Briefs

Briefs

Joseph O’Sullivan, Shauna Sowersby honored for watchdog reporting

the Bunting Award

The Washington Coalition for Open Government’s Bunting Award presented to Joseph O’Sullivan and Shauna Sowersby. (Donna Gordon Blankinship/Cascade PBS)

Cascade PBS is honored to share that our state government reporter Joseph O’Sullivan has been honored by the Washington Coalition for Open Government for his work covering state lawmakers’ efforts to hide information about their work from the public using what they say is their “legislative privilege.”

O’Sullivan and his partner in the reporting project that spanned 2023, Shauna Sowersby of McClatchy, were given the Coalition’s prestigious Bunting Award at a ceremony on Friday at T-Mobile Park, although O’Sullivan was unable to attend.

“The Kenneth F. Bunting Award recognizes journalists and media outlets for work that uses or advances Washington state’s open government laws, or educates citizens about them,” according to their website. The Coalition said this was the first time they had honored journalists from two different organizations who collaborated on a project. O’Sullivan and Sowersby worked together on their reporting for more than a dozen stories published in their respective publications. Crosscut also won this award last year for investigative coverage. 

Sowersby and O’Sullivan used public records and dozens of interviews to tell the story of how lawmakers were silently exempting everything from deliberative documents to embarrassing content, why they decided to use “legislative privilege”; and how the exemption was crafted and used. They also uncovered how powerful lobbying agencies can influence transparency laws and how at least one executive branch agency secretly had a “legislative privilege” policy on their books. That agency has since rescinded the policy.

Frank Chopp won’t seek reelection after 30 years in WA House

Frank Chopp

House Speaker Frank Chopp holds the gavel while presiding over the House, Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, in Olympia. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Rep. Frank Chopp, speaker of the Washington House for 20 years, has announced he will not be seeking reelection after 30 years representing Seattle in the state Legislature.

The Democratic leader has focused his tenure in state government on housing, behavioral health care and education. His signature policy achievements included: providing free college and university tuition for low-income students; health care and housing for low-income families and unhoused people; the state Housing Trust Fund; increased funding for early learning; the legalization of same-sex marriage; Washington’s Voting Rights Act; and more state money for homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“I’ve always been driven by the belief that everyone deserves a foundation of home, health, and hope,” Chopp said in a statement. “As I leave legislative office, I am excited for the next generation of leaders carrying on this work, as I continue to advocate and organize efforts in the public interest as a public citizen. As people know about me, I am not the retiring type.”

In his “spare time,” Chopp has continued his work as a community organizer and advocate for low-income housing.

Chopp, 70, was first elected to the House in 1994, representing Seattle’s Capitol Hill, the U District, Wallingford and Fremont neighborhoods. He was House minority leader from 1997 to 1998 and was elected co-speaker with Clyde Ballard during the 1999-2001 legislative sessions when Democrats and Republicans split the House 49-49. He was elected sole speaker in 2002 when the Democrats won a majority of the House, which they have not lost since.

His counterpart in the Republican party, Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox of Yelm, also recently announced he would not be running for reelection after 14 years in the House.

WA’s first carbon auction of 2024 raises far less than expected

The U.S. Oil & Refining Co. in Tacoma

The U.S. Oil & Refining Co. in Tacoma has been in operation since 1957. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

The first quarterly carbon auction of 2024 has added two new wrinkles to the economics of Washington’s fledgling program. 

First: The auction price was $25.76 per allowance. That’s radically lower than the four quarterly auction prices posted in 2023, which took a lot of blame for Washington’s high gasoline prices. The ripple effect on gas prices is uncharted territory.

Second: The March auction results, announced Wednesday, raised $135.5 million for the state, only a fraction of the $941 million the state predicted the auctions would bring in during the first half of 2024. 

Carbon-emitting corporations, including oil companies, bid every three months on state allowances for the pollution emitted by their facilities. The prices in the four 2023 auctions ranged from $48.50 for roughly one metric ton of carbon in the first quarter of 2023 to $63.03 in the third quarter. Those 2023 prices were significantly higher than predicted before the program began, and were blamed for adding 21 to 50 cents per gallon to Washington’s already high gas prices.

High fuel costs have led to a conservative initiative on the November ballot to repeal the cap-and-invest program. Washington has always had some of the nation’s highest gas prices due to various geographical and economic factors outside of the cap-and-invest program. Washington’s average gas price per gallon is currently $4.22 compared to a national average of $3.40, according to the AAA.

The state Office of Financial Management said the $135.5 million in new 2024 revenue is $108 million to $110 million less than what was predicted for the March auction. OFM spokesman Hayden Mackley said in an email he could not speculate on the effect of auction prices on gas prices. 

But Jaime Smith, Gov. Jay Inslee’s spokesperson, noted: “Even as allowance prices were relatively high throughout the fall and winter, gas prices fell to a two-year low, showing how difficult it is to infer direct impacts.”

Washington is exploring joining a joint California/Quebec carbon market in order to bring down auction prices, but this quarter’s auction prices in Washington were lower than those in Quebec and California.  

King County Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall and King County have filed a complaint in United States District Court against Burien's new homeless anti-camping ordinance, asking a federal judge to decide if it violates the U.S. Constitution. 

Burien passed an ordinance last week that establishes exclusion zones where unhoused people are not allowed to camp in a public space if shelter is available. Included in the new city code law are buffer zones where unhoused people cannot sleep within 500 feet of schools, day care centers, parks or other areas deemed “critical.” 

The Sheriff’s office, law enforcement for the city of Burien, has concerns about the law since the exclusion zones can be changed at any time by Burien’s city manager, who determines their location. 

The King County Sheriff’s Office said the city did not reach out to the county when it crafted the ordinance. Cole-Tindall also said Burien did not consult the King County Sheriff’s office or legal experts before swiftly passing it. 

The office said it will not enforce the law until the matter’s constitutionality is resolved. King County will complete an analysis of the legislation and update Burien early next week. 

The complaint is the first step in resolving the constitutionality question, according to King County, which plans to file a motion for preliminary injunction later this week. 

A spokesperson for Burien declined to comment on the matter due to ongoing litigation.

Origins Season 2 follows Central District’s Black history, change

Filmmaker Lady Scribe calls on elected officials, Washington expats to reinvest in the historic neighborhood while remaining hopeful for the future.

A crowd sits at the Origins Season 2 Lost at Sea premiere

The crowd at the SIFF Cinema Uptown on March 5, 2024 for the Origins Season 2 premiere Lost at Sea. (Brodrick Aberly/Cascade PBS) 

Tuesday night marked the celebration of eight months of work for a first-time Seattle filmmaker with the premiere of the latest series for Cascade PBS Origins at the historic SIFF Cinema Uptown in Lower Queen Anne. 

An enthusiastic crowd of about 300 nearly filled the largest of the venue’s three theaters to view Lost at Sea. 

The audience saw a nearly 17-minute excerpt from the series, the brainchild of filmmaker Lady Scribe. She centered the story around her experience growing up Black in Seattle against the backdrop of her mother’s Great Migration journey from Louisiana, where her family sent her north for a better life. Lady Scribe weaved in the stories of other Seattleites sharing the beauty and pain of their own origins.

Cascade PBS original productions director Sarah Menzies said the team is already recruiting the next filmmaker to tell their story.  

Lost at Sea highlighted the transformation of Seattle’s Central District, once a hub of Black homeownership and business. Over the years, the Black population there has dwindled amid gentrification, skyrocketing housing costs and economic inequality. Black residents now live largely in other cities in South King County.  

A University of Washington study by Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium analyzed homeownership by race between 1970 and 2022 in Washington, which underscored the steep decline in Black homeownership. According to census data, in 1970 50% of Blacks families owned a home, compared to just 34 % in 2022. For comparison, in 2022 69% of White families owned a home, which has held relatively steady (it was 67% in 1970).  

When asked what she wanted the audience to take from the series, Lady Scribe said “We [Black Seattle natives] want to feel seen and heard.”  

The conversation after the screening included Scribe and a panel of Seattle natives. Musicians and community leaders Taz Dat MC, James Lowe and Tana Yasu explored the series’ most pertinent issues. There was agreement that the current local government could do more to increase and sustain Black homeownership in the Central District. Scribe called for giving “Black families credit”; and former Seattle Women’s Commissioner Yasu went further, saying families deserved what they were owned monetarily after all they endured at the hands of the government.  

One of the discussion’s overarching themes was love for the city – Scribe alluded in some ways that her and other Black families who called 23rd & Jackson home were abandoned – yet rooted under the frustration and disappointment, there remained a hopefulness and longing to reclaim a new vision of the Central District for future generations.   

Submissions for the next Origins grant cycle are open now through April 17. 

WA lawmakers approve union bargaining rules for legislative staff

People sitting in a balcony observe a gallery below where others sit at desks.

People watch House floor proceedings from the gallery on Jan. 8, the first day of the 2024 legislative session, at the Washington state Capitol in Olympia. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) 

Lawmakers came to a late-session agreement on Senate Bill 6194 to outline collective bargaining rights for legislative staffers just before adjourning Thursday.

In 2022, the Legislature lifted the state’s prohibition on the unionization of legislative staffers, allowing them to begin organizing in May 2024. Before May, legislators intended to pass a second bill to outline what unions could negotiate over and the composition of bargaining units.

The initial bill to clarify those issues drew criticism from current and former legislative staffers over limiting the power of any future union by prohibiting bargaining over the hiring or firing of employees, as well as over hours worked. 

Amendments in the House and Senate addressed some of those concerns, allowing bargaining over at-will status — except for when there’s a change due to an election, appointment or resignation of a legislator. The final bill also permitted future unions to negotiate overtime when the legislature is not in session, in the run-up or immediately after a term. 

WA bill to offer unemployment pay to striking workers falls short

A person marches with a snare drum and picket sign, leading a handful of workers on strike.

A group of Homegrown workers walk the picket line outside the Westfield Southcenter mall in late January. (Lizz Giordano/Cascade PBS)

A bill to extend unemployment benefits to striking workers failed to pass the Washington Legislature before a key deadline last week. The House approved House Bill 1893 in mid-February, but the legislation hit a roadblock in the Senate and never made it to the floor for a vote.   

Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, who chairs the Labor and Commerce Committee, told the Washington State Standard the bill had come really close to passing. 

“It was a big, new idea and it was a short session,” Keiser said. “I think there was a caution and a reluctance. A lot of people were just not comfortable taking on a big, new idea in a short session.”

Supporters of the bill said it would help level the playing field between workers and employers who refuse to negotiate fairly with their workforce. Opponents said the legislation could increase business costs or prolong work stoppages.

The state’s Employment Security Department projected the bill would increase unemployment benefit payouts, on the high end, by less than 1%.

Cascade PBS to record live podcast at Seattle Town Hall on Friday

Lana Ikelan and Noga Bar Oz

Lana Ikelan is a Palestinian journalist, and Noga Bar Oz is an Israeli musician who conducts an orchestra for Arab and Jewish children. (Tomorrow’s Women)

This Friday, Cascade PBS will take part in an event highlighting the voices of two young women from Palestine and Israel travelling together to share stories of war, strength and hope.  

Lana Ikelan and Noga Bar Oz from Tomorrow’s Women met at a camp in New Mexico in 2016 organized by the 20-year-old nonprofit organization. Tomorrow’s Women aims to train “women from Palestine, Israel and the United States to be strong, compassionate leaders who partner to resolve conflicts and inspire action that promotes equality, peace, and justice for all.” 

They have left their deeply divided homelands for a series of events in the U.S., including a program this week at Town Hall Seattle at 7:30 p.m. on March 8. They will both share parts of their stories, and afterward, Cascade PBS podcast producer Sara Bernard will host a Q&A that will be broadcast as a future episode of Northwest Reports (formerly Crosscut Reports). 

Ikelan and Bar Oz will also participate in an event on Sunday morning March 10 at Seattle First Baptist Church. 

The Seattle events are part of a short tour that includes similar events at UCLA and a Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles later this month. 

WA lawmakers pass bill to curb seizures of child support payments

family in living room

Amy Roark, center, and two of her children, GracieLynn Rich (left) and Kayden Wake (right), at her home in Vancouver, Wash., on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. For several years, while Roark was on TANF, the state intercepted thousands in child support payments meant for her children. Now she’s off TANF but still struggling after the loss of that money. (Kristina Barker for Cascade PBS)

A bill to curtail the state’s practice of intercepting child support payments from families who receive cash benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is slated to become law after receiving final approval from Washington’s state Legislature on Tuesday.

Washington took $41 million intended for the parents of impoverished children in 2022, under a long-standing but little-known practice authorized by federal law. Cascade PBS recently found broad bipartisan opposition to the policy, which some officials described as a tax on poor families. 

“Families receiving child support and state benefits such as TANF need every dollar to meet their basic needs,” bill sponsor Rep. Jamila Taylor, D-Federal Way, wrote in an email to Cascade PBS.

Under current policy, parents on welfare can receive just $50 per month of the payments meant to support their children, or up to $100 if they have multiple children. The new policy will “pass through” the entirety of those monthly payments to families, although the state can still seize back-owed debt.

HB 1652 will not take effect until 2026, due to an amendment introduced by a Senate committee at the request of the Department of Social and Health Services, which manages both child support and TANF. A DSHS spokesperson wrote in an email to lawmakers that the agency needed extra time to perform IT upgrades.

The bill unanimously cleared the Senate last week and now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk after the House accepted the Senate’s amended timeframe. Taylor initially pushed back on that delay request, but told Cascade PBS on Friday that she would urge her House colleagues to vote yes.

“While my wish would be to start giving families relief as soon as possible, I will be accepting the Senate’s amendment to ensure that this bill makes it to the Governor for signature this session,” Taylor wrote.

Washington currently splits the proceeds from child support collections with the federal government. A fiscal note attached to the bill estimates that stopping much of those collections will cost the state about $15 million per year.

Updated with concurrence approval in the House at 3:20 p.m. on March 5, 2024.

WA Legislature OKs 3 initiatives, leaving tax measures for ballot

Voters in November will decide on initiatives to repeal the capital gains tax and the cap-and-invest program and to change the long-term care insurance payroll tax.

Washington State Capitol Building

The Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia, in a 2020 photo. (Jovelle Tamayo for Cascade PBS)

The Washington Legislature approved loosening police-pursuit restrictions and passing two other initiatives submitted by public petitions. That leaves three initiatives to be addressed in the November election.

The Senate approved removing some police-pursuit restrictions 36-13, with the opposing votes all coming from Democrats.The House passed the measure 77-20. 

The Senate also passed the initiative forbidding a state income tax 38-11, and unanimously declared parents had rights to medical, academic and disciplinary information on their children. The House passed the income tax initiatives by 76-21 and the parental rights measure by a vote of 82-15. All votes against the three initiatives were from Democrats.

The police-pursuit initiative was the most controversial. It repeals a 2021 law that raised the standard for vehicular police pursuits from “reasonable suspicion” to “probable cause” — the standard typically required for a warrant or arrest – for pursuits involving all but a narrow list of crimes. That list of crimes was expanded in 2023 following an unsuccessful Republican attempt to repeal the entire 2021 law. 

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said, “Police and law enforcement have been handcuffed in the number of crimes they are allowed to pursue. … off [criminals] go, thumbing their noses at law enforcement.” He added that vehicle thefts have significantly increased since 2021 because police pursuits were restricted.

In voting against the initiative, Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, worried that a broken taillight or loud music could trigger a police pursuit. Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, cited innocent bystanders being injured over the small theft or drug possession charge. 

The two other initiatives sparked only token discussions Monday because the measures do not change the status quo. Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said the parental-rights initiative merely codifies rules already set in state education regulations. Meanwhile, there has not been a serious attempt at establishing a state income tax in more than a decade.

Conservative organization Let’s Go Washington, funded by Redmond hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, gathered enough signatures to send six initiatives to the Legislature. The Legislature had the choice to adopt those initiatives or send them to a public vote on the November ballot. Monday’s action removed three from that lineup.

The three remaining initiatives — including one to repeal the new cap-and-invest program that puts a price on carbon pollution — all have complicated fiscal ramifications that do not lend themselves to easy “yes” or “no” votes, without amendments. The Legislature is not allowed to amend initiatives.

Another initiative asks voters to repeal Washington’s new capital gains tax on people earning $250,000 or more on capital gains. The sixth proposal would repeal a 2023 law that taxes paychecks to provide for long-term health care.