Legislative Commentary

Many of you know I’m not one to hold my fire when a state agency does something irresponsible, such as waste taxpayer dollars. At the same time, while state government is still bigger overall than it really needs to be, I’ll gladly point out examples of good government. One of those is our state Department of Agriculture, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year. Dan Newhouse, a Sunnyside farmer with whom I had the pleasure of serving in the House of Representatives, has been WSDA director for several years; if anyone knows how that agency can support agriculture it’s him. The Senate took a few minutes Thursday to recognize the WSDA’s centennial and I was glad to kick it off.

One downside of working fulltime on the floor is that there are no longer enough breaks in the voting to spend as much quality time with the folks who come by to visit. I was able to slip in some early-morning or evening meetings with representatives from higher education, the Department of Natural Resources and state parks, our state’s healthcare and homebuilding industries, and others, including a quick visit on the fly with Franklin County Sheriff Richard Lathim and Asotin County Sheriff Ken Bancroft.

It was great to see two county commissioners from the 9th District, John Marshall from Adams County and Art Swannack from Whitman County, and even better to see family friends from Ritzville – Mike Weber, a lifetime friend of my dad and late mother, and his son Mike, who now resides and works in Yakima. I had breakfast with the Webers at one of the historic cafés in downtown Olympia – a fine way to begin a Friday.

‘Education Day’ stretches across two days in the Senate

Two weeks ago, the headlines were about taxes – specifically the state Supreme Court’s decision that makes it easier for legislators to raise taxes. Last week, however, our bipartisan majority made sure the spotlight was back on children and education.

Between Wednesday and Thursday the Senate passed 11 education-reform measures, to go with a pair of pro-education bills approved earlier in the session. Each of these bills is aimed at ultimately improving the graduation rates at public high schools in our state – which have sat around 75 percent on average for many, many years – or closing what we call the “opportunity gap” that exists between middle-class white students and low-income and students of color.

Three of the education bills adopted last week were introduced by members of the Senate minority, and most of the 11 bills passed with solid bipartisan backing, proving once again that good ideas are good ideas no matter whose name leads the list of sponsors.

When our Majority Coalition Caucus assumed the leadership of the Senate we invited members from the minority side to lead several of the Senate policy committees (only two accepted). The K-12 education committee wasn’t one of those, however, because we knew the only way these reforms would receive proper consideration would be to have a coalition member lead that committee.

The committee chairman is focused on reestablishing the correlation between the money our state pours into education and student achievement. That connection has weakened over the years, but with new leadership comes new interest in looking not at the “inputs” to our education system – money –

but the “outputs” the system produces. If we want Washington to be home to a well-educated society in which each person is capable of participating in the job market and in democracy, this legislation can only help to get our state there.

The senators on the minority side often supported these measures strongly, as the vote counts above show. However, listening to some of the debate reminded me how there’s still a mindset that believes money is the solution to all that ails our public school system. I got the same sense from a school superintendent in our legislative district who took issue with my support for Senate Bill 5328 (which would use letter grades instead of words such as “fair” and “good” when measuring school performance) and Senate Bill 5242 (which would essentially let principals pick the teachers they want on their teaching teams).

“I am opposing these bills because they do not move the state closer to fulfilling its constitutional obligation to amply fund a uniform system of public education,” the superintendent wrote in an email to me.

Does the superintendent not realize the state’s constitutional obligation is to provide for schools, not simply fund them? Putting on my Grandpa Mark hat for a moment, I sure expect our daughter and son and their spouses will provide for our grandchildren – young Kaegen and little Macy Mae – which goes well beyond just paying for stuff.

To me the education reforms we’re approving are about guidance, and values, and clearly fall within our responsibility to “make ample provision” (to quote our constitution) for education. As this report in Washington State Wire accurately captures it, money isn’t everything. That said, we’ll get to the money part when it’s budget time – and that will be soon.

Majority-coalition leaders reaffirm commitment to fight human trafficking

Last Monday I joined the other leaders of our bipartisan coalition to unanimously pass two bills aimed at fighting human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children. Senate Bill 5669 would address insufficiencies in the current system and give Washington’s criminal-justice system additional tools to combat predators. Senate Bill 5488, which establishes an enhanced penalty for the use of Internet advertising to facilitate the commission of a sex-trafficking crime, is in response to the use of Backpage.com and similar websites.

The praise I offered as Senate Republican leader was for the efforts of those – both inside and outside of the Legislature –

who are working to combat the sex-trafficking industry. We have some real leaders on this issue, including Senator Jerome Delvin, who recently left the Senate to serve on the Benton County Commission, and Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a Seattle Democrat, and Senator Mike Padden, a Spokane Valley Republican whose experience as a judge has been invaluable when it comes to tightening state law to keep up with the evolution of the sex-trafficking industry (and make no mistake, it is an industry).

Leaders such as (former Washington Congresswoman) Linda Smith of Shared Hope International, Rose Gundersen of Washington Engage, and members of numerous Soroptimist clubs, as well as our state’s local prosecutors and law-enforcement officers have all made protecting our children from sexual exploitation a priority for our state. These people and organizations deserve thanks for all they do to raise awareness of this issue and end the abuse of our children.

Pension reform may come up for Senate vote soon

Let’s face it: public pensions are far from an exciting subject for a dinner-table conversation. However, our state-run pension systems affect a whole lot of people around our state, and there’s a lot of money to be saved through reforms to those systems. I know, as someone who has served for many years on the Legislature’s Select Committee on Pension Policy and was right in the middle of last year’s successful effort to enact one such reform.

I bring this up because Senate Bill 5851 may come up for a full Senate vote in the next several days. It would save an estimated $436 million over the next 25 years by creating a new, defined-contribution pension plan for new hires that would also be an option for current state workers (from the two newer pension plans).

State pension plans are either defined-benefit or a hybrid of defined-benefit and defined-contribution; plans that are purely defined-contribution are common in the private sector because they provide a retirement benefit for employees while helping companies accurately project future pension costs. Like it or not, politics play a role in our public pension systems (because the Legislature is in control of how much the state contributes, or whether it skips a payment and diverts that money elsewhere); a defined-contribution plan would help change that. As the Washington Policy Center notes, going with SB 5851 and making its defined-contribution plan (which current state workers could move to voluntarily, to say it again) the only pension option offered to new hires would allow the state’s remaining defined-benefit plans to be closed, gradually reducing the burden of their financial liability on taxpayers.

Senate approves bill to protect against immediate wolf threats

I’ve been too busy as Senate Republican leader to reintroduce ideas that didn’t make it through as legislation in past years. Fortunately, our new senator from northeast Washington (the sprawling 7th Legislative District) has taken the lead on addressing the management of gray wolves in our state – an issue of great concern to his area and of great interest to me given what I’ve witnessed as a hunter when in wolf country.

State law makes it a felony to kill a wolf even if it is caught attacking livestock or domestic animals. Only after attacks or kills are confirmed and a permit is obtained from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife would killing a wolf be allowed. However, last week the Senate approved Senate Bill 5187. It would give an individual (owner, immediate family member or employee) the right to kill a gray wolf that is attacking or posing an immediate threat to domestic animals or livestock. The measure would extend protection on public and private lands regardless of the wolf’s state classification.

It’s appropriate for the state to have a wolf conservation and management plan; however, that plan can’t be ironclad – adjustments need to be made so people have the right to protect themselves, their property and their pets. The current wolf plan would benefit from this bill because it offers a solution for managing livestock losses due to predator attacks.

The prime sponsor of the bill (our new 7th District senator) made mention of my efforts on this front in 2012. I’m glad to have started the conversation, so we can hopefully reach a balanced approach that allows people to peacefully coexist with all predators, including wolves.

Wanted: Students to serve as Senate pages

One of the oldest traditions in the Legislature has young people from around our state serve as pages in the Senate and House of Representatives. Legislative pages serve for one week in these paid positions and stay with host families (or relatives) in the vicinity of the Capitol. If you know a boy of girls who is 14 or older but not yet 17, and wants to learn more about the Senate Page Program, please visit: http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Administration/PageProgram.