SB 5893 passed the Senate yesterday to help lower the $54 billion in Sound Transit car tab fees. “This bill is about reigning in an arrogant and unaccountable agency,” Sen. Steve O’Ban (R-University Place) said. “It went for a car-tax increase almost threefold of what it had been previously.” If the bill passes through the House, Sound Transit will have to use a more accurate formula to determine car value before imposing taxes – whichever is lower between the Kelly Blue Book value or National Automobile Dealer Association value.

House Democrats are trying to pass off an unconstitutional capital gains tax as an excise tax in their budget. The tax Democrats are trying to pass off as an excise tax would be handed down to taxpayers as a burden when they attempted to cash in on capital assets to, for example, pay for their kids’ college tuition. Additionally, as Rep. Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn) says, “it’s far too irregular to really depend on for fully funding public education.”

HB 4207, proposed by Rep. Matt Manweller (R-Ellensburg), would prohibit a state income tax. “We have an opportunity to pass the constitutional amendment and support what the voters of Washington state have told us multiple times over the last 80 years – no state income tax,” Manweller wrote in an op-ed for the Columbia Basin Herald.

SB 5256, which would allow victims of sexual assault to obtain permanent protection orders, has passed the House and is headed to the governor’s desk. The current law extends protection for two years. It is now up to Gov. Inslee to sign the bill into law.

The Triangle Task Force is a group of community members, ferry riders and experts who are attempting to speed up the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry route. “We’re trying to improve toll booth operations at the Fauntleroy terminal,” Brian Mannion of Washington State Ferries said of the task force’s purpose. The task force was created in response to the lengthy amount of time it takes to load onto the ferry at the Fauntleroy port.

After declaring Sound Transit will need another $225 million to run the light-rail over I-90, they’ve revealed the service will be weather dependent. “In events where there are storms with sustained high winds, we will back off on light-rail operations,” Sound Transit East Link Executive Director Ron Lewis said.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) is standing beside veterans who are fighting to regain access to exercise equipment they were able to use until last August. Veterans gathered at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center to use the exercise equipment there in the mornings to help work on rehabilitating their injuries – including knees, backs and joints. “We’ve been working on this for months. I do believe the veterans have legitimate concerns. I think the VA has made it very complicated,” McMorris Rodgers said of the protests.

Spokane Valley agreed to a $13 million contract with Waste Management for garbage services. The contract with Waste Management is one of the biggest contracts Spokane Valley City Council has approved.

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