For the past two and a half months, state lawmakers have been sequestered in Olympia, grousing, drinking, bloviating, smashing bills, and passing new laws. Most of the work—except for putting the tinsel on bills to balance the recession-era budget—is a done deal. All the while, newspapers have bombarded the public with snippets about proposals, some of which went nowhere (like a bill to make “Music Matters” license plates). But what actually passed? We put down our beers long enough to find out.
Like most heavy drinkers—e.g., the staff at The Stranger—most of the booze bills introduced this legislative session have gone nowhere. The best among them were aimed at relaxing the East German–style monopoly that the state holds on liquor stores.
The failing measures: a bill to privatize liquor sales in the state; a bill to create a pilot project for beer and wine tasting at farmers markets; and a bill that would’ve prohibited the sale of malt-beverage energy drinks.
And now for the toast: We passed a measure that boosts craft distilleries’ production, raising their limits from 20,000 to 60,000 gallons annually, and another measure that allows grocery stores to offer beer and wine tasting, which means that soon you’ll be able to add “get drunk” to your grocery list.
Driving while texting or talking without a headset is set to become a primary offense, which gives cops more authority to pull over and give inattentive assholes a $124 ticket (each is currently a secondary offense, which means cops can only ticket someone if they’re violating another traffic law). The measure, which awaits the governor’s signature to become law, makes exceptions for Good Samaritans calling to report illegal activity or summon emergency aid. It also prohibits all cell-phone use by teen drivers. About time.
Lawmakers passed an $8.5 billion transportation package to bankroll construction projects, including a $590 million rail corridor from Oregon to British Columbia. Construction workers rejoice! Meanwhile, lawmakers killed a Vulnerable User Law that would’ve imposed harsher penalties on drivers who cause death or serious injury to cyclists and pedestrians. They also killed a measure promoting bike and pedestrian safety training in driving schools and the Complete Streets grant program, which would’ve made streets more user-friendly for bikes, pedestrians, and transit. While legislators were killing those common-sense measures, they passed a bill that permits local jurisdictions to allow “golf-cart zones” on public roads where speed limits are 25 miles per hour. Golf carts must follow the rules of the road and be equipped with reflectors, rearview mirrors, and seat belts. To recap: Streets aren’t getting any safer for those who don’t commute behind a windshield, but golf carts are now a sanctioned form of transportation.
Reacting to the November murder of four Lakewood police officers by Maurice Clemmons, the October murder of Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton, and the fatal December shooting of the Pierce County law enforcement official, the state legislature passed several measures designed to keep potential cop-killers off the street and help the families of officers killed in the line of duty.
The biggest measure they passed will allow voters to approve a constitutional amendment allowing judges to hold someone without bail if he or she presents a community-endangering profile—a profile similar to the one Clemmons presented just before he was released on bail last fall. Under the proposed amendment, suspects would have to be facing a life sentence and represent an evidence-based danger to the community in order to be denied bail.
Few subjects are as close to our hearts (and lungs and stomachs) as drugs.
The good bills: The legislature passed a law intended to save lives by protecting 911 callers from prosecution for drug possession—but not drug selling—when callers report an overdose. The challenge: “Getting the word out,” says Kris Nyrop, the former director of Street Outreach Services, one of the largest needle exchanges in the country. “No health department in the state is going to have an education budget for this.”
The legislature also passed a bill expanding the types of medical professionals who can authorize the medical use of marijuana to include physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners, and naturopaths. According to Ben Livingston, head of the Cannabis Defense Coalition, which lobbied for the bill, the beneficiaries are “patients in rural places, where access to doctors and affordability are real issues.”
Less groovy: Chicken-shit lawmakers killed a bill to decriminalize marijuana possession (which would have saved an estimated $12 million a year).
Thanks to past Seattle mayors and city council presidents who all but ignored 14 years of state-level planning, we now have a design for the 520 bridge with 50 percent more vehicle capacity and zero dedicated lanes for transit (or light rail). Inadequate, to be sure, but a new bridge must be built. The future bridge relies on a yet-to-be-installed tolling system to help pay the $4.65 billion tab. In early March, the legislature passed a bill that bonds the future tolling money to pay for construction.
Lawmakers took three other steps (two good and one bad): reducing the new bridge’s height from roughly 30 feet to 20 feet, granting Seattle a window to alter the portion of the wider freeway that lands in the already-congested Montlake neighborhood, and, finally, allowing the existing funding, which was supposedly reserved for the decrepit floating span, to be used to begin construction on the east side of the bridge. By beginning construction, many argue, Seattle is locked into the wider bridge without transit-only lanes.
But Mayor Mike McGinn, who argues the bridge should have a smaller footprint and be outfitted for light rail, says the bills give Seattle “a foot in the door to see what’s possible for the bridge.” And city council president Richard Conlin says he is “very hopeful” that negotiations with the state will produce an improved interchange in Seattle, such as allowing better bus connections to the future light-rail station at Husky Stadium.
Meanwhile, two elephants in the room suggest the debate over 520 is far from over.
“There still is not legislation to start tolling on I-90, and without that, I don’t believe you have enough revenue” to pay for the bridge, says state senator Ed Murray (D-43). He foresees the 520 funding issue recurring in Olympia “for some years to come.”
The Coalition for a Sustainable 520 believes there’s still time to change the six-lane configuration to accommodate light rail or transit-only lanes—in addition to the improvements Conlin wants. “What is proposed for 520 is so very bad that I expect the people will indeed prevent it from happening,” says Fran Conley, ringleader of the group. And if they don’t? “We are trying to avoid legal proceedings,” says Conley, “but we do have a war chest, and if it becomes necessary, we would use it.”
With the regular session now over and other bill business out of the way, Governor Gregoire has called lawmakers into a “special session” that will focus primarily on the dirty job of program slashing, loophole closing, and (targeted) tax hiking. The first blowout will be over whether to raise the state sales tax to help fill the $2.8 billion budget gap.
Senate Democrats want to increase the sales tax by three-tenths of a cent; house Democrats say they don’t have the votes in their chamber. Instead, the house Dems want to raise revenue by using a number of different “sin tax” increases—taxes on cigarettes and candy, for example. The final deal will unfold in the coming week.
At least the two Democrat-controlled houses started with seeming agreement on how much total money to raise through new taxes (about $800 million). The rest of the budget will be filled by dipping one open hand into the state’s rainy-day fund, shoving the other open hand in front of the federal government, and by cutting around $1 billion from state programs—even, potentially, programs that provide child care for low-income families.
Unfortunately, there’s a total lack of political will for real structural reforms like instituting a state income tax (as opposed to continuing to rely on our recession-battered, highly regressive sales tax).
Legislators at least had the guts to temporarily suspend Tim Eyman’s tax-hike-hobbling Initiative 960. One thing to be wary of: Eyman will be back in the future, for sure—and, with the national economy still bottomed out, so will the state’s budget woes. 
Good recap with a relevant reader-area slant.
Kudos are deserved. But not Combos, those stay with me. Actually, no, I like Kudos. I’ll keep those, too.
That pro-bicycle crap is getting old… who can afford to bicycle in this city. In order to sustain your life in Seattle today you have to drive, unless you are an old-money rich hippie kid.
anyone can ride a bike around Seattle, it is easy, and CHEAP!
I am not rich.
I commute 8 miles from the north end to china town and home daily on a $100 bike i got on craigslist. I know a ton of others who are not rich and commute… because according to Wikipedia: “The bicycle is the most efficient self-powered means of transportation in terms of energy a person must expend to travel a given distance.”
@2 Wow…just wow… *applauds*
I’m not even pro-bicycle, and this is the some of the best trolling ever. My hats off to you sir.
We’re severely in debt, and we’re bankrolling $590m rail packages. Maybe this isn’t the best time to be doing that…
Mikey, I don’t make very much money, no trust fund, and don’t have any problems riding a bike for my transportation needs. If I had to pay for a car my quality of life would plummet. Since the cheapest new car (not even including upkeep) is more expensive than the most exotic racing bike, your assertion literally does not make any sense to me.
Of course, I don’t have a job in the boonies, but if I did the main result would probably mean that I had more money and would be in better shape.
Riding a bicycle in Seattle is not easy, and it’s not healthy at all. You have to ride in very hazardous and polluted conditions. There is nothing wrong with sadomasochism though, just don’t create obstacles for those who don’t want to play.
I grew up on a bicycle in a very big busy city… What I see here is not bicycling for the purpose of sustaining your life. Here, it’s rather a hobby, a psychological thing, and the people who bicycle are VERY much into it. Bicycling is not organic here… People don’t look for a bicycle when they are in crisis or poor here.
…and yea, commuting 8 miles between North End and China Town is a hobby, it’s not something a person in distress will do.
wow, mikey, i don’t even know where to begin. everything you’re saying is either the opposite of the actual truth or doesn’t make any sense at all. “What I see here is not bicycling for the purpose of sustaining your life.” – commenters have already disputed this by telling you that is exactly what they do on a daily basis. “People don’t look for a bicycle when they are in crisis or poor here.” what the hell does that even mean? are you trying to say people shouldn’t live w/o a car because a crisis might come up and they’ll need one? have you heard of ambulances? and the poor thing…again, commenters have already completely disputed this. please try to think and talk like an actual human being before you try to communicate to other actual human beings. thanks.
@5: The $590MM rail funding is from a federal grant.
@7 so maybe they should have passed a bill that would help make biking less hazardous, dumbass.
Number 10! it’s not a bill, it’s called safe and efficient transportation planning which doesn’t exist in this city. The bill that you are talking about was aimed to create conflict and drama rather then preventing accidents from happening in the first place. I ‘m sorry, but Seattle doesn’t have an infrastructure for safe bicycling. Bicycling next to buses and trucks doesn’t look healthy or sustainable to me. It’s an adrenalin rush and and an adventure but it’s not what a person in poverty or in crisis will do. It’s a hobby for those who is passionate and can afford to live so close to work or to have so much extra time… oh, i forgot… dumbass to u too!!!
And number 8, nobody disputed anything here, all I see are some old money rich white Americans from small towns are obsessing over their masochistic desires to be next to large vehicles in traffic thinking it’s healthy or normal… or that it’s normal to bicycle in front of a crowded bus to slow it down, etc. that’s what non-sense! and you don’t need to have a car to get around, i never said that… Although in this city it is the most productive commuting option, unless you live right downtown where all the regional transit comes together.
Just, travel around, see how big cities operate, study urban planning, loose everything you have, become sick, etc. then talk…
Seattle dose not have jobs? you have to jump on your bike and catch a bus that has 20 morons on bikes that cost as much as a used car wearing god awful advetisement that they probably paid to wear as thats how much brain power they have.
the Key is getting metro transit and sound transit to be able to get the “growing number of bikers in and out of the city” as the rush hours demand.
Seattle spent big bucks and spends big bucks every budget on bike paths and lanes and has given the streets of Seattle to bikers as well.
If bikers are expecting Drunk drivers to pay special attention to them them and avoid hitting them or if they are expecting women to not use the mirror to put on makeup or expecting drivers to stop texting or talking on their cell phones well?
@ mikey.
That’s funny. When I first read your post (#2) I thought you were being sarcastic.
Of course paying $3.00 a gallon, buying car insurance every year and paying for any car maintenance or repair is quite affordable. New tires (and they were the cheap ones) cost me as much as a good bike.
Yesterday I rode my bike along Myrtle Edwards park into Magnolia. It was beautiful, exercising refreshing, everything a good bike ride (especially with dedicated bike roads) can and should be.
Mikey, you should get out and ride more, now that spring is coming on there’s few good reasons not to.
What?! Just what?!?! I’m still totally not getting there Mikey is getting this whole “crisis” thing. Really baffling. I lived in Seattle for 5 years and biked as a fast and efficient method for getting from point A to point B. Sometimes I walked. Sometimes I biked and took the bus.
At no point in time was it considered a hobby – I am not, nor have I ever been an “athletic” person, nor do I relish in the outdoors or exercise. Let me reiterate, it is a means to and end. It is a way to get from point A to point B. Period.
Sure you got the power ranger cyclists and the weekend warriors, but so what. They like to bike, let them bike.
I am now living in Texas, a state that is VERY car centric and has next to no public transit. To boot – I’m living in a rural area, so I have to drive a car. For a poor person, or a person in “crisis” (whatever you mean by that) a car is nothing more than a black hole for money. Gas, insurance, registration, oil changes, tires, and the occasional doozy (eg: transmission going out).
Your anger and your “arguments” (if you can call them that) just don’t make sense dude.
Don’t get mad at me… Get mad at your city planners who lure you into danger and then trying to normalize it. The fact remains: it’s not safe, nor it is healthy to do regional commuting on a bicycle here, there is no infrastructure for it! Bicycling between Myrtle Edwards park and Magnolia can only benefit a very few lucky commuters, but even on a rainy day it won’t work, unless it doesn’t matter how you look and smell at work or school or whatever. Everywhere else it’s mostly fumes, dust, and conflict points with vehicles.
Here are the issues causing conflict to get angry with the city staff: short city blocks, narrow right of ways, property zoning that creates narrow right of ways, bus lines on bike lanes, sharrows and other confusing elements that cause conflicts between transportation modes, etc..
So don’t get mad at me, I didn’t plan this mess for you. Someone even got paid to make it so dangerous, I believe her name was Crunican… She was the head of SDOT when this hazardous bike plan came alive.
However, some people like danger, and I see a lot of them are here… just don’t forget that not everyone into it, especially at times when most people are looking for jobs and dealing with so much more hardship than 5-6 years ago.
Mikey is obviously a parody.
No mention of higher education?
First and foremost, thanks to whichever of you three chose the verb ‘bloviate’. Seriously.
Also, I am relieved that I can go and get a golf cart, now that I am finally over my masochistic, unhealthy and old-moneyed tendencies to ride a bicycle in Seattle!
To think that I previously worried that the atmosphere and climate(etc.)of earth was negatively impacted by carbon monoxide and therefore was willing to damage my own lungs to create less overall harm! Even more ridiculous, that I was willing to push my body in the rain, snow and cold and inconvenience myself in terms of carrying whatever I needed on my back or plan extra travel time just to save such a small amount of oil burning over the last 15 years of my adult life…
The most humbling of the experiences though, was probably dealing with people hurtling by at ferocious speeds encased in several tons of metal, who believed that their vehicles rendered them a superior form of life to anyone who wasn’t doing what they did. I don’t know why I have refused for so long to acknowledge the obvious truth that they are correct!
Thanks so much Mikey, for enlightening me to the fact that I don’t have to hurt myself like this anymore.