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