Friday, February 10, 2012

There's a Good Jobs Green Jobs Regional Conference coming up in Los Angeles on March 15-16.  Check out their exciting agenda and learn more here.  Additional conferences are planned this spring in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit.  Talk to your Local about the possibility of getting funding to attend one of these educational conferences.  Even if you can't go in person, join in the conversation surrounding the conference, and get green jobs news and updates by following @gjgjconference on twitter and the hashtag #gjgj2012.
On February 6 the Senate Ways & Means Committee held a public hearing on SB 6211.  Our own Kerry Graber testified on behalf of WFSE/AFSCME Council 28 and our Green Caucus.  Read more about SB 6211 here.  Watch complete testimony on SB 6211, including Kerry's testimony, below.


Kerry's testimony starts at the 48:25 mark and goes until 50:08.
Green Caucus members Dan and Kerry appeared in WFSE/AFSCME Council 28's monthly TV program, Our View!  Check it out.  Spread the word.  Join our Green Caucus!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Hello GC members.

We have a meeting scheduled for Thursday, (tomorrow). Those of you in Olympia please join us on the third floor conference room at the WFSE HQ building.

We will have a presentation and proposal on green investment of our pension funds.

We will have a legislative update on the current session, including two bills of interest we are tracking. (See links below to the bill information for your reference.)  Included in this discussion will be a download from the GC lobby day Jan 24.

We have a recycling issue to discuss on our "walking our talk" efforts.

Finally we hope to have more info to share about the green jobs conference in California.

If time allows we will talk more about networking and outreach.

Please let me know if you have any additional agenda items to add.

I look forward to our meeting!

Kerry Graber, vice chair 

Bills of interest: 
SB 6211: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=6211&year=2011

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Discover Pass in the Legislature

Excerpted from WFSE/AFSCME Council 28's 2/1/2012 HOTLINE by Tim Welch:
 
"DISCOVER PASS ACTION CONTINUES

• At the same Senate hearing, the committee voted out SB 6387 that would help in the enforcement of the Discover Pass to fund state parks. Fines for a lack of a Discover Pass would go not to counties but to the state fund for parks. The bill now goes to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

• The House General Government Appropriations and Oversight Committee on Wednesday morning continued its hearing on two House Discover Pass bills and took up the bill passed by the Senate (SSB 5977) that would allow transfer of a Discover Pass to another vehicle. (It’s the same as HB 2153 heard by the committee last week.) The Parks Commission and other advocates urged the committee to settle on SSB 5977 as the cleanest and quickest short-term fix because every month that goes by, the parks shortfall grows. Committee Chair Rep. Zack Hudgins of the 11th District said he hopes to have a consensus Discover Pass bill by Friday."