Tag Archives: 2009 Legislature

Activists Plan Multitude of Legislative Lobby Days in Olympia

Posted on January 14th, 2009 | Comments Off on Activists Plan Multitude of Legislative Lobby Days in Olympia

The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance has compiled a great list of citizen lobby days in Olympia for a variety of public interest groups for the 2009 Session of the Washington State Legislature.

You can review the details and contact people for more information by going to http://www.wilha.org/. Click on the button for the Standup Alliance Legislative Lobby Day List for the latest update.

Here is the current list of Legislative Lobby Days:

Jan 15 National Alliance on Mental Illness Day
Jan 15 Washington Assoc.. of Colleges for Teacher Education Lobby Day
Jan 19 People’s Summit& March on the Capitol
Jan 19 Washington Assoc. for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention Day
Jan 28 Annual Disability Legislative Reception
Jan 28 Head Start/ECEAP
Jan 28 Indian Child Welfare Awareness Day
Jan 29 Hiker Lobby Day
Feb 4 Am Cancer Society, Am Lung Assoc. & Am Heart Assoc. Jt Lobby Day
Feb 5 American Pacific American Legislative Day
Feb 6 Gifted Education Day
Feb 9 Service Employees Intl Union Lobby Day – SEIU 775
Feb 10 Refugee and Immigrant Legislative Day
Feb 10 Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs
Feb 11 March of Dimes
Feb 12 Washington CAN! Day
Feb 12 Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition Advocacy Day
Feb 13 Youth Advocacy Day
Feb 16 King County Democrats Legislative Action Day
Feb 16 Big Brothers Big Sisters Lead Big! Advocacy Day
Feb 16 National Assoc. of Social Workers Days
Feb 17 2009 Washington State Senior Citizens Lobby Days (1)
Feb 18 AIDS Awareness & Action Day
Feb 19 Environmental Priorities Coalition Lobby Day
Feb 22-23 Jr League of Washington Capitol Days
Feb 23 Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Lobby Day
Feb 24 Catholic Advocacy Day
Feb24 Housing Advocacy Day
Feb 24 Transportation Advocacy Day
Feb 24 Unity Day
Feb 26 WA State Parent Teacher Assoc. – 2009 Leg. Focus Day
Feb 27 Have a Heart for Children Day
Mar 5 Toxic Free Legacy Lobby Day
Mar 5 Washington CAN! Lobby Day
Mar 10 Healthy Washington Coalition Lobby Day
Mar 13 Hispanic/Latino Legislative Day
Mar 17 Fund Families First: Faith Advocacy Day
Mar 19 Statewide Domestic Violence Day
Mar 20 Hunger Action Day
Mar 25 2009 WA State Senior Citizen’s Lobby Days (2)

Go to http://www.wilha.org/ to get more details for specific lobby days.

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Posted in Washington State Legislature

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Washington State Senate Democrats Assign Members to Committees

Posted on January 1st, 2009 | Comments Off on Washington State Senate Democrats Assign Members to Committees

The Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus has posted their leadership positions and committee assignments for the 2009 Legislative Session on the Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus website.

Because Legislators elected last November do not assume their office until they are sworn in on January 12, 2009, the official state website for the Washington State Legislature http://www.leg.wa.gov/ still currently lists Legislators from 2007 -2008.

This can be confusing since a number of those listed on http://www.leg.wa.gov/ will not be in the 2009 Legislature because they retired or lost election in Nov. 2008. Likewise some Legislators elected for the first time in November 2008 to serve in the 2009 Legislature do not appear on the website until Jan 12, 2008. The list below is for the 2009 Legislature and shows leadership and committee assignments for Democrats who will be in the 2009 Legislature.

Democrats are the majority party in Washington State in both the House and the Senate and hence control the leadership positions and the Committee Chairs.

The 2009 Legislative session will start on Jan.12, 2009 and last for 105 days, until April 26, 2009. The almost $6 billion projected budget deficit will make this a difficult session as vested interests will be competing for a greatly diminished pool of dollars.

Governor Gregoire is opposing any new taxes because of a campaign pledge she made when she was engaged in a tight re-election race with Republican Dino Rossi. Unfortunately this limits her ability to deal with raising revenue to maintain basic needed services.

One option the state needs to look at is revenue lost from past special interest tax exemptions. In a time of budget shortfalls the misery should be spread around and past tax exemptions need to be evaluated as to their current value and priority.

Tax exemptions represent an allocation of potential state revenues and are equivalent to expenditures of funds in the overall budget. If the rest of the budget is taking a 10% cut, for example, it makes sense to also target a 10% reduction in tax exemptions for special interests.

Does it make sense, for example, to give a tax break to soft drink syrup makers or pesticide sales while cutting teacher pay raises? It’s a question of priorities. The Legislature needs to seriously weight the social and economic value of special interest tax breaks versus kid’s health care or education in this time of a serious budget shortfall. Tax exemptions represent revenue lost that could fund basic services. Tough choices need to be made.

2009 Washington State Senate Democratic Leadership positions:

Senate Majority Leader: Lisa Brown, 3rd District, Spokane
Senate Majority Caucus Chair: Ed Murray, 43rd District, Seattle
Senate Majority Floor Leader: Tracey J. Eide, 30th District, Federal Way
Majority Whip: Chris Marr, 6th District, Spokane
President Pro Tempore: Rosa Franklin, 29th District, Tacoma
Vice President Pro Tempore: Paull Shin, 21st District, Edmonds
Majority Caucus Vice Chair: Debbie Regala, 27th District, Tacoma
Majority Assistant Floor Leader: Joe McDermott, 34th District, Seattle
Majority Assistant Whip: Claudia Kauffman, 47th District, Kent

2009 Washington State Senate Democrats Committee Assignments:

Agriculture & Rural Economic Development :
Chair: Brian Hatfield
Vice-Chair: Kevin Ranker
Mary Margaret Haugen , Ken Jacobsen , Paull Shin

Early Learning & K-12 Education
Chair: Rosemary McAuliffe
Vice-Chair for Early Learning: Claudia Kauffman
Vice Chair for K-12: Eric Oemig
Steve Hobbs, Fred Jarrett, Joe McDermott, Rodney Tom

Economic Development, Trade & Innovation:
Chair: Jim Kastama
Vice-Chair: Paull Shin
Tracey Eide , Derek Kilmer

EDTI International Relations Subcommittee
Chair: Paull Shin
Tracey Eide, Jim Kastama

Financial Institutions, Housing & Insurance :
Chair: Jean Berkey
Vice-Chair: Steve Hobbs
Rosa Franklin, Margarita Prentice

Government Operations & Elections:
Chair: Darlene Fairley
Vice-Chair: Eric Oemig
Joe McDermott, Craig Pridemore

Health & Long-Term Care:
Chair: Karen Keiser
Vice-Chair: Rosa Franklin
Darlene Fairley, Chris Marr, Ed Murray, Margarita Prentice

Higher Education and Workforce Development:
Chair: Derek Kilmer
Vice-Chair: Fred Jarrett
Ken Jacobsen, Jim Kastama, Rosemary McAuliffe, Paull Shin

Human Services & Correstions:
Chair: Jim Hargrove
Vice-Chair: Debbie Regala
Claudia Kauffman, Rosemary McAuliffe

Judiciary:
Chair: Adam Kline
Vice-Chair: McDermott
Jim Hargrove, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Rodney Tom

Labor, Commerce, Research & Development:
Chair: Jeanne Kohl-Welles
Vice-Chair: Karen Keiser
Rosa Franklin, Adam Kline

Natural Resources, Ocean & Recreation:
Chair: Ken Jacobsen
Vice-Chair: Kevin Ranker
Karen Fraser, Jim Hargrove , Brian Hatfield

Rules:
Chair: Lt. Gov. Brad Owen
Vice-Chair: Rosa Franklin
Lisa Brown, Tracey J. Eide, Karen Fraser , Mary Margaret Haugen, Claudia Kauffman , Karen Keiser, Chris Marr, Ed Murray, Craig Pridemore, Debbie Regala

Transportation:
Chair:Mary Margaret Haugen
Vice-Chair: Chris Marr
Jean Berkey, Tracey J. Eide, Ken Jacobsen, Fred Jarrett, Jim Kastama, Claudia Kauffman, Derek Kilmer, Kevin Ranker, Tim Sheldon

Environment, Water & Energy:
Chair: Phil Rockefeller
Vice-Chair: Craig Pridemore
Karen Fraser, Brian Hatfield, Chris Marr, Kevin Ranker, Tim Sheldon

Ways & Means:
Chair: Sen. Margarita Prentice
Vice-Chair – Capital Budget: Karen Fraser
Vice-Chair – Operating Budget: Rodney Tom
Darlene Fairley, Steve Hobbs, Karen Keiser, Adam Kline, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Joe McDermott, . Ed Murray, Eric Oemig, Craig Pridemore, Debbie Regala, Phil Rockefeller

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Environmental Coalition Picks 2009 Legislative Priorities.

Posted on December 2nd, 2008 | Comments Off on Environmental Coalition Picks 2009 Legislative Priorities.

The environmental coalition of groups have picked their 2009 priorities for the Washington State Legislature. Environmental groups in Washington State have been successfully championing a priority list of 3 to 4 bills each year that they concentrate on passing. For 2009, the Environmental Priorities Coalition has picked 4 bills.

The 2009 Environmental Priorities are:

Cap and Invest -“effort starts by putting a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, and then having polluters pay when they pollute. This new revenue will be invested to reduce fossil fuel dependence and spur new clean-tech innovation, while assisting moderate- and low-income people with volatile energy prices.”

Efficiency First -“will put “efficiency first” by promoting super-efficient, low-energy-use buildings, providing incentives to maximize energy efficiency, requiring energy use information on buildings offered for sale or lease; and making our public buildings models of energy efficiency. This policy will also help to ensure that low-income consumers can cope with rising energy costs.”

Transit-Oriented Communities – “would revise the state’s transportation and land-use planning framework to assist local jurisdictions to plan for growth in a sustainable and climate-friendly way. The bill will provide incentives for cities and developers to create affordable, livable, transit-oriented development, increasing transportation choices.”

Invest in Clean Water – “will raise new revenue to fund critical projects to save Puget Sound and restore Washington’s rivers and lakes. By investing in stormwater infrastructure, toxics prevention and other programs, we create new jobs, relieve financial pressure on local government, and promote new economic stimulus.”

The 2009 LEGISLATIVE WORKSHOP for the Environmental Priorities Coalition will be held on Saturday, January 10th, from 9:30 AM to 2:15 PM at Seattle Pacific University, Gwinn Commons, 3310 Sixth Avenue West in Seattle.

This annual event is an opportunity to be involved as the state’s leading environmental groups gear up for the upcoming 2009 session of the Washington State Legislature. The workshop will feature presentations by Washington State Legislators, environmental lobbyists, and others regarding the Environmental Priorities for 2009.

You can register for the workshop by going to their legislative workshop page.

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Posted in Environment, Washington State Legislature

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