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Report from Olympia | April 24, 2015
Dear
Friends and Neighbors,
Today is the final day of the regular 2015 legislative session.
While I would love to tell you that the Legislature wrapped up its work two days
early and we’ll now be leaving Olympia for the year, unfortunately that is not
the case. We are adjourning two days early because everyone has accepted the
fact that it will take a special session to complete the two-year operating
budget.
The current two-year budget runs through June 30, so the
Legislature has to agree on a new spending plan by then.
This “special” legislative session is almost exclusively due
to the insistence of the governor and House Democrat leadership that new taxes
be imposed. The House has demanded $1.5 billion in new taxes and the governor
has taken the puzzling step of threatening to veto any budget agreement that
does not include new taxes.
With more than $3 billion in new revenue expected due to our
recovering economy, there is no reason for new tax increases that will only
harm our recovery and stifle job creation. The Senate passed a budget that
proves education can be fully funded, college tuition reduced and our most
vulnerable protected WITHOUT NEW TAXES.
If there is anything I can do for you, or if you have
questions about anything in this e-newsletter, please give me a call or send me
an e-mail. I very
much appreciate hearing your concerns as I work for you.
As always, it
continues to be a great honor to represent you in the Washington State Senate.
Best
Regards,
Senator
Mike Padden
The Senate Page Program has given me the opportunity to meet some of our
best and brightest young Washingtonians this year. It has been a pleasure to
get to know them and see how much they can learn and grow in a single week.
Our final page of the 2015 session was Noemi Turner, a 15-year-old from Otis
Orchards.
Noemi is a home-school student at Lion’s Academy, where she enjoys studying
foreign languages, biology, chemistry and computer science. Her interests
include fine arts, Irish dancing and playing the fiddle.
Like all Senate pages Noemi was able to spend a week in Olympia making
friends from across the state while learning more about the legislative process
firsthand.
Students interested in the Senate Page Program are encouraged to visit http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Administration/PageProgram/.
Crafting a two-year state budget is a great responsibility.
We in the Senate focused our efforts on three priorities: a budget that would
be great for education, great for the most vulnerable, and great for taxpayers.
The Senate’s no-new-taxes budget puts kids first. It
represents a fundamental shift in prioritizing state spending. The
media has noted that the Legislature’s focus on education is cause for
celebration, calling our commitment to funding education “a massive,
meaningful investment.”
You can read more about how the Senate budget
invests in education, protects our most vulnerable, and looks out for the
taxpayers by reading the latest Windows into the Budget.
 Sen. Padden with Haskins Steel general manager Craig Dias, who was awarded the “Hire-A-Vet Award” for the Spokane-based company’s stellar record of hiring military veterans and guardsmen.
Today the Senate passed a resolution commending businesses
that have made veteran employment a priority.
Our state is honored to host several major military bases
and significant installations from all branches of the military, including
Spokane County’s own Fairchild Air Force Base. With our military having been
engaged in two wars that lasted for more than a decade, we now have a
number of veterans coming home to Washington looking for work. It is important
that we recognize the sacrifices they have made, the skills they have learned,
and the needs they now face as they re-enter civilian life.
Businesses that have made hiring these heroes a priority deserve our
appreciation and recognition.
Employers who are interested in hiring veterans and veterans who are
looking for work should visit their local WorkSource center or call
800-562-2308 for information.
A recently released study,
analyzing collective bargaining agreements for the largest 45 school districts in
the state, contains some good news for our community. Central Valley School
District tied for the second highest score in the state, with respect to
prioritizing levy spending on students, fiscal responsibility and a
student-focused calendar.
This is great news for the team at Central Valley, as well
as for our students and local taxpayers.
The complete analysis presenting scored items and a letter
grade for each district is available
here.
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 Click the image above to watch a CNN report on the dangers of synthetic drugs.
This session, we have been working to bring attention to the
problem of designer drugs and the toll they are taking on the lives of our
young people. Senate
Bill 5673 deals with the growing problems of synthetic marijuana discussed
in the CNN report linked above. We have seen a stark uptick in the number of
hospital visits due to overdoses of synthetic marijuana in recent years – from
6,000 in 2009 to more than 28,500 nationwide in 2011.
Under SB 5673, a person convicted of manufacturing, selling
or distributing synthetic cannabinoids, cathinones or methcathinones must pay a
fine between $10,000 and $500,000, in addition to other criminal and civil
penalties. For those selling to minors, the minimum fine would be increased to
$25,000.
The bill passed the Senate last month 47-0, but
never received a vote by the full House of Representatives. It will be part of
the agenda for the upcoming special session.
 Artist Conceptual Rendering by: Paul Harrington of South Henry Studios - Spokane
As part of an ongoing effort by public and private
investors at Felts Field Airport, the Felts Field General Aviation Flight
Center is being constructed.
This is great news for our region. The flight center will be
a 40,000-square-foot multi-tenant
complex with an Art Deco style that will incorporate many of the elements found
in the historic buildings and hangars at Felts Field. It will be located west
of the historic Spokane Airport Terminal building and be home to the Western
Aviation and Honor Point Military and Aerospace Museum.
For many years now, Tony DeLateur, Tobby Hatley
and the rest of the team at Honor Point have been working diligently to secure
a location from which to operate.
The new flight center will help provide that home and will
be a vital space to provide all generations with opportunities to learn
history, aviation and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
As we complete work on our state capital budget, I will
investigate how the state can continue to be a partner in this endeavor.
To read more about the new flight center development, click
here.
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