Even in minority, local lawmakers have some success

OLYMPIA _ Hope springs eternal in Ritzville, it seems.

Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, introduced more bills this year – 20 – than any of the region’s 15 other lawmakers.

“Part of the ability to succeed in the minority is the small things that are important to one of your counties or agriculture or education,” Schoesler said.

Some were routine legislative attaboys, honoring the Asotin or St. John-Endicott football teams. One would have given a tax break on labor and services for repairing farm equipment. Arguably the most significant was a cap on state college-tuition increases.

In the House, meanwhile, Rep. David Buri, R-Colfax, spent much of the session choreographing – and sometimes leading – the debate between majority Democrats and minority Republicans. And like most freshman, Rep. Steve Hailey, R-Mesa, introduced few bills.

The district, which includes both Washington State University and Eastern Washington University, is a perennial magnet for tens of millions of state construction dollars. But the same budget also included some smaller local items: $160,000 to fix the Lions’ Hall roof in Ritzville, according to Schoesler, and $2 million for a groundwater study in Adams, Lincoln and Grant counties. Palouse will get $210,000 for rail line repairs in a street, and Colfax’s McDonald Park will get $150,000 for ballfield lights.

One of Buri’s main goals was a bill that he didn’t even sponsor: Senate Bill 5408. Under the state’s controversial new “pick-a-party” primary, some voters correctly vote for only one party’s candidates, then forget or refuse to check off a box declaring which party’s primary they’re voting in. Last year, thousands of such votes didn’t count. Under the bill – now signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire – those votes would count.

Here are some of the bills they sponsored:

Buri

“HB 2251: Making it easier to create a cemetery district. Failed, but Buri said he’ll work the bill – aimed partly at maintaining pioneer cemeteries – again next year.

“HB 1914: Boosting the minimum threshold for bidding out work at colleges from $25,000 to $50,000. Failed.

“HB 1543: Allowing local taxes to pay for local economic development officials. Passed the Legislature.

Hailey

“HR 4651: Honoring Medal of Honor Recipient Lt. Col. Bruce Crandall, who, like Hailey, was an Army pilot in the Vietnam War. Passed the Legislature.

“HB 1938: Would have declared that using part of a water right – rather than all of it – is enough to retain the water right. Failed.

Schoesler

“SB 5806: Capping tuition increases at a maximum of 7 percent a year. Passed, signed into law by the governor.

“SB 5315: Setting up a process to allow residents to access their property during a wildfire in order to retrieve belongings or protect their property from the oncoming blaze. Schoesler said the bill was based on a Columbia County case in which a farmer was jailed for trying to get to his land to bulldoze a fire break. Passed the Legislature.

“SB 5569: Exempting public schools from sales and use taxes on heating oil. Failed.

“SB 5337: Raising the public-bidding threshold for fire districts from $2,500 to $10,000. Failed.

“SB 5113: Allowing people to add barley straw to ponds and lakes to suppress algae growth, without requiring a state waste-discharge permit. Passed, and signed into law by the governor.