Interesting Juxtaposition
We’ve all heard the rhetoric about how everyone needs to sacrifice in light of the nation’s hard economic circumstances, and this argument has been applied – quite eagerly – to public employees by many Republicans.
Over two years, according to a News Tribune chart yesterday, the savings from denying salary increases is projected to be $297 million for state and state-contract employees and $389 million for school employees.
It’s jarring then to read that the insurance giant American International Group took billions in taxpayer bailout monies from the Bush Administration – which acted unilaterally (not even forewarning Congress) – and then handed out $165 million in executive bonuses.
Evidently not everyone is being called on to sacrifice.
Town Hall Productive
I want to thank everyone who showed up to my “town hall” meeting Saturday on the Capitol Campus.
I was glad to see citizens are deservedly unsatisfied with the lack of leadership by the Legislature on climate change issues. This lack of leadership, despite great efforts by Governor Chris Gregoire, was the focus of critical editorials in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and even the conservative Seattle Times.
As I noted in the discussion, on environmental and labor issues this is easily the least progressive Legislature since a fellow named Dino Rossi ran the Senate Ways & Means Committee in 2003. It remains to be seen whether it’s any more progressive on budget issues, but the early signs are not encouraging – in an early “belt tightening” the Legislature voted to cut roughly as much money from nursing home care as the House recently voted to spend on yet another tax break.
An expansion of the manure processing tax break (I’m not kidding – it’s euphemistically referred to as “livestock nutrient management”) would, according to its fiscal note, cost state government “an estimated $1.68 million per year and local governments will lose $466,000 per year.” Over two years the lost state revenue would have been more than enough to avoid the nursing home cut made in February. I was the only House Democratic no on this tax break. Where are our progressive priorities?
I just met this evening with a young woman with mental health issues whose current needs are not being adequately met – quite apart from the threat budget cuts pose to her future mental health needs. Was I to tell her that manure processing is more valuable than mental health?
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, has noted that all bills that were its top priorities have died. Meanwhile, a number of bills organized labor actively opposed are still very much alive.
My hope is that progressives will regroup now that we are past the March 12 house-of-origin bill consideration cutoffs and try to salvage something positive from a session that began with deservedly high hopes that at least progressive policy that doesn’t cost new state dollars would be enacted.
Isthmus Bill to be Scheduled for Hearing
The House Local Government & Housing Committee upon which I serve will hear, likely next week, Senate Bill 5800 – an act regarding “shorelines of statewide significance” that would overturn an Olympia City Council zoning decision.
I’ve never attempted to sugarcoat my views. I’m still opposed to SB 5800. As I explained at my town hall meeting, in response to the one question posed on the issue, I believe it would kill grassroots democracy – and any incentive to shape local decision-making – were a precedent established that the Legislature can overturn zoning decisions, however disagreeable they are to some, by duly-elected city councils acting within their constitutional and statutory prerogatives (as opposed to the unconstitutional actions the Lacey City Council took to infringe upon religious free exercise and churches housing the homeless).
It’s particularly alarming to imagine legislative committees, as was true in the February 19 Senate hearing on SB 5800, going through a crowded agenda of seven bills scheduled for public hearing – and 14 scheduled for executive session – and somehow be capable (over just a couple hours) of exercising the discernment that would allow them to sort through differing positions on a local land use decision that was subject to months of process.
I’m not a member of the Olympia City Council, nor am I a member of the Olympia Planning Commission – both of which supported the development at issue here. While I’m focused on balancing a state revenue shortfall that promises to bring the most pain to social services programs in my lifetime – as well as, ironically, close parks throughout the state of Washington (just as the county is closing parks) – I cannot pretend to have the time to fairly substitute my judgment for that of those elected to make decisions on this matter and decree that a new park should be built. I write this with all due respect to those with a contrary point of view; as someone who swam in Capitol Lake as a child I very much understand the aesthetic argument involved.
Again, though, I would ask, where are our priorities? Our social safety net faces collapse. At a time when Thurston County, for example, plans to address its budget shortfall by eliminating the Women Infants and Children Program (WIC) – a program that serves 6,000 individuals a year – do we really have the resources for a new downtown Olympia park?
Rep. Brendan W. Williams
22nd Legislative District
P.O. Box 40600, Olympia, WA 98504-0600
(360) 786-7940 or Hotline at (800) 562-6000
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