Twentieth district lawmakers on Tuesday held a “telephone town hall” that was listened to by about 4,800 citizens.
Speaking from the Capitol Campus in Olympia, Rep. Ed Orutt, R-Kalama, Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, and Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, answered questions on topics including healthcare, education, transportation, flooding and marijuana.
A man who identified himself as Dave from Lewis County asked the legislators about a proposed state gas tax increase.
“I don’t get it,” he told them. “Why not just cut back on the budgets?”
Orcutt, who has sat on the House Transportation Committee for a little over a year, said he is focused on keeping the Department of Transportation accountable.
He and other members of his caucus hope to ensure that DOT projects are finished on time, under budget and without costly errors.
“I am pushing back on that, I know it’s very difficult for people to afford any tax increase,” Orcutt said.
A man identifying himself as Norman from Rochester later asked about tax dollars going to Seattle-area ferries and buses.
Orcutt responded that, unfortunately, many legislators continue to push for vehicle registration fees to go to, “Pretty much everything other than roads — buses, bike pads, all those other things.”
“We’re continuing to push back,” he said, “Telling them, ‘This doesn’t make sense, why are people in Toledo, people in Rochester, Castle Rock paying for bus service in Seattle?’”
According to Orcutt, bus fare covers about 25 percent of the transportation system’s costs.
“The people riding the bus should pay more,” he said. “They’re certainly saving on gas, they’re saving on parking in Seattle. They could pay a few more dollars to ride the bus each day.”
Braun added that he and other members of his caucus are trying to increase transportation decisions at the local level.
“Let the cities and counties prioritize,” he said. “We think this is a better way to ensure money gets spent in a way local citizens best approve.”
A called named Katie, from Silver Lake, said she is an educator in Oakville and asked the legislators what they are doing to increase funding for students and teachers.
With a $1.5 billion increase in funding to education over the last biennium, Washington has already made strides, Braun responded.
“But we still have a lot to do,” he said.
Finding an effective way to provide the money, without burdening the taxpayer, is the challenge. Once the money is found, it must be used wisely, he said.
Early education and higher education, as well as K-12, need money.
“We’ve gotten a little ways there, we have a long way to go,” he said. “We need to look at education across the continuum.”
Others callers on Tuesday night dialed in simply to vent: A local trucker and World War II veteran, for example, expressed his displeasure with the direction the government has taken the country.
“I’ve lived a long time, and from what I’ve seen in the course of my life, we have never ever been in such a horrible state as we are now — ever,” he said.
