
Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.
The state’s financial health got another good rating this week, according to state Treasurer Mike Murphy’s office.
Moody’s Investor Services moved Washington into its Tier 1 category in its U.S. States Credit Scoreboard 2008 rankings, up from Tier 2 last year and Tier 3 in 2006. That comes at a time the state expects to have a $800 million surplus in its 2007-09 budget cycle and a shortfall of $2 billion or more in the next cycle.
“This is good news and reflects the fact that Washington government is doing a good job at keeping a handle on its financial future,” Murphy said in a news release.
Ten states are in the top tier, Murphy spokesman Karl Roeber said. The others besides the Evergreen State are: Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.
Moody’s uses the scoreboard in its credit analysis of state governments’ general-obligation bonds, but Roeber could not say the ranking would improve the state’s bond rating.
“In general, higher ratings can be expected among states with the highest statistical scores and rankings from the scoreboard — but there is no guarantee that it will necessarily have implications for a state’s bond rating,” he explained in an e-mail.
Details are again in the news today about a 3-year-old incident of unwanted touching and comments with sexual overtones from state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland to a former young employee.
The Legislative Ethics Board has dismissed a complaint against Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood that he improperly distributed two campaign-related brochures at a legislative town hall meeting in May.
A poll by Republican Dino Rossi’s own hired hand shows the race between Rossi and Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is a dead heat, with 45 percent of voters supporting each candidate and 9 percent undecided.
Gov. Chris Gregoire tried to make clear yesterday that taxes are her “last resort” to close the $2-billion-plus budget gap next year.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Make that a dozen. Ken Valz of Tumwater also filed.
Three more candidates are running for Thurston County District Court — bringing the field to six lawyers running to replace the Judge Kip Stilz, whose recent death created the judicial opening.
Lynn Kessler, the House majority leader and frequent backer of open-government initiatives, said today that more evidence of government wrongdoing may be needed before lawmakers tinker with the attorney-client privilege for public agencies.
State elections officials are shrugging off two letters from the state Democratic and Republican parties this week that warn the “top-two” primary scheduled for Aug. 19 is illegal.
The Anti-Defamation League is calling on the state’s Building Industry Association of Washington to apologize for a newsletter article in March that drew comparisons between the German Nazis of Adolf Hitler to the state Department of Ecology and the modern ecological movement.
The latest revenue forecast shows a $166.8 million reduction over two budget periods, less than some had feared. When another $57 milion drop in legislative and noneconomic factors are added, the total drop is closer to $225 million, in line with some predictions.
Washington political leaders hailed the Government Accounting Office report today on the Air Force tanker contract.
The battle over building heights on the downtown Olympia isthmus gets a preview tomorrow night with a forum sponsored by the South Puget Environmental Education Clearinghouse.