Pre-campaign wrap up of legislative efforts

I closed last week’s report by noting there would be just one more commentary until after the general election in November…and this is it. This is in keeping with the state law that limits legislators’ use of taxpayer resources (even e-mail, which really has no cost) to communicate with their constituents. While I understand the thinking behind that, it still means that for the next six months I won’t be able to do as much for you as I’d like – because there are times that I’d want to call your attention to things happening in state government. The best I can do then is to use some of the following space for what amounts to a watch list.

Although I can’t send general e-mails your way for a while, specific questions can still be handled through e-mail (as well as by phone and through the postal mail). If you think I can help you with a question or concern related to state government, just ask! In the meantime, best wishes to you and your loved ones for the rest of spring, summer and into the fall.

Between now and November

Here are state government-related dates of interest coming up in the six-plus months, in case you’d like to keep track:

May 14-18: Whose names will appear on your ballot (in August, November or both)? This is the week for candidates to file for office.

June 6: Will voters be allowed to weigh in on the state’s same-sex marriage law in addition, to voting on whether to legalize marijuana? It should be known by the end of this day whether Referendum 74 (to overturn the same-sex marriage law) qualified for the ballot.

June 7: Laws made during the regular legislative session take effect, except “emergency” laws that took effect as soon as the governor signed them.

June 20: Second state revenue forecast of 2012 (the first was in February); as a budget negotiator, I’ll pay close attention to this.

July 1: Budgets the Legislature passed this year (supplemental budgets, to adjust the budgets adopted in 2011) take effect.

Aug. 7: Primary for elective offices (top two vote-getters advance to general-election ballot in November). This year the primary moves to the first Tuesday of August; it’s been the third Tuesday of August since 2008, when Washington’s first top-two primary took place.

Sept. 20: Third state revenue forecast of 2012.

Nov. 6: General election (results to be certified by counties by Nov. 27).

Nov. 15: Fourth and final state revenue forecast of 2012.

The entries on my Senate calendar so far are almost exclusively in the 9th District, including:

May 14: Pasco Chamber of Commerce legislative update

May 15: Select Committee on Pension Policy (Olympia)

May 23-24: Washington Association of Wheat Growers tour

June 9: Fairfield Flag Day (112 years and going strong)

Lind Combine Demolition Derby (the 25th annual derby; I might have come out of retirement to compete if the legislative session hadn’t run 31 days long)

July 24-26: Washington agricultural tour

Aug. 17-18: National Lentil Festival, Pullman

Aug. 21-25: Benton-Franklin Fair, Kennewick

Aug. 30 – Sept. 2: Wheat Land Communities’ Fair, Ritzville

Sept. 6-8: Columbia Basin Junior Livestock Show, Connell

Sept. 8-11: Palouse Empire Fair, Colfax

Sept. 12-15: Adams County Fair, Othello

Sept. 14-16: Garfield County Fair, Pomeroy

Sept. 21-23: Southeast Spokane County Fair, Rockford

The plan is to attend all of these unless harvest or other farm responsibilities get in the way; I also enjoy visiting schools around the district and expect to stop in at several in the coming months (it’s a great way to see how new policies are working and get ready for what are sure to be more K-12 policy and funding discussions in 2013).

More on the progress made this year

My first report after the session(s) wrapped up in mid-April detailed what are generally viewed as the three key reforms produced this year, thanks primarily to the efforts of the bipartisan Senate coalition.

The four-year balanced-budget law (Senate Bill 6636), public-pension reform (Senate Bill 6378) and K-12 health-care reform (Senate Bill 5940) will do much to reduce costs and promote stability and transparency in the long term; however, it’s worth pointing out that the reforms didn’t end there.

Here are some of the other changes that came out of the 2012 session – again, driven primarily by the Senate – and will produce benefits for taxpayers, students, employers, local governments and others.

• Managing our state’s debt (SJR 8221). Debt payments are one of the fastest-growing areas of the state budget. They are competing for funds that are needed for other vital services, such as higher education and health care. Keeping debt costs under control is essential if we want to maintain funding for our most important priorities.

This year the Legislature passed a proposed amendment to the state constitution, which will go before voters in November, aimed at reducing state debt. Senate Joint Resolution 8221 will gradually reduce the state debt limit, relative to the overall budget, from nine percent to eight percent. It will also use a more long-term approach to determining the state’s debt capacity. Instead of a three-year average, the debt limit will be applied to the average of general state revenues for the previous six years. It will also reduce debt-service payments, all of which should provide confidence to the bond markets.

• Basic-education funding (HB 2824). In January the state Supreme Court ruled (in what’s known as the McCleary decision) that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to amply pay for basic education. Apparently the high court doesn’t see the state’s student achievement program (created by Initiative 728 in 2000) as the answer, and I understand why. While that program was well meaning, it lacked a dedicated revenue source and more often than not the Legislature suspended the funding. So I supported House Bill 2824 to repeal the program. However, if I wanted to eliminate the financial liability represented by the student achievement program, and help get the state’s fiscal house in order, I had to also consent to the creation of a joint task force on education funding. I’m known for opposing legislative study groups, and to me there are two obvious ways to comply with the McCleary decision: give basic education priority when it comes to funding, ahead of other things, or look for more revenue, which isn’t likely to gain approval. So while this task force seems completely unnecessary, HB 2824 was a package deal.

• Teacher and principal evaluations (SB 5895). Removing seniority as the primary factor in staffing decisions will allow our school districts to focus on making sure a great teacher leads each classroom, by retaining those with the best chance of successfully preparing Washington students for future academic and career success. The law created by Senate Bill 5895 takes what is now a pilot-level program and expands it to all 295 school districts statewide starting in the 2015-16 school year. The program incorporates student-growth data and uses the resulting information when staffing and teacher-development decisions are made.

The improved evaluation system moves toward a broader view of a teacher’s ability and rates him or her using four tiers: “unsatisfactory,” “basic,” “proficient,” and “distinguished.” Teachers and principals will receive a level rating associated with each of eight evaluation criteria, which will lead to an overall evaluation score. Student-growth data must be a substantial factor in evaluating performance for at least three of the eight criteria for both teachers and principals. The measure also sets new guidelines for principals, including a requirement to use teacher feedback in their evaluations.

• Natural resources/environmental reform (SB 6406).

This reform enacts regulatory efficiencies long sought by timber companies, farmers and employers.

These changes will reduce state agencies’ administrative costs while saving employers and time money. Examples of these changes include authorization to issue multiple, site-specific hydraulic project approvals (HPAs).

The law created by Senate Bill 6406 also streamlines the State Environmental Policy Act in ways that will save local government and employers, time and money without reducing environmental protections. It also prohibits the Department of Ecology from using its rulemaking authority to introduce new topics to the environmental checklist, including climate change and greenhouse gases.

Regular readers of my commentary may recall how I’d been pushing back on Ecology’s efforts to impose costly storm water-runoff regulations on communities across our state, regardless of rainfall patterns, because of what it would mean to local governments in our district such as Pullman, Asotin, Clarkston and Asotin County. Not surprisingly, other local governments looked at their finances and became alarmed by the cost of these rules. That enabled me to successfully advocate for a delay in the storm water requirements, in a way that also provides technical assistance to local governments and employers so they can prepare to comply when the time comes.

• Saving critical workers’ compensation reforms. During the 2011 legislative session, after years of conflict, much public debate and hours of intense negotiations, legislators reached an historic agreement on ways to reform the costly, state-run workers’ compensation system. Prior to that agreement, it was assumed that employers and workers would see a double-digit increase this year in their workers’ comp rates. However, by this past December the governor was announcing that due to the reforms, there would be no increase – for the first time since 2007. She also touted the estimated $1 billion that would be saved in four years as a result of the reforms.

Everyone involved with those negotiations in 2011 understood that the reforms would need time to work and that additional tinkering with the system should be avoided. So it was disappointing that the 2012 session brought multiple attempts from the majority party to roll back and change the 2011 reforms, undermining them before they had been fully implemented. Fortunately, our side called enough attention to these shenanigans that the landmark reforms from last year remained in place as this year’s session concluded.

Limiting the outgoing governor’s legacy

Because Gov. Gregoire isn’t seeking another term it’s only a matter of time (probably December) until someone attempts to define the mark she will have left on state government. Naturally she’ll be remembered for laws created on her watch, but a less-apparent part of her legacy involves appointments she made to boards and commissions and other posts in state government.

I bring this up because it falls to the Senate to confirm gubernatorial appointments. There were more than 300 of those to consider for the 2011-12 legislative term. Many of the positions are local in nature, such as trustees at our community colleges and four-year institutions. However, some carry regional or statewide authority and can be controversial.

Some of the names tied to these appointments are familiar, and not always for the best reasons. For instance, last year the Legislature confirmed the reappointment of Kathleen Mix to the Pollution Control/Shoreline Hearings Board until mid-2016. When Gregoire was attorney general, Mix was her chief deputy; the two were defendants in a well-publicized ethics complaint brought by an assistant attorney general who felt she had been the scapegoat after Gregoire’s office missed a deadline to appeal a record $17.8 million verdict against the state.

Gregoire, of course, became governor in 2005 and appointed her former deputy to the board at the end of that year. Mix’s salary in 2010 was a hefty $97,159.

Last year one of the board’s other two members resigned to become head of the state Public Disclosure Commission, so in January the governor appointed Tom McDonald, an environmental lawyer from Seattle, to serve out the two years remaining in the term.

Others and I had serious misgivings about McDonald’s appointment, given perceptions about him, because state law forbids more than two members of the board from belonging to the same political party. I told the governor as much when she came to me about it on the evening of April 10 (which turned out to be the all-nighter to end the legislative session).

McDonald’s appointment squeaked through that night by a 29-18 vote, which was far from a ringing endorsement. That means Gregoire will leave office with her stamp firmly on the pollution control/shoreline hearings board – but only for two years. The incoming governor will get to appoint someone to the third spot on the board, as that term expires at the end of next month, and McDonald can be replaced in 2014.

Fortunately, not all of those 300-plus gubernatorial appointments received the Senate’s endorsement, and that limits the governor’s legacy. I was pleased that another of Gregoire’s poor choices didn’t make it through: David Dicks, son of longtime (and outgoing) U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, who represents the Olympic Peninsula and part of the Puget Sound region.

The younger Dicks became an embarrassment during his three years as head of the Puget Sound Partnership. He resigned in late 2010, yet Gregoire last year appointed Dicks (who came from the same Seattle law firm as Tom McDonald) to a four-year term on the agency’s board. However, the appointment was not brought for a confirmation vote – a wise move on someone’s part – so our new governor will be able to show Dicks the doo