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The Court Said No

By Morning Fizz September 14, 2009


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1.
Thurston County Superior Court ruled against Tim Eyman on Friday. Eyman had filed a suit complaining that the state's Office of Financial Management's miscalculated the hit state and local governments would take. (1033 limits the amount of revenues the state can spend.)

OFM's fiscal note—which the agency was required to provide and publish in the Voters' Guide—estimated that 1033 would cost the state $5.9 billion and cost cities and counties $2.8 billion by 2015.

Eyman's suit demanded a new fiscal statement. The court said no.

2. Morning Fizz hears that longtime Mayor Greg Nickels' staffer, legal counsel Regina LaBelle, got a job in D.C. with either former SPD Chief Gil Kerlikowske (now President Obama's drug czar) or perhaps with former County Executive Ron Sims, now at HUD.

(MF also hears that outgoing City Council Member Richard McIver's longtime staffer Paul Elliott, got a job  in Seattle's Department of Transportation doing outreach in South Seattle.)

3.
There's a parade of comments on Erica's scoop about Mike McGinn's financial ties to Seattle's business and developer crowd. Reporting last Friday about the backers of McGinn's non-profit, Great City, Erica wrote:
The most prominent company on the list  is Vulcan, Paul Allen’s South Lake Union development firm. Although McGinn wouldn’t say specifically how much Vulcan had contributed to Great City, he does concede that the developer is among the organization’s top two or three contributors...

Several of McGinn’s positions on big city and development issues line up closely with Vulcan’s: He supports a version of the proposed $290 million “Mercer Mess” fix (although he says “we have to figure out a way to make it cheaper”), and he wants to make “incentive zoning” (a scheme in which developers get to build taller buildings in exchange for investing in amenities like affordable housing) more flexible than current guidelines mandate. (In 2007, Vulcan successfully lobbied the city to exempt it from some incentive zoning requirements for one of its developments in South Lake Union).

4. Morning Fizz is totally straight, but we're definitely going to be at this Thursday's art opening at the Re-Bar
. The show features silkscreens of Seattle's A-list drag queens and divas, and Thursday night's 9pm show (sliding scale $5 to $10) features performances by all of them, including: Jackie Hell, Ade', Ursula Android, and Sarah Rudinoff.

The Re-Bar is at 114 Howell St. And the silkscreens—which are fabulous—are going for $100 each.

Today's Morning Fizz is brought to you by Washington Conservation Voters.



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