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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Frank Chopp’s Not All Bad. But You Still Can’t Sue Your Contractor.

posted by on March 12 at 12:08 PM

Olympia hammered out its final budget today—a combo of the Senate budget, the House budget, and the Governor’s budget. And low-income housing advocates are cheering Speaker of the House Chopp who was able to increase the Housing Trust Fund by $70 million—$20 million more than the Senate and the governor’s proposal.

The Senate and the governor had called for a $50 million increase—$130 million to $180 million. Chopp wisely kicked off the negotiations by coming in high, initially calling for a $90 million increase. The fund goes into low-income housing construction and services for low-income families.

In the end, Chopp was able to push the fund to $200 million. Pretty cool, especially given how important this fund is right now thanks to the lending crisis.

Too bad low-income residents won’t be able to sue their contractors if their houses are f’d up, though. You can thank Chopp for that too.

RSS icon Comments

1

Jesus, Josh, we really need to get you laid. Does anybody know a good $5,000-an-hour prostitute?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | March 12, 2008 12:14 PM
2

The thing is, suing your contractor isn't something that low-income people would get to do anyways, and realistically only applies to a very few people, and most of those people are extremely well-off. This funding is going to help many, many thousands of people who really need it. I think from Chopp's point of view it's a question of maximum public benefit. Which doesn't sound so bad to me.

Posted by Fnarf | March 12, 2008 12:14 PM
3

@2,
Fnarf, I was joking.

Posted by Josh Feit | March 12, 2008 12:19 PM
4

Good. That saves me from having to say Fnarf's right in this case.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 12, 2008 12:29 PM
5

Governing and leadership in this day is a tough job--too many priorities and too little time. Chopp takes a lot of crap, but on the whole, he does a pretty good job. I have my frustrations like everyone else, but if forced to make a choice, I would rather Chopp spend his time and political capital on securing $200M to help the disadvantaged.
If both are a legitimate option, then that is another issue...

Posted by Client #9 | March 12, 2008 12:42 PM
6

Apologies for obliviousness, Josh. I'm not at the top of my game.

Posted by Fnarf | March 12, 2008 12:42 PM
7

Bring the housing law suit bill back next session and clean it up - huh, Josh.

And get Grouch from Mercer Island out of the loop.

Posted by John | March 12, 2008 12:46 PM
8

Gregoire can run on that good time funding for housing --- remember --- the elections?

Posted by Adam | March 12, 2008 12:48 PM
9

All bad.

Posted by Orca | March 12, 2008 12:48 PM
10

part time legislature = arbitrary date cut offs = only can pass 3 or 4 impt. things a year = stupid.

also = permanent continued conservative status quo rule (keep govt. small and impotent, let the democratic majority rot in hell cuz it can't get stuff passed)

does any Democrat stand up and say this is stupid?

nope.

OK, move along, let's keep our 19th c. system in place so the legislators can get back to the farm to raise crops all summer.

Posted by unPC | March 12, 2008 1:01 PM
11

Correction: Residents CAN sue their contractors. They just can't sue someone else's contractor.

Still, it's a shame that Frank Chopp is in the pocket of the BIAW. If he and the governor had any balls they'd turn off the BIAW's money faucet by eliminating the BIAW's ability to see workers' compensation insurance and apply the surplus to political purposes. The conservative nuts at the BIAW are fleecing their own members and fucking over the whole state at the same time.

Posted by Brendan | March 12, 2008 1:44 PM
12

Okay, so I'm an insurance agent, and I can tell you that you can sue your contractor. In fact, you can sue your contractor in this state if your neighbor's house is defective and he had the same contractor. That's why for general contractors, all domestic insurance companies (that's lingo for ones licensed to sell in this state) restrict GCs to a max of usually five buildings in any subdivision. The subcontractors, plumbers, electricians, carpet installers, and the like face the same restriction, though all of the above can go through a broker and get a nice Lloyds of London policy that will take them as high as they're willing to pay for.

If you couldn't sue your contractor, there would be no need for builder's defect coverage.

Posted by Gitai | March 12, 2008 6:51 PM

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