House passes SB 5023, the “levy cliff” bill to allow school districts to rely on property tax levies for funding until January 2019, on to Gov. Inslee’s desk. Should Gov. Inslee sign this bill into law, school districts will be able to move forward in creating their budgets for the 2017-18 school year until Legislators come up with a more permanent solution for the McCleary decision.

SB 5533, “prohibiting contributions to gubernatorial candidates by entities that collectively bargain with the state” passed through the Senate. What this means, if the bill passes through the House, is that labor unions would no longer be able to donate to campaigns of the people they will eventually be negotiating state worker contracts with – putting a law in place to regulate a conflict of interest between labor unions and the governor.

HB 1155, “making felony sex offenses a crime that may be prosecuted at any time after its commission,” advances through the House onto the Senate. The bill proposed by Rep. Dan Griffey (R-Allyn) would end the statute of limitations for sex crimes, including rape and sexual assault. “Survivors of sexual crimes suffer horrific things at the hands of their abusers. The least we can do is provide them with a sliver of hope in prosecuting the monsters who commit these repulsive crimes,” said Griffey.

“Washington Democrats’ desire for a state income tax is relentless… of course, during the many years that Democrats controlled both houses in the Legislature and the governor’s office, they could have passed an income tax at any time,” Rob McKenna writes about the liberal push to implement an income tax in Washington. Read the rest of what the former Attorney General has to say about the current state of affairs regarding income taxes here.

US Chamber of Commerce has sued Seattle for their law allowing rideshare drivers to unionize. This is the second time the Chamber has sued Seattle – the first time their lawsuit was dismissed. The Chamber argues that drivers are independent contractors and not co-workers – which therefore means they cannot unionize.

In a shocking turn of events, Sound Transit and the Department of Licensing fess up to incorrectly valuing cars for car tab tax fees. Spokesperson for the DOL, Brad Benfield, said the agency has “identified a couple [of valuations] that appear to be wrong. We don’t know exactly how many.” The DOL says they will potentially issue refunds to those who have overpaid for their car tabs.

King County Council may appoint a third-party to investigate the West Point Treatment Plant flood. After the 300-million-gallon dump of waste into the Puget Sound was revealed to be an electrical and mechanical failure, rather than a crew failure. If this had been a private company, that call would have been made within the hour of the plant breaking down.

The Snohomish County Republican Party helped collect cold-weather gear for 2,000 Iraqi refugee children after a chaplain in Iraq sent a request for help to 73-year-old Lois Gustafson. Gustafson has been organizing aid to send overseas for 15 years. “America loves children,” she said. “They’ll take care of children no matter where they are.”

Homeowners in Seattle who rent their properties have filed a lawsuit against the city for their first-come, first-serve mandate. The argument filed in the lawsuit reads as follows; “Each of the plaintiffs has suffered immediate and ongoing harm because the city appropriated their constitutionally-protected right to choose whom they will house and work with in these often-lengthy and interpersonal landlord-tenant relationships.” This policy that takes power away from homeowners is the first of its kind in the US.

King County Executive Dow Constantine proposes a $469 million county sales tax increase to fund arts and sciences. We’re surprised to find ourselves on the side of Councilmember Dave Upthegrove who stated, “Our state already has the most regressive tax system in the country, and this would make it even worse in King County… I look forward to an honest and hard look at exactly how and where the money would be spent.” Hopefully people will remember it was Constantine who championed Sound Transit’s tax increase with ST3 – which ultimately led to the tripling of car tab fees for many.

Spokane Public Schools board of directors narrow down candidates for vacant seat to seven people. The person chosen will replace Bob Douthitt, who resigned in January.

Sterling’s Restaurant in the Tri-City area has responded to the changes in the minimum wage laws by adding a separate tip line for both their servers and their cooks. The new law prohibits tips being shared with kitchen staff.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson not filing new lawsuit against Trump’s executive order. Ferguson, who yesterday put out a press release announcing a press conference to talk about what could have been put into a press release, will not be filing a new lawsuit against the Trump Administration. He will instead be seeking to apply the previous injunction to the new order.

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