Washington State Legislative Report, February 2011
By Jim Adsley
THE ELECTION IS OVER SO NOW WE CAN RELAX-- NOT! Even though we are currently out of the election (silly) season, the number of international, national, state, and local issues continue to overwhelm one’s attention. It is very difficult to give any one issue significant attention due to the extreme number of them on our collective plates at one time.
Furthermore, our ability to communicate through conservative channels has become more challenging. We have basically enjoyed at least three conservative sources of information. Fox TV news, which provides at least some conservative bents on national news, and locally we had KTTH, and KVI radio stations. On those stations, there were really only two talk show hosts who delved much into state issues. Kirby Wilbur on KVI, and Dave Boze on KTTH. Kirby was fired several months ago, and KVI has now dropped the talk show format for music. We did not have enough music stations apparently. Recently, just before a very important state session, KTTH has dropped Boze to only one hour, and it is before the evening rush hour. A few years ago KTTH dropped Mike Seigal, who often took on state government. It is almost as though the local radio media has agreed to back off state government issues.
In any case, communication through organizations such as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, various tea party, and Republican party organizations becomes even more critical as we move through state, and local problems, and conservative remedies for them.
STATE BUDGET –
The state legislature held a one day special session in December to attempt to resolve a $1.1 Billion deficit in the current biennium. This was necessary because, in contrast to the federal budget, the state cannot constitutionally spend more than revenue received.
According to a study disclosed in the Wall Street Journal, the state of WA shortfall as a percentage of the total budget is 7.1 per cent, making our’s the third highest shortfall in the nation. At least 46 states are experiencing shortfalls. The legislature found money for about half of that shortfall during the one - day special session in December. Since they have convened in January, there has been more of the shortfall solved, however, a significant portion remains unsolved, and the Democratic party in control of the legislature, has stipulated they are waiting for the next state revenue forecast scheduled in March.
When considering this problem, it should be noted that even in the face of the economic downturn, the state increased spending $4.2 Billion over just the last two years. It is a lot easier to spend more than it is to cut from the fiscally irresponsible spending preceding the cuts. For the most part, the public will pay for the cuts. $51 million was taken from higher ed, and the powers to be want to make that up with increased tuition. What about cutting the waste first.
$28 million was taken from the basic health care plan. There is a downstream cost associated with this, namely the significant increase in welfare treatment at hospitals. The health care system will ultimately have to charge those of us who do have insurance for that charity service, and/or reduce services in general. I am certain of this, having served on the UW visiting committee for Harborview Hospital for a few decades. Currently, Harborview provides the lion's share of charity medical service in the region, and that has been heavily subsidized by the state legislature.
$50 million has been taken from basic education. Most of this is from special funding for class size reductions, and increased cola funding for teachers. Both of these measures were initially passed by the voters through the initiative process. $50 million sounds like a lot, however, basic education accounts for 42.8% of the state budget, and is over 13 Billion for the two year budget biennium.
$50 Million from the Department of Corrections. This is a fairly significant cut since this section only accounts for 5.3% of the state budget. Does this mean turning even more dangerous felons loose, or putting them in medium level security programs, and rolling the dice, as just happened in the Monroe facility?
I had asked our legislators for the Republican caucus plans for the budget a month ago, and still do not know what the differences were. There was a republican caucus amendment, which was intended to provide a more long term resolution to the budget problems. It was rejected by the majority party. Some area papers, such as the Everett Herald, think it was a better solution.
Many budget hawks feel the solutions being offered by the Democrats still are only temporary in terms of the ongoing shortfalls. For example, the next biennium budget is being seen as somewhere between $4.6 billion, and $5.3 Billion short of potential revenue. The legislative budget committee is holding back on the final portion of the solution until the next revenue forecast comes out next month. Like, do they really expect there is going to be a huge rush of unanticipated revenue showing up in 30 days? In addition, the Republicans tried to offer legislation to increase the time budgets would be available for public review to 72 or 48 hours before a final vote in the house. They lost this battle, and the current 24 hours amendatory process will be kept. So even the House members will not have adequate time to evaluate the measure before a vote is taken. So much for the increase in government transparency. Considering the number of Washingtonians who will be affected by whatever the Legislature comes up with, this is very bad. The special interests, such as the public unions, will have a lot more input into the process.
The Governor recently stated she had cut state government to the quick, and any more of it would be breaking state workers' backs. The Seattle Times debunked that pronouncement. The Times found through the state Department of Personnel, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, that most of the job cuts have come through attrition, not layoffs, as the Governor had indicated. In 2009 the state had about 216,000 full time employees. That included 103,800 in K – 12 basic education, 49,000 in higher ed, and 63,600 in various state agencies. Projections show the bulk of cuts would come from education. 7% from higher ed, 5% from basic ed, and 3% from general government agencies. Remember, the state wide number of unemployed asking for unemployment coverage has been over 9% for two years. The number of underemployed is somewhere between 17, and 20%. This approach in part, reflects the lobbying effect of the public unions.
THE FERRY SYSTEM –
The Governor proposed creating a new ferry system that would be funded by new taxes against property on a county by county basis where ferry service exists. As you might expect, the counties are opposed to this, and in our case in Island County, when you add this to the new water quality tax, the impact would be substantial. Even the Seattle Times has editorialized that this is a bad idea.
69% of the ferry budget is in personnel costs. You may recall that King 5 news did a major story on the huge waste in overtime by engineers, etc in the system, the buying of condos for crews to lay over in the San Juans, and so on. Can you think of any ways for economies of scale in the system? There have also been poor performance audit reports from our State Auditor in recent years.
There are some bills in process related to the ferry system. HB 1511 (fairness in bargaining). HB 1512 (operations efficiencies). HB 1516 (Performance accountability).
Significant increases in fares have been proposed as an alternative as well, and reductions in sailings. At least the management had indicated they are dropping the shifting of the Mukilteo terminal to Edmonds or Everett, which would create additional time and mileage for most Island riders. We should be very concerned about the problem in the Middle East as related to gasoline cost. This would affect travel, the cost of food, and other commodities.
EDUCATION –
Higher ed is looking for authority to pass tuition increases without Legislative approval when the State support is reduced. There is a push, including comments in the recent Presidential State of the Union address, to improve our educational performance, particularly in math and science. We have fallen behind in relation to other industrialized nations in this regard. There is concern, and rightfully so, that we will fall behind in scientific advances which have kept America the leader in the World. The problem is, the only suggestion government can bring to the table on this is more money, for a much politicized, and failing, national education system. This was a significant driving force behind the proposal for a new state income tax last year. The same approach is suggested by most of the state systems, including Washington State. The public system operations are dominated by the strong public unions of teachers. This has been a road block to many of the reforms we need to take us back to a better functioning program.
There are some bills in the Legislature this year aimed at basic education issues. For the most part they miss the target, in my opinion, having served on a public school board for 10 years. There is significant waste yet in both higher ed, and K – 12 programs. Some examples are the retire-rehire program, that lets teachers, and administrators retire, and then come back to work in 30 days at the old job, and draw retirement funds in addition to the salary. It also allows final pay, which determines retirement salary for each individual to increase the base over time. This was reported on by the Seattle Times last year, however, for some reason they left out examples of this which are happening in basic ed as well. There are also concerns about the amount of time the professionals are actually in front of students at both levels of instruction. In the case of college, it is interns often doing the work of professors, and in basic ed it is all the time allotted for teacher planning, which is taken from the students time. In basic ed, there are what is termed ghost days for this purpose. The state pays for an equivalent of 4 days training in the school year. Some districts combine them into 4 full days by being granted a waiver from the 180 minimum required by state law, and others spread them out over 8 days so students show up for half a day. Another example is that many school districts now hold parent teacher conferences in daytime hours for up to a week.Students come in for the morning (so the district gets funding credit for the student FTE count), and they are then sent home for the second half of the day. In our society today, many times both parents work, which leaves latchkey kids, without good supervision part of the day. This problem is magnified by the above examples of time away from the classroom. Parents have to scramble to find extra day care, or no supervision during those times. Then many districts add additional days of pay when students are not present. Those are paid from the local levy rather than state funds. In any case, it is expense that is not directly benefiting students. The state auditor, by a public approved initiative was given authority to provide performance audits of various state agencies, including schools. These issues should be disclosed so there is a better public understanding of where efficiencies can be made in public education spending, and improvements in student learning, which most agree is necessary for a strong future, and economy.
There are a couple of bills I will comment on. HB 1414 authorizes waivers from state requirements at the local district level. There are already opportunities for waivers, such as minimum seat time, and total days of instruction. Those have been abused, and there are really no standards required to prove those modifications are working.
HB 1415 would take public ed funding out of the general state budget process to deal with it before addressing the entire state budget. The state constitution already requires that basic education be a primary responsibility of the state, therefore, the benefits of this seem questionable.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION –
There is legislation to require proof of citizenship to acquire a state driver’s license. This would be a good improvement in a number of areas, where significant costs are occurring. It will also improve the security of our votes, since driver’s licenses are allowed as evidence to legally register to vote in WA State.
Washington State has become a magnet for illegal immigration. A recent report from the Pew Hispanic Center found that one fifth of the workers, and five percent of the population in WA State are illegal immigrants. This represents a 35% increase over the last three years. This is the seventh highest increase in illegal immigrants of all the states. A significant part of the magnetism for WA State is, we are one of only three states which allow drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. A drivers license is used as evidence of legal identity, therefore, obtaining a license, (without proof of legal residency), opens the door for obtaining government benefits, REGISTER TO VOTE, gaining access to more positive types of ID, such as passports, and so on.
As the federal government has cut back on some benefits to illegal immigrants, such as Medicaid costs for health care for illegal immigrant children, WA State has picked up those extra costs. That item alone is forecast to cost $59 Million in the 2011-2013 biennium. The cost of food stamps for illegal immigrants is $45 Million. Senator Zarelli recently indicated the state spends about $270 Million each biennium on healthcare, welfare, and child care for farm workers, and on illegal immigrant prisoners. There are also costs to public education, where for example, English as a second language has often required the hiring of additional staff to accommodate that need.
In past periods of severe economic downturns, our nation has restricted the flow of illegal immigration. In recent years, there seems to be interest in looking away from this problem by one party for the purpose of creating more people voting sympathetically to their causes. Members of the other party have constituents who take advantage of the cheap labor offered from illegal immigrants. There has always been a need for lower cost labor in the agriculture industry, however, it is time we recognize that the general public is then required to pick up the slack for the social services needed by this low income labor group. Not all illegals are working in low paying jobs. This problem has inundated the construction industry as well. There have been cases where employers have taken advantage of the illegal nature of these employees to withhold benefits, such as social security, or in some cases, deduct it, and then not forward it to the government.
With over 9% of the workforcedrawing unemployment for the last two years, this has become more of a focus this year in proposed legislation. There is perhaps a more sinister problem with this issue. Washington State is a border state. A recent Pew report indicates 57 % of illegal immigrants are from Mexico, however, the rest are from other areas of the World. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office, (the watchdog arm of Congress), indicates most of the 4000 mile border with Canada lacks control of illegal access to America. The report indicated that only 1007 miles of the border had the capability to detect illegal border crossings, and only 32 miles “had reached an acceptable level of security”. There are also indications that Canada has more Islamist extremist groups than Mexico. We have about 300 of those miles along our border, yet our second congressional district rep answered concerns from the Senate Homeland Security in this regard was overblown, and no problem. There have been problems with the flow of extremely strong pot from Canada in recent years also. There are, and will be increasing public costs in dealing with the myriad of problems associated with illegal immigration.
There are several bills associated with this in the current session of the Legislature. There are two which I will comment on. Senator Haugen of our 10th district has entered SB 5407. It will require every Washington applicant for a driver’s license to have a verified Social Security number. To get that number you have to prove legal status. A potential weak spot in this bill, is that it is possible to get legal status with a visa for work, or education, and that time expires. Checking with Social Security will not detect this change in status.
Another bill, SB5333 has been submitted by Senator Val Stevens from Arlington. It is more thorough, and does require verification of current legal status. Since Senator Haugen is in the majority party, and chair of the Senate Transportation committee, it is perhaps more likely her version will be adopted. A hearing of the committee is planned for Thursday, February 3rd.
SO HOW CAN WE THE PEOPLE FIND A PUBLIC VOICE IN THE DEBATE–
The Legislature, particularly on a budget year such as this one, will see thousands of proposed bills, which can affect us. Perhaps only 300 will survive all the votes our representatives will make in committee, or finally on the floors of the Senate and House, and finally survive combining versions from both houses. So how can we keep up with this, and offer testimony to our representatives, which may be needed to offset the normal, and intense input from special interest groups, such as various public unions, county, and city governments, etc.
First, create and maintain a dialog with your representatives. This is best done when they are not in session, however, once they are aware of your concerns, odds are they will notify you of bills which relate to issues you have expressed a concern about.
There is now an opportunity to participate with an organization called the Evergreen Freedom Foundation to keep track of important legislation. They are a research group which has been active for over 20 years providing research, and legal challenges regarding Washington State issues, budgets, property rights, political use of public union dues, and other issues, including those mentioned in this report, important to citizens of the state. They have a new program titled CAN, (Citizen Action Network), to make it possible for us to participate more effectively in the Legislative process. This program is managed by Lasse Lund. These folks are providing the over sight, and research, to determine which of the myriad of bills we should be concerned about. You can find out how you can participate at www.effcan.org. In addition, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation is having a half day Legislative Day event in Olympia, and would like folks to participate. It is on February 22 nd. It is free, however, space has a limit so they need folks to register in advance. Furthermore, you can purchase lunch for $12.00, or bring a sack lunch. You can find out more, or register here.
There are many issues before the Legislature, which will direct the future of Washington State, and our ability to survive the significant economic issues we citizens face. The days are over when we can simply vote every two years, and let others make all the decisions, with only the input from the special interest groups, which has led us to the financial brink to begin with. We should all keep in touch with our representatives to find out where our testimony can help. I recommend participating with the EFF CAN program to be most effective with that Legislative communication.
Furthermore, our ability to communicate through conservative channels has become more challenging. We have basically enjoyed at least three conservative sources of information. Fox TV news, which provides at least some conservative bents on national news, and locally we had KTTH, and KVI radio stations. On those stations, there were really only two talk show hosts who delved much into state issues. Kirby Wilbur on KVI, and Dave Boze on KTTH. Kirby was fired several months ago, and KVI has now dropped the talk show format for music. We did not have enough music stations apparently. Recently, just before a very important state session, KTTH has dropped Boze to only one hour, and it is before the evening rush hour. A few years ago KTTH dropped Mike Seigal, who often took on state government. It is almost as though the local radio media has agreed to back off state government issues.
In any case, communication through organizations such as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, various tea party, and Republican party organizations becomes even more critical as we move through state, and local problems, and conservative remedies for them.
STATE BUDGET –
The state legislature held a one day special session in December to attempt to resolve a $1.1 Billion deficit in the current biennium. This was necessary because, in contrast to the federal budget, the state cannot constitutionally spend more than revenue received.
According to a study disclosed in the Wall Street Journal, the state of WA shortfall as a percentage of the total budget is 7.1 per cent, making our’s the third highest shortfall in the nation. At least 46 states are experiencing shortfalls. The legislature found money for about half of that shortfall during the one - day special session in December. Since they have convened in January, there has been more of the shortfall solved, however, a significant portion remains unsolved, and the Democratic party in control of the legislature, has stipulated they are waiting for the next state revenue forecast scheduled in March.
When considering this problem, it should be noted that even in the face of the economic downturn, the state increased spending $4.2 Billion over just the last two years. It is a lot easier to spend more than it is to cut from the fiscally irresponsible spending preceding the cuts. For the most part, the public will pay for the cuts. $51 million was taken from higher ed, and the powers to be want to make that up with increased tuition. What about cutting the waste first.
$28 million was taken from the basic health care plan. There is a downstream cost associated with this, namely the significant increase in welfare treatment at hospitals. The health care system will ultimately have to charge those of us who do have insurance for that charity service, and/or reduce services in general. I am certain of this, having served on the UW visiting committee for Harborview Hospital for a few decades. Currently, Harborview provides the lion's share of charity medical service in the region, and that has been heavily subsidized by the state legislature.
$50 million has been taken from basic education. Most of this is from special funding for class size reductions, and increased cola funding for teachers. Both of these measures were initially passed by the voters through the initiative process. $50 million sounds like a lot, however, basic education accounts for 42.8% of the state budget, and is over 13 Billion for the two year budget biennium.
$50 Million from the Department of Corrections. This is a fairly significant cut since this section only accounts for 5.3% of the state budget. Does this mean turning even more dangerous felons loose, or putting them in medium level security programs, and rolling the dice, as just happened in the Monroe facility?
I had asked our legislators for the Republican caucus plans for the budget a month ago, and still do not know what the differences were. There was a republican caucus amendment, which was intended to provide a more long term resolution to the budget problems. It was rejected by the majority party. Some area papers, such as the Everett Herald, think it was a better solution.
Many budget hawks feel the solutions being offered by the Democrats still are only temporary in terms of the ongoing shortfalls. For example, the next biennium budget is being seen as somewhere between $4.6 billion, and $5.3 Billion short of potential revenue. The legislative budget committee is holding back on the final portion of the solution until the next revenue forecast comes out next month. Like, do they really expect there is going to be a huge rush of unanticipated revenue showing up in 30 days? In addition, the Republicans tried to offer legislation to increase the time budgets would be available for public review to 72 or 48 hours before a final vote in the house. They lost this battle, and the current 24 hours amendatory process will be kept. So even the House members will not have adequate time to evaluate the measure before a vote is taken. So much for the increase in government transparency. Considering the number of Washingtonians who will be affected by whatever the Legislature comes up with, this is very bad. The special interests, such as the public unions, will have a lot more input into the process.
The Governor recently stated she had cut state government to the quick, and any more of it would be breaking state workers' backs. The Seattle Times debunked that pronouncement. The Times found through the state Department of Personnel, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, that most of the job cuts have come through attrition, not layoffs, as the Governor had indicated. In 2009 the state had about 216,000 full time employees. That included 103,800 in K – 12 basic education, 49,000 in higher ed, and 63,600 in various state agencies. Projections show the bulk of cuts would come from education. 7% from higher ed, 5% from basic ed, and 3% from general government agencies. Remember, the state wide number of unemployed asking for unemployment coverage has been over 9% for two years. The number of underemployed is somewhere between 17, and 20%. This approach in part, reflects the lobbying effect of the public unions.
THE FERRY SYSTEM –
The Governor proposed creating a new ferry system that would be funded by new taxes against property on a county by county basis where ferry service exists. As you might expect, the counties are opposed to this, and in our case in Island County, when you add this to the new water quality tax, the impact would be substantial. Even the Seattle Times has editorialized that this is a bad idea.
69% of the ferry budget is in personnel costs. You may recall that King 5 news did a major story on the huge waste in overtime by engineers, etc in the system, the buying of condos for crews to lay over in the San Juans, and so on. Can you think of any ways for economies of scale in the system? There have also been poor performance audit reports from our State Auditor in recent years.
There are some bills in process related to the ferry system. HB 1511 (fairness in bargaining). HB 1512 (operations efficiencies). HB 1516 (Performance accountability).
Significant increases in fares have been proposed as an alternative as well, and reductions in sailings. At least the management had indicated they are dropping the shifting of the Mukilteo terminal to Edmonds or Everett, which would create additional time and mileage for most Island riders. We should be very concerned about the problem in the Middle East as related to gasoline cost. This would affect travel, the cost of food, and other commodities.
EDUCATION –
Higher ed is looking for authority to pass tuition increases without Legislative approval when the State support is reduced. There is a push, including comments in the recent Presidential State of the Union address, to improve our educational performance, particularly in math and science. We have fallen behind in relation to other industrialized nations in this regard. There is concern, and rightfully so, that we will fall behind in scientific advances which have kept America the leader in the World. The problem is, the only suggestion government can bring to the table on this is more money, for a much politicized, and failing, national education system. This was a significant driving force behind the proposal for a new state income tax last year. The same approach is suggested by most of the state systems, including Washington State. The public system operations are dominated by the strong public unions of teachers. This has been a road block to many of the reforms we need to take us back to a better functioning program.
There are some bills in the Legislature this year aimed at basic education issues. For the most part they miss the target, in my opinion, having served on a public school board for 10 years. There is significant waste yet in both higher ed, and K – 12 programs. Some examples are the retire-rehire program, that lets teachers, and administrators retire, and then come back to work in 30 days at the old job, and draw retirement funds in addition to the salary. It also allows final pay, which determines retirement salary for each individual to increase the base over time. This was reported on by the Seattle Times last year, however, for some reason they left out examples of this which are happening in basic ed as well. There are also concerns about the amount of time the professionals are actually in front of students at both levels of instruction. In the case of college, it is interns often doing the work of professors, and in basic ed it is all the time allotted for teacher planning, which is taken from the students time. In basic ed, there are what is termed ghost days for this purpose. The state pays for an equivalent of 4 days training in the school year. Some districts combine them into 4 full days by being granted a waiver from the 180 minimum required by state law, and others spread them out over 8 days so students show up for half a day. Another example is that many school districts now hold parent teacher conferences in daytime hours for up to a week.Students come in for the morning (so the district gets funding credit for the student FTE count), and they are then sent home for the second half of the day. In our society today, many times both parents work, which leaves latchkey kids, without good supervision part of the day. This problem is magnified by the above examples of time away from the classroom. Parents have to scramble to find extra day care, or no supervision during those times. Then many districts add additional days of pay when students are not present. Those are paid from the local levy rather than state funds. In any case, it is expense that is not directly benefiting students. The state auditor, by a public approved initiative was given authority to provide performance audits of various state agencies, including schools. These issues should be disclosed so there is a better public understanding of where efficiencies can be made in public education spending, and improvements in student learning, which most agree is necessary for a strong future, and economy.
There are a couple of bills I will comment on. HB 1414 authorizes waivers from state requirements at the local district level. There are already opportunities for waivers, such as minimum seat time, and total days of instruction. Those have been abused, and there are really no standards required to prove those modifications are working.
HB 1415 would take public ed funding out of the general state budget process to deal with it before addressing the entire state budget. The state constitution already requires that basic education be a primary responsibility of the state, therefore, the benefits of this seem questionable.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION –
There is legislation to require proof of citizenship to acquire a state driver’s license. This would be a good improvement in a number of areas, where significant costs are occurring. It will also improve the security of our votes, since driver’s licenses are allowed as evidence to legally register to vote in WA State.
Washington State has become a magnet for illegal immigration. A recent report from the Pew Hispanic Center found that one fifth of the workers, and five percent of the population in WA State are illegal immigrants. This represents a 35% increase over the last three years. This is the seventh highest increase in illegal immigrants of all the states. A significant part of the magnetism for WA State is, we are one of only three states which allow drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. A drivers license is used as evidence of legal identity, therefore, obtaining a license, (without proof of legal residency), opens the door for obtaining government benefits, REGISTER TO VOTE, gaining access to more positive types of ID, such as passports, and so on.
As the federal government has cut back on some benefits to illegal immigrants, such as Medicaid costs for health care for illegal immigrant children, WA State has picked up those extra costs. That item alone is forecast to cost $59 Million in the 2011-2013 biennium. The cost of food stamps for illegal immigrants is $45 Million. Senator Zarelli recently indicated the state spends about $270 Million each biennium on healthcare, welfare, and child care for farm workers, and on illegal immigrant prisoners. There are also costs to public education, where for example, English as a second language has often required the hiring of additional staff to accommodate that need.
In past periods of severe economic downturns, our nation has restricted the flow of illegal immigration. In recent years, there seems to be interest in looking away from this problem by one party for the purpose of creating more people voting sympathetically to their causes. Members of the other party have constituents who take advantage of the cheap labor offered from illegal immigrants. There has always been a need for lower cost labor in the agriculture industry, however, it is time we recognize that the general public is then required to pick up the slack for the social services needed by this low income labor group. Not all illegals are working in low paying jobs. This problem has inundated the construction industry as well. There have been cases where employers have taken advantage of the illegal nature of these employees to withhold benefits, such as social security, or in some cases, deduct it, and then not forward it to the government.
With over 9% of the workforcedrawing unemployment for the last two years, this has become more of a focus this year in proposed legislation. There is perhaps a more sinister problem with this issue. Washington State is a border state. A recent Pew report indicates 57 % of illegal immigrants are from Mexico, however, the rest are from other areas of the World. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office, (the watchdog arm of Congress), indicates most of the 4000 mile border with Canada lacks control of illegal access to America. The report indicated that only 1007 miles of the border had the capability to detect illegal border crossings, and only 32 miles “had reached an acceptable level of security”. There are also indications that Canada has more Islamist extremist groups than Mexico. We have about 300 of those miles along our border, yet our second congressional district rep answered concerns from the Senate Homeland Security in this regard was overblown, and no problem. There have been problems with the flow of extremely strong pot from Canada in recent years also. There are, and will be increasing public costs in dealing with the myriad of problems associated with illegal immigration.
There are several bills associated with this in the current session of the Legislature. There are two which I will comment on. Senator Haugen of our 10th district has entered SB 5407. It will require every Washington applicant for a driver’s license to have a verified Social Security number. To get that number you have to prove legal status. A potential weak spot in this bill, is that it is possible to get legal status with a visa for work, or education, and that time expires. Checking with Social Security will not detect this change in status.
Another bill, SB5333 has been submitted by Senator Val Stevens from Arlington. It is more thorough, and does require verification of current legal status. Since Senator Haugen is in the majority party, and chair of the Senate Transportation committee, it is perhaps more likely her version will be adopted. A hearing of the committee is planned for Thursday, February 3rd.
SO HOW CAN WE THE PEOPLE FIND A PUBLIC VOICE IN THE DEBATE–
The Legislature, particularly on a budget year such as this one, will see thousands of proposed bills, which can affect us. Perhaps only 300 will survive all the votes our representatives will make in committee, or finally on the floors of the Senate and House, and finally survive combining versions from both houses. So how can we keep up with this, and offer testimony to our representatives, which may be needed to offset the normal, and intense input from special interest groups, such as various public unions, county, and city governments, etc.
First, create and maintain a dialog with your representatives. This is best done when they are not in session, however, once they are aware of your concerns, odds are they will notify you of bills which relate to issues you have expressed a concern about.
There is now an opportunity to participate with an organization called the Evergreen Freedom Foundation to keep track of important legislation. They are a research group which has been active for over 20 years providing research, and legal challenges regarding Washington State issues, budgets, property rights, political use of public union dues, and other issues, including those mentioned in this report, important to citizens of the state. They have a new program titled CAN, (Citizen Action Network), to make it possible for us to participate more effectively in the Legislative process. This program is managed by Lasse Lund. These folks are providing the over sight, and research, to determine which of the myriad of bills we should be concerned about. You can find out how you can participate at www.effcan.org. In addition, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation is having a half day Legislative Day event in Olympia, and would like folks to participate. It is on February 22 nd. It is free, however, space has a limit so they need folks to register in advance. Furthermore, you can purchase lunch for $12.00, or bring a sack lunch. You can find out more, or register here.
There are many issues before the Legislature, which will direct the future of Washington State, and our ability to survive the significant economic issues we citizens face. The days are over when we can simply vote every two years, and let others make all the decisions, with only the input from the special interest groups, which has led us to the financial brink to begin with. We should all keep in touch with our representatives to find out where our testimony can help. I recommend participating with the EFF CAN program to be most effective with that Legislative communication.
