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Tag: Gov. Jay Inslee

Governors’ bill-signing pens over the years

Governors’ bill-signing pens over the years

For the past couple of weeks, Gov. Jay Inslee has been busy signing bills into law as proud legislators and bill supporters cluster around and watch each pen stroke. As is customary, the governor shakes hands, poses for photos and hands out souvenir  pens with his name on them as a keepsake to be used or framed. Since it’s “bill-signing season” here in Olympia, here’s a look at the collection of the bill-signing pens used by Washington governors going back…

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Bills passed: how Legislature compares to earlier years

Bills passed: how Legislature compares to earlier years

With the 2013 Legislature taking a two-week break to catch its collective breath between the end of the 105-day regular session and the special session starting May 13 to pass a new operating budget and other items, it’s worth taking a look back to see how many bills were passed by the Legislature in previous odd-year “long sessions” and compare the bill production to this year. This chart was compiled by office staffer (and legislative history buff) Patrick McDonald and…

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Lawmakers OK General Election for judges, SPI Top 2

Lawmakers OK General Election for judges, SPI Top 2

The Legislature has sent Gov. Jay Inslee a Top 2 elections bill that requires the two primary favorites for each race for Supreme Court, Appeals Court, Superior Court and  state school superintendent to advance to the General Election ballot. Currently it is possible for judges and SPI to prevail in the primary by getting more than 50 percent, with the victor going alone to the General Election ballot. This happened last fall in some judicial races and in Randy Dorn’s…

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Long battle for Top 2 Primary officially over

Long battle for Top 2 Primary officially over

(Photo courtesy of Legislative Support Services, Photo Department) It was a quiet, noncontroversial ending to a 12-year legal, legislative and ballot-box battle to preserve a wide-open primary system for Washington voters. The fight had involved the political parties, the highest court in the land, and even a detour through California. Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5518 to clear the state law books of all references to the much-maligned Pick-a-Party system that voters were required to use in 2004 through…

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Lawmakers boost compensation for WA electors

Lawmakers boost compensation for WA electors

For the first time since the horse-and-buggy days of statehood, Washington is boosting the expense allowance for members of the state’s Electoral College, the party activists who cast the state’s electoral votes for the U.S. presidential ticket that wins the state popular vote. The Senate gave strong bipartisan approval on Friday to a House-passed bill that was championed by Secretary of State Kim Wyman and shepherded through the long legislative process by office intern Nate Hauger from Central Washington University….

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WA Senate coalition unveils $33.3b no-tax budget

WA Senate coalition unveils $33.3b no-tax budget

The Washington Senate’s GOP-led majority coalition, backed by a handful of Democrats, rolled out a $33.3 billion, two-year state budget proposal Wednesday that holds the line on taxes, plows $1 billion in new money into education, cuts college tuition, and expands Medicaid coverage. The plan would also restore the 3 percent pay cut imposed on state workers in the last biennium. The proposal is the first legislative draft of the session, following on the heels of new Gov. Jay Inslee’s…

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Inslee budget: $1.4b in new revenue, mostly for K-12

Inslee budget: $1.4b in new revenue, mostly for K-12

The Battle of the Budgets has begun. Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat in the third month of his tenure, unveiled his $34.4 billion budget blueprint in a lengthy televised news conference at the Capitol on Thursday. Headline: He would generate about $1.4 billion in new revenue by extending expiring taxes and by closing or reducing a variety of tax exemptions.  The new money would mostly go for education, a $1.2 billion down-payment on the state addressing a state Supreme Court…

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Olympia bids farewell to late Gov. Booth Gardner

Olympia bids farewell to late Gov. Booth Gardner

Legislators applaud members of the Gardner family sitting in the Senate gallery. (Photo courtesy of Legislative Support Services Photo Department) Olympia paid its final tributes to the late Gov. Booth Gardner Friday with a special joint session of the Legislature in the Senate chambers where the former two-term Democratic governor once served as a 30-something political newcomer. Gov. Jay Inslee, Secretary of State Kim Wyman and other state officials and lawmakers from both parties heard testimonials of Gardner’s lifetime of…

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Revenue update: `Flat is the new up’

Revenue update: `Flat is the new up’

A new Washington revenue forecast was what passes for good news at the beleaguered state Capitol: at least things didn’t get worse. Lawmakers and the new governor still have a potential budget gap of several billion dollars, including court-mandated K-12 funding. Some old Olympia hands had expected a sizable new drop in expected revenue for the next 27 months, perhaps in the $200 million range, but the number from chief economist Steve Lerch was up $40 million. The forecast for…

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High court overturns supermajority for taxes

High court overturns supermajority for taxes

The Washington Supreme Court, in a bombshell decision handed down just days before Gov. Jay Inslee and lawmakers tackle a multibillion-dollar budget gap, invalidated a popular voter-approved requirement of a two-thirds supermajority for taxes raised in Olympia. The court, in a decisive 6-3 ruling, said the state Constitution clearly says a bill becomes a law by gaining a majority in each house. The justices noted that this is the first time the court directly answers the question of whether the…

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