2011 Legislative Session

Day 95 - It's official ... the Democrat Majorities in the House and Senate have lost their collective minds. The Democrats are bound and determined to raise taxes on way or another. To quote Senator Kohl-Welles, "I don't think the voters understood what they were voting for with I-1053." Seriously, the voters didn't understand I-1053? And what planet are you on?

We're working through another Concurrence/Dispute Calendar today and may be hearing the Capital Budget tomorrow; unfortunately, it will be yet another Capital Budget that I cannot support. I want to support the various school construction projects, but simply can't vote for a budget that relies on $488 million in new general obligation bonds. The taxpayers of Washington can't afford additional debt. We'll be running an amendment or two in an attempt to remove the need for additional bonds, but if we fail to pass those amendments, I won't be supporting the Capital Budget.

#capital #budget #2011 #tax #increases #I-1053 #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
http://chum.ly/n/828d1c

2011 Legislative Session

Day 57 - We're finally at the House of Origin cutoff and it looks like HB 2011 will be the final bill of the night. It is possible they will run another bill before the 5:00 PM cutoff and then return to HB 2011, but it doesn't look like that will happen ... time will tell. HB 2011 will provide Department of Corrections personnel with binding interest arbitration. In a time when the state is facing major budget deficits the Democratic Majority is once again expanding collection bargaining and binding interest arbitration to another group of public employees. This bill may very well be the "stinker" of the year and will significantly increase the Department of Correction's budget. The bill applies to all Department of Corrections personnel, not just Corrections Officers. It should be noted the bill was introduced two days ago, was never heard by a fiscal committee and no fiscal note has been prepared for the bill. HB 2011 is a really bad bill, that could reduce the total number of Correctional Officers working within the system. In the end, the state has a finite amount of revenue to fund basic government services and the Democrats have chosen to pass a bill that benefits a public employee union.

 #HB #2011 #union #binding #arbitration #budget #impacts #cutoff #15th #District #State #Rep #David #Taylor
http://chum.ly/n/7424f2

2011 Legislative Session

Days 12-14: On Friday my 1:30 Committee meeting was canceled so I was able to leave early and surprise Molly. Spent the weekend working around the place. We attempted to get some hay hauled ... I say attempted because it never goes the way it's supposed to. This time, the mud sucked a tire off the rim. I got back to Olympia around 4:30 on Sunday. Today (Day 15), is going to be a big day on the House Floor. The "Not so Early, Bad Action" bill will be debated. We've got a striker that protects K-4 Enhancement funding and cuts an additional $30 million from the General Fund. It should be a wild one.

 #2011  #Rep  #David  #Taylor  #15th  #District  #Early  #Action
http://chum.ly/n/611227

2011 Legislative Session

Day 9 - More Committee meetings, more constituent meetings and more crazy thoughts from the Democrats. The proposed 2nd Early Action (they don't call it a supplemental budget anymore) Bill is out and it just kicks the can a little further down the road. There's nothing of substance to it. Tomorrow will be more of the same, but it sounds like we'll be debating the supplemental budget ... I mean the 2nd early action bill on Friday.

 #2011  #Legislative  #Session  #15th  #District  #Rep  #David  #Taylor  #Early  #Action  #Bill
http://chum.ly/n/5e6fc5

2011 Legislative Session

Days 6 and 7 - We don't have any Committee meetings, hearing or floor sessions this weekend. Molly and Tiffany are coming over this morning for the weekend ... yea! Rep. Ross and I are working on a B-I-G huge issue right now, which I am researching right now.

 #Rep.  #David  #Taylor  #2011  #Session  #Republican  #15th  #District
http://chum.ly/n/5d1091

2011 Legislative Session

Day 5 - After 2+ sessions it still amazes me how little gets done in Olympia until the last few days. Pay attention to the next couple of weeks, there should be some great bills dropped that will cause the "other side" to lose the minds.

 #15th  #District  #Rep  #David  #Taylor  #2011  #Session  #Day  #5
http://chum.ly/n/5cdb22

2011 Legislative Session

Day 4 - Another day, another set of meetings. So far, the session has been very low key. The Committees I sit on have been focused on work sessions and not legislation ... not necessarily a bad thing. Issues should heat up next week, but we'll see.

 #2011  #Session  #Day  #4  #15th  #District  #Rep  #David  #Taylor
http://chum.ly/n/5c96bb

2011 Legislative Session

Day 3 - It was a busy, but remarkably productive day. I finalized a couple of more bills for introduction and met with a lot of different people. Three more Committee meetings, the first at 8:00 AM and the last ending at 8:00 PM, and the State of the Judiciary made for a long day. We'll start getting into the meat of issues next week.

 #15th  #District  #Rep  #David  #Taylor  #2011  #Session  #Day  #3
http://chum.ly/n/5c0e31

2011 Legislative Session

Day 1: It was a busy day in Olympia, although not much happened. I had several meetings in the morning. Then the ceremonial opening day, which including being sworn into office. The State Government Tribal Affairs Committee met for a couple of hours and then a few more meetings.

 #2011  #Legislature  #15th  #district  #Rep  #David  #Taylor
http://chum.ly/n/5b25e7

Post from davidtaylor at CHUM.LY

Greetings friends. It's been a while since I last posted ... my apologies, but times are busy. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year celebration. As you probably know, I'll be headed out Saturday or Sunday for the 2011 Legislative Session. Yesterday (Monday) we received our committee assignments and I will be serving on the Environmental (formerly Ecology and Parks) Committee, the Labor and Workforce Development (formerly portions of the Commerce and Labor) Committee and General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I will also be serving as the Ranking Republican on the State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee, which I am very excited about.

Once the 2011 Session begins, I'll do my best to post a daily summaries of whats happening in Olympia. It looks like it will be a long and difficult session, but I believe we have an opportunity to change the way government operates and return to the Priorities of Government.

 #2011  #Session  #WA  #15th  #District  #Rep  #David  #Taylor
http://chum.ly/n/58bd43