1. SHARE/WHEEL, the homeless advocacy group, say they'll resume sleeping outside City Council member Tom Rasmussen's house soon. SHARE slept outside several council members' houses late last year to protest the city's refusal to give them $50,000, with no strings attached, to pay for bus passes to and from the shelters SHARE operates.

The city has offered the money, but says SHARE needs to guarantee it will keep its shelters open through the year in exchange. SHARE doesn't want to do that, because they say they may run out of money. Thus, the standoff.

SHARE's protests last year became controversial after PubliCola reported that several SHARE clients said the group told them they would be evicted from their tents or shelter beds if they refused to attend the protests, for which they could have been arrested.

2. The city council unanimously passed a resolution yesterday describing the qualities they want in a new director for the city's office of housing, whose previous director, Adrienne Quinn, left earlier this year. Housing advocates worry that Mayor Mike McGinn plans to fold the functions of the housing office into other city departments.

The housing office, the resolution says, has "a unique focus on housing finance and housing policy and is a national leader in leveraging local dollars to yield housing for seniors, disabled people, the very poor, working poor, and people transitioning out of chronic homelessness."

3. We have reported several times now that the state House is proposing to end a tax exemption for big banks. Currently, banks don't pay tax on the interest they earn on first time mortgage loans.

The House wants to end the exemption–worth about $67 million to the state—for any interest over $100,000. The Senate doesn't support the idea.

Neither do the banks. Yesterday, as the special session to reach a budget compromise began, the Washington Bankers Association sent a letter to lawmakers telling their side of the story.

In recent days there have been a number of assertions on blogs and among some special interest groups that the banking industry is escaping taxation in the current revenue proposals being considered by the Legislature.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The letter points out that banks will get hit by the lift on exemptions for business services and also pay about $63 million in the tax on out-of-state companies that do business in Washington state (part of this year's batch of new revenue streams being proposed by the state).

As for the  the House proposal to lift the exemption on interest income, the WBA letter says:

The WBA is opposing a repeal of the first mortgage deduction that exists in current law.  Financial Institutions began paying the B&O in 1970.  The Legislature made a policy decision at that time to encourage homeownership in Washington State, and thus made the decision to exclude first mortgage interest from taxation.  First mortgage interest has NEVER been taxed in our State.  The House has included in its tax package a proposal to tax first mortgage interest in excess of $100 million.  This threshold is proposed in the hopes that most community banks would be exempt from this tax.  The reality is that there are two significant community banks that would still be subject to this tax.

There is also an assertion that large national banks and the two mid-sized community banks should indeed pay this tax.  It is important that lawmakers recognize these banks provide a significant majority of all mortgages in Washington State.  Please also understand that these banks are in a better position to provide loans to first-time homebuyers and prospective homebuyers who have more challenging financial affairs.  Creating a new tax on first mortgages will mean that these loans will become more expensive.  At this time in our economy we should be encouraging home lending, not making it more expensive.