[caption id="attachment_19954" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Speaker Chopp"][/caption]

As I mentioned yesterday, Josh and I had a long conversation with state House speaker Frank Chopp yesterday afternoon about the Democrats' agenda for 2010, the state budget situation, and what impact, if any, Mike McGinn's election as mayor would have on the viaduct debate in the legislature. Some highlights of that discussion:

We asked Chopp whether he had switched his position "retro reform," which he reportedly scuttled last session. The legislation would have ended a controversial practice in which conservative trade groups like the Building Industry of Washington spend a portion of state-funded workers’ comp refunds on political ads. Chopp told a Democratic group he was open to changing the program earlier this month.

Chopp said he hadn't changed his position; "I've supported [retro reform] for some time," he told us. "We intend to move that early this session and we plan to pass it."

So what was the hangup last time? According to Chopp, the bill got stalled because some members of the Democratic caucus wanted to wait until a consultant completed an audit of the retro program, which it did earlier this year. That audit, known as the Wyman Report, confirmed that confirms that hundreds of millions of dollars were shifted into groups like the BIAW’s, and that tens of millions of that amount were spent on political campaigns.

Another piece of legislation that had the support of progressive Democrats but failed to make it out of either house was the so-called "transit-oriented communities" bill, which would have allowed taller, denser buildings around light rail stations.

We asked Chopp what happened to the legislation, which Chopp supported. Chopp said the legislation got "hung up" on the fact that it took a top-down approach—amending the Growth Management Act to impact zoning at transit stops, which legislators felt should be a local issue. Although Chopp said he doesn't expect any version of that bill to come back before 2011, he said the legislature was likely to expand affordable housing at transit stations through the state's workforce housing finance program, instead of doing it through upzones.

"It’s important to do that through public housing and nonprofit housing groups, so that rents can be affordable over the long term," Chopp says. "Transit-oriented development means you have development close to transit centers. Well, let’s start financing those things." Chopp says he also supports allowing counties to use hotel and motel taxes for housing, in addition to public art.

As we reported yesterday, Chopp expressed excitement about having a Seattle mayor who opposes the tunnel, as Chopp does. Chopp also expressed optimism about working with McGinn in the future, noting that "in the little time [since the election], I've already talked to him more than I did with the previous mayor in the last four years." Chopp said he was interested in McGinn's idea of passing a local-option tax to pay for light rail to West Seattle and Ballard.

Chopp didn't go into many specifics about what agenda items he hoped to pass in the upcoming budget-heavy short session, noting that the House Democrats' agenda was still in draft form. (I've requested a copy of the draft agenda from the House Democratic Caucus). A couple of specifics he did mention: Passing the so-called Clean Water Act, which would pay for pollution prevention programs with a fee on oil; the JOBS Act, which would pay for energy retrofits at public schools; and expanding state-funded health care for kids.