State Sen. Karen Keiser (D-33, Kent), chair of the health care committee, introduced a bill late last week that would reinstate the sales tax on out-of-state shoppers, to partially restore cuts to in-home health care hours for Medicaid recipients;  Governor Chris Gregoire's 2011-13 budget cut hours for 45,000 recipients of in-home care by 10 percent—a $100 million cut over the biennium.

The bill—which comes with a referendum clause to send it out for a public vote—would undo legislation exempting visitors from states with sales taxes under 3 percent (Oregon) raising about $45 million a  year. Doing the bill as a referendum means it only needs to pass the legislature with a simple majority even though it's a revenue bill.

A crew of Seattle senators—Sens. Adam Kline, Jean Kohl-Welles, Ed Murray, Sharon Nelson, and Scott White—are cosponsoring the bill.