Mccaslin Blames Democrats For Futile Session

The 60-day legislative session was a waste of taxpayers’ money, according to Spokane Valley Sen. Bob McCaslin.

McCaslin, a Republican, said the best thing about the session is it brings next year and the possibility of a GOP-controlled Senate closer.

Of the 14 bills proposed by McCaslin, only two were voted on in the Senate and went on to the House.

The majority of his bills would have changed the way state and local government is run. This is not surprising as McCaslin was the chairman of the Government Operations committee when Republicans were in control of the Senate.

Now out of power by a thin, one-vote margin in the Senate, McCaslin and other Republicans are at the mercy of committee chairs from the other side of the aisle to have their bills heard.

“It’s the philosophy that was killed by the Democrats,” McCaslin said. The Democrats fought against bills that would have curbed government controls, McCaslin said.

The long-serving senator had his efforts repeatedly blocked in the Government Operations committee by the chairwoman, making it nearly impossible to pass even the simplest of bills.

In one example, the chairwoman, Sen. Mary Margret Haugen, refused to hear a bill to grant the right of initiative and referendum to Spokane County saying there wasn’t enough time.

“There’s always enough time,” McCaslin said. “When I was committee chair, if I liked a bill, we would pass it out and hear it the same day.”

McCaslin backed the bill sponsored by Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane Valley. The measure, HB2367, had passed the House unanimously.

Sen. Gene Prince, R-Thornton, said the Government Operations committee was marked with partisan clashes.

“If I was trying to get things through that committee, I would face the same fate,” Prince said. “When you talk about Government Operations, you are talking about a committee with two widely differing points of view.”

The canyon separating the two sides is best demonstrated in the area of growth management which is overseen by the Government Operations committee, McCaslin said.

“Mary Margret Haugen thinks the Growth Management Act is a great plan,” McCaslin said.

The Growth Management Act as passed in 1991 greatly expanded the state’s power over how counties zoned their land. It’s intention was to accommodate future growth in a manner that would work for the private sector and would not endanger the environment.

McCaslin has decried GMA as government overstepping its bounds. The act has reduced options for landowners and has in some cases, greatly reduced property values, McCaslin said.

One of McCaslin’s measures would have expanded county authority in relation to the act. This move for local control was rebuffed by the committee and never made it to a vote.

Another bill that would have compensated land owners for property taken as part of a short plat agreement and not immediately used suffered the same fate.

In the next session, McCaslin said he plans to revive many of his measures that were killed.

He also plans to support Rep. Mark Sterk, R-Spokane Valley, in his move to ban alcohol from the capitol campus.

Many voters were angered by newspaper reports of last-day drinking by state legislators some of whom were clearly inebriated, McCaslin said.

“I came home and the first constituent I saw said ‘You really had a wild party down there!”’ McCaslin said. “We might as well get rid of the stuff.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo