Legislative Commentary

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 news arrived I was busy loading cows to get them to a pasture that was ready, so a formal response to Governor Inslee’s vetoes had to wait until that chore was completed. It was one of those moments when I had to wear the farmer hat and the Senate majority leader hat at pretty much the same time. That wasn’t a problem – but what the governor did is a problem, as I’ll explain.

Savings in budget, reforms at Western State undone by governor’s vetoes

The governor and his people were well aware of the spending decisions contained in the agreement endorsed by the Senate and House on March 29. He knew how I and our Senate majority’s budget negotiators worked hard to make sure the supplemental budget remained in compliance with Washington’s unique four-year balanced-budget law, which acts as a check on irresponsible spending.

He could have, and should have, raised any concerns back then, before we adopted the budget changes and adjourned for the year. Instead, on Monday afternoon, he vetoed several of the changes we had agreed on, which means the budget is now out of line with the four-year balanced-budget law.

The Legislature will have an opportunity to set things right, because next year we will approve another round of changes before closing the books on the 2015-17 biennium. That isn’t the point, though.

Governor Inslee has been pushing for tax increases since he took office, and vetoing around $200 million in savings means that money has to come from somewhere else. To me it’s another effort to set the stage for new and higher taxes.

Inslee did not veto the new spending contained in the supplemental budget for Western State Hospital, the larger of the two state-run psychiatric hospitals, but on Tuesday he vetoed a comprehensive set of policy reforms we approved to go along with those additional investments.

Federal funding for Western State has been in jeopardy for months because of patient- and staff-safety issues – and that was before the recent escape of two dangerous men, which led the governor to fire the DSHS administrator who headed the hospital. It’s disappointing that Inslee has rejected the Legislature’s efforts to bring more order to this important yet troubled facility. His partial veto of Senate Bill 6656 brought this response from our Senate budget chair, Sen. Andy Hill of Redmond:

“Patients expect and deserve better care, employees expect and deserve safer working conditions, and the general public needs to know their tax dollars go toward actual treatment and quality care. We cannot continue to throw taxpayer dollars at the problem without changes to what is ultimately a system and management failure.”

Another report card puts our Senate majority ahead

While many of the post-session scorecards rate individual legislators, a prominent pollster in our state broke it down differently in a survey of the folks who lobby on behalf of legislation and causes at the Capitol.

The Elway Poll, which conducts independent and non-partisan analysis, asked lobbyists to rate the “five corners” of the lawmaking process – meaning the two Senate caucuses, the two House caucuses and the governor’s office. Our Senate majority ran away from the rest of the pack when it came to “A” grades – receiving more than twice as many as the second-place House Democrats, and as many as the other four corners combined. We also stayed in first place when “B” grades were factored in.

Our Senate majority is “clearly driving the budget and policy decisions,” one lobbyist commented.

“Great things happened in Olympia for kids this year”

Governor Inslee did not veto the legislation we approved this year to preserve public charter schools as an option for children and families seeking an alternative to “traditional” public schools. However, he did not sign it either, meaning the bill became law without his signature. That happens very rarely but is allowed by our state constitution.

When I say “preserve” charter schools I mean changing the voter-approved charter-school law to designate a new source of funding. The state Supreme Court had ruled this past September that charter schools – even though they are public – may not draw from the same fund that supports traditional schools. The court’s ruling stemmed from a lawsuit, and sure enough, a new lawsuit has already been filed against the change we made through Senate Bill 6195.

The lie about ‘unregulated agriculture,” Part II

A scandal is unfolding in the “other Washington” about an outrageous anti-agriculture advertising campaign I criticized in last week’s report.

Using billboards in Olympia and Bellingham, and signs attached to Whatcom County transit buses, a collection of tribal interests and environmental groups recently attacked what it called “unregulated agriculture.”

Worse yet, this was supported through a $570,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

As reported in a new Capital Press story, the EPA has suspended funding for the “What’s Upstream?” group behind the disgraceful advertisements – after members of Congress started asking questions. I had mentioned last week that the group’s website could automatically generate a form letter to lawmakers; that option has been pulled.

Coincidentally, the state Department of Ecology this week proved how dishonest the What’s Upstream? activists are for continuing to claim that protecting Washington waterways from polluted run-off is “voluntary” for the agriculture industry.

If agriculture in Washington is truly “unregulated” and compliance with the state’s Water Pollution Control Act (RCW 90.48) is truly “voluntary,” then why did Ecology announce it had just fined a blueberry farm $20,000 because runoff from a field mulched with manure reached a creek two times late last year? And it’s ironic that the dishonest EPA-funded campaign ads were attached to Whatcom County transit buses, considering the farm receiving the penalty is in Whatcom County.

The manager of Ecology’s office in Bellingham said this: “Fecal coliform pollution is not just an agriculture issue, it’s a community issue…Cities, pet owners, berry growers, dairies, residents in Whatcom County, and in Canada – we all need to work together to achieve clean, safe water. Everybody has a role.”

Using public money to lie to the public is no way to convince state lawmakers that 100-foot streamside buffers should be required on farmland. The What’s Upstream? group is up the creek without a paddle, and deservedly so. What a waste of taxpayer dollars.