Note that the lege also took $18 million from a Secretary of State fund meant to go towards planning and building a new state library and archives building and reallocated it to the general fund to try to balance the state budget.

Leading to the SoS having to lay off library staff. The reason the library is closed is because there's only a handful of people left there to actually try to run the place and offer any services (and more are likely going once federal grant funding gets cut later). Same with WTBBL.

To call it an unreliable funding source is an understatement. Due to the market downturn since COVID the Library (and the State Archives) have been working with notably reduced resources. That's why they needed a boost from the lege the last few biennium. Which was denied this year.

The State Library issues are entirely budget related. The lege has been slowly killing their budget since the early 2000s. Since the Library doesn't have a way to generate revenue it is partially funded on filing fees that come from the counties, but that income depends on the real estate market.

While it was originally the library it's been code revisor and lege support offices for at least 15 years now. The renovation has less to do with damage and is mostly about making it a functional office space since it wasn't designed to be worked in that way.

The state library is in Tumwater and isn't under construction. It hasn't been in Pritchard for a long time.

Per SCAR Spokane, there are about 80-100 protesters at the ICE office downtown at 411 W Cataldo. There is a nonzero chance that this young man could be allowed to go home if this continues.

Please get downtown if you can.

Organizers are refreshing protestors on the best practices for the event, giving info for folks who are willing to risk arrest and for those who are not. They’re reminding everyone to stay peaceful. There’s a bail fund phone number, will see if I can get that number for anyone who wants to donate

congrats to each of those democrats for voting to nullify article i of the constitution

The alt text for this image says it's from the California Capitol in May of 1967, but it was actually taken at the Washington State Capitol Building in February 1969.