By State Senator Mark Schoesler
Ninth District 

Legislative Commentary: Sept. 12, 2019

 

Last updated 9/12/2019 at 12:27pm



Dear Friends,

The weather made this year’s harvest more of a challenge, but it’s past us now and I’m on to planting wheat for next year. In case you missed it, there was some nice news coverage of a “harvest bee” for a fellow Ritzville wheat farmer whose cancer treatment put him on the sidelines this year. I can think of numerous times over the years when farmers have pitched in to help with someone’s harvest, although this may be the first time the news story about it went national.

I’m looking forward to catching up on some other farm chores as the summer winds down and taking in as many of our area’s fine community fairs as possible. In fact, I took a break from planting yesterday and joined other area elected officials to serve at the senior breakfast on day one of the Palouse Empire Fair in Colfax. That fair runs through Sunday, and there are fairs in Othello and Pomeroy and Rockford still ahead.

Inslee sidesteps state constitution, so legislators sue

Washington’s constitution has a section detailing the governor’s power to veto legislation, and while the governor is allowed to scratch a section or an “appropriation item” in the course of signing a new law there is nothing about taking out a sentence that does not make an appropriation.

When Governor Inslee signed the new transportation budget in May, he vetoed the same sentence six times – “Fuel type may not be a factor in the grant selection process” – which caught the attention of many in our Senate Republican Caucus. The grant selection, in this case, refers to money for public transit, which under state law is required to move away from gas-fueled vehicles. The reasoning behind Inslee’s veto is not the point; it’s the simple fact that the veto is illegal because it doesn’t meet constitutional standards. He could have structured the veto in a constitutional way but didn’t – and claiming the situation is “very rare and unusual” doesn’t excuse his action.

Republican leaders in the House and Democratic leaders in both chambers noticed the same issue and agreed to challenge the illegal veto in court, meaning it’s the legislative branch versus the executive branch.

Transportation revenue is growing, despite what some would say

The headline of a July news story in Tacoma’s News Tribune (“Washington drivers might be charged by the mile to make up for lagging gas-tax revenue”) captures the line heard from state transportation officials for years, as they’ve talked about imposing a new tax that was once called “vehicle miles traveled” and is now referred to as a “road usage charge.”

But a set of forecasts adopted by the state Transportation Revenue Forecast Council in June tells a different story. Total transportation revenues (not just gas-tax dollars but other taxes, fees, permits, tolls, etc.) were up 1.5% for the 2019 fiscal year and projected to be up another 2% a year from now. And “overall, during the next 10-year horizon…an average annual growth rate of 1.4%” is forecast. That hardly sounds like “lagging.”

The non-partisan Washington Policy Center has been keeping a close eye on the Vehicle Miles Traveled/Road Usage Charge proposal, which had been a pilot project in 2018 and is expected to generate legislation in 2020. The WPC’s digging turned up the state-produced chart here, which shows the continual climb in revenue.

Now that we know revenues are not lagging, maybe someone will decide to look into why transportation dollars aren’t going as far as they used to. That sounds like the real issue.

Forum to look at rural development, and congratulations to Basin City!

A former Republican senator from Snohomish County, Kirk Pearson, stepped down from the Senate a couple of years ago to become the Washington state director for the rural development work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He sent word recently about the upcoming SE Washington State Funding Forum, which will be from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Best Western in Dayton.

It’ll be hosted by USDA’s Rural Development, the City of Dayton and the Port of Columbia and is intended for local governments – counties, cities and towns, ports, hospitals and so on. For more information contact Rural Development Specialist Marti Canatsey at [email protected] or 509-367-8570.

Speaking of rural development, the Basin City Water District is one of eight water and sewer districts recently chosen for project funding by the state Public Works Board. The PWB helps local governments with infrastructure needs, and the Basin City folks will receive $495,000 to help with the installation of flow meters.

 

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