309 Legislative Building ● Olympia, WA 98504
E-mail: [email protected] ● Phone: (360) 786-7622 ● Fax: (360) 786-1189
Majority Coalition Caucus Chair
Committees: Health Care; Natural Resources and Parks; Rules; Ways and Means
February 28, 2014
Dear Friends,
The best parts of this week were our releasing and voting on a supplemental operating/capital
budget, and meeting with folks from home. Visitors included the 2014 Apple Blossom Festival
royalty; nursing students from Wenatchee Valley College; the Wenatchee High School mariachi
band (at the Capitol for the second time
this month); the sheriffs of Chelan and
Douglas counties; and officials from the
Port of Chelan County. I wish there had
been more time to visit – but that’s the
tradeoff when you are involved with the
budget each step of the way, as I was.
This edition of the In Touch will cover:
 Results from our 12th District
telephone town hall
 More on the Senate budget
approved Thursday
 Welcome, Apple Blossom Festival
royalty!
It was a pleasure to greet Wenatchee High civics
teacher Malia Renner-Singer recently when she came
to the Capitol to be honored as co-winner of the 2014
Civic Educator of the Year Award. Congratulations!
Click here to view my video report from
the Capitol about Week 7 of the session!
***
Telephone town-hall meeting reaches thousands across 12th District
Imagine a public meeting that draws more than 2,700 people from across the four counties in our
legislative district – during which 76 people raise their hands to ask about topics ranging from
jobs to health care to the governor’s recent decree about carrying out death sentences.
That describes the telephone town-hall meeting our 12th District legislative delegation held
Tuesday evening, live from the Capitol. Rep. Cary Condotta, Rep. Brad Hawkins and I spent an
hour fielding questions about legislation and issues of concern to our region and the state overall.
It was very productive, and there were so many people still waiting to ask questions when the
clock ran out (we couldn’t get to all 76, unfortunately), that we’re considering having a longer
meeting next time.
The technology used to support these meetings (which are like a blend of a conference call and a
radio call-in program) also allows us to conduct three instant surveys. The results are here:
1. If you could pick one issue that is most important to you – the one that impacts you
the most – what issue would
that be?
- Jobs/the economy
- K-12 education
- Health care
- State spending
- Transportation
- Other
2. How have you been affected by the
implementation of Obamacare?
- Paying more for insurance plan
- Paying less for insurance plan
- lost your coverage or been dropped by
your insurance carrier
- Have a plan and didn’t have one before
- Not really affected yet
3. The state Supreme Court says the Legislature isn’t working fast enough to get more
money to K-12 schools. Should the
Legislature:
- Increase K-12 funding as existing revenue
allows
- Raise taxes to support another increase in
K-12 funding
- Hold current level or reduce spending
- Not sure
If you weren’t able to join us for the meeting, how would you have voted? Are there other
questions you would have asked instead?
Several callers thanked us for inviting them to participate. I see it the other way: I’m grateful that
so many took part of their evening to get involved!
Senate supplemental budget continues our coalition’s priorities
In even-numbered years the Legislature almost always approves a supplemental budget. It’s not a
brand-new budget but a set of adjustments to what was a brand-new budget last year.
As suggested in last week’s InTouch, it didn’t take long for the Senate to propose a supplemental
budget once the latest state revenue forecast was in hand. As chair of the Senate Majority
Coalition, I was a member of the three-Republican, three-Democrat group that officially released
the proposal to the public. Our budget committee took public testimony on it Tuesday, and did
some fine-tuning on Wednesday.
We accepted about half of the 65 changes that were proposed; the list of approved amendments
includes four I suggested. They would:




Restore $1.8 million in funding for local public-health jurisdictions statewide;
Complete a thorough review of state financial-aid programs by mid-January 2015, aimed
at making college in our state more accessible and affordable and simplifying a process
that has become complicated for students (to be done at no cost; the idea was suggested
to me by WSU President Elson Floyd);
Restore funding for a public-employee recognition program managed by the Secretary of
State (cost: $16,000); and
Fund a study to determine why sockeye salmon are disappearing from the Lake
Washington basin in King County. A decade ago that fishery had an economic value of
$9-12 million; now there are fewer than 1½ fish returning for each parent spawner,
meaning for every sockeye harvested, at least two others have to escape and successfully
spawn just to maintain the run (cost: $150,000).
The revised budget was passed Wednesday by our budget committee with a very bipartisan vote:
13 Republicans and seven Democrats for, and just one Democrat against. There was a rousing
debate yesterday when we brought the budget to the floor of the Senate chamber; despite that the
final vote was 41-8, meaning 84 percent of senators supported our approach. Like the budget
approved in 2013, this is truly a bipartisan budget.
The Senate budget proposal is sure different from Governor Inslee’s corresponding proposal. His
call for $252 million in new spending, mostly due to proposed policy changes, would mushroom
to an $746 million increase just two years later; that would put the state budget out of balance by
more than $400 million in 2015-17. In a sense, his approach is illegal – because the balancedbudget requirement adopted in 2012 now requires the budget to balance not only against the
anticipated revenue for the current budget cycle (2013-15) but the following budget cycle (201517).
Our Senate proposal, meanwhile, would bump spending upward by $96 million, less than half of
what the governor wants.
The budget would remain
in balance, and we’d finish
out this two-year cycle
with close to $400 million
left in reserve.
A caller to our telephone
town-hall meeting this
week asked about
education funding, thinking
the governor’s budget did
more to provide for public
schools – which is state
government’s top priority,
under our constitution. I
pointed out how the
opposite was true:
approximately 78% of new
spending in the Senate budget would go toward education, compared to just 17% of the new
spending in the Inslee budget (see graph).
The House of Representatives proposed its own supplemental budget on Wednesday; once it
approves a plan, then the two houses negotiate. In other words, there are still a couple steps to go
before there is a final budget – but our state will be better off if that final budget reflects our
Senate majority’s priorities.
Visit by Apple Blossom royalty brings welcome reminder to Capitol
Monday’s weather was what seems to be typical for an Olympia winter: gray and rainy. It was
especially nice, then, to welcome three rays of sunshine to the Capitol: Queen Roslyn Thompson,
Princess Caroline Dahl and Princess Nikara Morgan, who comprise this year’s Washington State
Apple Blossom Festival court:
Their visit came exactly two months
before the April 24 start of what will
be the 95th Apple Blossom Festival. I
was delighted to sponsor Senate
Resolution 8690, which we passed to
recognize the members of the royal
court and celebrate the coming festival
and its 2014 theme, “Living the
Dream.”
As is the custom, the Apple Blossom
court spent the day in Olympia visiting
Joining me, Rep. Brad Hawkins and Rep. Cary Condotta
were the 2014 Apple Blossom Festival royalty: from left,
Princess Nikara Morgan; Queen Roslyn Thompson; and
Princess Caroline Dahl.
with our 12th District legislative delegation, touring the Capitol and meeting state dignitaries. I
am so proud of these accomplished young women and how they represent our region!
***
In closing…
As always, I welcome your questions and thoughts about any matter pertaining to state
government. I’m here to serve you, so please feel free to contact me anytime via email or by
phone in Olympia at (360) 786-7622 if I can be of assistance to you or your family in any way.
Thank you for the honor of representing you in the Washington State Senate.
Warm regards,
Linda
LINDA EVANS PARLETTE
Washington State Senator, 12th District
Olympia office: (360) 786-7622
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://lindaevansparlette.src.wastateleg.org/
For information about public hearings, proposed new laws, and the progress of bills you are interested in,
please visit the Legislature’s Information Web site at www.leg.wa.gov.