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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2013)
News Taxes Young Curators Inslee seeks to raise $565 million over the next two years by targeting tax breaks — about half the money needed to fund educa- tion. Many might dispute the characterization of the tax breaks as loopholes. One of his proposals would lower a tax deduction on a new car when trading in an old one. Anoth- er would increase taxes on bottled water. Along with making some temporary taxes permanent, he would broaden a beer tax to hit small brewers as well. And Inslee didn’t just target specific tax breaks that he didn’t think were worthwhile; he also targeted whole blocs of them. The state tax code offers preferential tax rates to ben- efit 40 industries, and Inslee pro- posed to cut the value of the tax preferences by 25 percent across — Randy Pepple, campaign the industries, except for aerospace manager for former GOP and radioactive waste cleanup by gubernatorial candidate Rob the federal government. ``I choose education over tax McKenna breaks,’’ Inslee said. — GOVERNMENT EFFICIEN- CY: Along with job creation and ``He’s just parsing his words,’’ Pepple tax deductions, Inslee talked extensively said. ``He knew that he was lying to get during his campaign about making govern- ment more efficient — by using ``lean’’ elected.’’ —TAX DEDUCTIONS: Candidate Inslee management — and capturing that money did speak last year in favor of eliminating to put into education. Inslee said during the campaign that it tax deductions. He often referred to them as loopholes secured by lobbyists and said he would take only ``months’’ to get a return wanted to focus on eliminating ones that no on investment from enacting the manage- ment principles, disputing the opinion of longer made sense. However, in one debate, Inslee also another Democrat who suggested it would seemed to downplay which tax breaks take years. House Republicans cited would be in jeopardy. He said the state Inslee’s ``lean’’ goals in their spending pro- would have to target larger issues like grow- posal earlier this month, cutting agency ing jobs because ``that is where the real budgets by 2 percent. Lean management got minimal focus in money is.’’ Under his proposal advanced this week, Inslee’s budget rollout, however. The gover- from tax changes. He didn’t propose any new types of taxes or broad-based tax increases, but he argued in favor of ending or shrinking tax deductions. He also pro- posed to make temporary tax increases — enacted amid the worst parts of the reces- sion — permanent. Randy Pepple, the campaign manager for former GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna, said extending taxes is a tax increase since the taxes would be lower without action. He said it was clear that Inslee was misleading voters all along. ‘He’s just parsing his words. He knew that he was lying to get elected’ The Northwest African American Museum 2013 Carver Gayton Youth Curators Program celebrated the completion of their project “Do You Know James Baldwin?” at a reception at the museum on March 30. The youth curators inspired by the exhibit “Bearing Witness from Another Place: James Baldwin in Turkey,” currently on display at NAAM, created their own exhibit informing others about the life of the famous writer, who happened to be gay. The teens in the 2013 project are 14-18 years old and represent high schools across the city including Garfield, Franklin, Ballard, The Center School, Shorewood, Evergreen and Holy Names. For information about the 2014 program go to: www.naamnw.org PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED continued from page 1 nor doesn’t count any savings from the effi- ciency effort and made minimal budget reductions. ``We figured booking savings from `lean’ was premature,’’ said David Schumacher, Inslee’s budget director. Schumacher said the office was being conservative. ure passed the state Senate earlier this month and advanced from the House High- er Education Committee on Tuesday. Nei- ther that bill nor the one Bailey opposes would address funding shortages in the pro- gram. ``It’s confusing that she would consider it an unfunded promise for one population and not for another,’’ said Toby Guevin, lobby- ist for OneAmerica, a group advocating for the measure’s passage. Bailey did not return phone messages seeking comment. College continued from page 1 the measure a likely majority on the panel. But Tom, a Democrat who is caucusing with Republicans, said it is Bailey who will determine if it gets a committee vote. The measure passed the state House earli- er this month by a vote of 77-20, with Democrats united in support and Republi- cans split. Bill supporters said they were disappoint- ed to learn of Bailey’s position. They point out that Bailey recently co- sponsored and voted in favor of a measure to expand access to the same pool of State Need Grant money to students at the online Western Governor’s University. That meas- 74,000 students received State Need Grant assistance in the 2011-2012 school year, but 32,000 otherwise qualified applicants were turned away due to funding shortages Rapist continued from page 1 and had served 10 years in prison before he was released in 2003, according to court documents. He was labeled a Level III sex offender, indicating he was considered a high risk to reoffend. Last year, Lewis stopped making his required weekly check-ins with the King County Sheriff’s Office. As a result, he was charged with failure to register as a sex offender and was sum- moned to court on March 14. Prosecutors asked for a $30,000 bail, saying that his fail- ure to register demonstrated an unwilling- ness to comply with court orders and posed a threat to the community, the charging doc- uments say. Lewis, however, said that he’d lived in the area for 48 years and was receiving mental- health treatment. In addition, court records show it was the first time he had been charged with failing to register, a felony punishable by up to one year in jail. Kessler granted Lewis’ request for release on personal recognizance and ordered Lewis to register as a sex offender, accord- ing to the documents. The next day, Lewis is accused of raping the woman. The victim told Seattle police that she was walking on a busy avenue in the evening when Lewis pulled up to her in a black van A witness told police he had seen Lewis pick up a female and drag her into the trailer and had heard her screams for help Lewis then appeared in court the follow- ing week, on March 19, and asked that his next hearing be delayed until April because he was scheduled for ankle surgery, a request which was granted. and asked if she wanted a ride. When she declined, Lewis opened the door and grabbed the woman, charging papers say. Lewis then drove to his trailer home parked on a city street. He pulled the teen out of the van by grabbing her in a bear hug and clasping his hand over her mouth. The woman was allowed to leave after the rape, but she left her socks and $20 in the trailer, she told police. Later, she led police to Lewis’ trailer and positively identified him as the man who had assaulted her, prosecutors said. When questioned, a witness told police he had seen Lewis pick up a female and drag her into the trailer and had heard her screams for help, according to charging documents. Lewis had been convicted of statutory rape in 1985 for forcibly raping a 15-year- old girl he’d lured to his apartment and of second-degree rape in 1993 after raping a woman he’d brought to his apartment, pros- ecutors say in court documents. If convicted as charged, Lewis faces life in prison under the two-strike law for sex offenders. April 3, 2013 The Seattle Skanner Page 3
