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Greetings Friends and
Neighbors,
The 2017 legislative
session ended over the weekend and today marks the beginning of a special session. Although the Senate has approved a balanced and funded budget, we have
been waiting for the House Democrats to come to the table with an actual,
complete budget proposal. They have a spending wish list, but have failed to
pass the necessary $8 billion in tax increases to pay for it. With the state
expecting $3 billion more in revenue through a combination of stable tax rates and
increased economic activity, leaders of the House majority should be
negotiating within the resources the state actually has. Instead, it appears
that they are forcing the Legislature into another so-called “special”
session.
Inaction is not new for the House. There have been several
pressing issues facing the Legislature this year that they have failed to act
on.
Despite bipartisan support and heart-wrenching stories from
people around the state, the Democrat-controlled House did nothing to bring
relief to families in need of water from small, household wells. My
legislation, Senate Bill 5239, would have reversed the Supreme Court’s shortsighted
Hirst decision, which has placed
rural communities in jeopardy by prohibiting the installation of domestic wells
without costly studies.
The chair of the Senate’s Capital Budget recently sat down
for an interview with the state’s public-access channel to discuss his work,
and made it clear that rural communities must have a Hirst fix before any movement on the budget. You can watch that
interview here.
Helping small
business, energy consumers and more!
This legislative session I had several bills make their way
to the Governor’s desk and become law. Just the other day, Senate Bill 5343 was
signed which made changes to state law concerning car-impound notifications. Read
more…
Senate Bill 5808, signed this past Monday, creates
protections for agritourism businesses. These are often small farms that open
their operations to the public such as Christmas-tree farms and pumpkin
patches. These operations represent an increasingly popular and viable revenue
stream for our agricultural producers. Read
more…
On Wednesday the governor signed another one of my bills, Senate Bill 5261 that was sponsored in the House by my seatmate, Rep. Tom Dent. The new law would enable irrigation districts to enter into public-private
partnerships for new energy infrastructure, including hydroelectric
projects. This is a good piece of bipartisan legislation that is going to
create jobs and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our
irrigation-district systems. Read more...
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My Video Update
This time of year is busy as we are working on the Senate
floor approving bills that have made their way through the final stages of the
legislative process. During a break in the action, I took an opportunity to
make this video update discussing the legislative session. Please click here to watch.
Afraid of Taxes
The Senate didn’t need
new taxes to balance our new 2017-19 budget proposal, which will fund education
and other critical state services. We relied on the considerable amount of additional
new revenue – about $3 billion more – expected to come into the state treasury through the combination of stable tax rates
and increased economic activity.
The House spending
proposal, in contrast, is predicated on $8 billion in taxes. It can’t be
considered a real budget because the House majority is unwilling to vote for
the new taxes necessary to implement their proposal.
In an effort to
get past posturing by the House majority and initiate serious negotiations
toward a new state budget, our Senate majority introduced the same tax increases
that the House and governor support in their spending plans. We wanted to bring
them to a vote and see if there really is an appetite for raising taxes among
any Democrat lawmakers in Olympia. As we expected, the Senate’s minority
Democrats did everything they could to stave off votes on increasing taxes. You
can watch the proceedings here.
I’m pleased the
Senate minority agreed with our position that new taxes are not necessary.
Whether their Democrat colleagues in the House will now come to the table and
negotiate during the upcoming special session remains to be seen.
 Honoring our Police
We received news yesterday that police officers were shot in the line of duty in Seattle. Thankfully, it appears that their injuries were not life threatening. My cousin, who serves in the State Patrol, visited us in Olympia, and the news was a stark reminder of the danger our law enforcement faces to keep us all safe. The Senate took a moment of silence as the events happened to keep those officers, their families and all police in our thoughts and prayers.
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It is an honor to serve as your state Senator. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your state government. Please watch your email, as I look forward to providing you with regular updates
throughout the session.
 Judy Warnick,
13th District Senator
Contact Me
Olympia Office:
103 Irv Newhouse Bldg.
P.O. Box 40410
Olympia, WA 98504
Olympia Phone:
360.786.7624
District
Phone:
509.766.6505
E-mail:
Judith.Warnick@leg.wa.gov
Website:
Click here to visit my website
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