NEWS ROUNDUP
Triple overtime, sequestration hurts, filibuster-busters, TPP vs. democracy…
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Transportation is focal point heading toward 2014 session — Washington’s weary lawmakers may be steered into another special session this fall if House and Senate leaders can bridge their differences on a multi-billion-dollar transportation funding plan. The governor isn’t ruling out the option. And a leader of the Senate’s ruling coalition suggested it might be possible in November when lawmakers will be in town for scheduled meetings.
EDITOR’S NOTE — “A few” in Washington? Baumgartner’s “right-to-work” (for less) bill had zero co-sponsors. This is a guy who got just 39% of the vote in his ill-advised 2012 run against Sen. Maria Cantwell. A guy who also believes women shouldn’t be allowed to have abortions in instances of rape, and when asked about it, told a reporter to “go f— yourself.” A guy who’s up for re-election next year for a seat formerly held by a Democrat.
ALSO at The Stand — The truth about ‘right-to-work’ in Oregon
► In today’s Olympian — Senate leader suggests fines to speed work — Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom (D-Medina) said he plans to introduce legislation next year that would fine lawmakers $250 each for every day they go past the allotted length of the legislative session. Rep. Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma) says maybe Sen. Tom should simply “do the work during session, especially if you have the power to influence the work, which he does.”
► In today’s News Tribune — Legislative tax-loophole addicts fall off the wagon, again (by Peter Callaghan) — I’m Washington state. And I’m a loophole-aholic.” And so begins another round of post-session soul searching by a state addicted to tax loopholes. It knows it has a problem; it has admitted it is powerless; it has repeatedly turned itself over to a higher power. Because of 600-plus exemptions and loopholes, Washington state exempts more of the economy from taxation than it actually taxes. It pledges not only to stop feeding its addiction but to make amends by repealing some of the hundreds of loopholes created during past binges. Then, when it falls off the wagon yet again, it is wracked with guilt and self-loathing. It turns out that the higher power it turned itself over to is the Olympia business lobby.
LOCAL
► In today’s News Tribune — Tacoma picket addresses longshore medical benefits — Some two dozen active and retired Longshore Union workers Monday picketed the Tacoma offices of the Pacific Maritime Association to put the association of waterfront employers on notice of what the longshore workers say are major flaws in a new medical benefits payment system.
► In today’s Oregonian — Boeing subsidiary InSitu to break ground on new production plant — Boeing Co. subsidiary InSitu Inc., which makes unmanned aircraft for military customers, will break ground Wednesday on a new production facility in Bingen, Wash.
AUSTERITY
In Washington, the conventional wisdom has sometimes held that sequestration’s harms were oversold. Dire warnings of massive job loss never came true, while government programs used budget gimmickry to keep operating. But outside the Beltway, the perception of sequestration is sharply, viscerally different. Budget cuts have resulted in fewer meals for seniors, less financial aid for scientific research, poorer natural disaster preparedness and more expensive treatments for cancer patients.
► In today’s Washington Post — Defense workers speak out against furloughs — We’ve heard politicians argue about the budget-cutting sequester that led to this ridiculous situation. Now let’s hear the voices of the workers. We asked several Defense Department employees how the furlough affects them and their work. Here’s some of what they told us.
► In today’s News Tribune — Line will be open to talk to officials about cuts — Col. Charles Hodges and U.S. Rep. Denny Heck will be available to the public for a dial-in teleconference Tuesday at 7 p.m about Puget Sound area Defense cuts. The toll-free call-in number is 855-246-7045, ext. 21849.
► U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-6th) issued this statement Monday regarding local furloughs:
Every day that Congress doesn’t work on a balanced, long-term budget plan to stop the across-the-board cuts is another day that folks around the country — like the thousands of folks in our region who begin unpaid furloughs this week — have to cover for Congress’ dysfunction. These men and women and their communities shouldn’t have to pay because Congress won’t work together. I’ll continue to work with both parties to pass a budget and end the reckless policy of sequestration once and for all.
► In today’s Washington Post — OMB shrinks its budget deficit forecast — The Office of Management and Budget said the deficit this year is expected to be $759 billion — $214 billion less than it had forecast in April. (Sequestration cuts account for $43 billion in deficit reduction.) It’s the latest piece of evidence that the nation’s budget deficit, which exploded after the recession began in 2007, has become less of a short-term problem.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Why are we doing this?
THE COST OF WAR
EDITOR’S NOTE — So far in 2013, 75 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, about three each week, for a total of 2,249 since 2001. (See the Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen to learn about who these soldiers were, including the 55 who were Washington state residents.) Union delegates at the Washington State Labor Council’s 2011 Convention approved a resolution supporting “a significant drawdown of military personnel from Afghanistan… setting a firm end date for total withdrawal as soon as that can be accomplished, but in no event later than the 2014 timeline previously announced by President Obama.”
NATIONAL
► In today’s Washington Post — Pension proposal would let cities, states privatize plans — Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has devised a way for states and cities to exit the pension business. It involves a tax-law change that would enable governments to turn their pension plans over to life insurers.
► In The Hill — Pilots union faults NTSB for releasing too much info on Asiana crash — The Washington, D.C.-based Air Line Pilots Association said it was “stunned” at the “unprecedented” amount of information that has been made available to the public.
► In today’s Washington Post — U.S.-E.U. trade talks open amid new criticism from labor, environmental groups — “We caution against unwarranted optimism. There are significant risks” in the negotiations, said Celeste Drake, a trade analyst with the AFL-CIO, including demands by Europe for U.S. states and cities to drop “buy America” or other local purchase provisions.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.