Legislative Commentary

The second week of the legislative session is history now. It’s continuing to be very busy for me over here but, as I mentioned to the editor of the Lewiston newspaper the other day, it’s been a good sort of busy. As I look at some of the legislation being proposed by the members of our Majority Coalition Caucus and follow some of the public hearings going on among the Senate committees, I can’t help but be encouraged. Ideas that have been stifled for many years are finally being discussed openly, and that alone is progress.

The week’s visitors ranged from our new Secretary of State and other Olympia-based folks to people who are from or have interests in our part of the state, including Friends of Farms and Forests; the Benton/Franklin/Walla Walla Good Roads Association; the Association of Washington Cities; the Washington State Hospital Association; and representatives from the state grape growers and Farm Bureau and the Washington Cattlemens Association and the Cattle Producers of Washington.

Also, I’ve appreciated receiving so many letters from people concerned about the U.S. Postal Service’s plans for the St. John post office. I share your concern, and my plan was to contact the USPS officials in Seattle directly and read them the riot act, so to speak. However, it’s strange how none of the phone numbers I was given by the USPS (back when Washtucna’s post office was targeted) seem to work now. If I can get some accurate contact information I’ll share it in another of my reports. I know from the Washtucna post office closure how Postal Service officials seem to have a gift for ignoring public opinion; still, I figure it can’t hurt for us to flood their phone lines about the St. John situation.

Want more jobs? Improve the workers’ comp system

If your auto-insurance rates go up you have the freedom to shop around for other coverage that may suit your budget better. Most employers in our state can’t do that when it comes to buying industrial insurance –

the coverage better known as “workers’ compensation.” Unless they’re large enough to be self-insured, Washington employers have one choice: pay the state, which has a monopoly on offering that coverage.

Many see the workers’ comp system as broken, given that it charges the highest rates in the nation (tax rates have gone up by more than 70 percent in the past decade) yet returns fewer workers to the job than any state. This past week the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, headed by a member of our coalition, held public hearings on a quintet of bills aimed at improving workers’ comp while still protecting injured workers. I’m a co-sponsor of each of these bills.

While these measures are full of such tedious terms as “structured settlements” (Senate Bill 5128) and “occupational disease” (Senate Bill 5125) and “economic and noneconomic damages” (Senate Bill 5126), here’s the point: they would bring some stability and common sense to an area of state government that is ripe for reform.

Anything we can do to improve the workers’ comp system is almost guaranteed to help employers save money that can be put to other uses – like hiring, or just keeping the doors open. Employees have a stake in this also, because they help pay for workers’ comp through a payroll tax. 

Merger of state agencies equals projected $37 million savings

One of the few reforms adopted in 2011 appears to have been a winner for taxpayers. The Senate Ways and Means Committee met on Jan. 28 to discuss how Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5931, aimed at improving government efficiency, is expected to save $37 million in the next two-year budget cycle.

The bill took effect in October 2011. It consolidated five state agencies into three, which included creating the Department of Enterprise Services; required six state functions to be contracted out; and created the post of chief information officer to plan and oversee government information-technology infrastructure.

The budget committee’s work session will look at the benefits of such moves as consolidating vehicle fleets and combining agency accounting and payroll services, and how DES negotiated a new office-supplies contract that is expected to mean nearly $6 million in savings per biennium.

The bill’s prime sponsor, a Spokane member of our Majority Coalition Caucus, sees the benefits of this legislation as a testament to what leaner, smarter government can do – and wants to see more of these small, effective reforms tied to the new budget we are responsible for crafting in the next few months.

Senate minority already calling for new income and capital gains taxes

In mid-November the state’s chief economist predicted Olympia can expect to take in an additional $2 billion or more during the next budget cycle –

without change in the tax code.

Less than two weeks earlier, Washington voters had overwhelmingly approved Initiative 1185, reconfirming the two-thirds majority-vote standard for raising taxes; it passed with a “yes” vote of almost 64 percent and received majority support in all 39 of the state’s counties.

Let’s recap – the state expects to take in more money as it is, and voters want to continue making it more difficult to raise taxes. So what did the Senate minority do this week? It proposed a state income tax to go with two other tax-code changes (proposed last week) that would effectively raise taxes on property owners and employers to the tune of more than $5.3 billion during the next 10 years alone.

On Friday the Senate minority leader, Senator Ed Murray, said he would propose a new capital gains tax also. That tax is more properly described as hitting most anyone who owns investments and may want or need to sell them.

Our coalition is committed to coming up with a sustainable budget. That begins with setting priorities, such as support for education. If Senator Murray and other members of the minority want to help with that, great; if all they want to do is talk about ways to take more money from families and employers, and push a taxes-first strategy that would appease Senator Murray’s downtown Seattle constituents, then no thanks.

Keep neighborhoods safe by controlling where sex offenders reside

One of our bipartisan-coalition members introduced a bill this past week aimed at making neighborhoods safer by changing housing restrictions for sex offenders who have been released from custody.

Through a program the Legislature created in 2009 the state Department of Corrections provides rental vouchers to offenders to aid their transition from prison back into society, in hopes of reducing homelessness and recidivism. Before leaving prison, sex offenders undergo a classification process to assess their risk to the public. Senate Bill 5105 would restrict housing options so no more than three, registered sex offenders using rental vouchers may reside together.

The bill’s prime sponsor hopes it will also give more flexibility to cities to establish ordinances and codes to address the same concern. 

Education-reform effort gaining steam

Now that a member of our coalition heads the Senate education committee the people of Washington will see open debate about reforms that have – to the detriment of our K-12 students – been blocked for years.

Among the sensible education bills slated to receive public hearings this next week include a bill aimed at closing the “opportunity gap” and focusing on the development of reading skills from kindergarten through third grade. That’s because the third grade is a pivotal point in a student’s education; it’s imperative that children have a strong reading foundation before they move on to fourth grade. 

Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, under Senate Bill 5237, third-grade students who score below basic levels in reading would be retained in the third grade and given additional support until they are ready to succeed in the fourth grade.

Research tells us the earlier our students are successful in reading and math, the better their long-term academic and career results. The goal is to put more focus on the early years when children’s minds are rapidly developing. Once our students are exceeding state reading requirements in third grade we’re bound to see benefits down the road, in the form of a narrowing opportunity gap and improved high school-graduation rates.

Trio of bills would help people in ‘wolf country’ defend against attacks

I was on a hunting trip not so long ago that took me into a section of backcountry where the wolves couldn’t have been too far away; that was judging not only from the howling but also how my hunting partner and I suddenly quit seeing any fresh sign of the animals we were hunting.

As the number of wolves in northeast Washington has grown in recent years so has the number of conflicts between the wolf packs and ranchers or other people who keep livestock. This past summer state-government efforts to control the wolf population made news across Washington when the Department of Fish and Wildlife shot and killed six wolves in one pack that had persistently attacked livestock.

This week the senator representing that corner of our state introduced three bills – Senate Bill 5187, Senate Bill 5188 and Senate Bill 5193 – having to do with the management of wolves and other large predators.

For instance, one would give people such as a property owner, an immediate family member, or someone who works for or represents a property owner, the authority to kill an animal predator that is threatening human safety or causing property damage as defined by the state. I’m a co-sponsor of two of the three bills, which hosting public hearings at the end of last week.