Olympia address: Phone: 360-786-7872 Committees: |
 A It was certainly a great honor to help preside over this year’s 105-day legislative session as Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore. |
 Economy tsunami: All-cuts budget responds to the worst economic crisis in seven decades The worldwide recession continues eating up our economy, lately revealing just the smallest sign of easing up. In fact, the $5-billion revenue deficit that greeted the Legislature in January ballooned to upward of $9 billion by the time we launched serious budget-talks in mid-April. No one can be happy with hard-but-inescapable choices made in writing the new state budget. The economic crisis forced us to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from vital, significant programs and services. In recent years, we worked to identify and slash government waste – and make the most cost-effective use of tax dollars. This year, the economic downturn forced us to slice into the core of crucial, fundamental public programs and services. The tough choices in the budget distribute reductions as equally as possible across-the-board of state spending. Take note: There is no new revenue – no new or increased taxes – in this new budget. The objectives and priorities we sought and highlighted are: • To provide health care for citizens in greatest need, especially kids. • To maintain a safety net for folks in the toughest economic straits. • To keep dangerous lawbreakers out of our communities. Projecting forward, this new budget will spend more than $1 billion less in the 2009-2011 biennium than we spent in the 2007-2009 biennium. We also used one-time federal dollars to buy time to protect the very most essential programs – while we work toward genuine economic recovery. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about the 2009-2011 operating budget: http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/detail/2009/co0911p.asp.  Crucial work is happening in our Public Health Departments An exceedingly important area of the state-budget is all too frequently overlooked by all too many folks. Overlooked, that is, until they call a particular public office or agency – and there’s no one on the other end of the line. Public-health agencies are a crucial safety net in our communities, and yet they operate very much behind the scenes. No, they’re not as visible as law enforcement or firefighting. But they’re every bit as vital to the safety and well-being of our community. Recently, I checked our local Health Department’s Web site – and found this vast array of headline-issues: • “Home Visits to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect.” • “View Inspection Results for Local Restaurants.” • “Low-cost Health Insurance.” Over the past year, I’ve been working with public-health folks from around the state to try to preserve funding for these important services. I’m happy to report a very important island of good budget news in the tumultuous sea of bad budget news. We managed to restore millions of dollars to the public-health section of the budget – after an early version of the budget had cut $20 million out of these vital programs! I supported the work to restore – and keep! – full public-health funding in the final budget that we sent to the governor. This money is absolutely critical in keeping the doors open until we make it through the economic calamity. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about the Clark County Public Health office: http://www.clark.wa.gov/public-health/index.asp.  Living Will Registry saved
from the budget’s chopping block Another tremendously good piece of budget news is the fact that, although some funds were cut, we were able to save the new Washington State Living Will Registry. The statewide registry (which I was gratified to help lead the way in setting up a few years back) allows people to store their living-will documents in a secure, online database. A living will gives you the power to record your medical decisions in the event you’re unable to communicate. It gives your physician key information about your treatment wishes. Only authorized health-care providers are allowed access to your documents in the registry. The registry also stores your emergency-contact information so that your family can be contacted if need be. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about our state’s Living Will Registry: http://www.doh.wa.gov/livingwill/. Also: Very early in session, we approved an adjustment in the unemployment-insurance system to help working families facing the hardest of hard times. And another top priority was met – to as great an extent, anyway, as humanly possible – in the austere new, all-cuts budget. I’m talking about the redefinition written for basic education – a redefinition that finally establishes special-education and student-transportation services as a key component of basic education. However – and speaking of education – a huge example of the significant budget-slashing will become sadly clear this fall. That’s when schoolchildren, parents and staff will see larger class sizes for the new 2009-2010 school year. Another terribly unfortunate budget-cutting example will show up in the very tough decisions people will have to be making about care-arrangements for their aging parents. Considerably less state funding will be available for services for senior citizens – thus leading to the harder-than-ever decisions.  With every crisis comes
an opportunity for improvement I’d be terribly remiss if I didn’t point out and emphasize the “upside” of this economic downturn: It must be emphasized that we have an opportunity for improving the system. Certainly, I believe this economic nightmare at least – and at last – provides our state the chance to stabilize the revenue system. We have a chance to change the way we go about rounding up funds to pay for what most folks agree are essential services. I speak of tax reform. And I wonder: Can we at least – and yes, at last! – get the conversation started? It isn’t right, it isn’t just, and it isn’t even good economic policy to continue a system in which the people who can least afford it are actually called upon the most to provide the lion’s share of the funding. It’s a question of fairness. We need to overhaul our system to make sure that folks in the best financial shape carry their weight – and to make sure that folks who aren’t doing very well aren’t unfairly hit even harder. Frankly, I believe we might have just come to the point where people are ready to face the inevitability of reform. And as disappointed as I am in the fact that we adopted an all-cuts budget, I’m very hopeful that we can get everyone – every citizen and every party and every interest group – to the tax-reform table. I think we have to be willing to look at all proposals regarding sales, property, business, and income taxes.  Other budgets: Transportation and capital projects are extremely important, too Some of our local transportation projects funded for the 2009-2011 biennium include the I-205/Mill Plain Boulevard exit – 112th Street (connector / ramp), an I-205/Mill Plain Boulevard interchange to Northeast 18th Street (stages 1 and 2), an SR 500/St. Johns Boulevard interchange, and the 39th Street overpass. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about the 2009-2011 transportation budget: http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/detail/2009/ct0911p.asp/. Also of great importance: Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which includes money to modernize our nation’s infrastructure and strengthen our energy independence: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/funding/stimulus. Local capital projects funded for the 2009-2011 biennium include the Clark County Food Bank (food-distribution warehouse design and construction), the Columbia Waterfront (land-acquisition and construction), Clark College (repair, roof and other projects), the Washington School for the Blind (preservation, painting, remodeling and other projects), and the Washington School for the Deaf (repair, sidewalk and other projects). Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about the 2009-2011 capital budget: http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/Senate/SCS/WM/SwmWebsite/ SenateBudget/2009/ConferenceCmte/EnactedProjectList.pdf.  Vulnerable adults: New law established on books for curbing financial and related exploitation It’s now the law of our state: A person convicted of financially exploiting a vulnerable adult is prevented from receiving an inheritance from the estate of the victim. I’ve been proud to sponsor several measures in recent years to help protect the life, limb and property of vulnerable adults. The Clark County Vulnerable Adult Task Force has been instrumental in developing these stronger standards against financial exploitation. These concerned citizens have put so very much time and effort into developing this vital new policy. We have written this very important new tool to protect and support our most vulnerable citizens. Folks strive hard and save in their working lives so they can spend their golden years in safe and comfortable retirement. Naturally, most all retired people take a lot of pride in making their own decisions, just like anyone else. At some point, though, they generally have no choice but to put their lives and their financial resources into someone else’s hands. And as we age, we become more dependent upon people close to us for taking care of our basic necessities. Yet some of the people closest to us, sometimes even our own families, take advantage of the situation. Our objective is to halt the escalating abuse and exploitation of vulnerable citizens, including elderly men and women who rely on others for their basic needs. What happened before if the person who committed financial exploitation against a vulnerable adult was named in the vulnerable adult’s will? There was nothing in state law before this new policy that could be used to prevent the perpetrator from inheriting property in the will! Here’s a Web site where you can find a newspaper story about the new law protecting vulnerable adults: New protections for estates of abused seniors making an immediate impact.  Washington families: Fair, commonsense policy created for domestic partners and their loved ones The right and fair thing – not just for domestic partners, but every bit as importantly for their families as well. That’s what we approved in a measure directing that state law must assure registered domestic partners and their families the same rights and responsibilities as married spouses and their families. Yes, you bet domestic-partnership benefits for same-sex couples and families are fair-minded, commonsense principles. What we endorsed this session is a very significant and important step in our state’s civil-rights evolution. The legislation simply establishes more equity in the law – no more, and no less. We as a state have fairly recently taken the long-overdue step of outlawing discrimination that is based on a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender. This year the Legislature and the governor approved rational, reasonable principles to affirm domestic-partnership rights and benefits for same-sex couples and their families. Providing more security for domestic partners and their families is even more important in these turbulent economic times. It seems to me that this legislation is as much about protecting the lives of families as it is about respecting the rights of couples. The Domestic Partnership Registry was created in 2007, and the registry is open to same-gender and senior-citizen couples. The registry is maintained in the state Secretary of State’s office, and couples may register as domestic partners if the adult partners are the same gender. A couple can also register for inclusion on the registry if the partners are different genders and one of them is at least 62 years old. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about our state’s Domestic Partnership Registry: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/domesticpartnerships/faq.aspx.  Three-year endeavor: Protection for consumers, honest trades people now the policy of our state We’ve all heard the old proverb: “You get what you pay for.” And no doubt we’re all very familiar with the trusty maxim: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” I’ve spent the past three years striving to employ those two very good, very fundamental bits of advice. The idea is to put the kibosh on bogus carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other unqualified trades people who take advantage of citizens in communities all across our state. This year in the Legislature we finally OK’d stronger protection both for consumers who want to hire qualified workers and for aboveboard contractors who don’t want to hire unqualified workers. As it stood before, state law required merely that subcontractors in the building trades obtain the appropriate licenses and certificates of competency and qualification. All we want is for these folks to possess and be prepared to produce evidence that they do indeed hold the right credentials and the right certifications for the job.  College financial help:Needed assistance strengthened for pursuit of a quality higher education As I’ve said, serious steps were taken this year to address the economic meltdown besetting Washington and the rest of the world. Part of the budget-balancing act was to increase college and university tuition by 14 percent. For many years, our state focused on a low tuition-high financial aid model. This year, we’re moving to a system that includes higher tuition – and stronger financial aid. Citizens who want to pursue their dreams of a higher education – but who might be stymied by the soaring costs – should look into the American Opportunity Tax Credit. The credit is in effect for 2009 and 2010. It expands the existing Hope Scholarship tax credit, and it will be worth as much as $2,500 for college or university expenses – up from the current $1,800 amount. The full credit is available for families making less than $80,000 ($160,000 for joint filers). Families who make between those amounts and $90,000 ($180,000 for joint filers) can apply for a partial credit. And this break would also be partially refundable, meaning that lower-income families who have little or no tax liability can claim at least some of the credit. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about this American Opportunity Tax Credit: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/money/2009/05/ rebuild_your_finances_student_tax_credit_stimulus_pell_grant.html. You might also be interested in looking into GET – our state’s Guaranteed Education Tuition Program for prepaid college-tuition assistance. With GET, you can prepay for your child’s college tuition years ahead of time. Your account is guaranteed to keep pace with college tuition, and you can use it at nearly any public or private college in the country. Here’s a Web site where you can find more details about the GET Program: http://www.get.wa.gov/. I’m hopeful that we’ll soon be able to restore essential programs and services Yes, I had my hopes up. I walked optimistically into the state capitol early this year, keeping a positive thought that we’d find a way to slay the multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall without resorting to an all-cuts budget. Didn’t happen. It soon became clear that the majority of my colleagues just didn’t have the stomach for it. By the time we adjourned in late April, after all was said and done, the best one can note about all of our budget-saying and budget-doing is that we played the hand we were dealt. But the need for public services and programs doesn’t stop. People get sick, and need help. Students go to school, and need an education. Workers lose their jobs, and need assistance. Businesses fall out of the black, and need a hand. Criminals do crime, and need punishment. And yes, I’m still optimistic. I hope and believe that by next session, the economy will have stopped its free fall – and that we can begin to restore our state’s essential public programs.
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