Senate Ways & Means to act on revenue forecast reform

The Senate Ways and Means Committee held a public hearing yesterday on SB 5910: Providing that a quarterly revenue forecast is due on February 20th during both a long and short legislative session year. The committee is scheduled to take executive action on the bill later today. The proposal passed the Senate unanimously twice last year (April 28 and June 23) but was not acted on by the House . . . READ MORE

Anatomy of a budget gimmick

When the Governor announced his first full budget proposal (his 2013-15 proposal was an outline) on December 17 releasing his recommended 2014 supplemental budget, I was very curious to see how it would comply with the state's spending limit. After careful review, it looks like it doesn't . . . READ MORE

Missing public records and "harassing requesters"

During the heat of the debate last year on HB 1128 and whether or not government entities should be able to sue citizens to keep from disclosing public records, the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) sent out a public records request to determine the extent of any problem facing local governments concerning compliance with the people's right to know. That WCOG records request resulted in this ultimate public records response fail from the then Mayor of Coulee Dam . . . READ MORE

JLARC releases guidance for drafting tax preference performance statements

Last year the Legislature passed a requirement for bills creating or expanding tax preferences to include a performance statement to identify the expected outcome for the policy change. We were very happy to work with Rep. Carlyle, Chair of the House Finance Committee, on this concept. The Legislature also directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) to develop guidance on how these tax preference performance statements should be drafted. The JLARC report is now available. Among JLARC's recommendations . . . READ MORE

The most important vote of 2014 - Boeing 777X contract

Although 2014 is a general election year with control of the Legislature up for grabs and still unknown ballot measures yet to qualify, perhaps the most important vote of the year will be tomorrow on Boeing's 777X contract offer. Not only does this union vote have the potential to impact tens of thousands of jobs, but it could dramatically change the state's fiscal outlook, not to mention its economic psyche . . . READ MORE