SR.com Blogs | Eye on Olympia

Republican lawmakers pick leaders: Kretz is now No. 2 in the House...

House and Senate Republicans have picked their leaders for what's going to be a very interesting year. ( Full post )

Olympia's problem in a nutshell...

Here are a couple of clips, lifted from Tuesday's meeting of the state's task force on basic education finance, that illustrate exactly the sort of debate that's going to dominate Olympia for months. It's the classic budget tug-of-war between a good idea and what the checkbook can bear. ( Full post )

State budget: deep cuts, layoffs likely, as state faces "unprecedented" budget shortfall...

Excerpts from this morning's paper: ( Full post )

State to higher education and state agencies: prepare for budget cuts of up to 20 percent...

Washington's colleges and universities are being asked to come up with $600 million in budget cuts over the next two years -- which would be about 20 percent of the money they get from the state. ( Full post )

How bad's the state budget mess? Really bad...

Feeling the pinch from a dramatic slowdown in consumer spending, state revenues will likely be far less -- down $5.1 billion -- between now and the end of fiscal year 2011. ( Full post )

Bad, yes, but how bad?

That's what we'll find out this morning in hearing room B of the House office building in Olympia. ( Full post )

Despite shortfall, school reform group presses on...

Last week and again this week, a small group of lawmakers, school officials and others have been grappling with ways to re-tool K-12 education in Washington. ( Full post )

Facing a big budget shortfall, the governor opens the suggestion box...

Washington has long run an employee suggestion program, asking workers how to save taxpayer dollars or make things more efficient. (Examples: set printers for double-sided prints, use digital recorders instead of cassette tapes, set up a web page where different departments can swap excess office supplies.) ( Full post )

Lisa Brown still the top Senate Democrat...

Senate Democrats re-elected Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, to the same post at a meeting this weekend in Sea-Tac. Under a variety of scenarios (minority, slight majority, and big majority), Brown has headed up the Senate Democrats since 2002. ( Full post )

Hinkle on taxes: smell the boot...

"Whether you raise horses or cattle, when you come to the back porch after a long day your boots still smell the same." ( Full post )

Under the radar -- and on to a landslide...

Quick: who or what got the most votes on Washington's November ballot? Was it: ( Full post )

State budget office: Here's our list of what's important and what's not...

In a process being repeated around kitchen tables across the nation, state officials have spent months trying to decide what's critical and what's not as the state faces a multi-billion dollar shortfall. ( Full post )

Record voter turnout: probably 85 percent...

County election officials are nearing the end of the tidal wave of ballots they processed this November, and Secretary of State Sam Reed's office is saying that about 85 percent of registered voters will have cast a ballot in this election. ( Full post )

Lobster dinners, $299 hotel rooms...School-travel audit finds some surprises...

A 19-month review of 2006 school-district travel expenses found officials dining on $50 meals, staying in $299 rooms, and spending nearly $50,000 for hotel rooms that were never used. ( Full post )

From the mailbag: Sarah Palin as a pro wrestler, the 7 Aphorisms, and how you can be mummified...

From my e-mail in-box: ( Full post )

To those who ran and lost...

As Dino Rossi and this year's crop of unsuccessful statehouse contenders recede into election history, here's something to cheer them up. ( Full post )

Driscoll/Ahern: Driscoll's hanging on to victory over incumbent in latest counts...

Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane, continues to slightly trail Democratic challenger John Driscoll in the close race for a legislative seat representing western Spokane. ( Full post )

School reform: a widespread call for more money, but where from?

I've been listening for most of today to the state's joint task force on basic education funding, a high-powered group of lawmakers, school officials and others who've been meeting for months to try to figure out how to overhaul state education spending. ( Full post )

Gregoire campaign: Why we won...

In a post-election memo to campaign staffers, Gov. Chris Gregoire's campaign manager, Kelly Evans, laid out some of the apparent reasons that 2004's narrow race between Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi went decisively for Gregoire this time. ( Full post )

Razor-thin legislative races: incumbents -- Spokane's Ahern, Snohomish's Loomis -- both behind...

State Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane, is still trailing Democratic challenger John Driscoll, but the gap between the two has now shrunk to 54 votes. ( Full post )