Few, if any, members of the Washington state Legislature have been allowed to climb to the top of the state Capitol dome this century.
That will soon change.
A provision in the new capital budget requires 10 legislators be given a guided tour of the upper reaches of the historic building during the fiscal year that starts July 1. Another 10 must get the same opportunity in the following year.
“It’s a happy day for the institution,” said state Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, who’s been on a mission to ease restrictions that have boxed lawmakers out of the dome. It’s not right, he said, that lawmakers “cannot visit all the places they oversee.”
Schoesler recalled when he arrived in the Legislature in 1992, there were public tours to the loop walkway at the base of the dome and to the cupola. He was up there, along with former colleagues, and the late secretary of state, Ralph Munro, was the guide.
Some access restrictions took effect in 1996. After the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, there were repairs and seismic upgrades that took until 2004 to complete. The Department of Enterprise Services, which manages the Capitol grounds, would have likely restricted access further in that period, an agency spokesman said.
Rules imposed in 2007 effectively barred anyone except top agency officials and the Washington State Patrol from ascending anywhere near the top.
For several years, Schoesler has succeeded in getting language into the capital budget to provide elected leaders some degree of access. Each time, then Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed the provision, citing safety concerns.
It’s not an easy trek. To reach the dome, one must climb three types of metal stairs, with 266 steps in total, according to the Department of Enterprise Services’ policy restricting access. The majority of the path is up a steep, narrow, spiral staircase.
“The Olympia Fire Department has assessed this space in the past, and, among other issues, reported that it could not use a firefighter’s rescue technique in this space or use a gurney to assist an injured person,” Inslee wrote in his 2023 veto message.
Schoesler didn’t encounter opposition this year as the new governor, Bob Ferguson, left in his budget provision and the Department of Enterprise Services did not flag the fire department’s previous concerns.
This year’s wording is different from 2024.
The language vetoed last year would have allowed the director of the Department of Enterprise Services to shepherd any lawmaker and their guest to the peak of the century-old building. It did not cap the number of lawmakers who could make such a request.
This year’s version sets limits. The agency director “must provide an annual guided tour” to no more than 10 legislative members in each fiscal year. They may need to sign a release of liability form as a condition of participating.
The Department of Enterprise Services “is looking forward to working with both the Legislature and the executive branch in implementing dome access,” agency spokesman Adam Holdorf said in an email. And the agency “is working to update the policy on dome access accordingly.”
Oregon governor proposes using $160M from state’s ‘rainy day’ fund for wildfires
Alex Baumhardt / Washington State Standard
Desperate for money to get through the next two wildfire seasons and with few proposals on the table that could meet costs and get passed by the Oregon Legislature, Gov. Tina Kotek is proposing to skim some money off of the state’s “rainy day” fund.
Kotek at a news conference Monday proposed taking $161 million of interest income from the state’s nearly $1.9 billion budget reserve fund — meant to help the state smooth out revenue or expense fluctuations in times of economic downturn or recession — to provide funding for wildfire response and mitigation for the 2025-27 biennium to mitigation readiness.
“We have only just weeks left in the session — days — without an immediate path for an ongoing funding mechanism. I urge the Legislature to identify as much one-time funding as they can,” she said. “I see no reason why they can’t get that at least done.”
The 2025 fire season has already started, and Kotek last week declared a conflagration for the Rowena Fire near The Dalles, which has burned more than 3,500 acres and destroyed 56 homes. And federal aid for fires remains in doubt, as the Trump administration has pushed for states to shoulder more of the costs of responding to natural disasters.
Kotek asked the Legislature for more than a year to come up with a reliable and consistent funding mechanism to support statewide wildfire work but has so far not received any proposals that come close to meeting her desired target of an additional $150 million per year and can get the bipartisan support needed to pass.
She recently began signaling her support for using a portion of the expected $1.64 billion “kicker” tax rebate for wildfire funding, despite declining to consider it in the past. The rebate is sent back to Oregonians when actual revenue the state collects, including income taxes, exceeds the two-year revenue forecast by 2% or more.
But any bill to change the kicker requires a two-thirds supermajority vote in each chamber, meaning at least two Senate Republicans and four House Republicans would need to approve along with all legislative Democrats.
A recent proposal from Sen. Jeff Golden that would use $1 billion of the kicker for wildfire funding and send the remaining $650 million to Oregonians earning less than $95,000 a year would meet Kotek’s desire for sustained funding. The $1 billion would be put into an interest-bearing account that could, if earning 5% each year, send $100 million each biennium to the state for wildfire — covering about one-third of the total $300 million the state hopes to budget each biennium.
But Kotek said she doubted Golden’s measure was feasible
“I don’t think legislative leaders have the votes to take a portion of the kicker,” Kotek said.
This article was first published by Oregon Capital Chronicle, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.
