WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Rep. Sam Hunt’s Electronic Newsletter – June 3, 2013

Hi. As the special session drags on, we wait for the budget negotiations to come to a conclusion.  I get emails chiding us for the special session and saying that legislators love special sessions because it increases their pay and gives them more time in Olympia.  A special session is disrupting for legislators; many have jobs at home that require their attention; they rent apartments or rooms to stay in during session and most of those leases expire at the end of April.  They have families, children in school, vacations, and other responsibilities that are filled with the uncertainties of legislative action.  Nearly all of the legislators have been at home waiting for a call to come and vote, as we did in the House on Thursday, and that means staying in a hotel for at least one night for many.  You will find that a great majority of legislators are not collecting per diem during the special session.  So special sessions are not really very special for legislators.

Comments by Representatives Hunt and Reykdal on the special session and budget negotiations

At the halfway point of the legislative special session, the silence from Olympia has been noticeable.  As members of the House of Representatives, we are frustrated that there has been little movement toward a budget solution.

The only purpose of this special session should be passage of responsible budgets that improve funding for education, transportation, and provide family wage jobs.  We do not need to be held hostage by a series of so-called reform bills demanded by Senate Republicans.  It is time to act on the operating, capital and transportation revenue packages. 

The House passed a responsible operating budget and the revenues necessary to implement that budget.  It is time to address budget issues, pass them, and go home.

We are all in this together.  We know neither the House nor the Senate will get everything it wants.  That is where the art of compromise comes in.  The only way to get to solutions is for both sides to negotiate in good faith.  And so far, we have seen little action from the Senate Republicans in this area.

We need a balanced solution for our schools.  Let’s face it, the McCleary decision on K-12 funding was a game changer.  We are under court order and have the moral obligation to meet our paramount duty to fund education.  At the same time, we can’t cut the safety net in order to fund schools; hungry or sick children can’t learn, no matter how good their schools are.

Our children are a higher priority than continuing to hang on to outdated tax exemptions.  We support and voted for legislation closing a number of these outdated exemptions and directing these funds to support of our schools.  We choose to support our schools over outdated tax breaks.

Addressing the Supreme Court’s Bracken decision is another prime example of putting education funding above special interests. Rather than returning $160 million to 250 wealthy families, we again choose education over more money for the top one percent of our wealthy residents.

Washington is not a Tea Party state, and we should not let Tea Party politics set the priorities for the state of Washington.

Fixing the estate tax loophole

Washington state has had some form of an estate tax since 1901. By a landslide vote of 62 percent in 2006, Washington voters reaffirmed their support for the estate tax to provide much-needed funding for our public schools.

 

Currently, taxes are imposed on estates of $2 million or more, which affects roughly 300 wealthy families each year. These revenues go into the Education Legacy Trust account, which pays for things like lower class sizes, early learning, full-day kindergarten, and professional development for teachers.

In a recent Supreme Court ruling, the court said that married couples — but only married couples — could escape taxes on their estates altogether. The ruling, based purely on a technicality in state law, resulted in an unfair tax code. Wealthy singles and divorced couples would be required to pay the tax while married couples would be exempt.

As a result of this ruling, the state is required to take about $160 million from our kids’ classrooms and refund it to wealthy families starting as early as this week.  This isn’t what the Legislature or the voters intended when they approved the estate tax.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Last Thursday, the House approved House Bill 2064 that will fix the technicality by applying the estate tax fairly and equally to all estates over $2 million, regardless of the marital status.

But more importantly, it’ll save $160 million from leaving our classrooms.

This bill restores the voters’ original intent when they said “yes” to schools in 2006. I hope the Senate will send it to the Governor’s desk so he can sign it before it’s too late.

Treating mental illnesses before tragedies occur

It’s an absolute myth that all people with mental illnesses are dangerous.  The truth is that only a small percentage of those suffering from mental illnesses ever commit violent acts, but we’ve seen the tragedies that can occur when those few are not treated quickly and correctly. Last week, Governor Inslee approved several measures to improve mental health care and make Washington a safer place.

Among the reforms is a bill to speed-up the implementation of changes to the involuntary treatment law – funding the updates two years ahead of schedule.

Back in 2010, the Legislature OK’d new parameters for the involuntary commitment of people with pressing mental health issues. All too often after a tragedy, we hear from family members or friends who admit that they could see the capacity for violence – just not when or where it would occur.

The new approach takes important input from family members and friends into consideration when making a decision to commit. It also allows decision makers to take a close look at a person’s history of mental health behavior.

Other measures I supported and the Governor approved include:

▪    House Bill 1114 fills the gap between the criminal justice system and mental health care providers. It ensures that violent mental health offenders get the treatment they need, instead of ending up on the streets.

▪    House Bill 1519 brings accountability to the behavioral health delivery system. It requires consistent performance outcomes in contracts with service coordination organizations, ensuring that individuals will receive the best and most efficient care.

▪    Senate Bill 5732 will build a bridge between hospitals and the community for the mentally ill. It creates a step down from state hospitals that help folks beginning to transition back into day-to-day life. This isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s the cost-effective approach.

▪    Senate Bill 5551 gives county jails the tools they need to meet the growing demand for competency evaluations. Our county jails aren’t mental health care providers and, without adequate care, the mentally ill deteriorate rapidly in jail.

Understanding bridge jargon

Washington TV viewers watched in horror recently as an I-5 bridge collapsed into the Skagit River.  It was something of a miracle that only two cars ended up in the water and that there was no loss of life.

But the following days were filled with confusing descriptions that only led to more questions – what is the difference between “functionally obsolete” and “structurally deficient?”

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 Report Card for Washington’s Infrastructure provides definitions for this bridge-condition jargon:

Structurally Deficient (SD) bridges are in structurally deteriorated conditions and do not adequately carry their designed traffic loads. These bridges require significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement. Of the 7,743 bridges in our state, 391 are classified as SD. 

Functionally Obsolete (FO) bridges do not have adequate approach alignment, geometry, clearance, structural adequacy, or waterway adequacy to meet the current traffic needs or standards. In other words, they are effectively over the hill.

Examples are narrow lanes or low load-carrying capacity. FO bridges often tend to bottleneck traffic or lack many safety features. The Skagit River Bridge was built in 1955; it is one of the 1,548 Washington bridges classified as FO.

The Sufficiency Rating is a qualitative value that measures the bridge’s relative capability to serve its intended purpose. The value is generated from a formula that combines inspection data regarding structural adequacy and safety, serviceability, and functional obsolescence essential for public use and special conditions.

A sufficiency rating varies from 0 to 100. The Bridge Replacement Program requires a sufficiency rating of 80 or less to qualify for repair, and a sufficiency rating of 50 or less to qualify for replacement.

By the way, the I-5 bridge in Skagit County was functionally obsolete – not structurally deficient – and it had a sufficiency rating of 47.

This Department of Transportation page has more information on bridge conditions and ratings. The National Bridge Inventory Database has just about everything you ever wanted to know about every bridge in the nation.

Check out their data sheet for the 1-5 Skagit River Bridge.