Morning Fizz
Must-See TV
1. Yesterday afternoon's state house ways and means committee hearing on three Democratic bills that pit tax loopholes against funding for health care services and K-3 education finally brought a debate that's been happening at water coolers and bars for months—should we preserve tax breaks or preserve social programs?—directly (and substantively) to the state legislature.
The three bills under consideration would 1) close a tax exemption for banks on mortgage loans and instead fund K-3 class size reductions; 2) close tax exemptions for debt collectors and fund in-home health care; and 3) end the sales tax exemption for out-of-state shoppers and fund health care. The bills are sponsored by Democratic Reps. Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma), Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle), and Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), respectively.
With legislators accusing each other of asking leading questions, Republicans taking issue with the term "tax expenditure" to describe a tax break, and heart-wrenching testimony from people with serious disabilities who require long-term care, the debate is must-see TV, exposing the fundamentals of the battle that is not only the backdrop of the 2011 session in Olympia, but front and center at the national level between U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan and President Obama.
Jerry Riley, lobbyist for the ElderCare Alliance and the Home Care Coalition and a supporter of the bills, summed up the significance of the hearing, saying: "We have said since the start of this session, it is very important, at the same time and the same place, to take a look at tax expenditures as we look at program reductions and look at at the relative merits ... This is what we're hearing today. We're hearing people defend their exemptions, and that's as it should be."
[pullquote]The question we want to answer today is whether spending public funds on these tax breaks is more important than spending public dollars on something that the voters and this body have repeatedly said is a priority for the state.[/pullquote]
And defend them they did. Kelly Parker, President of the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce (who was wearing a large gold-colored lapel pin that read "JOBS") told the committee she was testifying on behalf of Sparks Furniture, Runyan Jewelers, and 1,100 other local and family businesses that rely on Oregon shoppers for 25 percent of their sales. And David Fagin with the Washington Collectors Association turned the table on health care advocates, telling anecdotes about single moms working as debt collectors for hospitals who would lose their jobs.
The opponents and proponents of the bills talked past each other all afternoon—sometimes in profound ways. When Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-18) asked Linda Lee, a long-term caregiver in Vancouver who detailed her dwindling hours and wages (as well as the effect on her severely disabled clients), if in fact a Vancouver Best Buy hadn't moved to Oregon (taking its employees with it) because of the out-of-state sales tax exemption issue, Lee shot back: "I really have to tell you, I cleared $1,129 last month, I don't shop at Best Buy, I can't afford to. By the time I pay for my rent and my food..."
Rep. Orcutt: "I'm not asking if you shop there, I'm just asking if it's closed."
Lee: "I wouldn't know, I wouldn't know, I wouldn't know. I haven't been in a retail store for years."
Hanna Lidman, lobbyist for the League of Education Voters, testifying in favor of funding smaller class sizes—voter-approved Initiative 728—had a succinct summary of the afternoon's debate: "Tax breaks are spending and the question we want to answer today is whether spending public funds on these tax breaks is more important than spending public dollars on something that the voters and this body have repeatedly said is a priority for the state."
Watch the entire two-hour hearing here .
2. The house passed the transportation funding bill we've been following this session—a temporary $20 vehicle license fee to fund Metro bus service.
Two Seattle reps, Reps. Mary Lou Dickerson and Zach Hudgins voted "No." The bill passed 50-47.
Hardcore transit advocates, Reps. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-Burien, W. Seattle) and the bill's house sponsor, Rep. Marko Liias (D-Edmonds), along with Seattle liberal Rep. David Frockt (D-N. Seattle), lobbied their colleagues hard to pass the bill. The legislation has been controversial on the house side because the senate changed it—amending it to include a requirement that the King County Council needs an Eyman-like two-thirds vote to pass the fee. (That's why Dickerson voted against it.)
In addition to the transit trio making their last-minute case, house speaker, Rep. Frank Chopp (D-Seattle), who hasn't been a leader for transit advocates and greens, could be seen going desk to desk on the house floor before the vote as the clerk kept vote open longer than usual.
The three bills under consideration would 1) close a tax exemption for banks on mortgage loans and instead fund K-3 class size reductions; 2) close tax exemptions for debt collectors and fund in-home health care; and 3) end the sales tax exemption for out-of-state shoppers and fund health care. The bills are sponsored by Democratic Reps. Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma), Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle), and Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), respectively.
With legislators accusing each other of asking leading questions, Republicans taking issue with the term "tax expenditure" to describe a tax break, and heart-wrenching testimony from people with serious disabilities who require long-term care, the debate is must-see TV, exposing the fundamentals of the battle that is not only the backdrop of the 2011 session in Olympia, but front and center at the national level between U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan and President Obama.
Jerry Riley, lobbyist for the ElderCare Alliance and the Home Care Coalition and a supporter of the bills, summed up the significance of the hearing, saying: "We have said since the start of this session, it is very important, at the same time and the same place, to take a look at tax expenditures as we look at program reductions and look at at the relative merits ... This is what we're hearing today. We're hearing people defend their exemptions, and that's as it should be."
[pullquote]The question we want to answer today is whether spending public funds on these tax breaks is more important than spending public dollars on something that the voters and this body have repeatedly said is a priority for the state.[/pullquote]
And defend them they did. Kelly Parker, President of the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce (who was wearing a large gold-colored lapel pin that read "JOBS") told the committee she was testifying on behalf of Sparks Furniture, Runyan Jewelers, and 1,100 other local and family businesses that rely on Oregon shoppers for 25 percent of their sales. And David Fagin with the Washington Collectors Association turned the table on health care advocates, telling anecdotes about single moms working as debt collectors for hospitals who would lose their jobs.
The opponents and proponents of the bills talked past each other all afternoon—sometimes in profound ways. When Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-18) asked Linda Lee, a long-term caregiver in Vancouver who detailed her dwindling hours and wages (as well as the effect on her severely disabled clients), if in fact a Vancouver Best Buy hadn't moved to Oregon (taking its employees with it) because of the out-of-state sales tax exemption issue, Lee shot back: "I really have to tell you, I cleared $1,129 last month, I don't shop at Best Buy, I can't afford to. By the time I pay for my rent and my food..."
Rep. Orcutt: "I'm not asking if you shop there, I'm just asking if it's closed."
Lee: "I wouldn't know, I wouldn't know, I wouldn't know. I haven't been in a retail store for years."
Hanna Lidman, lobbyist for the League of Education Voters, testifying in favor of funding smaller class sizes—voter-approved Initiative 728—had a succinct summary of the afternoon's debate: "Tax breaks are spending and the question we want to answer today is whether spending public funds on these tax breaks is more important than spending public dollars on something that the voters and this body have repeatedly said is a priority for the state."
Watch the entire two-hour hearing here .
2. The house passed the transportation funding bill we've been following this session—a temporary $20 vehicle license fee to fund Metro bus service.
Two Seattle reps, Reps. Mary Lou Dickerson and Zach Hudgins voted "No." The bill passed 50-47.
Hardcore transit advocates, Reps. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-Burien, W. Seattle) and the bill's house sponsor, Rep. Marko Liias (D-Edmonds), along with Seattle liberal Rep. David Frockt (D-N. Seattle), lobbied their colleagues hard to pass the bill. The legislation has been controversial on the house side because the senate changed it—amending it to include a requirement that the King County Council needs an Eyman-like two-thirds vote to pass the fee. (That's why Dickerson voted against it.)
In addition to the transit trio making their last-minute case, house speaker, Rep. Frank Chopp (D-Seattle), who hasn't been a leader for transit advocates and greens, could be seen going desk to desk on the house floor before the vote as the clerk kept vote open longer than usual.
