Your green sheet for the second week of the legislative session, while we all bask in the glow of another Super Bowl run for our hometown Seahawks.

QUOTES AND LINKS:

Treasurer Jim McIntire sums up the debate over a capital gains tax to the Seattle Times’ Jim Brunner: “Capital gains is probably the most volatile revenue source for most state governments. That is a concern.” But, he contended it will be “mathematically impossible” to sufficiently fund schools under the current tax system. Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, saw it differently. “This is one of the major draws we have against Silicon Valley,” he said.

State Treasurer Jim McIntire

 

“It’s a question on, ‘What can we actually get passed?’ I think the governor’s approach is more the ‘progressive take over of the world’ approach. We sidestep the debate,” said Yoram Bauman of Carbon WA, explaining why his group is pushing a revenue-neutral carbon tax to the 2016 ballot.

“If everyone were economists, I’m pretty sure there’d be a bill for a revenue-neutral carbon tax,” replied KC Golden of Climate Solutions, and one of the key allies for Gov. Jay Inslee as he pursues a cap-and-trade program.

• The Washington Post reports President Barack Obama will pitch a 28 percent federal capital-gains tax rate, up from 23.8 percent currently, in his State of the Union address Tuesday: “The ambitious — and controversial — proposals demonstrate the White House’s increasing confidence about the trajectory of the U.S. economy. For the past year and a half, it has debated how much it could trumpet the recovery when so many Americans have not felt any change in their own economic outlook.”

• The Columbian’s Aaron Corvin reports the Port of Portland passed on a possible crude-oil export facility: “The nation’s public ports, focused on attracting industry and jobs, are largely known as agnostics when it comes to pursuing the commodities they handle. It doesn’t matter if the shipments are toxic or nontoxic. Ports move cargoes, the story goes. They don’t pronounce moral judgments about them. However, at least one line of business is no longer necessarily a lock, at least in the Northwest: the transportation of crude oil by rail.”

• HBO’s John Oliver inspired a bill in the Legislature this session, according to the Stranger’s Sydney Brownstone: “State Senator Cyrus Habib (D-Kirkland) credits that John Oliver segment with a bill he introduced in the Washington state legislature today. Habib’s bill would allow people from anywhere in Washington state to submit testimony to Olympia over the Internet, YouTube style. Instead of having to take time off work and drive hours to get in legislators’ grills, people could just record a video of themselves and hit “send” to TVW, Washington’s equivalent of C-SPAN.”

Comedian John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight”

BILLS TO WATCH:

Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, has introduced a bill that would require disclosure of campaign donations when the amount spent exceeded $25,000 in state contests. It’s a bill he carried last year without success, but has gained more bipartisan traction after Republicans cried foul over mailers targeting Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, last election cycle. The bill has a hearing before the Senate Government Operations Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Sens. Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, and David Frockt, D-Seattle, are carrying an executive request bill from Gov. Inslee to bolster the so-called “all-payer claims database,” which was created last year and features information about costs and quality of health care in Washington state. The law last year only featured state employees and Medicaid recipients; the bill this year includes all insurance carriers in Washington.

Sens. Randi Becker and David Frockt

Reps. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, and Jesse Young, R-Gig Harbor, have introduced a bill to carve out the education budget into its own spending bill, separate from the omnibus spending act. But, the bill wouldn’t allow new revenue for education; lawmakers would have to rely on existing revenue streams to fund the state’s school system.

In the fallout of the state’s Health Benefit Exchange not providing policies to consumers due to computer glitches despite payments, Becker and Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, have introduced a bill to bar premium aggregation, where the exchange acts as a pass through for health insurance premium payments. Carriers would receive the payments directly instead.

CALENDAR ITEMS:

The House Environment Committee deals with chemical flame retardants Monday at 1:30 p.m., the Senate Energy Committee takes up the Model Toxics Control Act at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and the use of chemical action plans, a competing measure with Gov. Jay Inslee’s toxics reduction bill, at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. House Environment takes up ocean acidification at 8 a.m. Thursday.

House Finance has tax preferences on its agenda for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, while Senate Ways and Means takes up higher education funding at the same time.

Rep. Jeff Morris has a duo of bills regulating renewable energy and utilites on for his Technology and Economic Development Committee at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Look for other bills carried by Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, dealing with the same subject matter.

House Transportation has the 520 and Highway 99 replacement projects on its agenda for 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.

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