Small Town News

Were not in Wisconsin

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Editor, the Journal

Across the nation, it seems like partisanship is at an all-time high. State legislatures like Wisconsin are engulfed in bitter political battles, while a federal government shutdown looms in our nation's capital. This week we are scheduled to have one of the largest demonstrations in history at our own state capitol in Olympia.

In the midst of all this divisiveness, there is still plenty of bipartisanship to be found. In fact, here in Washington state legislators are coming together to make responsible decisions in these most challenging times.

It began early in this year's legislative session. Democrats and Republicans in the state House unanimously passed legislation to help both businesses and those seeking employment. The bill also cleared the Senate on a strong bipartisan vote, and was signed by the Governor in February.

This bill reduced unemployment insurance premiums for 90 percent of businesses in our state, a $300 million reduction. At the same time, those who find themselves out of work in 2011 get a temporary boost in their unemployment benefits. The increase, which amounts to an extra $100 a month, will help many families that are struggling to pay the bills.

The passage of this measure is great news; that we passed it unanimously shows that here in Washington we can rise above partisanship and put people first.

But the cooperation hasn't ended there.

The House also passed a sweeping Labor and Industries (L&I) reform package also on a bipartisan basis. This includes a measure increasing the efficiency of claims management by allowing employers in the Retrospective program to administer and close some injured-worker claims.

Perhaps most notably, House legislators on both sides of the aisle came together to allow state corrections officers to collectively bargain for measures that will improve on-the-job safety.

Acting on information supplied to me by corrections officers, I had been pushing the legislature to address these important safety issues. The tragic death of Jayme Biendl, a corrections officer at the Monroe prison, underscored the need to take action. Those who work within our prison system, including many Mason County residents who work at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, deserve to have a safe working environment.

While the future of this legislation in the Senate is unclear, Washington is addressing the safety of our corrections officers on a bipartisan basis, rallying around workers who do one of the most dangerous jobs in the state.

Clearly, we're not Wisconsin.

Make no mistake, our hardest work lies ahead. By law we must balance our budget, and that might require a special session. Disagreements on how we should address our problems are to be expected and are as old as our nation itself. But there is more we agree on than disagree.

The elimination of "waste, fraud, and abuse" where we find it should come first. Because of the two-thirds requirement, whether you like it or not, it is highly unlikely that any new taxes will be passed and few, if any, corporate loopholes will be closed. There simply are not the votes.

The five billion in cuts we have already made over the past couple of years have negatively impacted our social service safety net and our schools.

But we must cut more. We still have a budget shortage of over five billion dollars.

To put it in perspective, we could mothball every prison in our state and lay off every single corrections worker, and we'd only have solved about a third of the shortfall. We could shut down every single two- and four-year college in the state, and still be down by two and a half billion dollars. We could lay off every single state worker and zero out their benefits, and we'd still be over a billion dollars in the hole.

That's what we're facing.

I believe we're on the right track in addressing these enormous challenges together. There is more bipartisanship this year than I've witnessed previously in my brief time in the legislature. At a time when public mistrust of government is at an all-time high, Washingtonians should know that their legislators are acting responsibly and often on a bipartisan basis to balance a difficult budget in difficult times.

Rep. Fred Finn



Copyright 2011 Shelton-Mason County Journal, Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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