For The Olympia Report Washington’s minimum wage will increase to $9.19 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2013, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) announced today (Sept. 28). L&I calculates the state’s minimum wage each year as required by Initiative 688, approved by Washington voters in 1998. The 15-cent-per-hour increase, from $9.04 to $9.19...
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Washington State Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur has called on 8th Congressional District candidate Karen Porterfield to explain why she hasn’t disclosed her source of funds in paying for a $25,000 poll commissioned earlier this year. “With all of the issues Karen has had trying to run an above-board campaign, it amazes me that...
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Washington State Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur has filed a citizen action (45-day) letter with the state Attorney General’s office regarding state auditor candidate Troy Kelley’s financial disclosures. According to Wilbur, the disclosures appear to “substantially contradict other public documents regarding his sources of income, ownership of companies, and large payments received by his...
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Attorneys for the state – and occasionally the Supreme Court justices, too — argued constitutional history on Tuesday with opponents of Initiative 1053, which requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature to increase taxes in Washington. At issue was the question of whether the framers of the Washington State Constitution, who...
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Tim Eyman is reasonably confident the Washington State Supreme Court will be as dismissive of the latest attempt to sidestep the two-thirds majority requirement to raise taxes as it has been all the others. And he’s even more confident it won’t make a bit of difference if it doesn’t. “Even if the court rules...
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The attorney representing Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire in a lawsuit brought by The Freedom Foundation conceded to the state Supreme Court on Thursday morning that executive privilege is a power one could easily abuse. Which is why, he said, only the governor should be permitted to wield it. “Executive privilege is just that –...
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Washington state legislative staffers continue with the difficult balancing act of writing a pension reform bill that offers the option of early retirement to teachers without compromising education – all while still treating the teachers fairly. “There’s no right or wrong answer here,” Select Committee on Pension Policy analyst Aaron Gutierrez noted at a...
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In the first of what will be a regular series of official status reports over the next six years, the Washington State Legislature on Monday assured the state Supreme Court it was working to increase education funding but results won’t be obvious for some time to come. “…major changes to the program of basic...
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  All told, Washington state has received $8.4 billion of the $768.3 billion in stimulus money doled out under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to the official U.S. government website that tracks the program, and the money has employed a total of 2,794 people. That works out to $2.86 million per...
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From the Washington State Attorney General’s Office A week before trial was to begin in U.S. District Court in Yakima over Teck Metals, Inc.’s (Teck) liability for contamination from smelter discharges in Canada, the company has conceded its waste is leaching heavy metals in the upper Columbia River in Washington. The trial was to...
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