As I write this week, it appears unlikely the Legislature will finish its business in the special session and will try another. The Senate passed a budget using the monies and priorities that seemed reasonable and didn’t need to raise taxes.
The House of Representatives’ proposed budget will cut funding for sex offender notifications programs, early release for high risk juvenile sex offenders, and provide better health care for special commitment sex offenders than most of those who have to pay for it.
It cuts funding supporting families dealing with hearing loss, while funding Public Art Portal to help make it easier for citizens to locate public art.
C’mon, can’t they just use their free smartphone to Google public art we shouldn’t have paid for and find it that way?
It’s hard to understand how cutting the Sex Offender Notification Program, or letting high-risk juvenile sex offenders out early makes sense to them?
I guess they have forgotten the victims that led to those programs in the first place.
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Meanwhile Republican Sen. Jan Angel asks a good question: “What on Earth is keeping us here?” Nothing more than raising taxes despite having a 9.2 percent increase in tax revenue.
It’s just not enough, I guess.
That’s the problem; it’s never enough for some of them.
If we object to what they take in the form of an initiative, some of them sue us and a friendly court supports them — not us.
Same court by the way that also wants more money, reluctantly of course. They felt bad and everything, but did it anyway.
The Senate’s proposed budget spends enough — the House should pass it and go home.
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On a related note, I read local papers when I travel to see just how different other places may be from home and find there’s isn’t much. Recently I was passing through Nevada and picked up the May 28 Reno Gazette. It looked like their Legislature was also in session and wrestling with issues, including education.
Its Senate passed a bill allowing a family up to $5,000 under certain conditions to opt out of public schools, and attend a private school, including private religious schools or home schooling.
This was described as one of the most “extreme shifts toward school choice.”
I suppose wanting your child to get the best education with your money, spent as you think best, is extreme. Still, it sounds like a good idea especially given the article also says Nevada schools are among the worst performing and have been for years.
Democratic Sen. Joyce Woodhouse “warned this would take money out of public schools when funding should be increased.” (code for take more money from parents, to put into failing schools)
Democratic Sen. Pat Spearman said, “This is a ploy by those who deplore public education and want to destroy it.” She went on to add, “We might as well just throw the money out the window.”
She didn’t say who “they” are, but maybe “they” just want the best for kids? Maybe they’re tired of sending them to a failing public school?
Maybe “they” want to do something different and how could parents possibly do any worse than the elected officials and bureaucrats who have had total control of the money and a school monopoly for years?
I’ll bet the teachers unions will sue and their friendly courts will toss this kind of thinking out. Can’t have school choice like this because this really puts the control in the hands of the parents, not giant bureaucracies. Can’t have that.
Just imagine if we had that kind of control over other some other functions of our government?
If they had to ask us to actually write them a check, they’d never forget who pays for all this stuff.
Now imagine pigs flying … neither’s going to happen.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis, and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@yahoo.com.
