Posted by
dougnelson
on
February 3, 2012
It wasn’t pretty, but we did get the comprehensive health insurance reform bill out of the Senate Health and Long Term Care committee. SB 6442, was shepherded through this committee by Chairman Senator Karen Keiser. At the end of the …
Posted by
dougnelson
on
February 3, 2012
Well maybe not exactly but very close. Today was the first cutoff for bills and all three waiver bills, HB 2215, HB 2479, and SB 6050 did not make it out of committee. In legislative terms, they died. However, in …
Posted by
Doug
on
January 27, 2012
Insurance showdown in Senate Health Care Committee
Posted by
Doug
on
January 27, 2012
Reducing days makes paupers of classified employees
Posted by
Doug
on
January 25, 2012
Senate health care reform bill debate on Thursday
Posted by
Doug
on
January 25, 2012
Catching up with legislative debate on charter schools
Posted by
Doug
on
January 11, 2012
Initial debate on insurance reform concludes
Posted by
Doug
on
January 11, 2012
Insurance Reform Debate Begins
Posted by
dougnelson
on
January 11, 2012
Posted by
dougnelson
on
December 14, 2011
Special session coming to a quick conclusion
Posted by
dougnelson
on
December 12, 2011
One step at a time: agreement is reached to take care of $500 million of the $2 billion budget problem
Posted by
dougnelson
on
December 6, 2011
It’s really hard to see any sense of urgency to get something accomplished even though there are only about two weeks to go of the special session.
Posted by
dougnelson
on
December 1, 2011
Less than 15 minutes ago at the House Education Appropriations committee hearing, I testified about Governor Gregoire’s supplemental budget and revenue package.
Posted by
dougnelson
on
December 1, 2011
Some of you may wonder if it’s worth the effort to testify when there are so few members of the Senate Ways and Means committee still sticking around to hear what I have to say (after all this hearing had been underway for 2 and 1/2 hours when I finally got a chance to speak). Simply put, we are getting our position on the official record.
Posted by
dougnelson
on
November 30, 2011
Premium inflation is causing classified employees to use more of their hard earned (and quickly disappearing) paycheck to continue their insurance, or, they are faced with reducing their insurance coverage by accepting higher co-payments, deductibles, and, in the worst case, dropping family members off their insurance coverage.
Posted by
Doug Nelson
on
November 29, 2011
Not surprisingly, as legislators gathered for another special session (the second one of the year), they were greeted by numerous advocacy groups and their followers. Seeking to create as much noise as possible, some of the demonstrators got carried away with their point of view and ended up in the back seat of a police car.
Posted by
Doug Nelson
on
May 25, 2011
Now that we see the final agreement, it would be helpful to compare it the priority issues we gave to budget negotiators before the went into negotiations.
Posted by
Doug Nelson
on
May 25, 2011
According to a longtime higher education lobbyist, tuition flexibility has been requested every year for the last 25 years without any success. This year is the year it is likely to happen. HB 1795 has passed the legislature and only needs the Governor’s signature to become law.
Posted by
Doug Nelson
on
May 25, 2011
Based upon the previous budgets, we all expected pretty big cuts, however, now that the final budget is out, it becomes real. Higher education is cut $532 million however this is offset with tuition increases of up to 16% (CWU 14%, WWU 16%), and, a $60 million increase to student financial aid.
Posted by
Doug Nelson
on
May 18, 2011
On Monday, the Senate Ways and Means committee considered a bill to delay school district funding for replacement of old school busses. The impact of that change will keep older busses on the road longer, increase school district maintenance costs, and will take money from the school district general fund if the school district has to replace the bus earlier than expected.
