Legislative Commentary

I’ve had many meetings with our new governor this year. While we don’t see eye-to-eye on many of the issues, we’ve been able to have civil conversations. That’s why I was taken aback Tuesday when Governor Inslee took some hard shots at our Senate coalition in the course of telling the news media that a second special session would begin the next day.

You may have seen or heard reports that Olympia is bracing for a state-government shutdown in case the Senate and House of Representatives can’t get a new budget in place by July 1. All that shutdown talk is being pushed by the governor and Democrat legislators who are frustrated that our bipartisan Senate majority has gotten in their way so much in the five months since the Legislature convened. The way they’re talking you’d think this was Washington, D.C., not the state of Washington.

Let me assure you, there will be no government shutdown – unless the governor refuses to sign the budget we will be sending him this month.

A late-night session produces two reforms…

A bill I mentioned way back in a mid-February commentary is finally going to become law. Senate Bill 5296 would refocus the spending of revenue collected through the state’s Model Toxics Control Act. That revenue has in past years often been swept into the state general fund. The Senate approved SB 5296 late Thursday night with a solid bipartisan vote; the House followed suit and the governor has already signed it.

Money collected from the MTCA hazardous-substance tax in excess of $140 million per biennium will be directed to a new Environmental Legacy Stewardship Account the bill creates. That money will be invested in capital projects that meet innovation and efficiency standards, with appropriations requiring legislative approval to ensure transparency and accountability. SB 5296 is a jobs bill as well, because this new approach will not only improve the environment but also put people to work on the 1,900 sites around the state awaiting remediation.

Also on Thursday night the Senate approved a bill that amounts to a catch-all of several education-reform bills that were approved separately during the regular legislative session – for instance, one that would put much more emphasis on getting kids to read at grade level by the time they’re ready to leave third grade. Senate Bill 5946, which still needs House approval, will do good things but doesn’t go as far as we’d like.

…but there are more to go

Two years ago the Legislature finally agreed on an important reform to the state-run industrial-insurance system better known as “workers’ compensation.” Now we’re looking to build on that change, and if Senate Bill 5127 becomes law it could save more than $200 million right out of the gate and perhaps $90 million a year going forward. Best of all, it would head off an estimated $1 billion hit on the employers and employees who pay into the system and are on the hook for refilling the system’s depleted reserve fund.

SB 5127 would improve the business climate of our state; considering Governor Inslee made job creation the centerpiece of his campaign for office, he should be squarely behind this reform, but so far has joined House Democrats in resisting it. That needs to change.

In addition to SB 5946, which we approved and sent to the House last night, we’re also still waiting for the House to go along with a pair of education reforms. Senate Bill 5895 would allow different rates of spending growth for education versus other areas of state government; it’s right in line with Washington’s constitution, which declares that providing for basic education is the paramount duty of state government).

In spite of that often-quoted requirement, since 1981 the level of state spending on services and programs that aren’t part of basic education has grown at twice the rate of spending on the state’s K-12 system

The second of the education reforms, Senate Bill 5242, would let principals have more flexibility about school-staffing decisions. If we’re required to invest billions more in K-12 education, why shouldn’t each school in Washington be able to put the strongest teaching team possible in its classrooms – in the same way that a coach wants to put the strongest team on the field?

9th District communities to receive grants

Lind, Tekoa and LaCrosse learned that their applications for community-development block grants were successful. Their projects were among 14 tapped for funding statewide by the state Department of Commerce.

The $300,000 grant to LaCrosse will go toward wastewater-treatment facility improvements; Lind will receive $503,000 to make improvements to its water system and Tekoa will get $285,500 to replace sewer lines. Infrastructure improvements are typically a good investment, so this is good news for this trio of communities in our district.