Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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For a while this past month my office at the state Capitol was taking call after call from people who had been transferred there by an automated phone call, better known as a “robo-call”. Some callers were surprised to find a real person on the other end of the line; others were upset because they thought the robo-calls originated from our office. Not true – I’ve only used this technology during legislative sessions to invite constituents to take part in telephone town-hall meetings. The recent wave of callers seemed to be p... Full story
As a farmer whose wheat crop gets water only from the heavens, I like to say that when it comes to rain, there’s no such thing as “bad” rain. But I almost had to rethink that earlier this month, when rain arrived while we were out cutting wheat. Fortunately, we were just about at the tail end of harvest, so it was still a successful year with yields that were significantly above average. It’s been great to wear my farmer hat more than my senator hat for the past month, since our third overtime session of the year ended. Howev...
More than once in this column I’ve mentioned the eternal optimism I have, being a dryland wheat farmer, and how that spills over to my work as a state legislator. But I don’t remember Olympia testing my optimism like it has this year – and particularly this month. Ten days ago I would have said we had a good shot at concluding the 2017 legislative session on a positive note. Then good old-fashioned politics threw a wrench into things. That’s why I am home on the farm, with harvest under way, with the Legislature still l... Full story
By now I had hoped to be back home, with all of our legislative business completed. We approved a new state budget on June 30 along with the long-awaited plan for fully funding public schools, which is in line with the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. But our Senate majority isn’t ready to leave the Capitol. We still want a permanent fix for last year’s Supreme Court decision, in the Hirst case, which has basically put a freeze on rural homebuilding. Once that’s settled we could quickly wrap up the session by approving a ne... Full story
It’s one thing for the news media to report on the possibility of a state-government shutdown, but now organizations with political agendas are trying to make hay out of the situation. The Washington State Democrats and the activists at a liberal group called Fuse Washington have taken to calling me “Shutdown Schoesler,” behind the ridiculous claim that I have kept our Senate majority from negotiating a new state budget in good faith. Through their contacts in Olympia, groups like these know full well that Republicans and D...
A newspaper in Tacoma recently suggested several ways that lawmakers are supposedly “killing time behind the scenes” of this overtime session. Some of the examples were absurd enough (“performing car-tab burning rituals”) that I’ll assume the whole editorial was meant in jest. Either way, here’s the truth: maybe 10 percent of the 147 legislators are even present at the Capitol at any given time. None of them need to kill time – eight are regularly locked in negotiations about education funding and policy, and the rest are lea... Full story
The Legislature is now in a second special session. The governor made it official on Tuesday, May 23. That’s frustrating, because it means more time away from my loved ones and the farm. But Tuesday is also when the commander of the Ritzville post of the American Legion, Mark Shepherd, offered me the honor of saying a few words at our Memorial Day observance in Ritzville. I tell you, that puts things into perspective. The sacrifices that go with being a citizen legislator do add up, but obviously there’s no comparison with th...
Most lawmakers are back home while those involved in negotiations, and leaders like me, have spent much of these past four weeks at the Capitol. Once the negotiating teams reach agreements that are ready to go before the full Senate and House, everyone will return to Olympia for the votes needed to bring our work to a close for the year. There is progress on reforming the state’s education-funding system and figuring out the K-12 portion of the new state budget (which will be the largest part, so it takes priority). But the n...
The Senate passed a new operating budget on Friday after debating amendment after amendment for the better part of six hours. Our balanced plan would support critical constitutional reforms of the state’s school-levy approach, add more funding for basic education and strengthen the social-services “safety net” without calling for new taxes. When we made our budget proposal public earlier in the week, I figured the fact that it increases spending but still stays within available revenue would draw criticism from Gover...
A year ago at this time the Legislature’s regular session was over, because it is limited to 60 days in even-numbered years. However, we already had been called into a “special” session to iron out disagreements related to changes proposed to the state budget, and it ran to the end of March. There is no reason for the Legislature to go into overtime this year – no good reason, that is. But last week the governor’s budget director effectively scoffed at the idea of adjourning on time, and Thursday the House Democrats...
Washington’s constitution does not clearly prohibit a state income tax, contrary to what many think. I’d like for the voters of our state to finally have the chance to shield themselves from an income tax – at both the state and local level. The Senate minority doesn’t share that opinion, however. Please keep reading for the details. On Wednesday evening the Senate wrapped up its voting on bills introduced by senators. For the next few weeks the action will again be focused at the committee level, as we consider bills p... Full story
Last week was the busiest week of our session so far. We spent each day in the Senate chamber, with all 49 members present and voting on legislation that has come forward from the Senate policy and budget committees. While voting all day and into the evening allowed us to move many good policy changes over to the House of Representatives, it unfortunately left little time for visitors this week. I was unable to follow up with Latino Civic Alliance members Monday afternoon, after offering brief remarks in the Capitol Rotunda,...
After today all legislative committees will take a break until mid-March. The Senate’s policy committees wrapped up work on Senate bills a week ago, and our two budget committees did the same. We will then have through March 8 to work in the Senate chamber (“on the floor,” as it’s called), debating and voting on bills that came forward from the Senate committees. Because I’m on the Ways and Means (budget) committee, which took action on dozens of bills this week, there unfortunately was less time for visitors. Still, I... Full story
One of the realities of coming up with a new state budget every two years is that the cost of the things which are “must do” and “nice to do” always exceeds the amount of revenue available. It forces the Legislature to prioritize. That brings me to one of the questions that will face us this year: is spending $11 million more on vacation time a priority? Please keep reading for the details. My week started with a visit from Mary Fairhurst, who became chief justice of the state Supreme Court late in 2016, followed later M... Full story
Our 2017 session will pass the one-third mark on Sunday – President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Not only was Lincoln among our greatest presidents, and the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the founder of the Republican Party, but as you might guess, our state’s Lincoln County is named for him. According to my legislative history book, Lincoln County was part of the Ninth District from 1965 to 1972, with Adams and Whitman counties. Feb. 12 used to be a legal holiday in our state; the Legislature ended that with...
This week the Senate approved a bill that would fully fund K-12 education in a way that upholds the state constitution and addresses the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision from 2012. The Education Equality Act is certainly one of the most important pieces of legislation we will see in 2017, and the fact that we passed it so early in the session is proof of our Senate majority’s commitment to students. In addition to a pair of meetings with the governor, I welcomed Pullman firefighters, tree fruit growers, Whitman Cou... Full story
The state senator for much of northeast Washington, Brian Dansel, stepped down from the Senate three days ago to accept a job in Washington, D.C. It was not a surprise, as his name has been mentioned in a Trump-administration context for some time. Legislative leaders know the process for appointing a new senator or representative and are aware that it can be handled fairly quickly. The vacancy in the Senate has not created a problem for our governing coalition, because the Legislature’s focus through mid-February is at t...
The section in the state constitution about legislative sessions does not give lawmakers a break on national holidays, so we were at work on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (and will be again on Presidents Day next month). The House and Senate annually acknowledge the commemoration of Dr. King’s birth through resolutions. To me the day serves as a reminder of the great African-American leaders I have had the privilege to know, including my late friend Dr. Elson Floyd, the former WSU president who was taken from us by cancer i... Full story
This year’s legislative session is under way at the Capitol. It began at noon on Jan. 9 with many of us, me included, taking the oath of office. Two days later the governor and the executive branch’s other elected officials were sworn in, followed by the governor’s State-of-the-State speech. Aside from the ceremonies, it was a typical first week in that we quickly got down to the business of introducing and hearing legislation in committees. As you know, I am always glad to spend as much time as I can with people who come... Full story
There’s nothing like a winter bird-hunting trip to offset all the activity that goes with celebrating Christmas and the coming of the New Year. I managed to put farming chores and the Legislature on the back burner long enough to break the shotgun out more than once recently. First came a duck hunt on the Yakima River near the Tri-Cities, and then some pheasant hunting off to the east, aided by my four-legged friend Colt, the faithful Vizsla. Besides winding down from the holidays it allowed me to see the ongoing benefits o...
I am glad to be sharing legislative updates with you again. From July to December, I and other senators who were seeking re-election had to follow limits set by the Legislature on sending information to constituents. Now that the election is far enough past us, I am allowed to comment on what the results mean, and what is on the agenda for 2017. If there was any doubt left that Governor Jay Inslee is a typical tax-and-spend, big-government liberal, he did away with that earlier this month by proposing the largest tax... Full story
Fishing season in our local lakes opened this past Saturday, and like many others, the Schoeslers took to the water hoping to land enough trout for dinner – except in our case, it was four generations of our family: Dad, me, daughter Veronica, son Cody and grandkids Kaegen, Macy and Elyse. Is there any better way to spend part of a Saturday, no matter how many fish end up on the stringer? A guide to Washington’s presidential primary: The presidential campaigns are all over the news, especially as they relate to primaries and...
The 2016 legislative session has been over for a little more than three weeks. It has been a joy to be back in Adams County and on the farm, although I have made sure to also keep an eye on the governor’s signing of bills we passed during the 20-day overtime. On Monday afternoon the governor signed the supplemental budget that contains the spending adjustments we agreed on this year. He surprised many of us by vetoing several line items, which throws the budget out of whack by around $200 million! When that disappointing n...
Twenty-four years as a state legislator and two years as Senate majority leader have put me on a first-name basis with people with some pretty impressive résumés: leaders of the biggest industries and companies in our state, members of Congress, and so on. You know, folks whose accomplishments in life are easy to admire. But one of the people I have admired most is someone I met not as a legislator but as a Ritzville native and a member of our local Zion Philadelphia Church: Rudolph “Rudy” Thaut. Mr. Thaut passed away earli... Full story
The term “unintended consequence” is mentioned from time to time in the Legislature. It generally refers to a negative aspect in a new law – something no one had foreseen until the law went into effect, which needs to be fixed with another piece of legislation. Our Senate majority knew the unprecedented two-year tuition cut we enabled at Washington State University and our other state-run colleges and universities would allow more students to pursue a college degree. It would help them avoid taking on more debt through stude... Full story