Morning Fizz
The Budget Blame Game
Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.
1. Despite yesterday's mad dash to meet a midnight deadline and finish this year's legislative session in Olympia, the primer we published in the early afternoon about the budget standoff remains the latest: Democrats and Republicans are at an impasse.
The Republicans want to make drastic cuts to human services and education and the Democrats want to stave off those cuts by delaying a $330 million payment to local school districts—which the Republicans contend simply hobbles the next budget.[pullquote]We’re being forced back into session because Senate Republicans insist on negotiating cuts to education.—Democratic Sens. Lisa Brown & Ed Murray [/pullquote]
A special session to reach a budget agreement begins Monday at noon.
Late last night, both sides (as well as Gov. Chris Gregoire) sent out statements blaming one another.
Republican budget leader, Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield), who headed up a stunning GOP coup last week by peeling of three Democrats to pass a surprise budget, issued a statement at midnight:
About 90 minutes later, Democratic senate budget leader Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) and senate majority leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) issued a joint statement:
As for Gov. Gregoire. She had this to say:
In other quotes (and actual news) of the day, the governor did sign the compromise education reform bill —passed by whopping majorities with only the staunchest of labor liberals voting against it—which mandates that student achievement must be part of the teacher evaluation system.
Shannon Campion, executive director of Stand for Children, the polarizing ed reform group, cheered:
2. Ironically (or fittingly), as the session stumbled to a non-finish, in part because the majority Democrats couldn't raise revenue thanks to the two-thirds rule, there's a hearing in King County Superior Court today at 1:30 where Democrats will begin oral arguments in their case to have the rule (Tim Eyman's I-1053) declared unconstitutional."[pullquote][Democratic] leaders from the House have yet to sit down and negotiate directly with the bipartisan coalition that passed the Senate budget."—Republican Sen. Joe Zarelli[/pullquote]
3. Erica will be on KUOW's Weekday with Steve Scher this morning at 10 to review the week in news. 94.9 FM.
And Josh will be on KCTS TV with Enrique Cerna at 7 this evening—also to review the week's big stories.
4. Lake City residents, concerned about the city's plans to redevelop the former Fire Station 39 (currently in temporary use as a homeless shelter) with low-income and affordable housing, are distributing a survey to find out how people in the neighborhood feel about the proposal.
Although Fizz's immediate reaction was that some of the questions ("Do you agree that the city should follow the Lake City Comprehensive Plan and hold on to the old 39 property for Civic purposes?"; "Do you believe the city should follow the policies established in the Lake City Comp Plan?") seemed pretty biased against the city's proposal, neighborhood sources argue Lake City is justified in complaining that the area has too little infrastructure to serve homeless and low-income people.
In emails to neighborhood residents and city council members, residents have complained about a perceived increase in public urination, stabbings, drug dealing, and litter, among other problems.
1. Despite yesterday's mad dash to meet a midnight deadline and finish this year's legislative session in Olympia, the primer we published in the early afternoon about the budget standoff remains the latest: Democrats and Republicans are at an impasse.
The Republicans want to make drastic cuts to human services and education and the Democrats want to stave off those cuts by delaying a $330 million payment to local school districts—which the Republicans contend simply hobbles the next budget.[pullquote]We’re being forced back into session because Senate Republicans insist on negotiating cuts to education.—Democratic Sens. Lisa Brown & Ed Murray [/pullquote]
A special session to reach a budget agreement begins Monday at noon.
Late last night, both sides (as well as Gov. Chris Gregoire) sent out statements blaming one another.
Republican budget leader, Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield), who headed up a stunning GOP coup last week by peeling of three Democrats to pass a surprise budget, issued a statement at midnight:
The Senate budget—not a Republican budget, but a sustainable bipartisan Senate budget–was adopted six days ago. Yet leaders from the House have yet to sit down and negotiate directly with the bipartisan coalition that passed the Senate budget. Instead, they chose the odd strategy of spending all week negotiating with the 24 senators who voted against it.
About 90 minutes later, Democratic senate budget leader Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) and senate majority leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) issued a joint statement:
We’re being forced back into session because Senate Republicans insist on negotiating cuts to education. We don’t have to cut schools anymore. The budget we publically proposed in the Senate didn’t cut education; the budget the House approved Thursday didn’t cut education.
As for Gov. Gregoire. She had this to say:
Disagreement still remains over how to close our state’s budget shortfall after three years of ongoing cuts. Knowing this would be a challenge, I put forth a budget in November and called for the Legislature to come back early to begin what would be a large task. They still have not completed the job, and as a result, I will ask the Legislature to reconvene Monday at 12pm to finish the job they came here to do.
In other quotes (and actual news) of the day, the governor did sign the compromise education reform bill —passed by whopping majorities with only the staunchest of labor liberals voting against it—which mandates that student achievement must be part of the teacher evaluation system.
Shannon Campion, executive director of Stand for Children, the polarizing ed reform group, cheered:
“The teacher and principal evaluation bill is a significant step forward for Washington’s students in large part because the conversation is now about how much of a factor student academic growth should be in evaluations versus whether or not it should be a factor. This is welcome news for Washington students and families.”
2. Ironically (or fittingly), as the session stumbled to a non-finish, in part because the majority Democrats couldn't raise revenue thanks to the two-thirds rule, there's a hearing in King County Superior Court today at 1:30 where Democrats will begin oral arguments in their case to have the rule (Tim Eyman's I-1053) declared unconstitutional."[pullquote][Democratic] leaders from the House have yet to sit down and negotiate directly with the bipartisan coalition that passed the Senate budget."—Republican Sen. Joe Zarelli[/pullquote]
3. Erica will be on KUOW's Weekday with Steve Scher this morning at 10 to review the week in news. 94.9 FM.
And Josh will be on KCTS TV with Enrique Cerna at 7 this evening—also to review the week's big stories.
4. Lake City residents, concerned about the city's plans to redevelop the former Fire Station 39 (currently in temporary use as a homeless shelter) with low-income and affordable housing, are distributing a survey to find out how people in the neighborhood feel about the proposal.
Although Fizz's immediate reaction was that some of the questions ("Do you agree that the city should follow the Lake City Comprehensive Plan and hold on to the old 39 property for Civic purposes?"; "Do you believe the city should follow the policies established in the Lake City Comp Plan?") seemed pretty biased against the city's proposal, neighborhood sources argue Lake City is justified in complaining that the area has too little infrastructure to serve homeless and low-income people.
In emails to neighborhood residents and city council members, residents have complained about a perceived increase in public urination, stabbings, drug dealing, and litter, among other problems.
