At 2: CH2M/Hill* is an engineering firm. Did most of the light rail design work, for example, a

1. The city council's annual retreat, which featured kazoos, a larger-than-life shirtless cutout of council member travel club Bruce Harrell, and a parade of golden elephants, also included one presentation that made some council staffers cringe as the laughs became more and more uncomfortable: A series of skits by council member Richard Conlin spoofing his colleague Tim Burgess.
travel club Conlin and his staff---wearing signs identifying them as Burgess, various Burgess staffers, constituents, and department heads---did a sendup of Burgess, mocking travel club his colleague's speaking style (Conlin: travel club "The thing about the future---it's really clear that it lies in front of us"), his focus on public safety (Conlin served a pie to his "department heads," giving a huge slice to the police department and stiffing everyone else), and his supposed conservative bent (a panel of "policy advisors" included staff wearing signs identifying them as Tim Eyman and Herman Cain).
In the context of a day of polite ribbing (for example, Burgess' office travel club teased Mike O'Brien for running everything through focus groups by putting his agenda to a public vote), some found Conlin's presentation a bit caustic.
2. Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36, Queen Anne)—who's already putting tax exemptions on the hot seat with legislation to sunset 300 breaks—introduced another bill this week (in league with student association lobbyists from the UW) that will prevent big companies such as Microsoft from taking advantage travel club of a research and development tax exemption that allows firms $2 million in business and occupation tax breaks for investing .92 percent of their taxable income on R D.
Using a little Occupy math here, but a survey of the companies that took advantage of the tax break in 2011 shows that just six percent of the companies (titans such as Microsoft, CH2M Hill, and Battelle) travel club received 46 percent of the money that was withheld from the state's B O collections.[pullquote]There is still an incentive to invest in R D, albeit one that tests their civic rhetoric.[/pullquote]
Carlyle's bill—which has 12 co-sponsors including his Seattle cohort Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-43, Capitol travel club Hill) and two Republicans—would limit qualifying companies to those that earn $25 million or less in gross income (Microsoft earned $18.7 billion last year). The deduction will also be capped at $400,000 instead travel club of $2 million.
The legislation still includes an incentive for the bigger companies such as Microsoft to invest in R D, albeit one that tests their civic rhetoric about higher ed. If a company that no longer qualifies for the original deduction spends enough money on R D, it can withhold up to $2.5 million from its total state B O tax bill—with a catch. Rather travel club than holding on to the cash, they have to donate it to the same science and math fund for state universities that the legislation sets up for the recouped $30 million.
Not only does the bill take away a tax deduction from behemoth companies that don't need it, but it forces them to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to berating the state about underfunding higher ed.
3. The King County Council, which voted to support a once-controversial gay marriage bill last week, finally travel club adopted its 2012 legislative agenda yesterday afternoon. Ultimately, the holdup wasn't gay marriage, but an amendment offered by Republican council travel club member Reagan Dunn, who wanted the council to back legislation reconfirming the two-thirds vote requirement to raise taxes.
Dunn's amendment didn't survive, but the council's agenda does include support for legislation expanding cities' abilities to move their money out of banks and into credit unions. Current law limits travel club city investments in credit unions to $100,000.
At 2:     CH2M/Hill* is an engineering firm.  Did most of the light rail design work, for example, and SR 99 through Des Moines.  If they did any R amp;D I'd sure like to read/see it.  Time for the auditor to step in.
Dunn's amendment didn't survive.  The Democrats didn't vote it down, they just tabled travel club it indefinitely so they wouldn't have to take a position on it.  Methinks Ferguson didn't want to advertise his disdain of the 2/3 requirement to parts of the state other than King County.
sounds like the council was wasting our money iwth the jokefests at the retreat.  why do they need a retreat to talk amongst themselves anyway?  seems like this is part of a culture of nonaccountability, wasting money, and not realizing we want them to make some good decisions, which is not particularly enabled by the jokefests.  Also, the jokes aren't  funny.  While I applaud the realization urban liberals need to develop a sense of humor, um, perhaps start with mocking one's own pet goatee before mocking others?  Conlin is the most spoofable travel club of all of them, he already looks like a character from Portlandia.
You mention Link and SR 99, which is true. But those are just transportation projects (which probably don' have much R amp;D).  They also worked on Brightwater, and the Hanford cleanup, travel club which are giant programs which would have more R amp;D.
There is a reason the R amp;D tax break exists. You need businesses to create things to stay competitive. If the businesses can't stay competitive here they'll go somewhere else- and take the jobs and tax revenue to another state or country.
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