In what may be the earliest mayoral reelection launch ever,
business-industry supporters of Mayor Greg Nickels (up for reelection
in 2009) are holding a fundraiser right after Thanksgiving, on December
3, at the downtown law offices of Foster Pepper PLLC. The
invitation—signed by representatives of Vulcan, Eli Lilly, Wright
Runstad, Wells Fargo, Lease Crutcher Lewis, and others—warns
Nickels supporters to “be mindful of the tax burden placed on the
business community” and notes that Nickels’s “bold and steady
leadership in encouraging the transformation of South Lake Union in
a few short years into a thriving biotech, commercial, and residential
center… has been remarkable.”
The suggested donation? Between $250 and $700 (the legal limit). So
far, Nickels has collected $241,718.52 and has $174,864.78 in the bank.
ERICA C. BARNETT
Last week, state senate majority leader Lisa Brown sat down with
The Stranger to give us a preview of next year’s session, when
legislators will face a budget deficit as high as $4 billion.
Although Governor Christine Gregoire pledged on the campaign trail that
she would not raise taxes, legislators may see no other choice. “If I
look at either raising taxes or cutting things like the basic
health-care plan, I don’t want to go there,” Brown says. “We’re doing
an agency-by-agency evaluation [of potential cuts], but I don’t see
how that adds up to the kind of numbers we’re talking about.”
Alternatives to higher taxes could include raising tuition at state
colleges and universities, eliminating some tax exemptions—Brown
says she’s particularly interested in economic-development exemptions
that are no longer serving economic-development purposes—and
refocusing capital spending on projects that are ready to build, a
tactic that could increase state revenues.
Meanwhile, King County, which is facing a $90-million-plus budget
shortfall, is asking the legislature for new authority to charge
residents a utility tax. Brown’s response, essentially, is: Get in
line. “It’s not just the urban counties. That’s one thing a lot of
people don’t realize,” Brown says. “The small counties are going
bankrupt.” She says the legislature could decide to give local
governments more spending flexibility within existing revenues, rather
than new taxing authority. “It doesn’t have to be just the utility
tax,” she says. ERICA C. BARNETT
For the third time this year, the Seattle Times is shedding workers in an effort to cut costs. In January, the
newspaper laid off 17 employees. In April, it announced it would be
getting rid of 131 more (including 49 newsroom positions). Then,
earlier this month, publisher Frank Blethen told employees that between
130 and 150 more jobs, including 31 newsroom positions, would have to
be cut because of “structural industry changes.”
One of those 31 is Eric Devericks, the paper’s only editorial
cartoonist. “I wasn’t shocked,” Devericks told The Stranger.
“I almost got laid off in May.”
Like all of the recently laid-off Times employees, his last
day will be December 12. Because he’s been at the paper six years,
he’ll receive an extra six weeks of pay. He doesn’t know what he’ll do
next.
“It’s not pleasant news,” Devericks said. “I think the editorial
pages will be worse off without a cartoonist. But you would expect
me to say that.”
In the Times newsroom, which is now set to lose a total of
about 65 staffers this year, the mood is reportedly grim.
“It’s a dismal goddamn place,” said one longtime employee. “The
whole newsroom is just sort of seething with despair. It’s vibrating
out the walls like some kind of horrible acid trip, with no comedown in
sight.” ELI SANDERS
While looking for ways to address this year’s budgetary shortfall,
the city council ran into a shortage of its own. On Friday, the council
found itself running out of green paper—the vehicle of
choice for so-called “green sheets,” or proposed changes to the mayor’s
budget. After some “running around” to find another case of green
paper, a council staffer says, the crisis was averted—but not
before at least one “green sheet” was erroneously printed on yellow
paper, an error the council staffer says was “kind of an oversight,
more than anything else.” NANCY DREW
A group of disgruntled BMXers apparently struck back at local
skaters following a dispute over the use of the Marginal Way
Skatepark in Sodo.
According to local skating activist Jason Harrison, a group of BMX
riders showed up at the skatepark over the weekend, got into a scuffle
with skaters, and left. “A bunch of very disrespectful BMXers show[ed]
up… and were talking a whole bunch of shit [and] throwing rocks at
skaters,” he says.
Later, Harrison says, the BMXers “took a whole bunch of used
motor oil and poured it all over the walls. It takes a hell of a
lot of hay and cat litter to clean up.” The BMXers also tagged “ride
BMX” on the walls of the park.
“We’re waiting for someone to slip up and start bragging about it,”
Harrison says. JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE
