SB 5488 is a travesty. No candidate elections should be decided on a primary ballot. Period. It's already terrible that Supreme Court elections can be decided on a primary, now they want to do that with even more races. What part of "primary" do they not understand?
And while I like the first part of SJM 8004, the second part is insane.
Senate Bill 5460 (Reducing state government administrative costs )
Introduced by Sen. Rodney Tom, (D-Medina) (D) on January 22, 2009, directs the office of financial management to reduce allotments for all agencies for salaries, wages, fringe benefits, personal service contracts, equipment, travel, and training by $105,450,000 from the 2007-09 biennial general and related funds.
House Bill 1537 (on notification of property owners of emergency actions by state and local agencies)
Introduced by Rep. Sherry Appleton, (D-Poulsbo) (D) on January 23, 2009, requires that property owners be notified of actions being taken by any state, county or municipal agency, including State Patrol and first responders, on their property.
House Bill 1572 (adopting all mail voting)
Introduced by Rep. Sam Hunt, (D-Olympia) (D) on January 23, 2009, establishes all-mail elections, but allows for designated in-person voting centers.
Senate Bill 5476 (Abolishing the death penalty)
Introduced by Sen. Ed Murray, (D-Seattle) (D) on January 23, 2009, abolishes the death penalty in this state by repealing statutory provisions for special sentencing and related matters.
Senate Bill 5488 (Modifying judicial election provisions)
Introduced by Sen. Adam Kline, (D-Seattle) (D) on January 23, 2009, provides that if a candidate for municipal court in a contested primary receives a majority of all the votes cast for that office, only the name of that candidate may be printed under the title of the office. A judge appointed to fill a vacancy must run in the next general election to fill the balance of the original term of office.
Senate Bill 5504 (Reclaimed water permitting)
Introduced by Sen. Karen Fraser, (D-Thurston County) (D) on January 23, 2009, to clarify and provide new definitions related to reclaimed water and gray water. This bill gives the rule making authority to either the department of health or ecology for determining acceptable uses and collections of reclaimed water. The bill also provides additional clarification for the oversight, violations and penalties for the execution of this act. (See also Companion HB 1482).
Senate Joint Memorial 8004 (Development of a highly-skilled workforce in Washington state)
Introduced by Sen. Paull Shin, (D-Edmonds) (D) on January 23, 2009, requests Congress and the President to actively support legislation increasing the number of available H-1B visas; and mandating that companies hiring H-1B workers pay the sum of ten thousand dollars per foreign worker toward training domestic workers for highly skilled jobs.
I agree with you! Part 2 is nonsense for many reasons.
23 (1) Increasing the number of available H-1B visas; and
24 (2) Mandating that companies hiring highly skilled workers through
25 the H-1B visa program pay the sum of ten thousand dollars per foreign
26 worker, to go toward training domestic workers for highly skilled jobs.
Pudge, if you don't think we should stop with a single round of elections even if one candidate gets over 50% ...
I did not say that. I said we should not decide the elections in the primary, when far fewer people are voting, because they are told it is a PRIMARY: that is, that it is for determining which candidates will be on the ballot. Obviously, when there's only two candidates, there should be no primary.
Further, there's no reason to make these races special: we have legislative races that have only two people in them, and even if someone wins half the votes, it still goes to the general election.
If there's only two candidates, the primary serves no purpose for the voters. It only serves a purpose for the candidates: if the race is decided in the primary, they don't have to spend as much money and time campaigning; if the race is in the primary and someone gets 50 percent and they still go on to the general, then the primary serves merely as a taxpayer-funded opinion poll.
then I trust you were against the insane scheme, supported by Stefan, to choose the King County Elections Director based on a single round even though the winner could get less than 17% of the vote.
I don't know much about it, and therefore have no opinion. As I do not live in King County, I did not devote much of my time to it.
The idea of collecting $10,000 per foreign H-1B visa holder seems like a good idea, but who in state government has the talent, education and wherewithall to train "highly skilled workers"?
Posted by: Paddy on January 25, 2009 11:26 AMThe idea of collecting $10,000 per foreign H-1B visa holder seems like a good idea
It does? Howso?
... but who in state government has the talent, education and wherewithall to train "highly skilled workers"?
:-)
As for "...but who in state government has the talent, education, and wherewithall to train "highly skilled workers"? They are called professors; they work at universities like the UW, WSU, WWU, CWU, & EWU.
Posted by: joe on January 25, 2009 08:33 PMAs for "...but who in state government has the talent, education, and wherewithall to train "highly skilled workers"? They are called professors; they work at universities like the UW, WSU, WWU, CWU, & EWU.
Posted by: joe on January 25, 2009 08:33 PMNo, we mustn't.
H1B visas are disliked by most software engineers.
Incorrect. They are disliked by most insecure software engineers. As a secure software engineer, with many friends who are H-1B, or who would benefit from H-1B, and as someone who is for free enterprise and not for protectionism, I have no problem with them.