Washington Policy Blog

Yesterday, Dick Nelson of Crosscut, an online newspaper, posted an article about education reform groups supported by business in Washington state. The article attracted an excellent comment from Kate Martin, which you can read in full here (see fifth comment down, labeled "Editor's Pick).

If the election results hold (still 178,863 ballots left to count) there will be at least 58 lawmakers in Olympia next January that answered yes to this question:

If Initiative 1185 is adopted, would you vote to allow the people of Washington to have the opportunity to vote on a state constitution amendment to require a supermajority vote in the legislature to raise taxes?

From the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance:

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently endorsed unanimously its Private Sector Energy Task Force's recommendations as to how Fairfax County can become a leader in the area energy sufficiency, sustainability and "green" technology.

Voters in the Clark County area are soundly rejecting (56.3%) a proposal to fund light rail across a new Columbia River Crossing (CRC) on I-5. The measure, Proposition 1, was placed on the ballot by the Clark County Area Transit Authority, C-TRAN. Yet, even though this is the second time voters have rejected light rail in Clark County, local officials have made it clear they want to move ahead with extending light rail from Portland to Vancouver.

As Americans head to the polls today, Washingtonians who haven't voted yet should drop their ballot off at designated drop sites. Although our ballots only need to be postmarked by today's deadline, election officials advise instead to drop off your ballots versus take the chance on the mail today to ensure they are eligible for counting.

Our neighbors in Oregon also are voting exclusively by mail. Unlike Washington, however, Oregon's ballots need to be received by 8 p.m. tonight versus postmarked.

A couple weeks ago, solar energy company SunPower announced a new agreement to provide the U.S. Navy with solar power, claiming it would save the military branch $13 million. One solar energy blog wrote this about the announcement:

In addition to Sound Transit's flawed ridership projections, one of the other significant findings in the SAO audit of Sound Transit is the lack of effectiveness from the public's only accountability tool, the Citizen Oversight Panel (COP).