1. Remember how the environmentalist pushing the transit oriented development bill—the bill that calls for more housing around transit stations—caught hell from housing advocate John Fox because he said the bill didn’t preserve enough low-income housing? Well, now the environmentalists pushing the transit oriented development bill are catching hell from the Mayor’s office because the guidelines for preserving and creating low-income housing—one-for-one replacement of any affordable housing that’s lost plus rules to make 25 percent of the housing affordable—are too strong. With two days to go before cut off, the bill still hasn’t passed, and the city and the enviros are at an impasse.
UPDATE: It looks like the bill is queued up for a floor vote this evening.
2. Remember yesterday when I criticized the Seattle Times for running an editorial by state Senate Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) that advocated undoing voter-approved I-937 (the renewable energy initiative)? And I wondered if they would ever run a competing editorial from U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-1, WA), a stern supporter of I-937. Sources say the Seattle Times has an editorial from Inslee in hand—had it before they had Sen. Brown’s—and thus far, they’ve chosen not to publish it. (The Seattle Times came out against I-937 in 2006.)
3. Remember the Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-44, Marysville, Lake Stevens) bill we reported on last month?The bill requires the state’s economic development department, which oversees about $4 billion for local capital projects, to make sure the projects are in synch with the state’s green standards to reduce carbon emissions and lower vehicle miles travelled. It passed the House yesterday largely along party lines (Democrats ‘Yea’, Republicans ‘Nay’) 59-38.
But not until after Republican Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-42, Ferndale, Bellingham) got gaveled down for another one of his wild outbursts. This time he was reprimanded for calling Dunshee’s bill “Socialist!”
4. Remember Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34, West Seattle) payday lending bill? It passed the House last night, 84-10.
