Dear friends and neighbors,
As the fourth week of session begins, I’m grateful for the opportunity to share this update with you. As always, please let me know if there are issues you’d like to see addressed in these updates.
Anacortes firefighters to the rescue
It’s always exciting when people come down from our district to visit, and yesterday we had some extra excitement. When someone collapsed during a meeting in a neighboring office, several firefighters came to his rescue. He was fine, and we were all glad to have had help close at hand. A huge “thank you” to our firefighters for their quick help yesterday and for all they do!
Some of my early legislation
While my prime focus remains on the budget, I’d like to highlight some of the other legislation I’ve been working on.
- HB 1212 which would authorize the Department of Agriculture to receive donations from private or public sources and use them to assist the agency’s food safety programs passed through the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
- HB 1306 was passed out of the Transportation Committee last week and would extend current legislation granting agribusiness commercial drivers a temporary exemption from the commercial driver’s license (CDL) course-work requirements. In our district, where agriculture is a significant part of the economy, this bill would eliminate a burdensome requirement formerly placed on agribusiness.
- HB 1274, which I cosponsored, was passed by the Local Government Committee this week. This bill would raise the population threshold for rural public hospital districts so they can continue entering into cooperative agreements with one another to help meet district needs. This is essential to provide necessary medical services to small communities with limited resources.
If you would like to discuss the bills I’m currently working on or have ideas for new legislation, please feel free to email or call my office at 360.786.7800.
Help is on the way for those facing foreclosure
As noted recently, our state is among many in the nation that continue to struggle in this Great Recession. One of the most unfortunate by-products of a depressed economy is that thousands of families cannot pay their mortgages and are at risk of losing their homes.
A couple of years ago we passed a law that requires the lender and homeowner to “meet and confer” before proceeding with foreclosure, but we’ve learned this is not happening in most cases. This year I am cosponsoring HB 1362, which would strengthen that requirement by making strategic changes to the existing law.
The most important change is that the meeting must be in person and the lender must work together with the homeowner to consider other options. If no agreement is reached during that meeting, the homeowner can request a foreclosure mediation to explore all the possibilities to avoid foreclosure, such as a loan modification.
This approach has been tried in other states and is working well. In Nevada, for instance, nearly nine out of ten have avoided foreclosure. This system is certainly worth trying in our state.
Unemployment Insurance Reform: Good for businesses, good for workers
There are few places where we’ll have the ability to bolster our state’s social safety net in this biennial budget. One of the only bright spots is the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system and trust fund, which supports the thousands of unemployed workers – and the local businesses that rely on their patronage – in Washington.
As part of her plan to revitalize the economy and create jobs, Governor Gregoire has called for massive tax relief for businesses contributing to the UI trust fund. It’s estimated the proposal would save employers in Washington around $300 million. But let’s not forget about the families also hit hard by this recession. The UI program’s paramount duty is to assist workers displaced by a poor economy. It’s there to help them and their families get by until they can get back to work.
What businesses need now more than anything is business. They need consumers shopping in their stores and buying their wares. It is well-established economic fact that the quickest and most effective way to funnel money back to businesses is to put it in the pockets of those who need it most – the families who’ve lost their employment. These families struggling to buy food or clothes or school supplies take that money and head to the nearest grocery and clothing stores to buy the necessities. They, in turn, help keep that store afloat.
Currently, the proposals before us are still in flux as we weigh the merits and find some balance between tax cuts for businesses and benefits for the unemployed. No matter what the outcome of this legislation, I want to make sure employers receive the tax relief they want and the consumers they need to spur new economic growth right here in our community.
As always, thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns with me. I am proud to be your representative, and I value all of the input that I receive.
Kristine