Two bills in Olympia could make a big difference for high school and college students, and we're in the home stretch for both of them. Here's the news.

The first bill is called the Dream Act [HB 1817]. The Dream is an affordable college education for immigrant kids.

About 100,000 Washington residents attend college in-state each year. About 30,000 of them receive state "need" grants.

Another 1,000 students aren't U.S. citizens but can legally attend public schools, thanks to President Obama's action last summer.  These students entered the U.S. illegally as children, but can work, pay taxes and go to the schools they help pay for with those taxes. 

There's just one problem. Even while the cost of college goes up, these students aren't eligible for state aid. The Dream Act corrects this problem, and could dictate whether many of these students continue their education.

The Dream Act was introduced in the House by several representatives including Tacoma's David Sawyer [D-29] and Jake Fey [D-27]. It passed with strong bi-partisan support.

And it's dying in the Senate.

Read more...

The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation - or its more popular name DAHP - adores people or organizations that like old things. Every year DAHP recognizes persons, organizations and projects that have achieved distinction in the field of historic preservation. DAHP calls the award the State Historic Preservation Officer's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation - and the city of Tacoma nabbed one this year for its work rehabilitation of the Murray Morgan Bridge.

Let's read the press release:

Read more...

Comment On This Post

Tacoma Deputy Mayor Marty Campbell has served on the Tacoma City Council since 2009. The founder of two of the iconic retail stores of Tacoma's recent past, Buzzard's and Stadium Video, Campbell has thoughtfully balanced the sensibilities of small business owner and lover of arts and culture. He recently announced that he would seek re-election to his District 4 council seat, which represents all of East Tacoma and sections of South Tacoma. His candidacy is currently unopposed and he is not expected to field a legitimate opponent. Campbell chatted recently with Town Hall Tourist about his time on the council, his district and more.

TOWN HALL TOURIST: What has been the most gratifying part of serving on the Tacoma City Council?

MARTY CAMPBELL: Being able to empower people to feel that they can have their voices heard by the City. Often times, people will have an issue - minor or major - in their neighborhood without knowing how to resolve it. Being on the City Council has enabled me to bring forward people's concerns in a way that helps the city function better, but which more importantly helps people feel that they have a stake in the City's decisions.

THT: What has been the most difficult?

CAMPBELL: The cuts that we have had to make to services. No one prefers to serve during shortfalls because you have to make tough decisions, but my entire tenure has been during the recession and its aftermath. Because of that, not only have I not been able to secure funding for some of the issues that I think are really important to my district, but most of my efforts have been spent trying to minimize the impact of painful budget cuts throughout Tacoma.

Read more...

Oh what a difference a week can make.

Last week city civics was all mud and details as pro-transit progressives formed debate teams and held a meet over light rail extension plans and the future of public transit.

While the light rail extension debate and review will (rightfully) continue, this week was defined by jubilance and stability.

Jubilance over reports State Farm has all but confirmed that they will be moving 2,000 jobs to Tacoma and occupying the vacant Russell Building (and a few floors of the Columbia Bank Center). While I could write five pages about why this is such monumental news I'll resist as the The Trib has done a great job breaking this story, reporting on details and offering commentary.

Stability as the town's political movers and shakers turned out in droves Wednesday evening to celebrate the kick-off of Mayor Marilyn Strickland's reelection campaign.

I've been to a lot of local campaign kick offs and this one struck me as noticeably different. Different because the event felt like less like a pep rally and more like a halftime check-in. Of course those who spoke before and after Mayor Strickland hyped and hollered, but when it was her turn to address her supporters she was calm, poised and focused while speaking about goals that have been met and work still to do.

That same calm, collected confidence and focus has served her well throughout the past four years - four years that haven't been without their fair share of municipal drama and polarizing debates - budget deficits, billboard decisions, the hiring of a new City Manager, etc.

Read more...

Energy Star is a program created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy that encourages energy-efficient building through product rating systems, guidelines and resources.

Last month, the EPA released the results of its 2012 study examining which cities had the most Energy Star-qualified buildings. Here are the 25 that top the list:

The South Sound didn't make the list.

Also last month, the EPA honored businesses and organizations for their outstanding contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency at the 2013 ENERGY STAR Awards ceremony.

Again, no representation from the South Sound.

Read more...

Greater Tacoma's brewery scene is alive and well with growing breweries looking to expand and countless homebrewers looking to advance their passion from hobby to small business. Last week Governor Jay Inslee proposed making a temporary tax on beer production permanent and also extending that tax to small breweries that are currently exempt. The proposed taxed is now making its way through the House and Senate. It's a puzzling proposal that, if passed, would deal an extremely harmful blow to one of Tacoma's exciting and budding industries.

To be certain, the state needs to raise new revenue to account for dire funding needs in areas like public education, social services and healthcare. That said, there are quite a few reasons to be skeptical of this tax.

Read more...

WARNING: THIS POST INVOLVES MATH >>>

The Problem

Local government has a problem. Costs are up for asphalt and health care, library books and fire trucks. But revenue is down. There's less revenue from sales tax, from business and occupation tax and from property tax - about 20 percent of the total.

To make things worse, the Pierce County Assessor has been tougher on property value than other assessors in Washington. He pushes values lower so tax revenue is lower.

Is the system working as it should?

(Note: the previous Assessor, Dale Washam, is responsible for the numbers below; the current Assessor, Mike Lonergan, was elected in November 2012.)

Read more...

Comment On This Post

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Yesterday's comment of the day came from Monique Avelaine LeTourneau — Tacoma director at Stand for Children — in response to Aaron T. Sherman's op-ed "Online translations vital for equity in Tacoma Public Schools." 

LeTourneau writes,

THANK YOU Aaron for bringing light to this issue. There are not many ways for a non-native English speaker to access information outside of an (inaccurate) Google translate function on the website or by calling the district and talking to an English speaker to get information translated or interpreted. TPS is very open to interpretation/translation services when requested from the community - which is a step in the right direction! - and individual schools sometimes receive these services from the district, but it is not district-wide policy and practice and there is lots of room to grow. I would also suggest that the district considers ways to connect with families outside of online and print resources. Most of our Spanish speaking parents that I work with regularly do not access email or internet at home (or do in limited ways), but communicate via text message and phone. In the case of emergency alerts and school-related announcements, it is beneficial for TPS to explore ways of sharing important announcements in ways that align with how our communities communicate and access information.

The Pierce Conservation District is a local government agency that works to preserve and manage Pierce County's diverse endowment of natural resources. It's an agency whose portfolio of programs is constantly evolving and whose work touches every corner of the county. The Town Hall Tourist fired a few questions the direction of PCD Executive Director Ryan Mello - yes, the same Ryan Mello who serves on the Tacoma City Council - to learn more about his agency's work and mission. 

TOWN HALL TOURIST: Can you briefly describe what it means to work with landowners to help manage natural resources? Is if often difficult to bring these landowners to the environmental/sustainability table?

RYAN MELLO: Working landowners are often the best stewards of the land.  Whether in an urban, suburban, industrial or rural setting, what we find at the Conservation District is that landowners typically are eager to "do the right thing" by the land, but what they are lacking is education about the best management practices or techniques and the funding to make the necessary improvements to their land or practices. That's where the Conservation District comes in. The District works one-on-one with all kinds of landowners to educate them on everything from how to better manage polluted rain water runoff, how to create more sustainable farm practices, or how to improve marine shoreline practices to ensure the long-term health of our shorelines for people and wildlife.  Helping landowners manage natural resources means giving them the know-how to manage their property and helping them implement the best practice and seeing them through to completion in helping with technical assistance, volunteer help and/or financial assistance. 

TH TOURIST: PCD seems to be a crucial player in a lot of the work being done to restore and protect the Puyallup River Watershed. What is the most important thing Tacomans should understand about the watershed - besides, of course, the fact that we live in it?

Read more...

If you think of a light rail expansion like baking a cake, we are late in the process of figuring out what recipe to use. The characteristics of what flavors and textures we’d like to see in the cake have already been determined and were prioritized by public processes over the last three years. In order of priority, Tacoma wants the cake (that is, the light rail expansion) to:

1. Improve mobility and transportation access for Tacoma residents and visitors,
2. Increase transit ridership,
3. Serve underserved neighborhoods and communities,
4. Spur economic development,
5. Be environmentally sensitive and sustainable, and
6. Be a project that’s competitive for federal funding.

Up until two weeks ago, Tacoma was getting ready to select one or two (of three) highly-refined and well-supported recipes to tell Sound Transit to start baking.  Sound Transit staff had already narrowed a list of 24 alternative routes along nine different corridors to three options based on community input. The three remaining routes were: Hilltop and Sixth Avenue via Tacoma General Hospital and Salishan via the Emerald Queen Casino. The analysis had been completed, public comment gathered and the date to move forward was set for late this month. Then, as the decision approached, Tacoma City Councilmember David Boe and the Streetcar Stakeholders Group felt that we hadn’t exhausted all of the options since we started studying expansion of Tacoma Link (... more than six years ago). Both Boe and the Stakeholder group proposed "hybrids" of alternatives previously examined.

Read more...