News & Updates

This morning, Governor Christine Gregoire tapped state Court of Appeals judge Debra Stephens of Spokane as the newest member of the state Supreme Court.  Stephens replaces Justice Bobbe Bridge who announced earlier this year she would step down at the end of December to run a juvenile justice program.

Stephens, a graduate of Gonzaga University’s School of Law, becomes the first woman Supreme Court justice from Eastern Washington.  According to the Seattle Times, the appointment of Stephens is a bit of a surprise.  Most court watchers expected the Governor to appoint Appeals Judge Mary Kay Becker, King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu or Hugh Spitzer, a well known constitutional law scholar.

Stephens will have to run statewide for re-election next November.

Jaime Herrera, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has been chosed to complete the term of former state representative Richard Curtis who resigned last month following media reports of a sexual encounter in a Spokane hotel.  Clark and Cowlitz county commissioners meeting in Kelso yesterday voted to appoint Herrera to the 18th district post.  She was sworn into office by the Cowlitz County auditor.  Herrera also served as a session intern for Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-Ridgefield) who is the Senator from her new district which includes the communities of Ridgefield, Camas, Battle Ground, Kalama and Woodland.

It’s a bitterly cold Friday morning in Olympia and the one day special session is now history.  Not much to do yesterday other than catch up on paperwork, telephone calls and watch the House and Senate reinstate the 1% property tax limitation that was tossed out a few weeks ago by the Supreme Court.  Not too much drama either as the limitation bill passed easily from both chambers and was signed instantaneously by the Governor.  The most popular person in Olympia yesterday seemed to be some fellow called “Will of the People” who was referred to by virtually every speaker in committee or on the floor.  Perhaps I’ll get to meet him some day soon.

The previous Wednesday, the Senate Higher Education Committee held a hearing at 3:30 p.m. on the two North Sound campus reports prepared by NBBJ consultants and the UW.  I was on a panel of presenters with Debora Merle from the Governor’s Office and Martin Regge from NBBJ Consultants.  As has been the case with most legislative hearings on this topic, most of the questions and passion surrounded the NBBJ report which ranked the Pacific Station site in Everett as the preferred location for the new campus.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) and Sen. Val Stevens (R-Arlington) asked the most pointed questions of NBBJ as they have expressed their public support for the Smokey Point site in Marysville.  Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens) also asked many questions about the ranking of the sites and criteria chosen as he has been a public backer of the Cavalero site in Lake Stevens.  Committee chairman Sen. Paull Shin (D-Edmonds) did a good job of keeping the committee focused and allowing each of us on the panel to make our respective presentations.

While the ultimate location of the campus site remains in the hands of the state legislature, the Pacific Station site did get a boost on Thursday as the Everett Herald reported that Sen. Jean Berkey (D-Everett) has thrown her support behind the Pacific Station site.

Today, I will make presentations on UW North Sound to the House Higher Education Committee at 10:00 a.m. and the House Capital Budget Committee at 3:30 p.m.  More on those hearings in a future post.

According to this morning’s Chronicle of Higher Education, officials at California’s two public university systems are pitting themselves against their counterparts in the state’s community college system over a February 2008 ballot measure that would provide a guarantee of additional state funding for California’s two year colleges.

The measure, officially known as the Community College Governance, Funding Stabilization, and Student Fee Reduction Act but referred to most often by its ballot number, Proposition 92, would establish a separate state funding guarantee for the California Community Colleges, as well as a separate enrollment growth formula.  The measure would also reduce student fees (tuition) and make changes in governance of the two year schools.

California already has a funding guarantee for K-12 schools which is known as Proposition 98.  According to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, Proposition 92 would require the state to spend about $300 million per year more for public schools AND community colleges.

The governing boards of the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU)  systems have taken positions against Proposition 92.  While UC and CSU officials expressed strong support for the community college system, they fear that passage of Proposition 92 could endanger the budgets for four year universities because it would limit the pot of state money available to agencies without protected streams of funding.  UC and CSU board members further point out that changing the funding provisions of the measure would require a four-fifths vote of the legislature and a two thirds vote would be required to increase student fees.

Supporters of Proposition 92 include the California School Employees Association and the California Community College Association.  In addition to UC and CSU governing boards, opponents include the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Teachers Association, the League of Women Voters of California and teh California Business Roundtable.

By now, most of you know that the Governor has called for a special session of the legislature to be held for one day, this Thursday November 29.  The legislature was already scheduled to be in the state capital this week for their regularly scheduled late November committee assembly.  With the one day special session, previously scheduled committee hearings had to be quickly reorganized.  For your information, here’s a preview of higher education related hearings for the upcoming week.

On Wednesday November 28, the House Higher Education Committee will hold a joint meeting with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education at 9:30 a.m. in House Hearing Room A.  Topics on the agenda include community college budgets, financial barriers for students and an update on the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) master plan.

The Senate Higher Education Committee will hold a hearing later that afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3.  Topics include a presentation on the HECB strategic master plan and a presentation on the siting recommendations and preliminary academic plan for the UW North Sound campus.

On Friday November 30, the House Higher Education Committee will meet at 10:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room D to discuss key issues for the 2008 legislative session.  Following a staff recap of the 2007 session, the HECB’s strategic master plan will be discussed and the each of the higher education system representatives (state board, COP, faculty, students, etc.) will be given time to discuss 2008 priority issues.  The final item on the agenda will be a presentation by OFM the and the University on the North Sound campus planning reports.

The House Capital Budget Committee will hold a hearing at 3:30 p.m. that same day in House Hearing Room A.  Topics on the committee’s agenda include an updates on the joint task force on school construction funding and the public infrastructure study committee and another presentation from NBBJ, OFM and the UW on the North Sound campus planning reports.

Most of the local political blogs seem convinced the Governor will call the state legislature into special session sooner rather than later to act to reimpose some sort of local property tax limitation in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to toss out Initiative 747.  The Associated Press said today that Democratic leaders were preparing for a special session on property taxes and that House Speaker Frank Chopp has indicated that like the Governor, his caucus favors reimposing the 1% limit called for in Initiative 747.  Senate Democrats also seem to indicate that a special session on property taxes is inevitable, but have not yet publically endorsed the 1% limitation.

The Governor’s Republican challenger Dino Rossi has called for a special session on this issue as has Initiative 747 sponsor Tim Eyman.  The state legislature has a regularly scheduled assembly in Olympia at the end of the month and that would be a likely target date for a special session since most members have already re-arranged their schedules to attend.

For the first time in several years, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council has reduced the state revenue forecast.  At their quarterly meeting in Olympia yesterday, the Council voted to reduce state general fund revenue collections available for the current biennium by $132 million.  Dr. Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief revenue forecaster, said that most of the downward change was due to the expected slowdown in real estate activity.

The change in the revenue forecast is less than one half of one percent of total general fund revenues and Dr. Sohn emphasized that the Washington State housing and construction sectors are still outperforming the U.S. as a whole.

With the recent passage of resolution 8206 which establishes a constitutional rainy day fund, the projected $1.4 billion in state reserves now consist of $430 million in the newly created “budget stabilization account” and $954 million in so-called “unobligated” revenues.

This morning, after five months of study, analysis and a lot of public outreach, two reports were released regarding the future of a new UW campus in North Puget Sound.

The first report, was prepared by the University and is the preliminary academic plan for the new campus.  In a nutshell, the plan calls for the establishment of a four year comprehensive UW branch campus by 2025 to serve approximately 5,000 students with a broad array of arts and sciences academic programs as well as a strong concentration of degrees in the so-called “STEM” disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math).  The campus would serve not only residents of the Snohomish, Island and Skagit county areas but it also intended to draw students from throughout the state and northwest region, attracted primarily to obtain four year STEM degrees.  Students attending the campus would also benefit from academic programs that included an “experiential learning” component which will involve working in the community with private or public partners on real world projects tied to their field of study.  The plan also calls for an ambitious K-12 outreach effort because a significant portion of the future demand for the campus will depend on the ability of the University and the state to increase college participation rates, particularly in this geographic area.

The second report, prepared by NBBJ consultants, contains siting options and recommendations for the new campus.  This report evaluates the sites suggested for the new campus and provides a detailed description and analysis of the four final sites in Lake Stevens (Calavero); Marysville (Smokey Point) and Everett (Pacific Station and Riverside).  The report concludes that the Everett Pacific Station site is the most preferable given that it leverages the region’s existing urban infrastructure and current and forecasted employment opportunities, promises the most sustainable campus development strategy in the 21st century and is among the least costly solutions for on and off campus infrastructure improvements.

So, what happens next?  Hopefully, everyone involved in the process of building this new campus will carefully review both of these new reports.  The Governor’s 2008 supplemental budget recommendations (which are due no later than December 20), could contain some funding for the new campus in the form of monies for new programs which might be offered in the Fall of 2008 as well as for the K-16 outreach effort.  It is not yet clear if the Governor will endorse the consultant’s site recommendations.

Ultimately, the final decision on both short and long term funding for the new campus rests with the state legislature.  They are also charged with making the final decision on where the new UW North Sound campus will ultimately be located.  The 2008 legislative session convenes on Monday January 14, 2008.

• Late Friday afternoon and in response to the Supreme Court decision which declared Initiative 747 unconstitutional, Governor Gregoire announced that she would seek to reimpose the 1% property tax limitation during the upcoming 2008 legislative session.  Here’s a link to a statement from her office announcing the decision.
• Representative Jon Lovick (D-Mill Creek) who serves as Speaker Pro Tempore is the new Snohomish County Sheriff.  According to this morning’s Everett Herald, Lovick plans to announce his resignation from the House tomorrow in a letter to the Governor.  The paper further identified three candidates for Lovick’s 44th district seat.  They are former Snohomish Mayor Liz Loomis, 2006 state Senate candidate Lillian Kaufer and county Democratic party chairman Mark Hintz.
• Representative Brian Sullivan (D-Mukilteo) won a seat on the Snohomish County Council will announce his resignation from his 21st district seat this Friday.  The three individuals vying for his position include Snohomish County Labor President Darrell Chapman, Mulkiteo City Councilman Marko Liias, and Lynnwood City Councilman Mark Smith.  Sullivan served as chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee.

As many of you have already read, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Tim Eyman’s 2001 Initiative 747 was unconstitutional on a close 5-4 decision.  That initiative limited increases in property tax collections to 1 percent per year unless voters approved higher amounts.  The Supreme Court upheld a June 2006 King County Superior Court ruling that found voters were deceived by the initiative because the text of the measure misled voters about the substantive impact of the intiative on existing law.

While it is impossible to tell what this ruling means for your own property taxes in the short or long term, the ruling clearly puts the property tax issue right on the front burner for the 2008 legislative session.  Already Governor Gregoire has asked local governments to resist raising property taxes, attempting to calm homeowner fears that in the words of Tim Eyman local governments “will be like pigs at the trough.”

Both Democrats and Republican legislators seem to agree that some sort of property tax cap will need to be re-enacted, but the question is what sort of cap can get enough votes in both chambers?  Given the failure on election day of tax increases for transportation in Proposition 1 and a sales tax increase for social programs in Thurston County, many members are sensing the public is back in a strong “no tax” mood.  Expect some pushback from local government officials, though, who have struggled to maintain service levels for the past several years while having to live within the constraints of the 1 percent limit.