The House Finance Committee will be meeting Monday to wrap up the first round of its work and its chairman, Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, said he’s going to make a big change before his committee votes on bills to let King, Pierce and other counties raise money from a local option sales tax.

Right now, the law says there must be a public vote on the 0.3 percent sales tax increase for public safety stuff. House Bill 1147 and HB 2249 would have let counties raise that tax with only a vote by the county council or county commissioners.

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According to the Post Intelligencer, former Washington Utilities and Transportation chairman Mark Sidran, a former Seattle prosecutor, has joined the field.

And so has state Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island.

Since leaving his job as Pierce County executive, John Ladenburg has hung his shingle out at his sons’ law firm in Tacoma. He’s “of counsel.” He told me last week he’s also doing some consulting work for Cascadia developer Patrick Kuo.

The P.I. points out that U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, will have a big say in who President Obama nominates for the Environmental Protection Agency job

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Almost every week, House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, meet with statehouse reporters for about 45 minutes on Thursdays. Chopp at 2 p.m.; Brown, in a separate meeting, at 3:30 p.m.

This week, Chopp was mildly complaining that we in the Press Corps have not given House Democrats enough credit for what they’ve accomplished so far this session. And I respectfully disagreed. We have given them way too much credit. In fact, in hindsight, I can’t believe how much “ink” they got for doing so little on the budget front. They passed a couple bills that cut state spending by about $300 million and spend about $330 million of federal money (instead of state money) from the economic stimulus money they’re getting from Congress.

That doesn’t address even 1/10th of the $8 billion budget deficit they are facing. And Monday will be Day 50, almost halfway through the scheduled 105-day session. (Yes, it may run longer, Chopp’s protestations notwithstanding.)

More noteworthy, the Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate told state agencies, basically, to ignore the cuts that Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed in her budget in mid-December and keep on spending money in many areas.

By my count they’ve done 3 substantive things that address our deepening recession, so far:

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There are already signs up in some parks asking people not to smoke.

But they’re only in a few locations, including the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and Northwest Trek, the wildlife park near Eatonville. And they’re voluntary requests, lacking the force of law.

Now officials from Metro Parks and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department are asking Tacoma city officials for an outright ban on smoking in all Metro Parks and city parks.

Nancy Davis, Metro Parks’ governmental relations officer, and George Hermosillo, prevention specialist for the health department, met Thursday with the city’s Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee to make their pitch.

In order to outlaw smoking in parks, the City Council will need to approve a change in Tacoma’s Municipal Code.

Banning smoking in the parks will reduce second-hand smoke and cut down on litter from cigarette butts, officials said. Also, by reducing the number of children exposed to cigarettes and people smoking, it makes it less likely that children will start smoking, according to a document handed out to council members.

A ban on smoking would also continue the health deaprtment’s effort to create smoke-free environments and create “new norms in the community,” Hermosillo said.

Council members reacted with a mix of enthusiasm and concern over the proposal. Councilman Rick Talbert, a health board member, strongly supports the idea.

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County Executive Pat McCarthy is having a dinner party tonight for the County Council, her executive staff and their spouses.

McCarthy said it’s a purely social affair, and no public business will be discussed.

"I’m trying to develop a relationship with the council," McCarthy said earlier this week. "It’s much better to work through issues when you’ve been able to communicate with people in other ways.

"We’re not going to agree on everything," McCarthy continued. "But we do need to move forward together."

One of the issues they may not agree on is McCarthy decision

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The first sentence of this news release says it all. It’s a timely topic, considering that colleges will see their budgets cut at least 13 percent or maybe half again higher. Tuition could rise in double-digits. On the other hand, the 2-year colleges in particular will get some money to help jobless students get retrained in other professions.

The event is next Wednesday.

High Alert for Higher Education

When the economy tanks, state colleges find themselves on a collision course. Coming from one direction is increased enrollment from people who are looking to become more competitive in an uncertain economic environment. In the other direction is significantly less revenue as the economic slump reduces the state’s ability to fund higher education. This means that colleges must cut back just when more students crowd their gates.

Join Patricia Spakes, Chancellor, UW Tacoma, as she leads a panel discussion that includes Pamela Transue, President, Tacoma Community College, and John Walstrum, President, Clover Park Technical College. Dr. Spakes and her colleagues will look at the implications for our state’s future if one of our strongest economic drivers – higher education – is crippled.

Location: Wheelock Student Center Rotunda, University of Puget Sound
1500 N. Warner Street, Tacoma
Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Cost: $23 for members, $30 for guests (includes dinner)

Advance reservations are required by Monday, March 2 at 253-272-9561, www.cityclubtacoma.org.

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The Olympian’s Adam Wilson broke this story. After the Washington Federation of State Employees and its 40,000 members lost their court case, they decided maybe it might be best to try to work out a different contract. Maybe one the state might be able to afford.

Adam explains all this.

Here is Adam’s story, which he says he may update later tonight.

I kept trying to get to this, but my colleague with The Associated Press, Brian Slodysko, beat me to it.

A few years ago, the oral history program got split up. The Legislature now commissions oral histories of former legislators (Former Sen. Lorraine Wojahn, Tacoma Democrat, still has a bio in the works, I think.) And the Secretary of State’s office does everybody else.

Sam Reed‘s office chose to write bios on Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, longtime Bremerton Sun reporter Adele Ferguson and first black justice on the Washington Supreme Court, Charles Z. Smith.

Reed’s office also is working a bio for former Gov. Booth Gardner and former Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Dimmick, the first woman on the bench of the state’s highest court.

By BRIAN SLODYSKO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. — What do a grunge bassist, a former newspaper columnist and the state’s first black Supreme Court justice have in common?

They’re the first to have their lives profiled in a new statewide oral history program unveiled Tuesday by Secretary of State Sam Reed.

Reed was joined by Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic, former Bremerton Sun columnist and reporter Adele Ferguson and former Justice Charles Z. Smith.

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