Sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers from Federal Way, Mercer Island, Lynnwood, Spokane and Wenatchee, a bill heard in the Washington House Transportation Committee Wednesday Feb. 1 if passed into law could help revolutionize transportation funding in the state. It would create a special state task force which would intend to “establish the governance structure and groundwork needed to transition” from gas and special fuel taxes to “a system based on a vehicle miles traveled fee.” The committee analysis of HB 2704 says in Washington since 2000 average annual costs of maintaining one lane mile in the state’s highway system have outpaced average annual growth in gas and diesel consumption by a factor of almost 60. The trend toward greater fuel efficiency and alternative fuels will continue, and vehicle miles traveled will continue a slow rise, requiring a new approach to meeting transportation system funding needs estimated at no less than $21 billion over the next decade, the bill analysis says.

The so-called Road User Future Funding Task Force would consist of 17 members, including four legislators, four from state agencies and nine appointed by the Governor. By October 1, 2014 the task force would have to issue recommendations to the governor and legislature on how best to meter miles, collect fees, protect privacy, and address uncertainties and public concerns about charging by the mile. The task force might also develop draft legislation for joint trials with neighboring states, and then if trials go well, help propose final legislation for implementation of a mileage charging scheme by 2022 or 2023. Read the rest of this entry »

As Washington state lawmakers grapple with either raising taxes or trimming $1.5 billion from the 2011-13 state budget because revenue projections have failed to keep pace with planned spending increases, a new report issued Jan. 31 by the state department of revenue finds Washington grants a wide variety of tax exemptions which add up to $29.3 billion for the current two-year budget period. The biggest single breaks in taxes paid to the state are almost $3 billion in business and occupation taxes on employee income and retail and use sales tax exemptions worth $3.2 billion on personal and professional services, $2 billion on food and food ingredients, and $1.6 billion on motor vehicle and special fuel.

Under state law the detailed report is issued every four years but does not make recommendations on what exemptions to maintain and which to end. Of the 642 exemptions granted, only 452 would be likely to increase revenues, the report states. Exemptions also refer to exclusions, deductions, preferential rates, tax deferrals and credits.

The report warns it’s not possible to say that the $29.3 billion in exemptions would yield the same amount in revenue if ended. (This is because once an exemption is lifted, the associated taxable business activity may decline in volume compared to before). Of the $29.3 billion in tax benefits dispensed by lawmakers, $24 billion is due to exemptions from taxes paid to the state. Exemptions to retail sales and use taxes and the business and occupation tax together account for about four-fifths of that $24 billion in state tax benefits dispensed. Another $5.3 billion in state-authorized tax exemptions come at the local government level.

Included in the report is a summary listing of all tax preferences which would yield some degree of revenue if curtailed. Others which exist but would yield no revenue if ended are so labeled, and marked in red. According to the itemized list, here are some of the largest state-level tax exemptions granted which would produce some amount of revenue if lifted.

Largest business and occupation tax exemptions granted 2011-2013

Largest retail sales and use tax exemptions granted 2011-2013

Largest other tax exemptions granted 2011-2013

To date, there has been no comprehensive state review of the quantifiable economic benefits of the $29.3 billion in state-authorized tax exemptions in the current biennium.

RELATED: State of Washington spending up 57 percent from 1999-2011, Public Data Ferret.

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A series of construction and expansion projects continue to unfold in the new year in the King County (Wash.) Library System, following voter approval in 2004 of a $172 million bond issue. Courtesy of the library system’s staff we are happy to present a color-coded interactive map including links to project overview/status pages for each facilitity. Each branch name when clicked leads to a KCLS page detailing the respective project. We will seek to keep this map updated here, but going forward, you will always be able to find the most recent version of it at the KCLS 2004 bond-funded projects page. The projects page has additional information, including Frequently Asked Questions.

According to a portion of the December 2011 “Dashboard” report presented to the KCLS board by staff, highlights of the capital improvement plan building program already achieved in 2012 or expected to be completed this year include new facilities in Newcastle and Duvall and expansions in Auburn, Bellevue, and Lake Forest Park. New facilities are expected to progress this year toward an eventual construction start (2013 or later) at Vashon Island, Federal Way (320th St.) and Tukwila. In addition, non-bond construction of new libraries for Renton and Renton Highlands have cleared the design phase.

USER INSTRUCTIONS: Simply click on any branch name below (not the nearby dot) for more project-specific information. Our special thanks to KCLS Web Services Manager Lisa Hill for her assistance developing and sharing a WordPress-embeddable version of the KCLS code we used for the live map here.

Public Data Ferret’s Data Visualization archive

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A recently released report from a special task force convened by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire says Washington state should settle for no less than $21 billion of a needed $50 billion in surface transportation spending over the next decade to preserve the system and make strategic corridor investments. But if the legislature will be stepping up to that lesser challenge in a big way, it is proceeding quite cautiously so far in the current session. The centerpiece transportation funding bill in the senate, SB 6455, would if passed in current form garner by 2023 little more than one-twentieth of the recommended $21 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a new federally-funded study by University of Washington researchers, cautionary guidelines developed by Washington state agencies on physician-prescribed painkilling opiates for patients suffering from chronic pain preliminarily appear to be correlated with important overall risk reductions among one large sub-group of patients: injured workers seeking compensation through the state’s Department of Labor and Industries. Prime among these are reductions in related deadly overdoses; drops in number of claimants who were prescribed opioids; and a steady decline in the percent of workers who were being compensated for disability while using prescribed opioids, sometimes with little improvement, for pain treatment. Because of the potential for abuse and dependence, public health experts increasingly want to foster greater oversight of prescription opiates. The “yellow flag” educational program directed at physicians may very well help explain the measured changes although more data is needed in coming years to strengthen the connections.

These are the key findings of the new study published late last month in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine by researchers at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, the university’s departments of Environmental and Ocupational Health Sciences, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (DLI). The study was funded by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and the National Center For Injury Prevention and Control. Read the rest of this entry »

Shoreline plans to roll out an online survey of residents in the first quarter of 2012 to help officials decide if it should join a growing group of Washington jurisdictions which ban use of tobacco products in their parks and sometimes other outdoor public spaces as well. At a city council meeting last night, members considered as a study item a detailed information packet including a city staff memo on the policy-making process and written presentations from King County – which is taking a regional leadership role in promoting smoke-free public parks. A key provision identified by city staff in the packet is that there is no money for extra enforcement. That would depend on hoped-for effects of signage and enforcement by local parks users and any police or parks staff who happened to observe violations while conducting other work tasks. Read the rest of this entry »

The chairman of the City of Auburn’s Municipal Services Committee, Bill Peloza, says he’ll be asking some questions about the future of the town’s traffic safety automated camera enforcement program called PhotoSafe when the panel meets Monday night. The committee’s agenda includes a review and discussion of a new report showing PhotoSafe’s mounting red ink and suggesting beneficial changes in driver behavior that may have resulted from the installation of the cameras is leveling off. Read the rest of this entry »

Campus police at the University of Washington in Seattle say they are investigating “as a hate crime” the drawing of a swastika and the word “Jew” on the the door of a Jewish student who lives in the residential facility Haggett Hall. In a written response to an information request by Public Data Ferret, University of Washington Police Department Commander Steve Rittereiser stated the incident is believed to have occurred January 8th and the victim is a 19-year-old Jewish male who resides on Haggett’s third floor. Sometime between 9 a.m. and 8:25 p.m. on the 8th, Ritteresier said, a “Nazi-type swastika” and the word “Jew” were written apparently by the same instrument on a door tag or eight-by-eleven-and-a-half inch piece of construction paper common to many other rooms in the dorm, bearing the first name of the chamber’s residents.

According to UW Police, the student said he had not been involved in any disputes or other activites which would have prompted the graffiti. Rittereiser stated,”‘this is being investigated as a hate crime due to the connection of the symbolism and the victim’s religious affiliation.” He added that UW Police detectives “are looking to see if there are similar incidents that may have happened and may not have been reported.” Haggett personnel are assisting with the investigation. No suspects have yet been identified. Haggett’s Resident Director Marissa Adamczyk responded to a reporter’s requests for an interview Friday afternoon with an email that she would not be available to talk until next Tuesday and has so far declined to reply to a follow-up email request to discuss the incident sooner.

If a suspect were to be identified and probable cause determined by campus police, then the case would be turned over to the King County Prosecutor’s office for further review and possible prosecution. Under Washington state law defacing with a swastika the property of an individual who is or is perceived to be Jewish is one way in which the Class C felony of malicious harassment can be committed. According to state statutes, Class C felonies upon conviction can be punished by up to five years in jail or a $10,000 fine, or both.

Haggett Hall is located at 4290 Whitman Court NE. Haggett’s third floor An adjoining but separate portion of Haggett’s third floor is a themed “International Community” which according to its UW Web page aims “to offer an enhanced living learning environment with an international focus. This community may be of particular interest to international students, students with experience or interest in studying abroad, and students interested in world issues.”

According to the constitution of the Haggett People’s Council, which is the governing body of the residence hall and its liaison to UW-Seattle’s student government, “we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment for students of all racial, ethnic, cultural, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds.”

UPDATE, Monday, 1/23/12: In a phone interview Adamczyk said, “I was aghast that a student accepted to the University of Washington would do something like this. We assume that they come in with a certain level of maturity and respect for others, but that was not the case in this instance.” Adamczyk added an email was sent to all Haggett Hall residents notifying them that a hate crime had occurred; that the building administration takes it seriously; and that they should forward any information about this or similar incidents. Adamczyk confirmed no suspect has yet been identified and for now the assumption is that the act occurred in an empty hallway. There are no security cameras covering the hallway in question. The affected student was disturbed but has received assistance and support from building staff, students and his faith community, Adamczyk said.

Public Data Ferret’s University of Washington archive

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