WA lawmakers on the eve of big challenge: solving the budget shortfall
One of the biggest challenges for Washington legislators as they begin their 2025 session next week is to balance the budget for the next two years. State officials project a multi-billion-dollar deficit.
Legislative leaders, such as Spokane Democrat Timm Ormsby, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, acknowledge they’ll face some tough decisions.
“It is making cuts to programs. It is slowing the implementation of programs. And it’s also unpacking what’s driving our maintenance level increases,” Ormsby told a pre-session forum Thursday. “We think we really have to dig in to that and that’s tedious and time consuming. We also have to consider revenue.”
The forum was sponsored by the Washington Association of Broadcasters and Allied Daily Newspapers.
Outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed a one-percent tax on the wealthiest Washingtonians, those with more than $100 million. Democratic leaders said they would consider it as one option for raising new revenue. But incoming Gov. Bob Ferguson told the Seattle Times he opposes a wealth tax and would prefer to eliminate the deficit with spending cuts.
Last fall’s Lake Roosevelt wave could help geologists and the public prepare for future events
Geologists studying the area where a landslide triggered a big wave last fall hope the information they gather can help bolster our understanding of inland waves and their effects.
The landslide November 17 sent a large chunk of loose sediments into Lake Roosevelt a few miles south of Kettle Falls. No one was hurt, but the wave generated by the landslide – called a seiche – damaged docks and washed debris over a state highway and onto nearby shores.
A team from the Washington Geological Survey visited to make notes about how far and how high the seiche reached.
Dr. Alex Steely, a geohazards specialist at the Geological Survey, said his team uses computer software to model tsunamis along coastlines. But there aren’t many opportunities to study similar waves in lakes.
“We can do that offshore in the oceans and such, because there have been tsunamis there,” Steely told SPR News. “But there aren't a lot of tsunamis in inland bodies of water, so it becomes a place to test that particular application.”
Steely said he was glad the seiche happened in the winter and not summer, when Lake Roosevelt and its shores would have been more crowded.
“I think that alone sort of, to me, really motivates trying to understand this process a bit better so that we can help ensure that all the users of the lakes have the knowledge that they need about what to do if they see a landslide happen, and the facilities and infrastructure know how to plan and mitigate for something like this,” Steely said.
Previous geologic mapping of the shore where November’s landslide occurred showed ample evidence of past slides. Steely said it’s likely they’ll keep happening in the future.
Washington releases carbon pollution report…two years late
Washington state is disclosing its greenhouse gas emissions from 2021, two years later than required by state law.
When it comes to climate change, speed matters: scientists say the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels as urgently as possible. How well Washington is doing in that race is mostly unknown, with results revealed years after the fact.
The newest state-published numbers show emissions dropped under the legal limit in the first year of the COVID pandemic, then bounced back above that limit in 2021.
Joel Creswell with the Department of Ecology says the agency has staffed up to get information out faster. But not fast enough to meet the one-year deadline required under state law.
“We don't anticipate being able to reduce that lag time to less than two years,” Creswell told KUOW public radio.
Major carbon emitters including Microsoft and Amazon are much faster. They annually disclose their global emissions within months.
Fire destroys Skyway Café
An apparent electrical fire gutted the interior of the Skyway Cafe at Felts Field early Thursday morning.
Spokane's fire department said it responded to a report of a kitchen appliance fire shortly before 5:00 a.m. Firefighters were able to quickly quench the blaze, but they found extensive damage in the kitchen and heavy smoke damage throughout the rest of the restaurant.
The eatery marked its 100th anniversary in 2024. It was known for its breakfasts, the model airplanes that hung from its ceiling, and its live entertainment: the ability for diners to watch planes take off and land on the Felts airstrip.
For nearly two decades, Skyway Cafe's owners have been Sandra Melter and her ex-husband, John. In a 2024 interview with Avista, Melter said, "Before we bought the café, it was just a concrete building where you went to have a sandwich. Now Skyway is a destination."
Melter told the Spokesman-Review she plans to repair and re-open the restaurant.
The Spokane Fire Department estimated the damage at more than $400,000. No injuries were reported.
- - -
Reporting was contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Brandon Hollingsworth and John Ryan.