for all our children.”

Democrats in the House have signaled SSB 5607 is unacceptable to them. They could either ignore the bill, or gut it and put their own legislation in place of what is there now with a striking amendment. The Senate would need to agree to any changes the House makes for SSB 5067 to move out of the Legislature.

# Permalink :: Posted by Andrew: 11:06 PM | Comments (3) | Email to a friend

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