Morning Fizz
"It Just Means Democracy is Messy."
Caffeinated news and gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.
Port Angeles teacher Wendy Steele protesting cuts to education yesterday in Olympia, where $334 million in K-12 cuts are on the table. K-12 has already taken $2.5 billion in hits over the last three years including the cancellation of cost-of-living increases. All photos by Josh Feit.
This post has been updated with an item about taxi stands that was inadvertently deleted.
1. The first day of the special session in Olympia—where legislators are looking at $2 billion in cuts plus Gov. Chris Gregoire's half-penny sales tax increase to fix the $1.5 billion shortfall—was rocked by thousands of protesters, including a couple hundred from the Occupy movement, with the rest (teachers, health care workers, students, retirees) coming from unions, schools, clinics, unemployment lines, and the YWCA. Legislators cut $4.5 billion just last spring to pass the $32 billion budget.
Chants of "We are the 99 percent" echoed through the rotunda as both chambers went into lockdown and scores of protesters set up shop along the balconies with signs urging lawmakers to "tax the rich" and "close corporate loopholes." Many legislators were loitering around the snack bar or pacing back in the wings, a little bored after much of the day's official business was postponed.
Protesters made stands of civil disobedience—disrupting the house ways and means committee meeting, refusing to leave the capitol building after hours—that resulted in four arrests and ultimately saw state troopers carrying cooperative sleep-in protesters off the marble floor and out of the building. Thirty trespass warnings were issued.
Troopers used stun guns on three protesters outside the building who, the Washington State Patrol says, were rushing the troopers.
The Olympian has a thorough account here.
See our our on-the-ground coverage and pictures here, here , here, and here, including our award for the tumultuous day's winner and loser .
Here are a few more pictures from the day.
Occupy protester leads raucous chant on the second floor balcony of the capitol building.
Spotlight on senate ways and means chair state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) who predicted that the budget would not be finished during the special session.
Hundreds of peaceful protesters occupied the Capitol steps throughout the day.
2. One protester who wasn't exactly on message:
"Boycott Starbucks," the amiable diehard told us. "Howard Schultz sold us out. Keep the faith, brother."
3. One standoff issue in the budget is whether or not state employees should pay a greater percentage of their health care premiums. They currently pay 15 percent (up from 12 percent after contract talks earlier this year). Republicans and the Seattle Times editorial page have called for an increase to 25 percent.[pullquote]Just because one side lost doesn’t make the rule unconstitutional. It just means democracy is messy—Lisa Stone, Legal Voice. [/pullquote]
Gregoire asked the unions to reopen negotiations—otherwise there's no way to increase the employee share. Gregoire is unilaterally decreasing the state's monthly payment into the account, though (which she can do).
The Times, in fact, called on legislators to "declare an emergency" to reopen contract talks. When asked about the possibility of declaring an emergency, house ways and means chair Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48, Medina) told us, "I'm not familiar with that part of the law" adding that cutting back workers hours and pay didn't strike him as good idea. Doing so actually added costs to the state, he mused. He used corrections as an example saying that "furloughing people [parole officers] just adds costs" because you need more guards.
Meanwhile, Republican house deputy leader Joel Kretz (R-7, Wauconda) told us only the governor could make the unions reopen talks.
Hunter said the game plan was to first have the legislators deal with the budget and then show the unions what lawmakers had come up with (without reopening talks) to see if the unions would be willing to talk after that.
4. This morning, Mayor Mike McGinn will announce the creation of more late-night taxi stands to give people a safe, visible place to hail taxis instead of driving home after drinking. The idea expands on a program started under former mayor Greg Nickels in 2006, when Seattle's first taxi stand opened in Fremont. The stands would be open from 10 pm to 6 am.
5. The emergency contraception case got underway in federal district court in Tacoma yesterday with plaintiffs—pharmacists who think the requirement that pharmacies must honor EC prescriptions violates their First Amendment religious rights—arguing that religious groups were targeted in the rulemaking process by women's rights groups. The state and the women's rights groups argued that the pharmacy board's rulemaking hearings focused on protecting patient safety.
Lisa Stone, director of local women's rights group Legal Voice and one of the attorneys representing five women and two HIV-positive patients, says:
“Patients deserve to get their medications without interference from someone’s personal beliefs. And the fact is, the First Amendment worked here: people on all sides of the issue advocated vigorously and the ultimate rule is fair. Just because one side lost doesn’t make the rule unconstitutional. It just means democracy is messy.”
Port Angeles teacher Wendy Steele protesting cuts to education yesterday in Olympia, where $334 million in K-12 cuts are on the table. K-12 has already taken $2.5 billion in hits over the last three years including the cancellation of cost-of-living increases. All photos by Josh Feit.
This post has been updated with an item about taxi stands that was inadvertently deleted.
1. The first day of the special session in Olympia—where legislators are looking at $2 billion in cuts plus Gov. Chris Gregoire's half-penny sales tax increase to fix the $1.5 billion shortfall—was rocked by thousands of protesters, including a couple hundred from the Occupy movement, with the rest (teachers, health care workers, students, retirees) coming from unions, schools, clinics, unemployment lines, and the YWCA. Legislators cut $4.5 billion just last spring to pass the $32 billion budget.
Chants of "We are the 99 percent" echoed through the rotunda as both chambers went into lockdown and scores of protesters set up shop along the balconies with signs urging lawmakers to "tax the rich" and "close corporate loopholes." Many legislators were loitering around the snack bar or pacing back in the wings, a little bored after much of the day's official business was postponed.
Protesters made stands of civil disobedience—disrupting the house ways and means committee meeting, refusing to leave the capitol building after hours—that resulted in four arrests and ultimately saw state troopers carrying cooperative sleep-in protesters off the marble floor and out of the building. Thirty trespass warnings were issued.
Troopers used stun guns on three protesters outside the building who, the Washington State Patrol says, were rushing the troopers.
The Olympian has a thorough account here.
See our our on-the-ground coverage and pictures here, here , here, and here, including our award for the tumultuous day's winner and loser .
Here are a few more pictures from the day.
Occupy protester leads raucous chant on the second floor balcony of the capitol building.
Spotlight on senate ways and means chair state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) who predicted that the budget would not be finished during the special session.
Hundreds of peaceful protesters occupied the Capitol steps throughout the day.
2. One protester who wasn't exactly on message:
"Boycott Starbucks," the amiable diehard told us. "Howard Schultz sold us out. Keep the faith, brother."
3. One standoff issue in the budget is whether or not state employees should pay a greater percentage of their health care premiums. They currently pay 15 percent (up from 12 percent after contract talks earlier this year). Republicans and the Seattle Times editorial page have called for an increase to 25 percent.[pullquote]Just because one side lost doesn’t make the rule unconstitutional. It just means democracy is messy—Lisa Stone, Legal Voice. [/pullquote]
Gregoire asked the unions to reopen negotiations—otherwise there's no way to increase the employee share. Gregoire is unilaterally decreasing the state's monthly payment into the account, though (which she can do).
The Times, in fact, called on legislators to "declare an emergency" to reopen contract talks. When asked about the possibility of declaring an emergency, house ways and means chair Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48, Medina) told us, "I'm not familiar with that part of the law" adding that cutting back workers hours and pay didn't strike him as good idea. Doing so actually added costs to the state, he mused. He used corrections as an example saying that "furloughing people [parole officers] just adds costs" because you need more guards.
Meanwhile, Republican house deputy leader Joel Kretz (R-7, Wauconda) told us only the governor could make the unions reopen talks.
Hunter said the game plan was to first have the legislators deal with the budget and then show the unions what lawmakers had come up with (without reopening talks) to see if the unions would be willing to talk after that.
4. This morning, Mayor Mike McGinn will announce the creation of more late-night taxi stands to give people a safe, visible place to hail taxis instead of driving home after drinking. The idea expands on a program started under former mayor Greg Nickels in 2006, when Seattle's first taxi stand opened in Fremont. The stands would be open from 10 pm to 6 am.
5. The emergency contraception case got underway in federal district court in Tacoma yesterday with plaintiffs—pharmacists who think the requirement that pharmacies must honor EC prescriptions violates their First Amendment religious rights—arguing that religious groups were targeted in the rulemaking process by women's rights groups. The state and the women's rights groups argued that the pharmacy board's rulemaking hearings focused on protecting patient safety.
Lisa Stone, director of local women's rights group Legal Voice and one of the attorneys representing five women and two HIV-positive patients, says:
“Patients deserve to get their medications without interference from someone’s personal beliefs. And the fact is, the First Amendment worked here: people on all sides of the issue advocated vigorously and the ultimate rule is fair. Just because one side lost doesn’t make the rule unconstitutional. It just means democracy is messy.”