Legislative Commentary

Knowing Cougar Nation, it was no surprise that the highway detour on State Route 26 east of Othello had zero effect on turnout for this past Saturday’s WSU-Oregon football game. And once the ESPN network announced its popular “Gameday” show would be beaming from Pullman and Martin Stadium that morning, wild horses couldn’t have kept fans away. Fall is a great time of year to be in the Palouse, even more when the Cougs are winning.

The Cougars’ football season has at least another month to go, but our state’s election season is clearly on the homestretch. If you know someone who isn’t registered to vote but wants to take part in the November 6 election, Monday (October 29) is the deadline to sign up – and the registration process has to be completed in person at the county election office. I learned recently that as of October, the number of registered voters in the 9th District is up by 1,155 people since the 2016 general election -- a bigger increase than most of the other legislative districts in Washington have seen (20 of the 49 legislative districts have had their voter numbers fall). If you’re registered then you should already have received your ballot in the mail – if not, contact your county elections office.

A note to Asotin County voters: my staff checked with the county auditor’s office about the envelopes needed to return your voted ballot. You may have read that the county’s vendor sent out the old-style envelopes, which require postage, instead of the new ones that don’t. The auditor’s office says the post office will process the old envelopes without postage, and that the vendor is sending new ones out anyway. So no matter which envelope you use, just follow the voting instructions like normal and get the ballot into the mail so it’s postmarked no later than November 6!

Here are several things deserving of a comment this week:

Taxpayers still aren’t paying enough, according to Governor

Governor Inslee has yet to propose tax increases for 2019, but he’s setting the stage. The Everett newspaper met with Inslee earlier this month and quotes him as claiming state government is “about $1.5 billion underwater going into the next biennium.” This is in spite of a strong economy that is generating hundreds of millions of dollars more in tax revenue than expected.

In my experience, Inslee’s claim that government doesn’t have enough money is as predictable as the sun rising each morning. As governor he is required to propose a budget to the Legislature ahead of each of our sessions, and for each of the past six years Inslee has proposed some sort of tax increase as part of a budget package. My prediction is that he will make it seven for seven this coming December, when he submits his 2019-21 budget proposal to the Legislature. The only questions are, which taxes will he want to increase, and by how much?

Solar power and the Snake River dams

I spent part of Tuesday in Lind at the ribbon-cutting for the Adams-Nielson Solar Farm. This venture is important to Adams County from an economic-diversification standpoint, and to Spokane-based Avista, which will buy the electricity generated, and I wish it well. The governor was also there for the formal opening, and I couldn’t help but be reminded how his orca task force has Washington’s four Snake River dams in its sights – even though those dams supply baseload and peak-demand energy that can’t ever be matched by solar- and wind-power facilities (because the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind isn’t always blowing).

The orca task force is supposed to come out with its final recommendations in about two weeks. My hope is they won’t target the Snake River dams, but at the same time, the special-interest groups that crusade against the dams are hoping for the task force’s seal of approval. I was glad to see the Columbian newspaper in Vancouver come out against breaching the dams as a way to help the Puget Sound population of orcas, calling instead for a “common-sense approach that goes beyond rhetoric.” Click here for the full opinion.

Go Cougs…meaning Coug MDs

WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine has received the green light to start developing its residency and fellowship training programs. The go-ahead is from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. According to the college of medicine (click here for the news), the graduate medical education (GME) phase, which lasts 3 to 7 years after graduation from medical school, is when physicians prepare for independent practice in a medical specialty. And while research shows about 43% of medical-school graduates will practice in the state where they graduate, that number increases to 70% when they complete both their medical education and their residency in the same state. One of the driving forces behind the new WSU medical school was a desire to get more of our state’s medical-school grads to settle in Washington, especially its underserved rural areas, so the progress on residency/fellowship programs is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Support for K-12

As I’ve mentioned, funding for our public schools is finally back into line with the state constitution, thanks to the leadership of Republicans in the state Senate. For the first time since the early ‘80s, money for K- 12 accounts for more than half of spending from state government’s general fund. A lot of the responsibility for how those dollars are spent at the district level falls on the superintendents, which is why I was glad to sit down this past week with two new superintendents in our area. One is Paul Clark, who left as principal at Curlew to take the reins at Colton, and the other is Don Vanderholm, who just came to Lind/Ritzville after 11 years as high school principal in Manson. Welcome to both!

The subject of school funding also took me to Spokane the week before to join several other area legislators at a meeting with NorthEast Washington ESD 101. The school districts in Adams, Whitman and Spokane counties are within that educational service district. I appreciated the opportunity to remind folks how the K-12 system in our state is many billions of dollars ahead of where it was several years ago. It was also a chance to comment on the $2 billion wish list put forth by the state schools superintendent, which unfortunately is part of the effort by those on the political left to impose Washington’s first tax on personal income.