Legislative Commentary

The Legislature is now in a second special session. The governor made it official on Tuesday, May 23. That’s frustrating, because it means more time away from my loved ones and the farm.

But Tuesday is also when the commander of the Ritzville post of the American Legion, Mark Shepherd, offered me the honor of saying a few words at our Memorial Day observance in Ritzville. I tell you, that puts things into perspective.

The sacrifices that go with being a citizen legislator do add up, but obviously there’s no comparison with the sacrifice made by those who have fallen in service to our country, and the fact that their loved ones will never see them again.

That list includes Robert Kent of Benge. He and his brother Herb grew up on the family homestead, joined the Army in 1941 and were in the Philippines when those islands were captured in 1942. Both ended up in an enemy prison camp.

Herb survived and came home to farm, which is how I knew of him. He lived to the age of 95, passing in 2012. I never could have met his brother, however – he died while a prisoner in October 1944.

Sixty years later, Blain Ebert’s name was added to the list, when he died in combat at the age of 22. I knew of Blain because he’d grown up on a wheat farm in Washtucna.

Government shutdown? Not likely

The word “shutdown” came up more than once when the governor met with news reporters this week, after announcing the start of our second special session.

That wasn’t a surprise. The current two-year state budget runs through June 30, and we need to have a new budget in place July 1 to keep government running.

But I fully expect this Legislature will meet the budget deadline, as lawmakers have always done.

And I don’t want to be like Washington, D.C., where budget disagreements have them passing bills to keep the federal government running for what seems to be only a few months at a time.

The governor also acknowledges that a shutdown is “very unlikely.” However, his conversation with the reporters was enough to give the labor-union bosses an excuse to blast out emails that blame our Senate majority for the lack of a budget agreement.

That’s nonsense. We’ve been negotiating with the Democrat-controlled House for more than a month – as much as we can negotiate, considering that the only complete, balanced budget proposal on the table belongs to us.

I understand why state workers and their families would be concerned by “urgent” emails sent by the unions about “layoff notices.”

But our Senate majority has no reason to want a government shutdown.

If anyone does, it’s the folks who see a shutdown as a path to a state income tax, or a carbon tax, or want the state Capitol to be under Seattle’s control again.

Or all of the above.

Public invited to June 1 open house 
in Colfax about improving US 195, SR 26

The long-term package of transportation projects approved by the Legislature in 2015 includes improvements to two major roads in the Ninth District – the addition of passing lanes to U.S. Highway 195, along with work to repair bridges and resurface portions of US 195 and State Route 26.

With those projects to begin this summer, the state Department of Transportation will have an open house June 1 in Colfax to discuss the construction schedule and how the work will affect motorists.

It’ll be from 4-7 p.m. in the Whitman County Public Services Building, 310 North Main Street.