The Capitol Building is seen Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, in Olympia.
As the Legislature gears up to begin its 2019 session next week, local lawmakers are readying to head to Olympia with a slew of area priorities on their agenda.
Chief among them are flooding projects, expanding rural broadband, mental health and the state’s budget.
FLOODING
Like most elected officials in the region, state legislators say they’re keenly focused on the flooding that has devastated the Chehalis Basin in the past and poses a continued threat. With a number of entities working on the issue — the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, the Office of the Chehalis Basin, the Chehalis River Basin Flood Control Zone District — lawmakers say they want to make sure they have the funding they need to continue the planning and projects on their agendas.
“I definitely want to keep moving forward on (a proposed dam for flood) retention, but obviously there are other projects that we’re going to need to be doing as well,” said state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama.
State Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, said that progress on flooding projects “moves slower than anything,” but this year’s agenda included some big water infrastructure projects.
“That’s of big importance,” he said.
Sen. Dean Takko, D-Longview, represents the 19th District, downstream of the worst of the Chehalis River flood damage, but said he’s supportive of the the issue as well.
“Those rivers go right on down into Grays Harbor,” he said. “Whatever you do upstream affects things downstream. I certainly support funding those to the degree that’s reasonable.”
Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, and Reps. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, and Brian Blake, D-Longivew, could not be reached for comment.
BROADBAND
Both Orcutt and DeBolt are pushing bills that they believe will help expand broadband internet access to rural areas of Washington, which they say is key for growing economic opportunity.
Orcutt’s bill would allow rural counties to keep a portion of the state sales tax to help fund the “last mile” infrastructure that remains an expensive obstacle to reaching rural areas.
“I thought that bill was going to move (last year), but then it just stalled at the last minute,” he said. “(Gov. Jay Inslee’s) office has expressed some interest in moving forward. … This is expanding the grid out and getting that connectivity into the rural areas. That’s what our focus really needs to be, getting the infrastructure extended.”
Meanwhile, DeBolt’s proposal takes a different approach. The “reverse auction” proposal would award state funding for broadband infrastructure development in rural areas, with projects awarded to the lowest bidders from the private sector.
“This year the governor’s supporting it,” he said. “We’ll get that passed, and that will be a good bill. … It drives prices way down to serve underserved areas.”
MENTAL HEALTH
Another focus this session — and not a new concern — is mental health, which covers a broad spectrum of related issues that include addiction, homelessness and housing.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff we need to do in mental health,” Takko said, noting that nursing shortages, housing problems, homelessness and mental health form a complex “nexus” of issues that aren’t easily solved.
Takko also said the Legislature will need to address the troubled Western State Hospital, which lost its accreditation in June. Inslee has proposed building a new replacement mental health facility at a cost of about $500 million.
Takko, Orcutt and Braun attended a legislative forum on mental health in December put on by Cascade Mental Health Care.
“A lot of that came down to housing,” Orcutt said. “It sounds like some of the places that money is going is not accomplishing the objectives. … I’m certainly willing to work with anybody on ways of doing that.”
DeBolt said he’s eager to work on the issue as well.
“We want to do what we can to support mental health issues and to support Cascade and our community,” he said. “We have a bunch of bills around addiction and mental health that are being looked at.”
BUDGET
Inslee has proposed a budget of $54.4 billion for the upcoming biennium, which is an increase of about 20 percent of current state spending. That would be partially funded by a new tax on capital gains, which drew sharp opposition from the lawmakers who spoke with The Chronicle.
“It’s one-party (Democratic) control, so it’s not going to be the best fiscally constrained budget that we’ve ever seen,” DeBolt said. “My goal is to pass a budget that’s fiscally responsible. … I just want to include the priorities of rural Washington.”
Orcutt echoed that sentiment.
“I want to make sure that when we’re writing budgets we’re doing it with existing revenue,” he said. “(Inslee) should be putting forth a budget that’s balanced within existing revenues, and I’m very disappointed he’s coming out with a proposal that adds a burden to taxpayers.”
In December, Braun issued a statement on Inslee’s budget.
“If budgets are a statement of priorities, it’s clear the governor will always choose to spend more without considering the effect on taxpayers or the results we achieve,” he said.
Even Takko, a Democrat, had reservations about the proposal.
“I don’t know that the votes are there,” he said. “I’m not a big supporter of it. … I don’t know that the governor’s ideas for revenue are going to get a lot of traction.”
All of the legislators said they are looking for local priorities to fit into the budget, but noted that there’s always more need than there is funding available.
OTHER ISSUES
Orcutt mentioned that he is focused on improving transportation, including improving Exit 72 on Interstate 5 and working to put electric vehicle charging stations on U.S. Highway 12.
Takko is working on a proposal to trade out county trust lands that currently can’t be logged due to the endangered marbled murrelet, in hopes of generating more revenue. Both legislators mentioned continued work on the state’s school funding structure, following the state Supreme Court’s McCleary Decision and the subsequent funding package that led to teacher strikes across the state.
Meanwhile, the polarizing political issues that have long been debated are sure to surface as well.
“There’s a lot of bills being filed on climate and carbon and clean energy, as well as a lot of bills being filed on guns,” Takko said. “Those are things that can kind of get emotional.”
