106 Newhouse Building ● P.O. Box 40404 ● Olympia WA 98504-0404

Report from Olympia |  April 7, 2015

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

On Monday the Senate approved its two-year budget by a vote of 26-23. It’s a good budget that fully funds education, reduces college tuition and supports our vulnerable citizens – all without raising taxes.

In addition to the budget, the Senate also voted on several bills labeled “Necessary to Implement the Budget,” or NTIB. One of those NTIB bills was our measure to discourage repeat DUI offenses by toughening our felony-DUI law. You can read more about this below.

There are now less than three weeks left in the regular 2015 legislative session – not much time to negotiate a final budget if we hope to complete our work by the scheduled end, which is Sunday, April 26.

As always, if there is anything I can do for you, please write, call or send me an e-mail. It’s an honor to serve you in Olympia.

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

Senate budget prioritizes support for education without raising taxes

Budgets are the truest reflection of any organization’s priorities. The Senate budget demonstrates our majority’s commitment to improving education, making college more affordable, protecting the most vulnerable and respecting taxpayers.

The Senate’s 2015-17 budget fully funds our court-ordered obligations regarding K-12 basic education, adds vital mental-health services and cuts college tuition by 25 percent, all without raising taxes on hardworking families and employers.

Providing for education is the “paramount duty” of the state under our constitution; yet under years of one-party control in Olympia, lawmakers neglected education funding in order to fund social programs. We are reversing that trend with this budget. This is truly an education first budget, with nearly HALF of the budget dedicated to education priorities.

This budget would add 4,000 slots to early-learning and builds 2,200 classrooms to help reduce class size for K-3 grades (unlike the House budget). By concentrating on K-3, we are following the science, as research shows small class sizes have the greatest impact, and taxpayers get the best bang for their bucks, in the early grades.

In addition to our efforts to support K-12 education, this budget would also cut college tuition at four-year institutions by 25 percent - the FIRST tuition reduction in more than 40 years. That’s more than $300 million in lower college costs for students and families.

The rapid growth in tuition rates over the last 40 years has been a hidden tax on middle income families. By reducing tuition, we would essentially be giving parents and students the largest middle class tax cut in recent memory.

The Senate proposal is clearly the right approach when compared to the House majority’s plan, which would raise state spending by 15 percent and require $1.5 billion in tax increases.

The Senate budget proposal balances without new taxes because we stuck to our priorities; when you make “living within your means” a priority, then tax increases become a last resort, not the first choice.

Now that the Senate has passed its budget, the House and Senate will need to reach agreement no later than Sunday, April 26 for the Legislature to conclude its 105-day session on schedule.

Senate unanimously passes bill to get tougher on repeat DUI offenders

Early Friday morning, the Senate unanimously passed our bill to make a fourth DUI conviction in 10 years a felony. The policy is also funded in the Senate’s state budget proposal.

This is great news. We’ve been working for a number of years to get this change through the Legislature, and it now appears like this year we will finally see it reach the governor’s desk.

This measure is really about going after those repeat offenders who are putting the public at risk and even taking lives. As you may remember, a lot of the thanks for getting this bill closer to passage go to the Bartlett family. Russell Bartlett – a father, husband, grandfather and beloved member of his community – was struck down on a Yakima sidewalk one morning by a drunk woman driving her boyfriend’s RV after a night of drinking. The Bartlett family shared their story with lawmakers and the press to help raise awareness of this issue.

Linda Thompson, a mother from Spokane whose son was killed and daughter injured on their way to a parade in August 1986, has dedicated her life to helping end drunk driving. Like the Bartlett family, she helped give a voice to the victims of repeat DUI offenders.

We have an obligation to look at the damage done to families like the Thompson’s and Bartlett’s, who are devastated by having their loved ones ripped away from them in what is really a completely preventable crime. We owe it to them to get serious about taking these dangerous people off the streets.

Forty-five states have felony-DUI laws; of those only Washington requires five convictions within a 10-year period. Neighboring Oregon and Idaho require only three DUI convictions.

Senate Bill 5105 would make a fourth DUI conviction in 10 years a felony, meaning state prison rather than county jail.

For many of the family members of victims, this still does not go far enough, and I have to agree: by the time someone is caught driving under the influence three times, they have more than likely gotten away with it on dozens of other occasions.

But this bill is a significant step in the right direction. It puts those who drive drunk over and over again on notice that we take this crime seriously and will continue to work to protect lives and punish repeat offenders.

Lawmakers oppose Feds moving grizzly bears into Washington

Late last month, a bipartisan group of legislators from both the House and Senate sent a letter to the National Park Service asking that the federal government refrain from unilaterally moving grizzly bears into Washington’s North Cascades. Federal and state agencies are developing a plan to address the grizzly population within our state. Relocating bears from elsewhere into the North Cascades is one of the options being considered. Washington state law (RCW 77.12.035), though, is very clear: grizzly bears “shall not be transplanted or introduced into the state.” While I am an avid supporter of wildlife, moving grizzly bears here from other locations is the wrong choice for Washington. We are already experiencing a rapid growth in the wolf population. As a result, the state is dealing with difficult issues such as livestock damage, deer and elk impacts and safety concerns for humans and pets. Our letter urges the federal government to respect our state law on grizzly bear management and work with the state and our local communities to manage the grizzly population in a way that works best for the people of this state.

TeenPact visits Olympia

Last week I had the honor of sponsoring TeenPact’s visit to the Legislature.

TeenPact was founded with a mission to “train youth to understand the political process, value their liberty, defend the Christian faith, and engage in the culture at a time in their lives when, typically, they do not care about such things.” This remains their mission today.               

Students learn a lot participating as TeenPact “field agents.” They dig deep into the process of analyzing legislation. Drawing on the work that they have done during their pre-class homework, students work as a group to investigate current legislation, visit their bill room, and pull bills themselves, just as lawmakers do.

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