The Thurston County commissioners decided this spring -- with the assistance of hundreds of incensed hunters -- to shelve a proposed shooting ban. But in doing so, they may have violated the state's Open Meetings Law.

Just because the Thurston County commissioners ultimately made the correct decision doesn’t made it correctly.

That’s the message about two dozen property rights advocates delivered on Tuesday with respect to the county’s recently scrapped shooting ordinance.

“While I agreed with the commissioners in this decision, process is policy,” said Glen Morgan, property rights director at the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation. “And when you fail to follow the clear legal process as provided in state law, then we must ask you to correct your mistakes.”

Earlier this year, the commissioners proposed an ordinance would have created no- or controlled-shooting zones in the urban-growth areas of Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Grand Mound, portions of Eld and Henderson inlets and some residential areas zoned for one or two dwellings per acre.

It also would have prohibited shooting within 300 yards of the ordinary high-water line along Puget Sound, limiting areas for waterfowl hunters.

The idea outraged property rights advocates, who believe the core issue is more than safety or gun rights.

Glen Morgan

“The bigger conversation about the no-shooting ordinance, of course is why our county government spent two and a half years and countless staff hours on five of an ordinance that was unnecessary and clearly illegal,” Morgan said. “All the reasons provided by this commission for not voting on this ordinance were accurate. But those justifications were provided to this commission two years ago, and you still chose to squander our resources and staff time.”

The Thurston commissioners ultimately decided by a 2-1 margin in April to scrap plans for the shooting ban – presumably encouraged by the 1,800 e-mails they received and the 3,200 signatures on a petition opposing the ordinance.

Commissioners Cathy Wolfe and Sandra Romero voted to kill the measure, while Commissioner Karen Valenzuela said she wanted to see the issue taken to the next step.

In reaching their decision, however, the commissioners held several closed-door meetings to discuss strategy.

Morgan and others at Tuesday’s hearing believe the county violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.

“Specifically, this violation occurred when the commissioners made their majority decision to not pursue the no-shooting ordinance on April 17 – just a few weeks ago,” Morgan said. “This may not be the only violation in Thurston County, but we will no longer allow this commission to make these violations with impunity moving forward.”

Artist's conception of light rail on the I-90 Bridge -- assuming a lawsuit being appealed to the State Supreme Court by the Eastside Transportation Association doesn't derail the project.

Opponents of a plan to allow Sound Transit use of the center two lanes on the Interstate 90 Bridge in order to extend light rail from Seattle to Bellevue are planning to take their case back to the state’s highest court.

Representatives from the Eastside Transportation Association, including former State Sen. Jim Horn and Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, announced on Tuesday they will appeal a Kittitas County Superior Court ruling that in March dismissed the group’s lawsuit, which named Gov. Gregoire, Department of Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond and Sound Transit as defendants.

The case dates back to 2009 and was originally heard by the Supreme Court in September 2010, but the justices ruled in April 2011 the plaintiffs could not prevent the Washington State Department of Transportation from transferring the lanes before the fact.

Kemper Freeman

Sound Transit plans to connect Seattle’s Central Link with Bellevue and the Eastside’s future East Link by building light rail line along Interstate 90 where the carpool lanes currently are.

Sound Transit hopes to start construction of East Link in 2015 or 2016 and launch passenger service in 2023.

In its effort to thwart the project, the ETA argued that, “any transfer of the lanes” from an original plan for the I-90 bridge, one that did not include light rail at the time as it predated Sound Transit 2, “would essentially be an unlawful diversion of motor vehicle fund money” and that the state is prohibited “from entering into ‘any agreement’ with Sound Transit for use of the two center lanes of I-90 for high-capacity light rail.”

The Supreme Court rejected the first argument but left open the possibility of a future lawsuit.

ETA responded by filing a similar action last fall, only to see it thrown out by Kittitas County Judge Michael Cooper, who declared that the East Link light rail project, approved by voters in 2008, conforms to plans and agreements that have been in place since before the bridge was built.

ETA’s appeal has not yet been officially filed with the State Supreme Court, which could still decide to hear it.

Senate Minority Leader Lisa Brown hasn't said what she plans to do next, but insists she won't be running for office in the immediate future.

Washington State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-Spokane), following a spring that saw her party lose a bruising floor fight during which minority Republicans joined with a handful of Democratic defectors to defeat her preferred budget, has decided not to seek re-election this fall.

Brown, 55, announced on Thursday that after 20 years in the Legislature, she intends to retain  her part-time teaching position at Gonzaga University in Spokane, but otherwise is going to “wait and see what comes along.”

For the immediate future, she said, her plans do not include running for another political office.

“It wasn’t something I was planning to do, it was just one of those epiphanies,” she told The Associated Press. “It just felt like the right time, while I can still be open to other challenges.”

Brown has served as Senate majority leader for eight years, and before that she was minority leader for two years. Prior to that, she served in the House.

Democrats currently hold a 27-22 advantage in the Senate, but this year, three disgruntled Democrats voted with Republicans on a key budget decision late in the regular legislative session, infuriating Brown and her fellow Democratic leaders.

Brown, who won her seat four years ago with 75 percent of the vote, was slated to face off against Spokane councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin in this fall’s election. Her announcement leaves Democrats scrambling to find a replacement with the filing period set to open on May 14.

Brown’s official statement is reprinted below:

I have decided not to seek re-election to the 3rd district Senate seat this fall. Returning home two weeks ago, I began taking stock of my twenty years in the Legislature, reflecting on what I have been able to achieve with the help of colleagues and supporters. I decided that, though it is still immensely gratifying to serve Spokane and the state of Washington in this capacity, I am ready for new challenges.

During my tenure in the Legislature we have created in Spokane a health sciences education and research campus, which will be a centerpiece of our regional economy and will educate thousands of pharmacists, nurses, dentists, doctors, and other health professionals. The building that will house the University of Washington medical school and the Washington State University pharmacy received its final funding in this year’s capital budget.
I have also championed the clean-up and protection of the Spokane river, Spokane’s aerospace cluster, our film and video industry, and spearheaded the funding of the Fox Theater, the MAC, the refurbished YMCA/YWCA facilities, and numerous non-profits in Spokane, such as Crosswalk, the Northwest Autism Center and Sally’s House.

At the state level, I am most proud of my work to create mental health parity legislation, and my work on the state budget to enhance childcare and healthcare for working families. I am equally proud of my efforts to protect the state’s partnership with numerous non-profits who serve vulnerable people across the spectrum: abused and neglected children, the elderly, homeless people, and people with disabilities, and of our fourteen year fight to pass a simple majority plan for school levies.

Given the challenges of the recession and the reductions in the alternate budget proposed by the Senate Republicans, I am particularly pleased with this year’s final budget, which protected not only vital human service programs, but also made no further reductions to K-12 education or higher education.

I have been involved in the promotion of women’s rights and civil rights throughout my life and legislative career. This year’s path-breaking marriage equality and human-trafficking laws are two examples of the kind of legislation that originally motivated me to run for office. Serving as Ways and Means chair and then as the leader of my caucus for ten years has given me a tremendous opportunity to be deeply involved in all the major public policy issues facing our state and to work with talented elected officials and advocates.

I would like to thank Gov. Chris Gregoire and Speaker Frank Chopp for their leadership and for the productive relationship we have enjoyed for eight years. In particular, I appreciate the governor’s unwavering commitment to the economic future of Spokane and I want to thank the speaker for his dedication to the most vulnerable people in our state.

I will miss the incredibly dedicated staff of the state Senate and many of my colleagues in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle. In particular, I appreciated working with Sen. Jim Hargrove on mental health and human service funding, Sen. Ed Murray on marriage equality and the budget, Sens. Tracey Eide and Rosemary McAuliffe on simple majority, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles on gender equity, Sen. Derek Kilmer on economic development initiatives, Sen. Joe Zarelli on the Rainy Day fund constitutional amendment, Rep. Ruth Kagi on childcare and early learning, and my seatmates Timm Ormsby and Andy Billig on numerous Spokane initiatives.

Senate Democrats are well-positioned to continue to lead the state. I look forward to watching the careers of our seasoned members as well as our emerging leaders.

The people of Spokane have given me the tremendous honor of representing and serving them for 20 years.

My son, Lucas, and many dear friends have accompanied me and supported me on this journey. I am immensely grateful to all of them.

Black-hooded anarchists smash windows in downtown Seattle on Tuesday as part of the May Day protests.

Masked anarchists clad in black outfits joined with hundreds of other protesters to smash dozens of store windows, spray-paint buildings and slash car tires in downtown Seattle on Tuesday in what organizers billed as a revolution against capitalism, economic unfairness and social injustice.

More than a dozen people were arrested and numerous minor injuries were reported. Property damage could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“This is a city that loves protests, that’s proud of their ability to have protests, and the vast majority of the time, we’re able to do it quite well,” Police Chief John Diaz told reporters. “It’s extremely unfortunate that we have small groups of people wanting to hijack these events.”

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn issued an emergency order later in the evening, allowing police to confiscate items that could be used as weapons.

“We had reports from officers of paint and rocks flying, hammers and tire irons being used to damage property,” McGinn said.

“Sound bombs” and firecrackers also were reported. Police said they confiscated several homemade incendiary devices and bags of feces from protesters.

“Our concerns were real, and I think we handled it as best we could,” Seattle Police Sgt. Sean Whitcombsaid late Tuesday night. “These were, for the most part, peaceful demonstrations. It’s such as shame that such a small group of individuals were able to hijack the event and dilute the message to one of violence. They came here and they smashed it up.”

The fundamental problem with the DOE's climate change report, according to at least one member of the House Environment Committee, is that it assumes global warming is an established fact when the science is still unsettled.

The Washington State Department of Ecology’s newly released climate change strategy, according to at least one outspoken critic, amounts to little more than a thinly veiled attempt to hinder development at a time when the state needs to be doing everything possible to promote private-sector business and jobs.

“This is yet another obstacle in the way of economic development,” said Rep. David Taylor (R-Moxee), who serves on the House Environmental Committee. “The last thing we need right now is legislation that addresses something that isn’t a problem in the first place by using junk science and has the effect of depressing our economy.”

DOE released its Integrated Climate Change Response Strategy in April, noting that “Washington is experiencing changing climate conditions that bring significant risks to human health, our forests, agriculture, freshwater supplies, coastlines and other resources that are vital to our economy, environment and quality of life.”

Rep. David Taylor

Taylor said he believes the report is the product of people suspicious of all development and an attempt to circumvent the state’s current moratorium on administrative rules changes.

Arguing that, ““Giving small businesses and local governments more time to devote their full attention to creating jobs and helping communities will help support the economy,” Gov. Christine Gregoire last October extended Washington’s one-year ban on non-critical rule making.

As a result of the previous year’s moratorium, cabinet agencies put 436 rules – about half of what was proposed – on hold.

The moratorium directs state agencies to continue to suspend new rule development and adoption — but not at the expense of public health, safety and welfare.

Taylor believes DOE is using that loophole to codify climate change doctrine into such state laws as the Shoreline Management Act and the Growth Management Act.

“It’s just another example of state agencies front-loading the process to get around the rule-writing moratorium,” he said. “According to DOE, they’re not updating the rules; they’re updating the background information. But if you change the underlying assumptions, you have to change the outcome, too.”

Taylor, who Tweeted two weeks ago that the DOE report was a “pile of garbage,” said lawmakers had agreed during the past session on the need to streamline the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist to make obtaining a development permit less confusing.

“There’s a lot of needless duplication in the process,” he said. “The idea was, if something is dealt with in permitting, why address it again in SEPA?”

The new DOE report, however, violates the spirit of the bipartisan agreement, Taylor said.

“I would think if DOE staff can find the time to come and testify on all sorts of environmental bills, they also have the time to find out whether their opinions are consistent with legislative intent,” he said. “And this isn’t.”

Hundreds of taxpayers showed up on the Capitol steps on Saturday for what became a pep rally for liberty. Jeff Rhodes/The Freedom Foundation

“We’re in nothing less than a battle for the future of our nation,” Shelton business owner Pat Tarzwell told a raucous crowd gathered on the steps of the Capitol Building in Olympia on Saturday. “And we have some serious catching up to do. Progressives have a 100-year headstart growing the size of government.”

With federal income taxes due the following day, Tarzwell said it was a perfect occasion to talk about slashing spending at both the national and state levels.

“Our own governor says we’ve cut $10 billion from the budget in recent years,” he said. “Don’t believe her. She didn’t cut a nickel. Spending goes up every stinking year.”

“Four years ago were promised hope and change,” added blogger Keli Carender, who fellow Tea Party members have dubbed the “Liberty Belle.” “But at this point, hope is about all we have left — hope that change is coming.

“As bad as some of us thought an Obama presidency would be, he’s been far worse than we could have imagined,” she said. “We’re facing a very serious situation, but fortunately, there’s still time to heal the nation.”

The Olympia event featured 10 inspirational speakers — plus music — over two hours. And the prevailing theme was how government has eroded personal freedoms while stifling the economy.

“I can’t figure out why people keep voting for candidates with ‘experience,’ ” said Olympia resident and conservative activist Sharon Hanek, who refers to herself as the “Research Mom.”
“Do we want to keep voting for candidates with experience taking away our rights?” she asked. “Or should we start electing people who believe they were called by God to restore those rights?”

“The most troublesome aspect of America today isn’t the division between the right and the left,” said event host Mike Siegel, a longtime conservative talk radio host. “The most troublesome thing is the division between the left and the Constitution.

“It’s time for a change in America,” he said. “It’s time to stand up and be counted.”

Democratic Sen. Derek Kilmer, left, and Republican Linda Evans Parlette believe the capital budget bill will fund projects the state needed to build anyway and do so at a reduced rate of interest.

In the final, frenzied moments of a special legislative session that extended seven hours past its deadline of midnight Tuesday, exhausted Washington state lawmakers who’d spent the past eight months trying to close a $1.6 million gap between projected expenditures and revenues, easily passed a capital budget that included $1.1 billion in new construction spending.

“That’s typical of capital budgets,” explained Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center. “They don’t get as much scrutiny as the operating budget because they tend to be the ‘Christmas tree’ budget that everyone wants to hang something on.”

The capital budget passed 44-1 in the Senate and 85-13 in the House of Representatives.

“I had a lot of reservations about the bill,” conceded Rep. Jan Angel (R-26th District). “But at the end of the day, I had to look at what it included for my district — projects they’d have to find a way to pay for themselves if the state didn’t.”

Angel said she ultimately voted against the operating budget, which she described as “unsustainable,” but in favor the capital budget because, “As much as I didn’t want to see the state spend that money, I just didn’t see how I could go back and tell my constituents they had to pay for something the state had offered to pay for.”

According to its Democratic sponsors, Snohomish Rep. Hans Dunshee and Gig Harbor Sen. Derek Kilmer, the capital spending bill will kick start Washington’s stalled construction industry by “creating” up to 22,000 new jobs.

Meanwhile, they argue, the projects funded under the bill — which include stormwater upgrades, boat ramps and school construction — need to be done at some point regardless, and doing so gives the state an opportunity to borrow at historically low interest rates.

The proposal originally called for selling $1.3 billion in revenue bonds to finance the package. But Republicans preferred using general obligation bonds, which are guaranteed by state taxes rather than revenues from the projects involved.

They also pared the cost down to $1.1 billion.

“The conversation about making investment in infrastructure — especially when it’s cheaper to buy, and you’ve got a lot of folks in the construction industry unemployed — it’s one area of consideration around job creation,” Kilmer said in an interview in the Peninsula Gateway.

“It’s a way to make investments in things the state is going to invest in anyway,” Kilmer said, “while folks are out of work.”

Kilmer, whose full-time job is is vice president of the Pierce County Economic Development Board, said while the construction jobs themselves may only be temporary, the infrastructure they build will be an economic engine for their respective communities.

That’s a difficult case to make, however, for every project. In Olympia, to cite one example, $1.5 of the capital budget bill is earmarked for making upgrades to the Camp Quixote homeless encampment.

Even more problematic, because of the state’s requirement that public construction projects must pay contractors the prevailing — usually union-negotiated — wage, even $1.1 billion won’t build as much or hire as many workers as it would without the regulation.

“Research in Washington and across the United States shows that prevailing wage determinations rarely mirror actual market wages,” noted Bryan Leonard, a budget analyst with The Freedom Foundation.

“For example,” he  wrote, “Washington pays some workers nearly twice the actual market wage. This big increase in the capital budget seems oddly-timed at best — and foolhardy at worst.”

Altogether, the 2012 supplemental capital budget funds slightly more than $1 billion in projects, including $320 million for higher education-related projects, $254 million for economic development and public infrastructure, $57 million for skills centers and more than $200 million for stormwater, hatcheries, parks, forest health and other natural-resource projects.

“We wanted to invest in projects that will improve the curve of our state’s economic recovery,” said Sen. Linda Evans Parlette (R-Wenatchee). “(We decided to) purchase them now, while prices and interest rates are low, and invest in projects that will help ease the pressure on future operating budgets.

“We accomplished our goal,” she said, “and I look forward to getting the projects in this budget under way.”

Below is a partial listing of the projects funded under the capital budget.

• Adna Athletic and Fitness Facility — $80,000
• American Lake Veterans’ Golf Course — $250,000
• Anacortes Depot — $380,000
• Bothell North Creek Forest Land Acquisition — $200,000
• Boys and Girls Federal Way — $50,000
• Bucoda Odd Fellows Community Center — $150,000
• Central WA State Fair Association — $35,000
• City of Kirkland Athletic Fields — $150,000
• Colville Tribal Museum — $250,000
• Daybreak Youth Services Pre-Construction Activities — $100,000
• Dekalb Pier Project — $700,000
• Gig Harbor Maritime Pier — $390,000
• Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Lady Washington Rehabilitation — $169,000
• Legion Park Visitors Center and Trailhead Project — $110,000
• Match FEMA funds for Sprague Response Center — $300,000
• North Mason Senior Center — $1,360,000
• Port of Bremerton — $1,100,000
• Puyallup Transit-Oriented Development — $1,500,000
• Redmond Central Connector — $850,000
• Roslyn Renaissance — $300,000
• Seattle Children’s Hospital Emergency Department — $1,000,000
• Skagit Valley Hospital $750,000
• South Tacoma Community Center Playground — $380,000
• Spokane Food Bank Distribution Center Capacity and Renovation — $1,250,000
• Spokane Valley Partners Boiler Replacement — $100,000
• Sultan Boys and Girls Club — $500,000
• Tacoma Hilltop Health Center — $1,500,000
• The Arc of Tri-Cities Facility — $350,000
• Traumatic Brain Injury Center — $900,000
• Vancouver Waterfront Park Pre-Construction Activities — $500,000
• Veteran’s Memorial — $210,000
• West Hill Skyway Redevelopment — $750,000
• YWCA Yakima — $203,000
• Low Income Housing Institute/Housing for Homeless Young Adults — $1,800,000
• Roslyn Northwest Improvement Building — $1,035,000
• Port Gamble Bay (Open up 90 acres of geoduck tracks) — $2,000,000
• Port Gamble Bay (Source control, habitat preservation, and cleanup sustainability) — $7,000,000
• Cashmere Mill Site — $1,500,000
• Lakewood 2012 Drywell Replacement Project — $330,000
• Ferndale Southwest Storm Water Management Facility — $871,000
• Tacoma Cheney Stadium Stormwater LID Retrofit — $1,000,000
• Bellingham Central Business District Raingarden Retrofits — $450,000
• Walla Walla 13th Avenue Stormwater LID Project — $290,000
• Spokane County Regional Decant Facility — $684,000
• Milton 5th Avenue Storm Water Treatment Facility — $112,000
• Pierce County Clarks/Rody Creek Stormwater Retrofits — $829,000
• Mount Vernon Downtown Plaza — $351,000
• Vancouver Water Quality Retrofits for Existing Drywells — $562,000
• Camas Vactor Waste Facility Retrofit — $150,000
• Tumwater Valley Regional Stormwater Facility — $469,000
• West Richland Bombing Range Outfall Elimination Project — $479,000
• Kitsap County Parks: Replace and Installation of Pervious Parking Lots — $735,000
• Woodinville Lake Leota Stormwater Quality Retrofit Project — $866,000
• Richland Leslie Groves Park Regional Infiltration Facility — $199,000
• Spokane County Country Homes Boulevard Restoration Project — $1,000,000
• Redmond NE 84th Street Stormwater Retrofit — $1,000,000
• Pierce County Groundwater Pollutant Reduction Project — $578,000
• Kitsap County Illahee Stormwater/LID Retrofit Project — $625,000
• Bellingham Stormwater Retrofit/Bloedel Donovan Park — $384,000
• Puyallup Porus Alley Initiative Program — $665,000
• Lacey Vactor Waste Decant Facility — $342,000
• Fife 70th Avenue East Phase 2 — $786,000
• Kent James Street Stormwater Outfall Retrofit $75,000
• Renton Sunset Terrace Regional Stormwater Facility — $983,000
• Sumner Site A.2 Outfall Treatment Retrofit $1,000,000
• Asotin Second Street Stormwater Project — $172,000
• University Place Bridgeport Way Low-Impact Development Project — $758,000
• Sumner Site J Outfall Treatment Retrofit — $538,000
• Richland Canyon Terrace Stormwater Treatment Project — $211,000
• Olympia SPSCC Stormwater Retrofit for Water Quality — $312,000
• Renton Harrington Avenue NE Green Connection — $913,000
• Longview Municipal Pervious Concrete — $86,000
• Kirkland Northeast King County Co-op Recycling Decant Center — $2,250,000
• Burlington Gages Slough Stormwater LID Improvements — $204,000
• Clark County Columbia River High School Stormwater Retrofit — $267,000
• Bainbridge Island Lynwood Center Outfall Improvement Project — $188,000
• Puyallup Clarks Creek Targeted Outfall Retrofit Project — $551,000
• Pierce County Tacoma Narrows Airport Pavement Removal — $326,000
• Pierce County Spanaway Lake Park Stormwater Retrofit — $690,000
• Administrative Costs — $792,000
• Burien Miller Creek Stormwater Management Facility — $1,000,000
• Tacoma Asotin Court LID Retrofit — $710,000
• Seattle Public Utilities Midvale Stormwater Facility — $1,000,000
• Mukilteo Smuggler’s Gulch Drainage Basin LID and Stormwater Retrofit — $1,000,000
• Kirkland Park Lane Pedestrian Corridor — $739,000
• Port Angeles 4th Street Stormwater Project $1,000,000
• Snohomish County Department of Parks & Recreation Kayak Park Stormwater Treatment — $1,000,000
• Renton Rainier Avenue Stormwater Retrofit — $644,000
• Vancouver Peterson Channel Industrial LID Improvements — $287,000
• Wenatchee Snowmelt Facility — $975,000
• Port Orchard Cedar Heights Junior High Sidewalks — $135,000
• Centralia Downtown Rain Garden Revitalization Project — $487,000
• Snohomish County Paine Field Drainage Subbasin SC-5 — $967,000
• Seattle Public Utilities West Seattle Decant Facility — $289,000
• Skagit County LID Demonstration Project — $291,000
• Snohomish LID Improvements Project — $104,000
• Douglas County 23rd Street (Baker to SR 28) — $165,000
• Renton NE 10th St and Anacortes Ave NE Detention Pond Retrofit — $206,000
• Redmond Public Works Kelsey Creek Erosion Reduction Facility — $1,000,000
• Whatcom County Upper Silver Beach Creek Restoration — $988,000
• Port of Vancouver Terminal 4 Stormwater Pond Retrofit — $1,000,000

The Washington State Legislature at last agreed on a compromise supplemental budget at 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Bleary-eyed Washington state lawmakers finally reached agreement on a long-delayed supplemental budget at 6:17 a.m. — more than six hours into a second special legislative session.

“It doesn’t cut education, it’s balanced and it’s a quarter to 5,” Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) said of the budget before it passed in that house by a 64-34 margin.

The Senate followed suit by a 44-2 vote 90 minutes later, purposely waiting until the House had narrowly approved a reform measure dealing with extending healthcare benefits to non-teachers working in the state’s K-12 school system.

“This budget has been a struggle,” said Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle). “But that’s because Washington families are struggling. We think this budget protects them as best we can.”

Up to that point, the lawmakers had been unable to reach agreement on closing a $1.6 billion revenue gap through a two-and-a-half-week special session in December, the regular 60-day legislative session that convened in January, a 30-day special session that ended at midnight Tuesday and a few hours more.

Gov. Christine Gregoire, assured a budget deal was at hand, called for a second session to begin immediately when the midnight deadline came and went without an accord.

“I don’t think there’s a thing in that budget that will be a surprise to a soul at this point,” she said in announcing the one-day extra session. “They just need to get it done. Get it done and go home.”

Although Democrats hold a majority in both houses of the Legislature and Gregoire, too, is a Democrat, Republicans in the Senate were able to assert control in the final week of the regular session and pass a budget more to their liking by recruiting three moderate Democrats to support their more fiscally conservative version.

The bipartisan coalition in the Senate thereafter steadfastly refused to pass — or even negotiate — a budget until both houses approved a comprehensive list of economic reforms.

As the clocked on Tuesday ticked down to midnight — and beyond — those reforms were addressed one by one.

The reform bills encompassed a wide range of subjects, from requiring future Legislatures to pass budgets that line up with four-year revenue projections rather than the current two years to making it more difficult for state employees to take early retirement.

“I support this budget because, for a change, it reflects some of our ideas and values, too,” said Rep. Gary Alexander (R-Olympia).

Senate Republicans weren't able to eliminate the early retirement option entirely for state employees, but they made it more difficult to do.

New Washington state government employees will still have the option of retiring early, but they’ll pay more for the privilege and benefit less under a compromise struck between Senate Democrats and a coalition of Republicans and moderate Democrats.

The deal eliminates one of the major hurdles standing in the way of passing a supplemental budget — a chore lawmakers have struggled with through one special session in December, the regular 90-day legislative session and just about all of the current special session.

The pension reform provision had long been a sticking point for coalition members who insisted it be passed before the Legislature took up the subject of a supplemental budget. But with lawmakers scrambling to adjourn the current 30-day special session by its deadline at midnight tonight, a compromise was worked out.

Under the revised bill, state workers who retire before the age of 62 are already penalized with lower pension benefits.

Under the new bill, those penalties will increase to as high as a 50 percent reduction for workers retiring at the age of 55.
The changes only apply to workers hired starting in May 2013.

The plan isprojected to save the state an estimated $1.3 billion over 25 years.

Co9mputer-generated illustration of how light rail would be integrated on the I-90 bridge between Seattle and Bellevue.

Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman’s lawsuit to prevent construction of a light rail line from Seattle to the Eastside via the Interstate 90 bridge was denied on Friday in Kittitas County Superior Court.

Judge Michael Cooper’s summary judgment rejects — for now, at least — Freeman’s claim that work to extend light rail service to  to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond by using the I-90 center lanes violates the state constitution because freeway lanes built with gasoline taxes cannot be used for for mass transit, which is a non-highway purpose.

Such a highway, the plaintiffs argued, can be used for a different purpose only if it is declared “surplus.”

Kemper Freeman

Cooper disagreed, noting that carpool lanes will be built first on I-90 to replace the lanes Sound Transit will take. Sound Transit will then reimburse the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for most of the $188 million carpool-lane project.

Freeman, who teamed with the Eastside Transportation Association to file the suit, did not say immediately whether the case would be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs originally filed suit at the Supreme Court level, but justices there said they lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit, so it was re-filed in Kitittas County last year.

Cooper’s ruling declared that the East Link light rail project, approved by voters in 2008, conforms to plans and agreements that have been in place since before the bridge was built.

Specifically, the ruling cites a 1978 federal action approving construction of the I-90 floating bridge, which included a provision requiring that “public transportation shall permanently have first priority in the use of the center lanes.”

Sound Transit is expected to start construction of the East Link in 2015 or 2016 and hopes to launch passenger service in 2023.

The entire ruling can be read here.