Morning Fizz
State Rep. Hans Dunshee for President
1. Contrary to what the anti-tunnel campaign told
the Seattle Times, Mayor Mike McGinn campaign consultant Bill Broadhead's involvement in the campaign was not "limited to an early financial contribution” of $5,000, the largest individual contribution to the campaign, made back in March.
(The Times—and the pro-tunnel campaign—have been trying to link the anti-tunnel campaign to Mayor Mike McGinn, a longtime vocal opponent of the tunnel, whose popularity is not so hot.)
All the Times had to do was look at the anti-tunnel campaign's finance records: The campaign paid Broadhead $3,000 for polling in June.[pullquote]All the Times had to do was look at the anti-tunnel campaign's finance records: The campaign paid Broadhead $3,000 for polling in June.[/pullquote]
Yesterday, we asked the anti-tunnel campaign why they didn’t mention Broadhead’s polling work. Campaign manager Esther Handy told us the money didn’t technically go to Broadhead. “They [Broadhead's Mercury Group] got a check because they had an account with the vendor” that actually did the poll, a robo-poll conducted two months ago, Handy said. “The invoice went to Mercury because they had the contract [with the polling firm, which campaign finance documents do not identify] and we needed to do [the poll] fast."
2. Never mind all the state legislators who are running for US congress, state Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-44, Snohomish) should think about running for president. We're joking, but in light of the debt limit debacle for Democrats, it is worth revisiting Dunshee's status as PubliCola's 2011 "House Committee Chair of the Year ."
One of the Republicans' top priorities this past session was lowering the capital budget debt limit, but house Democratic Capital Budget Committee Chair Dunshee wasn't into that idea. Yes, we had a debt limit fight too.
With the majority conservative bloc of Republicans and Democrats in the senate pushing a debt limit amendment and the minority house Republicans backing them by refusing to approve Dunshee's budget (you need a two-thirds vote for capital budget bonds), conservatives (and Dunshee's own party) put the squeeze on Dunshee.
Unlike Obama, Democrat Dunshee won, passing a capital budget that included $324 million for 77 public works projects.
From our end-of-the-session report:
3. Back to the tunnel.
In this morning's first Fizz item (above), we slapped the anti-tunnel camp for fudging its story. (It turns out they do rely on the McGinn's political team.)[pullquote]Yesterday, the campaign distributed a 2009 letter from a WSDOT financial planner confirming that WSDOT estimates the true total cost of the tunnel, including interest, at $6.14 billion.[/pullquote]
In this item, they do the slapping—making the case against the Washington Department of Transportation for keeping the tunnel finance plan under wraps.
Last night, the anti-tunnel camp, Protect Seattle Now, sent out an email blast announcing that they were filing another public records request for the state Department of Transportation's tunnel financing plan, accusing the state of "covering up" the finance plan by refusing to comply with previous requests. “When the public is asked to take on so much risk, the least that the state government can do is come clean and publicly show how much this project will actually cost, with interest.”
WSDOT denied the requests under the "deliberative process" exemption to public disclosure, which exempts from disclosure "preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, and intra-agency memorandums in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended."
The campaign argues that the draft financial documents are factual, not opinion-based, making them not subject to the deliberative process rule. And even if the documents do include opinions and policy recommendations, Protect Seattle Now attorney Gary Manca says WSDOT has the discretion to provide redacted copies anyway. "Usually, it's pretty hard for an entire financial document to have no factual information," Manca says.
Yesterday, the campaign distributed a 2009 letter from a WSDOT financial planner confirming that WSDOT estimates the true total cost of the tunnel, including interest, at $6.14 billion and confirming that "if the gas tax revenue does not come in as planned, the legislature will need to take action to remedy the situation." Gas tax revenues have declined in Seattle and across the state.
4. ThinkTank has returned from summer vacation.
PubliCola's weekly debate is back. Today we've got Tim Eyman, whose latest initiative would regulate tolling, vs. Rob Johnson, Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition, arguing over the big wonky question: Should tolls be tied to the projects they pay for or should they help fund the larger transportation system?
Stay tuned.
(The Times—and the pro-tunnel campaign—have been trying to link the anti-tunnel campaign to Mayor Mike McGinn, a longtime vocal opponent of the tunnel, whose popularity is not so hot.)
All the Times had to do was look at the anti-tunnel campaign's finance records: The campaign paid Broadhead $3,000 for polling in June.[pullquote]All the Times had to do was look at the anti-tunnel campaign's finance records: The campaign paid Broadhead $3,000 for polling in June.[/pullquote]
Yesterday, we asked the anti-tunnel campaign why they didn’t mention Broadhead’s polling work. Campaign manager Esther Handy told us the money didn’t technically go to Broadhead. “They [Broadhead's Mercury Group] got a check because they had an account with the vendor” that actually did the poll, a robo-poll conducted two months ago, Handy said. “The invoice went to Mercury because they had the contract [with the polling firm, which campaign finance documents do not identify] and we needed to do [the poll] fast."
2. Never mind all the state legislators who are running for US congress, state Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-44, Snohomish) should think about running for president. We're joking, but in light of the debt limit debacle for Democrats, it is worth revisiting Dunshee's status as PubliCola's 2011 "House Committee Chair of the Year ."
One of the Republicans' top priorities this past session was lowering the capital budget debt limit, but house Democratic Capital Budget Committee Chair Dunshee wasn't into that idea. Yes, we had a debt limit fight too.
With the majority conservative bloc of Republicans and Democrats in the senate pushing a debt limit amendment and the minority house Republicans backing them by refusing to approve Dunshee's budget (you need a two-thirds vote for capital budget bonds), conservatives (and Dunshee's own party) put the squeeze on Dunshee.
Unlike Obama, Democrat Dunshee won, passing a capital budget that included $324 million for 77 public works projects.
From our end-of-the-session report:
One of the biggest standoffs this legislative session was over the capital budget. And three of the four caucuses—the senate Democrats and Republicans and the house Republicans—were lined up against house capital budget chair Dunshee. Despite being outnumbered, Dunshee stopped their proposed constitutional amendment to lower the debt limit and curtail the capital budget.
And when his opponents came back with a weaker provision, a statutory limit rather than a constitutional one, Dunshee doubled his victory by getting them to agree to a higher limit than they wanted.
Whatever you think of his politics—it was probably the only victory for Paul-Krugman-stimulus-spending-politics during the entire legislative session—you’ve got to hand it to Dunshee for his political tenacity.
3. Back to the tunnel.
In this morning's first Fizz item (above), we slapped the anti-tunnel camp for fudging its story. (It turns out they do rely on the McGinn's political team.)[pullquote]Yesterday, the campaign distributed a 2009 letter from a WSDOT financial planner confirming that WSDOT estimates the true total cost of the tunnel, including interest, at $6.14 billion.[/pullquote]
In this item, they do the slapping—making the case against the Washington Department of Transportation for keeping the tunnel finance plan under wraps.
Last night, the anti-tunnel camp, Protect Seattle Now, sent out an email blast announcing that they were filing another public records request for the state Department of Transportation's tunnel financing plan, accusing the state of "covering up" the finance plan by refusing to comply with previous requests. “When the public is asked to take on so much risk, the least that the state government can do is come clean and publicly show how much this project will actually cost, with interest.”
WSDOT denied the requests under the "deliberative process" exemption to public disclosure, which exempts from disclosure "preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, and intra-agency memorandums in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended."
The campaign argues that the draft financial documents are factual, not opinion-based, making them not subject to the deliberative process rule. And even if the documents do include opinions and policy recommendations, Protect Seattle Now attorney Gary Manca says WSDOT has the discretion to provide redacted copies anyway. "Usually, it's pretty hard for an entire financial document to have no factual information," Manca says.
Yesterday, the campaign distributed a 2009 letter from a WSDOT financial planner confirming that WSDOT estimates the true total cost of the tunnel, including interest, at $6.14 billion and confirming that "if the gas tax revenue does not come in as planned, the legislature will need to take action to remedy the situation." Gas tax revenues have declined in Seattle and across the state.
4. ThinkTank has returned from summer vacation.
PubliCola's weekly debate is back. Today we've got Tim Eyman, whose latest initiative would regulate tolling, vs. Rob Johnson, Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition, arguing over the big wonky question: Should tolls be tied to the projects they pay for or should they help fund the larger transportation system?
Stay tuned.
