4th District House candidates offer different agendas

In the 4th Legislative District, an eight-year incumbent and the Democrat who is challenging her offered divergent perspectives on a number of issues at a candidates forum Thursday night.

Ed Foote is taking his second run against Republican Rep. Lynn Schindler for the Position 2 seat in the state House of Representatives after losing a bid for the seat in 2004.

Topics at the forum, sponsored by the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, ranged from cooperation among local governments to economic development in the region.

“Washington has to figure out how to be less onerous on businesses,” Schindler said. Many companies – and the jobs that go with them – are choosing to locate in Idaho or elsewhere because of laws that make it more expensive to do business here, she said.

Foote focused on incentives, saying the state should offer tax breaks to companies that offer living-wage jobs and benefits. He added that tax breaks are also in order for companies that use or produce alternative forms of energy such as biofuels.

Also, the region should seek out more grant money for medical research, which has driven job growth elsewhere in the state, he said.

Health care has been a focus of the Foote campaign, and there was a sharp contrast between the candidates in how to make it affordable.

In South Korea, Foote worked as an English teacher and took advantage of an inexpensive government health care program.

“If that country can do that, we can do that far better,” he said.

State-run health care is not the answer, said Schindler, who instead pointed to the number of mandates the state places on insurance providers. Reducing them would allow companies to offer a broader range of affordable health plans to people in the state, she said.

When the discussion turned to local transportation, Schindler pointed out her strategy to push for incremental funding in Olympia for a north-south Spokane freeway every year. On light rail, her position was simple: She opposes it.

Even if local and federal money becomes available to build the system, she is skeptical about funding its operating expense.

“The state can’t help you subsidize it; we don’t have the money,” Schindler said.

Foote, a member of a group supporting light rail, said the costs to build a light rail system are miniscule compared to cost estimates on the north-south freeway.

Pointing to the streetcar systems of Spokane’s past, Foote said the transportation and economic development benefits of the train would make it well worth it.

“I think light rail is going to be huge,” he said.

The 4th District includes Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake. Schindler’s conservative platform has been popular with her constituents in the past, and the district has sent only Republicans to Olympia since 1994.

Foote in the past has listed his patience and determination as among the reasons voters should consider him in November.

Candidates for county sheriff also took part in the debate, focusing many of their responses on each other’s qualifications for the position. County Commissioner Phil Harris fielded several questions about county governance, and a representative for Bonnie Mager, his Democratic opponent, read a statement on her behalf because the forum conflicted with a previously scheduled fundraiser.