Today's headlines:
- Washington's House of Representatives spent more than a full day — literally — debating an income tax for millionaires, then approved it.
- Blizzard like conditions are expected in the north Cascades tonight and tomorrow morning.
- Certain e-bikes could soon be welcome in Spokane County parks as commissioners reconsider a total ban on motor vehicles.
- Gonzaga's men's and women's basketball teams ensure they'll go back to the national tournament. Their University of Idaho peers have a chance to join them with games today.
Plus, a Bonner County nonprofit is keeping North Idaho residents abreast of what’s happening at county zoning meetings—just the type of local government meetings that might put you to sleep. But founder Susan Drumheller and executive director Katie Botkin think if most people realized the power that zoning codes have over their lives, a lot more people would pay attention. SPR's Eliza Billingham explores what caring about land use looks—and sounds—like.
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After more than 24 hours of debate in the Washington state House of Representatives, a proposed income tax on millionaires passed a historic milestone yesterday. State Government reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan was there.
Democratic lawmakers were ecstatic as the final vote was tallied. Governor Bob Ferguson shook hands with House Speaker Laurie Jinkins and Representative April Berg, who had brought the revised version of the tax bill to the floor 25 hours earlier.
FERGUSON: You know it’s not too often in this line of work that you have a vote that’s truly historic and by any definition that’s what this was.
Democrats say the revenue from the income tax will be critical. They earmarked funds for childcare and education.
Republicans protested with dozens of amendments, and warned of a dangerous precedent with the upending of a nearly century-old tax structure.
The Senate is expected to quickly agree to the House changes and send the bill to Governor Ferguson to sign.
Heavy snow and gusty winds are coming tonight to the Inland Northwest.
National Weather Service meteorologist Rachel Fewkes expects up to four feet of snow to fall at Stevens Pass in the north Cascades, perhaps up to two feet at Lookout Pass in north Idaho.
Rachel Fewkes: “These are some impressive snow amounts 20 to 50 inches almost. We have high confidence in the forecast for the Cascades, but confidence is lower in snow levels and thus in total accumulation amounts elsewhere, especially in areas like Mazama, Winthrop, Plain, and Leavenworth, as well as in central Panhandle Mountains around Lookout Pass.”
Some of the lower lying areas from the Cascades east could see an inch or two of snow. Rain is more likely for others.
Most of the region will feel the gusty winds that blow through the region tonight and tomorrow. Fewkes says steady winds at 25-to-40 miles an hour will last for several hours, with stronger gusts to 50 or 60 in some areas.
Rachel Fewkes: “Highest chances will be over the Waterville Plateau eastward along Highway 2 into Spokane, as well as over all the mountains, the Cascades, the Idaho Panhandle Mountains, and the Blues down here.”
Lower lying areas could experience some minor flooding, including the Coeur d’Alene River near Cataldo and Paradise Creek in Moscow.
The biggest winter storm of the year is good news for Washington’s ski resorts ...and for farmers who rely on snowmelt to water their crops.
The state’s snowpack is currently only at half its normal levels.
Deputy state climatologist Karin Bumbaco says this week’s big dump won’t be enough to get the state out of its snow drought.
Bumbaco: “It will help, but it's not the March miracle. It's still highly unlikely that we will end the season with near normal snowpack, because it would require consistent record-breaking snowfall throughout the month.”
Next week, the National Weather Service is forecasting a major atmospheric river will bring rain to the state, including the mountains.
That could melt away much of this week’s newly fallen snow.
E-bikes could be coming to Spokane County parks.
Currently, motorized vehicles aren’t allowed on county park trails.
But commissioners are considering whether to allow Class 1 and Class 3 e-bikes on natural paths originally created for hikers and pedal bikers.
Class 1 and 3 e-bikes have electric motors but require the rider to pedal at least a little bit to use that motor.
Parks and Recreation director Doug Chase says that’s different from Class 2 e-bikes, which don’t require pedal-assist and are more like motorcycles.
CHASE: Those e-motorcycles, Class 2s, have that level of power that is in fact causing a lot of that destruction out there…They’re great in our off-road vehicle park. But unfortunately, they’re rolling into the neighborhood parks, too, and causing quite a bit of damage.
All cyclists would be required to follow posted speed limits of 15 miles per hour. Riding the wrong e-bike could mean a civil infraction and fine of $200.
County commissioners are set to have a public hearing on the proposed rule change at the beginning of April.
It’s on to the Big Dance for the Gonzaga men’s and women’s basketball teams. Both won the championship games in their respective West Coast Conference tournaments in Las Vegas yesterday.
The women went toe to toe for Oregon State for most of the game before pulling away at the end for a 76-66 win. Lauren Whittaker, the conference player of the year, led the way with 26 points. The Bulldogs grab the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
The men’s team trailed at halftime against Santa Clara, but took the lead for good with about nine minutes left. The Zags went on to a 79-68 win. Mario Saint-Supery scored 21 points, Tyon Grant-Foster 20. Gonzaga was headed to the national tournament win or lose, but now it goes with the conference championship.
Two Idaho Vandal teams have chances to join the Zags today.
The women, who won the Big Sky’s regular season championship, will play second-seeded Montana State in their conference title game in Boise. Game time is 2 o’clock.
The men will challenge Montana tonight at 8:30. The Vandals got to the championship last night by beating Eastern Washington, 81-68.
The Vandals finished seventh in the Big Sky regular season standings, but are now one win away from the stamping their passport to the national tournament.
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Project 7B wants you to care about land use.
The Bonner County nonprofit keeps North Idaho residents abreast of what’s happening at county zoning meetings—just the type of local government meetings that might put you to sleep.
But founder Susan Drumheller helped start the group in 2016 when she noticed then-county commissioners significantly deregulating development through esoteric code changes.
Drumheller was busy enough with her work for the Idaho Conservation League. But Bonner County residents, she thought, should know what was happening to their own backyards. Project 7B was born.
Now Drumheller and her team–which is currently all women–sift through agendas, projects, and environmental reviews, then post on social media what they’d suggest paying attention to.
Drumheller was joined by current executive director Katie Botkin to talk about what caring about land use looks like. Here are snippets of that conversation, with Botkin first.
BOTKIN: We're an organization that is nonpartisan. And what I've found is that it doesn't matter how conservative you are and how against regulation you are. You still don't want to drink your neighbor's sewage runoff. Nobody wants to drink their neighbor's sewage runoff. And that has to do with codes.
DRUMHELLER: Survey after survey show that water quality is one of the number one things that people care about the most. And we just were really concerned that by, you know, getting rid of reasonable regulations would just hasten the loving this place to death problem that that this place is always kind of faced.
BOTKIN: I would say we are primarily an education group. Most of the things that we post on our page is just informational. There are some instances, some issues, some particular properties that we will try to kind of explain, we think that this is detrimental for this reason, or we think this is positive for this reason. But primarily, we try to let people draw their own conclusions about what's happening.
We do have a fair amount of people interacting with our content. It is a little surprising to me how knowledgeable some of these people are about zoning and land use, because they have realized it is very important, and it is very tedious to sit through some of these meetings, but there are quite a few people who come, because they know that it affects not just them, but everyone in the community.
DRUMHELLER: It’s not just the beauty, it’s the quality of life. And I think one thing people are really concerned about is they don't want us to become like the Spokane Valley, or, you know what I mean, and just like overrun with traffic and sprawl.
And also, trying to prevent that rural sprawl and also trying to preserve the agricultural and the timber legacy of this area, I think is really important to people.
BOTKIN: I think grassroots can be very powerful, and I think if you're getting involved, you do realize how much power county commissioners and zoning commissioners and planning commissioners have. So you're probably going to influence the outcome by voting for people who are potentially more in line with your values regarding land use.
DRUMHELLER: I think that happened here. I think people can be very influential, and I think that you want people in office who are open-minded and responsive and also fair.
BOTKIN: Because there are significant long-term impacts of a lot of different land use decisions and deregulation and regulation. I used to work in the construction industry, so I think that people who are trying to advocate for development for the sake of development don't understand that you can actually make plenty of money if you're thinking long-term.
BOTKIN: So I agree that it can be quite boring on paper. But it's kind of like a puzzle, in that, you kind of got to get into the weeds sometimes a little bit in order to see how it affects real life. And it does really significantly affect real life.
DRUMHELLER: There's just a growing number of people who recognize that your property rights doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want on your property because it could impact your neighbor or the larger community somehow. And so there's a balance to that, and I think people can understand the idea of balance.
BOTKIN: We have two paths forward and one is to just build the county out and not really care what the long-term impacts of what we're doing. And the other is to not just preserve what we have but to try to make it better for everyone here…If you're thinking long-term about what a place looks like, you are thinking about land use.
That was Katie Botkin and Susan Drumheller of Project 7B, speaking with SPR’s Eliza Billingham.
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, John Ryan, Eliza Billingham and me, Doug Nadvornick. Eliza provided online support.
Thanks for joining us. This is SPR News .
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Sarah Mizes-Tan, and Eliza Billingham.
Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Doug Nadvornick hosted and produced this show.
