Monday: The Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee considered a controversial bill aimed at putting the Affordable Care Act into place — including implementing the healthcare exchange. On the show, we also looked at a bill that would make truck drivers who work at the state’s ports regular employees, rather than independent contractors. Dozens of truckers attended the hearing in support of the bill, saying they don’t have health insurance and often work in unsafe conditions.

Watch Monday’s Legislative Review.

Tuesday: House Democrats released a proposed supplemental budget that aims to close the budget gap though a combination of cuts, delaying some school payments into the next budget cycle, and asking local governments to pay more for services. More than 100 people testified later that afternoon about the budget proposal. Also, the Senate released its supplemental transportation budget.

Watch Tuesday’s Legislative Review.

Wednesday: On the show, we took a look at two bills spurred by high-profile crimes in Pierce County. In late 2009, Maurice Clemmons, who was out on bail, shot and killed four Lakewood police officers. One bill would make a number of administrative changes to the bail bond system: It would require bail bond agents to undergo a criminal background check. It would also add some additional sideboards to the bail bonds industry. Another bill would prohibit defense attorneys and defendants from viewing child pornography that’s part of the evidence in a criminal case. It stems from a case in Tacoma in which a man accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys acted as his own defense attorney — and was then able to watch hours of videos of the abuse without supervision.

Watch Wednesday’s Legislative Review.

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Tags: Budget, TVW

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made a quick stop by the Washington state capitol today to talk with Republican lawmakers and the press before heading out to a rally in Federal Way.

Energy policy was a major component of Gingrich’s statements, who cited high gas prices as evidence that President Barack Obama “has no interest in lowering gas prices.”

He said America needs a plan that will make the country energy independent and called Obama’s speech on energy policy yesterday “one of his more absurd speeches.” Gingrich said his goal is to get gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon.

When asked about the issue of same-sex marriage in Washington, Gingrich said that while he wouldn’t vote in favor of the legislation, the state is heading in the right direction by taking the issue to voters.

Gingrich said he’s had successful rallies in Washington so far, and said the presidential race this year has had some unexpected twists and turns.

“This is different from any previous campaign I’m aware of,” Gingrich said. “This is a much more complicated marathon than anyone could have guessed.”

Gingrich stressed his experience in politics, and said that under his lead, “we could turn the economy around pretty fast.”

Some changes in government he’d like to make include changing unemployment compensation to include a training program component and rethinking various environmental agencies, including the US Forest Service, which he said “does a really bad job.”

He said these changes would be “more than acceptable to more social conservatives.”

Click through to see more photos

Tags: newt gingrich, presidential election

This Thursday marked Beef Day at the capitol — which means a free lunch provided by the Washington Cattlemen’s Association. Here’s some pictures from the festivities!

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Sen. Pam Roach is holding a press conference on Department of Social and Health Services in the wake of the Josh Powell case. You can watch on the web at tvw.org.

“Our family has had to deal with an overwhelming amount of tragedy in this past two years,” said Chuck Cox, grandfather of the Powell boys, who were killed earlier this month by their father, Josh Powell. Cox said he thinks DSHS is comprised of “good people” but he thinks there are much-needed improvements to the system.

He said his son-in-law’s concerns were always given priority throughout DSHS involvement. He said DSHS aims to reunify children with their biological parents, which seemed “ridiculous” in the case of his grandsons. “We have to do something,” he said, “We are convinced that the flaws in DSHS can be fixed and we’re convinced that the Legislature and the good people — the law abiding citizens — can change these things.”

He said his biggest complaint with the system is the idea that children should always be reunified with their parents.

Sen. Pam Roach said she’s met a lot of people who have been treated unfairly by DSHS. One woman that Roach introduced to the crowd said her son was removed from her home due to false allegations three years ago. She said the allegations were determined to be unfounded, but it hasn’t made a difference. “I’ve not had any visitation for three years.”

Roach outlined bills she wants to get through the Legislature, including one to require that social workers be certified, licensed and bonded similar to police officers.

Cox said another issue was Powell’s lying in court. He said “every allegation” that he could come up with was given credence and DSHS then looked into it. One reporter asked what the state could have done to make sure this didn’t happen. He said one bill proposed by Roach would prevent visitation with parents accused of murder.

Judy Cox said people across the world have reached out in the wake of her grandsons’ deaths. She said the morning of the visit the boys didn’t want to go. She said she considered calling in and saying the boys were sick. “I had a very strong feeling that something bad was going to happen that day … but I had to follow the law, because that’s the right thing to do,” she said, fighting tears.

Roach said looking ahead, the state will have a new governor and hopefully either candidate — Rob McKenna or Jay Inslee — could look at the issue with fresh eyes and come to the conclusion that “any one of these things could have helped,” she said, referring to her list of proposed bills.

Tags: Chuck and Judy Cox, DSHS, Josh Powell, Sen. Pam Roach

We’ve got stories on the state’s bail bond system, legislation that would allow local government to exempt low-income housing from impact fees, and the testimony from Tuesday’s budget hearing. Legislative Review airs nightly at 6:30 & 11.

Tags: Legislative Review

We’ve got details about the House’s proposed supplemental budget, the Senate’s transportation budget, and a bill requiring all adults to become mandatory child abuse reporters. Legislative Review airs nightly at 6:30 & 11.

People crowded into a hearing room in the afternoon to speak about a proposed supplemental budget that was announced earlier Tuesday by House Democrats. It includes about $65 million in cuts to higher education, and another $222 million in cuts to health care and human services. You can read the full budget proposal here.

Several people said they are pleased that cuts aren’t as steep as those in the Governor’s initial proposal, but they are still concerned about the impacts.

“Any loss of funding to sexual assault will be detrimental to victims in our state,” said Andrea Piper-Wentland of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. She said one in six girls and a quarter of boys are the victims of sexual assault, and money is “desperately needed” for them.

The budget proposal also cuts about $82 million dollars that goes to local cities and counties for programs. To make up the money, the proposal allows local governments to raises taxes without voter approval — including sales taxes, restaurant taxes and utility taxes.

Amber Carter of the Association of Washington Businesses opposes that solution. “Restaurants love to serve up food,” she said. “They don’t want to serve up to a stack of taxes for their next menu item.”

Dozens of other people spoke about concerns about cuts to education, public health and programs such as adult day care.

Tags: Budget

House Democratic budget writers released a proposed supplemental budget Tuesday that aims to close the budget gap without a sales tax hike.

However, the proposal gives local city and county governments more authority to raise taxes, such as a sales tax, restaurant tax or utility tax. The proposal allows the state’s seven largest counties to impose a 0.1 percent sales tax without voter approval. Small counties could to raises taxes by 0.2 percent.

“It won’t damage the state over the long run, but it gets us through the worst economic downturn since World War II,” said lead budget writer Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina.

Hunter said the state can no longer afford to help out local governments with certain expenses, and the proposal calls for a reduction of $82 million in distributions to local city and county governments.

“Over time, local governments have punted their responsibilities up to the state,” he said. But the state needs to focus on funding basic education, healthcare and other state responsibilities, and “something has to give,” Hunter said.

The proposal includes about $65 million in cuts to higher education, mainly in a reductions to institutional funding and shrinking the State Need Grant program. It would also delay about $400 million in school payments, which means the money is counted in the next two-year budget cycle.

Hunter said the Supreme Court decision in January that ruled the state is not fulfilling its duty to fund basic K-12 education required a “big rework” of the budget, and the proposal aims to fund basic education, bridge federal health care reform and protect against expected volatility in the economy. “We want to be able to manage major changes,” in the economy, Hunter said.

The budget includes two new sources of revenue: $13 million from a proposal that would add certification and taxing requirements to roll-your-own, or RYO, cigarettes and the retailers that provide these machines. Another $18 million comes from the elimination of a tax break that out-of-state banks can claim on mortgages.

The budget includes $222 million in cuts to health care and human services by reducing certain programs like those for people with chemical dependencies, Hunter said.  It does not include early releases from prison, but there will be “supervision changes” in the corrections department.

The proposal does not make reductions to pension contributions, but it does cut more than 1,500 full-time state employees.

Showing a balance sheet, Hunter said that the budget “spends less than we take in revenue.” Hunter said there has not been a decision about whether or not to send voters a proposed sales tax increase in November.

Tags: Budget

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen is introducing the Senate’s version of the transportation budget. Despite earlier talk of a major transportation package, Haugen said they “really felt they couldn’t do a major tax increase” this year.

Sen. Curtis King thanked Haugen for the bipartisan process by which they wrote the budget. He said he wants to highlight ferries and reforms. King said the budget includes $2.9 million in fuel savings that ferries achieved through smarter purchasing, authorized by the Legislature last year. The budget also includes funding for a second 144-car ferry. He said those and other changes to the ferry system don’t solve all the ferry system’s issues, but they do put it on the right track.

On the subject of reforms: He said the budget reduces the administrative workforce in the Department of Transportation by 5 percent. He said WDOT is required to increase the ratio of workers to managers. He said they’re also asking for more project updates from WSDOT. “These reforms will save the state money,” he said, and help “to make our overall transportation system more transparent” and less costly.

Sen. Tracey Eide said freight mobility is critical. “All the projects that we have put up play an important role in moving goods” into, out of and through the state. She also said rising gas prices necessitate better mass transit, and this budget provides for that.

Sen. Joe Fain said that the lack of a large transportation package doesn’t mean they’re slowing down on planning for the future. He said the northern portion of I-405 came in under bid, freeing up tens of millions of dollars in the budget.

Sen. Steve Hobbs said the budget makes three key investments in the state patrol, including upgrading their radio system. He said it also funds the facial recognition program, which he said will enable the Department of Licensing to catch 8 to 12 applicants each day who are illegally using another person’s identity.

Haugen said there just weren’t the votes for Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed fee on oil barrels.

She also said the transportation budget isn’t the most exciting — and that’s just fine with those on the committee.

Tags: Budget, Senate, transportation

The Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee is considering a bill aimed at putting the Affordable Care Act into place — including implementing the healthcare exchange.

“There is some real controversy here,” said Sen. Linda Evans Parlette. She said the Legislature passed a bill last year, and it seems like they shouldn’t need to pass another bill to qualify for Level 2 federal funding for the exchange.

Jonathan Seib with Gov. Chris Gregoire’s policy office said the state needs to be ready for open enrollment in October of next year — part of that requires being certified for the federal government. He said the legislation last session did not give the board the tools that it needs to be open for business by that time.

Sen. Mike Carrell asked what requirement the state must meet. “Have we, in this bill, gone beyond that and in what areas can we reduce the scope of this bill” and still qualify for funding, he asked. Seib said the bill contains components that the governor’s office believes the state needs to receive the funding. He said there are some additional aspects of the bill that allow the state to customize the exchange to this state.

Sharon Shaw, a small business owner, said healthcare should be affordable for everyone, but it’s not. “If I lost Basic Health, insurance for a family of four would cost more than my mortgage,” she said.

Eric Smiley, who owns a Seattle hair salon, said he works long hours and pays his taxes but can’t afford healthcare. “The system, as it is set up today, does not work for me … purchasing insurance is expensive and confusing,” he said, adding that the state needs an easy-to-use health insurance exchange so that small business owners and others can afford insurance.

Makini Howell, a restauranteur in Seattle, said the people at the hearing in “expensive suits” are trying to preserve the status quo. But the dozens of other regular people are there to support the exchange.

But Mel Sorenson with the Washington Association of Health Underwriters said the details of the bill matter, and some of the details in this bill are “objectionable.” He said his group is in favor of healthcare reform, but they have issues with this bill. He said his group believes that additional, cost-driving obligations to the exchange in this bill are unnecessary.

Tags: healthcare