June 29th - 2013 Second Special Session

Friday morning and we’re on the House Floor for what hopes to be the last day in 2013. After caucusing for 90 minutes, we began voting on bills.

Second Substitute Senate Bill 5367 passed 80 to 2 with 15 excused.
Senate Bill 5644 passed 77 to 5 with 15 excused.
Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5036 passed 79 to 4 with 14 excused.
Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5035 (Capital Budget) passed 79 to 4 with 14 excused.

After running the Capital Budget, the Legislature reached Sine Die … let’s hope it’s for real this time. I’m looking forward to being home and thank everyone for their prayers and support over the last 6 months.

February 4th - 2013 Regular Legislative Session Day 22

Today in the House Appropriations Committee we’re getting briefed on the Department of Corrections, Judicial Agencies and the interaction between the Operating and Capital Budgets. It’s been a busy day, but it’s almost over.

I can’t express how thankful I am for all the email and phone calls I’ve received from everyone in support of the Legislation we’ve introduced as part of the Freedom Agenda. Thank you!

#Appropriations #Corrections #Judicial #Operating #Capital #Budget #Freedom #Agenda #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
https://chumly.com/n/19eea23

2012 Regular Legislative Session Day 45

I think I’m finally getting sick. I’ve been able to avoid getting sick all year, but I think it’s finally setting in. Ugh! At least my General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee meeting was delayed until 9:00 AM this morning. The committee will also be meeting at 1:30 PM this afternoon. It looks like we only had 8 bills referred to the committee, so it could be a fairly short meeting this morning.

We have a short Floor Session scheduled for 10:00 AM today and then we’ll be caucusing on the Operating Budget and Capital Budget. The Democrat Majority released their proposed budget yesterday and it doesn’t look good at all. Rumor has it we’ll be debating the Operating Budget on Friday and passing it on Saturday. Apparently the Democrats are in a hurry to get the proposed budget over to the Senate by Monday ... I don’t know why, but that’s what we’ve been told.

With only 15 days left in the Regular Session, things are going to be getting ramped up again. I can honestly say this has been a crazy, weird, crappy, foolish, stupid session.

#General #Government #Appropriations #Oversight #Operating #Capital #Budget #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
https://chumly.com/n/10e96de

2011 First Special Legislative Session

Day 30 Update - State debt statutory limit ... done, cash portion of the Capital Budget ... done, bond portion of the Capital Budget ... done. Now we're looking at increasing document recording fees by another $10 for low-income and homeless housing assistance. We challenged whether the bill is a tax or a fee, but of course the Democrat Majority ruled it a fee. Interestingly, the liberal 9th Circuit Court once ruled ... "no amount of semantic sophistry can undermine the obvious; a non-negotiable mandatory payment into the state treasury for unrestricted use, is a TAX" (emphasis added)

#Tax #fee #capital #budget #9th #circuit #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
http://chumly.com/n/92addf

2011 First Special Legislative Session

Day 29 - 9:00 AM and we're back on the House Floor. The Ways and Means Committee met until 1:00 AM this morning ... my Republican colleagues on the committee are doing one heck of a job for the citizens of Washington. According to news reports, there is an agreement on the Operating Budget, except the Senate has said they will not vote on it until the Debt Reduction Constitutional Amendment is passed by the House ... so the chaos will continue.

The House and Senate passed the Workers Comp Reform Bill last night. All in all, it's a significant improvement to the system, saves the taxpayers $1.1 billion over the next four years and saves businesses money. It's a good win for everyone.

It appears we'll be getting briefed on the budget this morning. The Governor and budget writers have said the budget must include at least $800 million in reserves. The reason is the revenue forecast coming on June 16th is likely to be $300 to $500 million less than projected.

#Capital #operating #budget #revenue #forecast #workers #comp #reform #15th #District #Rep #David #Taylor
http://chumly.com/n/921dbd

2011 First Special Legislative Session

Day 28 - We're back on the House Floor this morning to consider a few bills. If today goes like the rest of this Special Session, we'll run 6 to 8 bills for the day. To put it into perspective, we run 30 to 50 when we're actually working, so 6 to 8 bills per day is nothing to be happy about.

We've been told an agreement's been reached on the Workers Comp reform bill. I've been able to read it and it appears to have some good provisions in it, especially the structured settlement provisions which is essentially compromise and release. We've also heard the Operating Budget negotiations are improving, so we could actually get that finished by Wednesday. The Capital Budget negotiations, however, are not going well and could be a significant roadblock to actually ending this session.

The Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to meet at 5:00 tonight, which means we might be working late. It's amazing that 28 days into the Special Session the Democrat Majority continue to move frivolous bills forward for consideration.

#Workers #comp #reform #capital #operating #budget #15th #District #Rep #David #Taylor
http://chumly.com/n/91b436

2011 First Special Legislative Session

Day 15 - Sitting back on the House Floor waiting for the day to start at the scheduled 9:00 am. It looks like we have about 12 bills to run today, but the real question is "Will we be working on Thursday"? We couldn't get an answer to that question last night. We've Caucused on all but three of the bills on today's Calendar and should be able to run them quickly, but if history is any indication, the Democrats will have to Caucus for two hours on the various bills, then break for lunch and then run a few bills in the afternoon. Frustrated doesn't even begin to describe my mood this morning.

We've heard that the Democrat Majority wants to run the Capital Budget this morning; unfortunately for them, we can kill HB 2020 if we don't give them 3 votes. That gives us a little power to negotiate for Workers Comp Reform. Based on everything I've heard the last two days, we could be hear a really long time. I still think the Democrat Majority is holding out for the June 16th revenue forecast and hope for some sort of indication revenue is going up. If the last few months are any indication, revenue will not be going up and then the real decisions will have to be made.

#Revenue #forecast #capital #budget #HB #2020 #workers #comp #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
http://chum.ly/n/8cc05a

2011 First Special Legislative Session

Day 14 Update - Well I think it's safe to say I won't be home tonight and tomorrow may also be a stretch. Things are getting very interesting ... It appears the 4 Corners (both caucuses from House and the Senate) are meeting with the Governor and are arguing about the budget and now the Capital Budget is in play because the Democrat Majority must get 3 votes from us to pass the bond portion of the Budget. Now the we are relevant, we can play hardball and demand a vote on Workers Compensation Reform.

#Capital #Budget #Workers #Comp #Reform #4 #Corners #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
http://chum.ly/n/8c6e16

2011 Legislative Session

Day 100 - it was another interesting in Olympia. Senator Honeyford and I were on the Mid-Columbia Today radio show this morning discussing some of the current Legislative issues. The House convened at 10:00 AM at which point we caucused, broke for lunch, caucused some more, and then adjourned for the day. Yup, not a single vote in the House today. The latest rumor is we could end the Regular Session tomorrow night and then move to a rolling session next week. The toughest part of this session has been not knowing what or when something was going to actually happen. Maybe we'll run the Capital Budget and Bond bill tomorrow, but then again maybe not.

#Honeyford #Capital #Budget #Mid-Columbia #Today #regular #session #special #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
http://chum.ly/n/8473e0

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