OLYMPIA -- The momentum is clearly with protecting schools, health care, public safety and other essential services from another devastating all-cuts budget. Those of us who support closing tax loopholes and raising revenue to avoid more draconian cuts clearly outnumbered the anti-government teabaggers at last Saturday's public hearing on the budget and Monday's dueling rallies at the Capitol.

That momentum continued this week as most House Democrats took an important first step to accomplishing a balanced budget approach by suspending Initiative 960.

That initiative, which passed with 51% of the vote at a time when the state coffers were flush, requires a two-thirds majority for any tax increase, handing the power to obstruct the budget to a minority of 34% of lawmakers. Removing this recipe for D.C.-style politically partisan gridlock is absolutely necessary to address our budget crisis and make the investments needed to create jobs NOW!

These House Democrats deserve thanks for supporting SB 6130: Reps. Appleton, Blake, Carlyle, Chase, Chopp, Clibborn, Cody, Conway, Darneille, Dickerson, Dunshee, Ericks, Flannigan, Goodman, Green, Haigh, Hasegawa, Hudgins, Hunt, Hunter, Jacks, Kagi, Kenney, Kessler, Kirby, Liias, Linville, Maxwell, McCoy, Moeller, Morris, Nelson, O'Brien, Ormsby, Orwall, Pedersen, Pettigrew, Quall, Roberts, Rolfes, Santos, Sells, Simpson, Springer, Sullivan, Takko, Upthegrove, Van De Wege, White, Williams, and Wood.

Every single House Republican voted against it after doing everything in their power to obstruct the vote. That included droning on for hours about the sanctity of initiatives and the public will. You know, like the minimum wage initiative, which Republicans have attempted to repeal or weaken with more than 20 pieces of legislation. That initiative passed with 66% of the vote, but they'd defy the public will on that one faster than you can say, "When's my corporate fundraiser?"

Because of changes made in SB 6130, it must now return to the Senate for another vote -- where it already passed once, 26-22 -- before it heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire's desk.

Gov. Chris Gregoire also took a step forward in the discussion about how to raise the revenue necessary to avoid catastrophic cuts. She distributed a proposal this week to raise $759 million by 1) closing a tax loophole for some out-of-state firms that do business here; 2) raising taxes on bottled water, cigarettes, candy and gum; and 3) supporting SB6851/HB 3181, the Working for Clean Water bill, that would raise $148 million for the general fund and millions more for job-creating local stormwater construction projects.

The Washington State Labor Council recognizes this as a step in the right direction. Gov. Gregoire has demonstrated that she understands working families are hurting and can't afford to have critical public services decimated at the very time they are needed more than ever. The governor's plan is an important step, especially her support for the job-creating Working for Clean Water legislation.

That said, more must be done to raise revenue and close tax loopholes to preserve all of the services critical to our state's long-term economic future.

Washington's business lobbying groups continue to go the teabaggers' route of demanding nothing but cuts.

This week, a coalition of business groups has launched an expensive media campaign -- advertisements and direct mail -- in "targeted legislative districts" (read: Democratic districts) complaining about the cost of doing business in Washington and urging people to call their legislators and tell them to "rein in state spending," not increase taxes.

These business lobbying groups preach "shared sacrifice" during these tough economic times as they push for more wage and benefit cuts for state employees. But that spirit of shared sacrifice stops at their corporate boardroom doors. They say that NO tax breaks can be suspended or repealed. They demand that every one of the 567 special-interest tax breaks in this state costing $96 billion a year are untouchable.

We urge legislators to reject this unbending, unproductive stance. By taking the extreme position of rejecting out-of-hand any tax loophole suspensions, business lobbying groups have demonstrated that they don't want to be part of the solution to our budget crisis. Instead, they want to stoke the fires of ideological anti-government anger with an eye toward targeting Democrats in this fall's election.

Another hearing was held this week on legislation to deregulate and privatize our state liquor system, a bad idea that doesn't save any money in the short or long term but would replace more than 1,000 family-wage jobs with low-wage ones.

HB 3189, sponsored by Rep. Gary Alexander (R-Olympia) and co-sponsored by a bipartisan collection of members of the House Ways & Means Committee, is the latest effort. It would hand 30-plus stores over to private contractors.

"Washington does a great job balancing revenue generation with public health and safety in our system and has been doing so since 1933," testified WSLC President Rick Bender before the committee. He noted that repeated ballot initiative efforts to privatize the system had failed, and the issue has been studied repeatedly -- most recently in 2000 under Gov. Gary Locke -- and concluded our existing system works well.

It's difficult to understand why this effort keeps emerging in this short session when even its supporters admit it doesn't help resolve today's budget crisis. It's even more difficult given Gov. Chris Gregoire's opposition to privatization.

"If we privatize liquor stores today how much will that help us get out of our $2.7 billion dollar shortfall? Zip!" Gov. Gregoire said at the WSLC Legislative Conference on Feb. 11. She also touted our state's record of having the best compliance rate in the nation for avoiding liquor sales to minors, and pointed out that the only way private liquor stores could generate more state revenue than the current system is by selling a whole lot more liquor, which is not a policy consistent with her values or the values of our state.

The WSLC urges legislators to drop this misguided idea.

On Monday, the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee will hear HB 3024, which requires that hospital workers get uninterrupted meal and rest breaks like everyone else.

This issue has arisen as understaffed hospitals have increasingly allowed very limited breaks -- or no breaks at all. Legislators have heard disturbing testimony from nurses about hospital administrators attributing trips to the rest room or to get a drink from a water fountain as break time. Years of negotiations and collective bargaining between hospital employees and management have failed to resolve the problem, and in fact, the problem appears to be getting worse.

HB 3024 says health care facilities must give employees uninterrupted 30-minute meal breaks and rest breaks of at least 10 minutes for every four hours worked. Of course, this would not apply in cases of emergency. No patients will be harmed by this very reasonable legislation. In fact, sufficient meal and rest breaks are essential for patient safety -- and nurse retention in this demanding profession.

HB 3024 has already passed the House, 63-34, and the Washington State Labor Council urges the Senate to approve this important legislation as well. Learn more at the web site: www.restbreaks4safety.com.

With less than three weeks left in the session and more cutoff deadlines looming next week, here's a quick summary of a few bills supported by organized labor that are alive or dead.

DEAD (unless resurrected by procedural means)