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Category: Executive

`Counting on fairness’: Governing mag award for Reed

`Counting on fairness’: Governing mag award for Reed

Secretary of State Sam Reed has been honored by Governing magazine as one of the country’s best public officials. Reed, a three-term statewide official who also spent more than 20 years as Thurston County’s Auditor, was lauded at a dinner in Washington, D.C., Thursday night for his even-handed role in the nation’s closest gubernatorial election in 2004 and for forcefully following up with an election reform package.  Reed and Maryland’s Gov. Martin O’Malley were the only two statewide elected officials…

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UPDATE: Taxes, the road not taken …

UPDATE: Taxes, the road not taken …

Remember the Oregon Legislature’s bold decision last month to boost taxes to help fill a multibillion-dollar budget gap?  Well, as predicted, the $733 million in personal and corporate tax hikes didn’t go over well with critics, who assailed the very idea of raising taxes during a deep recession. On Tuesday, a group called Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes filed referenda against the two tax bills.  They’re talking about spending $500k on the signature-gathering campaign. They need roughly 55,000 valid voter signatures by Sept. 25…

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Taj Mahal. Elephants. And You!

Taj Mahal. Elephants. And You!

Time is running out to sign up for the 2009 trade and cultural mission to exotic and fascinating India with Secretary Reed and friends! You only have till the end of the month to put your name on the list and join Reed on a 8-day blitz through Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad in September. It will be a Taj-Mahal-touring, curry-sampling, hand-shaking, international-networking, elephant-spotting trip of a lifetime. Anyone is welcome to sign up, but local business owners are especially encouraged…

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Light bulb goin’ on?

Light bulb goin’ on?

Got ideas?  As state government begins implementing some $4 billion in spending cuts and freezes, state workers have two very good ways of chiming in with their suggestions. First, as this space has noted, the state Productivity Board is an idea factory that has literally saved millions by encouraging employees’ creative ideas for efficiency, innovation and cost-savings. Employees, individually or in teams, can earn cash awards for the savings their successful ideas are creating. Deets are here …  And second, Governor Gregoire has just…

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When our state flag becomes personal…

When our state flag becomes personal…

(Photo courtesy of House of Representatives)   When Governor Gregoire yesterday signed into law a bill (here is the bill report on it) creating the Washington state flag account, it was a meaningful and special moment for anyone with a relative or friend who is serving overseas in the military.   It was especially important for my co-worker Suzette Black, who is a receptionist in our Legislative Building office. Suzette also manages the Office of Secretary of State’s state flag…

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Supremes decline to order simple majority vote on taxes

Supremes decline to order simple majority vote on taxes

A fresh opinion from the state high court, turning down Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown’s request to overturn the two-thirds supermajority requirement for tax hikes in the Legislature. In a unanimous 9-0 ruling, the high court side-stepped the request to rule on the constitutionality of the supermajority requirement approved by voters as Initiative 601 back in 1993 and reiterated in Tim Eyman’s I-960 in 2007. The court, using a separation-of-power argument, called it a political-legislative question that belonged in the…

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What the main attractions said …

What the main attractions said …

Bill Gates Sr., Sam Reed, Wilfred Woods For many people who attended, one highlight of yesterday’s Medal of Merit ceremony in the House Chambers was seeing Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates sitting in the Gallery while his father, Bill Gates Sr., received this prestigous honor. Another highlight was hearing the elder Gates and this year’s other living recipient, retired Wenatchee World publisher and philanthropist Wilfred Woods, address the large gathering. It is no coincidence that these two great men thanked their wives, who were in attendance…

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Spotlight on two Washington suffragettes

Spotlight on two Washington suffragettes

Civic leader and philanthropist Bill Gates Sr. and veteran publisher Wilfred Woods are big-name draws for this year’s Medal of Merit ceremonies at the Capitol next Wednesday, but two heroines of the women’s suffrage movement will be honored posthumously as well. Both women led trailblazing lives and helped earn women the right to vote in Washington about 100 years ago. Before 1910, women in Washington didn’t have the right to vote. After the Legislature authorized the proposed amendment in 1909…

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The latest from our coworker in Iraq…

The latest from our coworker in Iraq…

If you’ve been around the Capitol Campus scene for quite awhile, you likely know Patrick McDonald, who works in our office as special assistant to Secretary of State Sam Reed. (He also happens to be the fellow who was having dinner with Gov. Gregoire in Iraq, while the rest of the country was wondering where she was at last month.)  Patrick is serving in Iraq as part of the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade; his role is to assist and consult the Iraqi government…

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The beat goes on …

The beat goes on …

The political parties’ challenge of the voter-approved, Supreme Court-approved Top 2 Primary continues to drag on and on. A federal judge has scheduled a “status conference” for March 24 in Seattle to take a look at where we are with all of the motions and cross-motions. Yes, it’s true that the highest court in the land gave a green light to the new system that voters approved back in 2004 and it’s true that the state ran a Top 2…

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