Report from Olympia -- Nov. 20, 2014

105 Newhouse Building ● P.O. Box 40404 ● Olympia WA 98504-0404
4TH DISTRICT OFFICE (open through December 2014): (509) 921-2460

Nov. 20, 2014

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

People who want to provide testimony to legislative committees must either send something in writing, or make the long trip to Olympia and speak in person. Tomorrow morning our Senate Law and Justice Committee will conduct the first real demonstration of what I hope will become a third choice: the use of videoconferencing technology to allow testimony from remote sites.

Today and Friday, Senate committees are meeting here at the Capitol to get ready for the 2015 session. Not only is the Law and Justice Committee breaking ground tomorrow, technologically speaking, but we also have some very newsworthy topics on the agenda. Please keep reading for the details.

To those who accepted my invitation to meet over coffee at the Rocket Bakery in Millwood back on Nov. 12: thank you! I appreciated being able to discuss your concerns and answer questions, and will take all of that input with me when the next legislative session begins, on Jan. 12.

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, send me an e-mail or come and meet with me. My 4th Legislative District office is in Suite 305 at 11707 East Sprague Avenue, in the Spokane Valley City Hall building. It is staffed by my legislative assistant, Mike McCliment. The phone number is 921-2460. In January, Mike and I will close the district office and head to the Capitol for the scheduled 105-day session.

It’s my privilege to serve you in our state Senate. 

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden
4th Legislative District

A first for our Senate committee: allowing remote testimony
The first hour or so of our Senate Law and Justice Committee work session, which begins at 8 a.m. tomorrow, will feature a live audio-video connection to Building 15, Room 210 on the Spokane Community College campus. Three people will speak to our committee from there (details below), which spares them from having to travel across the Cascades. Staff members from the Senate and Spokane CC tested the connection earlier this week, so all systems should be go for Friday morning (special thanks to the college for accommodating us).

I can’t overstate the significance of what this could mean from an open-government standpoint and as a matter of fairness. A ZIP code should not determine who does and doesn’t have an opportunity to be heard, yet since territorial days, the challenge of simply getting to the Capitol has prevented people from speaking out about legislation affecting them.

Since becoming committee chair in 2013, I have frequently arranged for policy experts to address members of the panel by telephone. Tomorrow morning’s test is the next step forward – and a “good first step,” as this positive editorial in today’s Spokesman-Review put it. TVW will carry our work session live online (and on cable at a later time to be determined), so I invite you to join our committee to see how it all works.

Hopefully the day will come sooner than later when testimony about legislation may seamlessly shift between people in committee-hearing rooms at the Capitol and those in remote locations around Washington. There are some logistical details to work out, but as we will demonstrate tomorrow, the technology itself is available – and capable.

On Friday agenda: Supreme Court, impaired driving, and protecting children
More than once this year our Law and Justice committee has discussed how the constitutional separation of powers between the three branches of state government has been blurred by the state Supreme Court. The court’s decision in September to find the Legislature in contempt is the latest example of overstepping its authority.

The silver lining in this is how the court’s behavior has raised questions about its size and structure. Earlier this year Sen. Michael Baumgartner, from the neighboring 6th Legislative District, proposed reducing the court from nine justices to seven. That proposal didn’t advance, but tomorrow our committee will discuss another idea, from the Washington Policy Center: amend the constitution so that the justices, now chosen at large, are elected from districts instead.

As today’s Spokesman-Review also notes, only two justices in more than 20 years have come from east of the Cascades, so such a change could not help but geographically even out the membership on what is now a Puget Sound-heavy court. Appropriately, the WPC’s Jason Mercier will testify about the proposal from Spokane.

The second topic has to do with the next-generation breath-alcohol testing devices being put into service by law enforcement. Two Spokane Valley police officers, Chief Rick VanLeuven and Deputy Todd Miller, will report on this new technology, also via videoconference from Spokane.

Deputy Miller is a drug-recognition expert and could also become part of the third discussion on our agenda: the development of a breath-analysis test for marijuana. Dr. Herb Hill, longtime chemistry professor at Washington State University, will be here in Olympia to update our committee on WSU’s work on that new technology, which is important for dealing with impaired driving tied to marijuana use.

Rounding out our work-session agenda will be Paul Jagosh, from the National Association to Protect Children, who will talk about funding investigations of internet-based crimes against children.

Ballot measure already affecting state’s budget outlook
The education initiative that narrowly passed on Nov. 4 won’t become law until Dec. 4. However, the cost of implementing Initiative 1351 (estimated at $4.7 billion over 10 years) has already become a factor in state government’s financial outlook.

Each of the quarterly revenue forecasts issued this year have shown modest but steady revenue growth. The final forecast for 2014, released yesterday, suggests the state will collect about $275 million more for 2015-17 than previously estimated. In all, the combination of our state’s tax structure and economic activity is expected to generate more revenue – about 9 percent more, which looked like it alone could be enough to meet the Supreme Court’s demand for more K-12 education funding under its McCleary decision of 2012.

I-1351 did not identify a revenue source (frankly, doing so would likely have hurt its chances of passing), so the Legislature has to figure out how to pay for implementing the law. We can suspend the I-1351 law, but either way, there is no question that its passage has greatly complicated our task of coming up with a new two-year budget to pay for state services and programs.