Tag Archives: Email Updates

Rep. MacEwen’s Legislative Update: Jan. 16, 2018

Another legislative session is under way, and we have a lot of work to do. As you likely know by now, Democrats won a special election back in November, giving them control of the state Senate. They now hold slim majorities in both chambers (50-48 in the House, 25-24 in the Senate).

Based on the split control that has existed in the Legislature over the past five years, it is evident voters have wanted the two parties to work together. And that is largely what we have done. In this period of time, the House and Senate delivered some outstanding results for the people of Washington state.

Unfortunately, while the Legislature worked together in a bipartisan fashion, Gov. Inslee continued to advocate for policies that would irresponsibly increase spending and hike taxes. His 2018 supplemental operating budget proposal continues that trend. While the state is projected to have a $694 million ending fund balance by 2021 (consider this cash in the bank), the governor’s budget proposal calls for spending that money, hiking taxes by $1.5 billion and taking $476 million from our state’s rainy day fund. That is not a responsible budget.

I was also disappointed by the governor’s State of the State address last week. He talked a lot about climate change, but did not mention a word about the state Supreme Court’s Hirst decision, which has put the livelihoods of thousands of rural Washingtonians in serious jeopardy.

As long as a Hirst fix remains in limbo, an estimated $37 billion in property value will be lost, along with $6.9 billion in economic contributions — predominantly from those in rural areas. I believe the governor missed an opportunity to bring the Legislature together when he neglected to talk about Hirst, opting instead to only talk about the importance of passing a capital budget.

Let me be clear: House Republicans will not abandon rural residents by settling for a short-term Hirst fix. We want to pass a capital budget, but it is vital that we bring peace-of-mind and certainty to those who have been affected by this disastrous court ruling.

House Republican Reps. Vincent Buys and Jim Walsh wrote an op-ed in The Seattle Times last week on Hirst, which I encourage you to read. Here is an excerpt:

“We continue to work toward a permanent, bipartisan solution that would allow counties to rely on the state’s designated water resource manager to determine the legal availability of water for the purposes of the Growth Management Act. This solution would remove the double layer of bureaucracy imposed by the state Supreme Court and allow a family to build a home based on a well report, as has historically been the case, instead of expensive and unnecessary hydrology studies.”

Once a solid Hirst fix is approved in both chambers and signed into law by the governor, we will be able to pass a capital budget. But not a second before.

Two major bills I have introduced this session

Below is a brief summary of two bills I have introduced this session. I welcome your feedback on them and look forward to discussing them with you further as session progresses.

House Bill 2260 would ban Atlantic salmon farming in marine waters regulated by Washington state. In August, a net pen containing 305,000 Atlantic salmon collapsed near Cypress Island, allowing more than half of the salmon to escape into Puget Sound. It was the fourth such incident since 1996. I believe enough is enough. It simply does not make sense to continue allowing Atlantic salmon farms to operate in our state. These salmon pose serious risks to our native Pacific salmon with regard to competition for resources, and also threaten the survival of Pacific juveniles. It is time to close these farms and put strong policies in place that allow our native salmon populations to thrive.

House Bill 2270 would bring an end to the Legislature’s overreliance on special sessions by changing the state’s fiscal year to coincide with the end of regular session. Special sessions are a waste of your time and money, and I find it embarrassing we’ve needed 10 of them in the past five years to complete our work. This bill will ensure we no longer use special sessions as a crutch year after year.

On air with KMAS’s Jeff Slakey

Last session, I had the opportunity to appear weekly on Jeff Slakey’s “Daybreak!” program on KMAS radio. I am happy to say I have that same opportunity again this year, and will be live on air with Jeff every Wednesday morning at 8:15 a.m. during session. To listen to these interviews, as well as my other audio, I invite you to visit my SoundCloud page. Here is last week’s appearance on KMAS:

Sponsoring legislative page, Benjamin Rogers

During the first week of session, I had the honor of sponsoring Evergreen Christian School student Benjamin Rogers as a page here in the state House. While serving as a page, Benjamin attended page school every day, delivered messages and documents to legislators and staff, and fulfilled other tasks critical to the efficient operation of the Legislature. Thank you for your service to the Legislature, Benjamin!

If you know of a student between the ages of 14 and 16 who is interested in becoming a legislative page, please send me an email and I will get in touch with more information.

Weekly meetings

In the interest of full transparency, I will be providing PDFs of my weekly meetings this session. Click here for a list of meetings I held or attended last week.

Capitol Buzz

Every weekday morning, House Republican communications staff compiles the Capitol Buzz, a daily summary of online news clips from across the state, discussing policies and politics affecting Washington state. I believe it is a valuable resource and encourage you to sign up for it here.

Contacting me

Please feel free to contact me anytime with any questions, comments or concerns you may have. My email address is drew.macewen@leg.wa.gov, and my phone number is (360) 786-7902. I look forward to hearing from you!

It is an honor to serve you in the state House.

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Interim Legislative Update: November 29, 2017

I hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving with family and friends! I want to thank you for taking a moment out of your day to learn about what I’ve been up to and what I’m focused on as we get closer to the start of the 2018 legislative session. It’s hard to believe it’s just 40 days away.

Last month, I was named co-chair and executive member of the Joint Committee on Veterans’ and Military Affairs, a legislative committee I’ve served on since 2013. In this new role, I’ll have the opportunity to work alongside my co-chair, Sen. Steve Conway, and other committee members to make recommendations to the Legislature on how to best address active military forces issues and better serve our veterans. The bipartisan committee, which consists of four state legislators from each caucus, also plays an important role in ensuring the security and preparedness of Washington state during emergencies. As our nation continues to face threats from around the globe, the continued involvement of the committee in our state’s emergency preparedness is critical.

Also playing an important role in our nation’s security will be the U.S. Navy’s newest Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, the USS Washington. On Saturday, Oct. 7, I was on hand to witness the commissioning of the submarine — the third Navy ship to be commissioned with a name honoring Washington state. The last was the battleship, BB-56, which was in service from 1941 to 1947 and was credited with sinking more enemy tonnage than any other Navy battleship in World War II.

I have no doubt the USS Washington and its crew of nearly 130 submariners will play a vital role in ensuring our security and prosperity in the decades to come. The sub will be ready for deployment in the summer of 2019 under the command of Cmdr. Gabriel B. Cavazos.

Looking ahead to the 2018 session

It’s hard to believe, but since my first legislative session in 2013, the Legislature has gone into special session 10 times — costing taxpayers well over $1 million.

Let me be clear: there is no excuse for us not to be able to get our work done on time.

To eliminate all excuses going forward, I’ll be introducing legislation to change the state’s fiscal year so it coincides with the end of regular session. This simple change would prevent the Legislature from relying on special sessions every year to complete its work.

I’ll also be introducing a bill to move up policy cutoff dates during session. While these dates are designed to give us plenty of time to introduce and debate legislation, we’ve been spending far too much time debating mundane policy and too little time developing a genuine budget. I believe it makes more sense for the policy period in long, 105-day sessions to equal the length of the policy period in short, 60-day sessions so we can give proper attention to the two-year operating budget.

Along with these budget process reform bills, I will be introducing legislation to prohibit Atlantic salmon farms in Washington state. There have been at least four instances in which significant numbers of Atlantic salmon have escaped into the wild during the several decades in which they’ve been cultivated commercially in our marine waters — including most recently in August. Escaped farmed Atlantic salmon pose a variety of risks, including disease amplification and transmission. They also threaten our native Pacific salmon with regard to competition for resources.

Unfortunately, despite extensive decades-long recovery efforts, Pacific salmon populations of the Puget Sound remain in danger. To help remedy this, I believe it’s imperative for the Legislature to enact a permanent ban on Atlantic salmon farms this session.

Contacting me

I welcome your thoughts on these matters, and encourage you to contact me with other ideas you have for bills I could introduce during the 2018 legislative session. My phone number is (360) 786-7902 and my email address is drew.macewen@leg.wa.gov.

This will be my final email update of the year, so I want to extend my best wishes to you and yours this holiday season. I am truly honored to serve you in the House and look forward to working with you during the 2018 legislative session.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: August 25, 2017

In my last update, I provided an overview of the $43.7 billion operating budget we approved earlier this year. I also talked about the McCleary fix bill we passed that will help create equity for students and teachers, promote local control and implement a number of substantial reforms to our K-12 system.

Following our votes on these major pieces of legislation, there were just two more items of business that needed our attention before we could adjourn. Not only did we need to pass a two-year capital budget so local infrastructure projects could be funded, but we also needed to pass a bill to fix the state Supreme Court’s disastrous Hirst decision.

In the 2016 decision, the court ruled that in order for counties to be in compliance with the state’s Growth Management Act, they would be responsible for proving small wells wouldn’t lower instream flows and harm fish — a responsibility that had previously been tasked to the Department of Ecology (DOE).

Since many landowners cannot afford to hire a hydrologist to do what the DOE used to do, their land continues to sit undeveloped. It’s estimated their economic losses could easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Furthermore, as property values throughout rural communities decline due to a lack of development, those in urban areas will begin to bear the brunt of the shifting tax burden.

As the 2017 session wore on, Republicans in the Senate stated unequivocally that there would be no capital budget without a long-term Hirst fix. They passed Senate Bill 5239 four times, which would have solved the Hirst issue. However, with the encouragement of the governor, the speaker of the House refused to bring the bill to the floor for a vote — even though a clear bipartisan majority in the House was ready to vote in favor of it. As a result, Senate Republicans refused to vote on the two-year capital budget passed by the House (and which I voted for), and the 2017 session came to a close after 193 days.

Some remain optimistic negotiators from all four caucuses will be able to come together and agree on a compromise before the start of the 2018 session. For the good of all Washingtonians, I sincerely hope that happens.

Working to end our overreliance on special sessions

Since joining the Legislature in 2013, I’ve been troubled by a problem nobody seems to want to fix: our overreliance on special sessions. For far too long, legislators have preserved a process where deadlines and cutoffs don’t matter, hyper-partisan budgets are presented as reasonable starting points for negotiations, and collaboration is nonexistent. Quite frankly, if we don’t get our act together, you will continue to bear the brunt of our irresponsibility and good legislators will leave for greener pastures.

Earlier this year, I introduced House Joint Resolution 4205, which would have suspended the pay of every member of the Legislature if an operating budget proposal was not presented to the governor by the end of the regular session. While the resolution was not heard in the House Appropriations Committee, I believe such a policy would have an immediate affect on productivity and you would begin to see us finishing our work on time.

Although my resolution did not pass, I’m not giving up on this effort. Later this interim, I will convene a bipartisan group of legislators from each chamber to begin looking at ways to overhaul our budgeting process so we can avoid special sessions in the future.

Contacting me

Hearing your feedback helps me serve our communities more effectively, so please continue contacting me with any questions, comments or concerns you have. I would also welcome any ideas you have for bills I could introduce during the 2018 legislative session. My phone number is (360) 786-7902 and my email address is drew.macewen@leg.wa.gov. I look forward to hearing from you!

It is an honor to serve you in the Legislature.

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: July 3, 2017

Although we still have more work to do before we adjourn sine die, the Legislature finally adopted a 2017-19 operating budget on Friday after 172 days of session. There are many things to like in the $43.7 billion budget, including the fact it’s probably the most bipartisan spending plan I’ve had the opportunity to vote on during my time in the Legislature. However, I also have some concerns I’ll share below.

First, the good. The budget makes historic investments and reforms in K-12 education, increasing spending by $7.3 billion over the next four years. For the first time since the early 1980s, more than 50 percent of the operating budget will be dedicated to K-12 education. By the end of the 2019-21 biennium, the Legislature will have increased K-12 education spending by a whopping $12 billion since the McCleary ruling came down in 2012 — an increase of 88 percent.

Other positive highlights of the budget include:

Includes a number of tax preferences to stimulate the economy, including extending the preferential Boeing business and occupation tax rate for all manufacturing;
Increases sales tax revenue to local governments from online sales tax, which also helps local brick and mortar stores effectively compete;
Makes critical investments in our mental health system;
Makes a number of improvements to our state’s foster care system; and
Assumes a 6 percent reduction in agency management staff to reduce middle management and constrain government costs.

Now, for the bad. The budget increases state spending by 13 percent in the 2017-19 biennium and another 14 percent in the 2019-21 biennium. If we have an economic downturn, spending will far outpace revenue, which could leave our state in a financial bind. I would have preferred to see more money left in our reserves to protect us against that possibility. Even so, I felt this was a strong, bipartisan operating budget and was glad to cast a ‘yes’ vote in favor of it. The governor signed the spending plan into law late Friday.

McCleary fix passes House

Earlier this session, I talked about the importance of coming up with a long-term solution to end the reliance of school districts on local levies to fund basic education. I’m happy to say we were able to do that this session. In addition to investing $7.3 billion more into K-12 education via the operating budget, the McCleary fix we passed in House Bill 2242 creates equity for students and teachers, promotes local control, and implements substantial reforms. The highlights:

Increases state salary allocations by nearly $5.3 billion per biennium to equip all school districts with sufficient resources to recruit and retain high-quality staff;
Increases starting teacher pay to a minimum of $40,000 per year;
Replaces the current health benefit system, which unfairly punishes working families, with a modern system modeled after the state employee health benefit system; and
Remedies our current regressive local levy system by capping local levy rates to provide tax relief to those in school districts where property valuations are on the lower end of the scale.

Due to current maintenance and operation levy rates remaining in effect through 2018, every district in the state will see increased property taxes before a new school levy cap is enacted in 2019. However, most of you will then see property tax reductions from 2019 to 2021, which was the deciding factor in my decision to vote in favor of the bill. While none of us like tax increases, the alternative to the plan laid out in the operating budget were progressive tax increases, such as a capital gains income tax and a carbon tax. Thankfully, we avoided both while fully funding basic education.

House approves my bill to change testing requirements for HS graduation

After months of negotiation between education leaders in the state House and Senate, a compromise bill that would change high school assessment and graduation requirements is finally moving forward. Last Tuesday, the House unanimously passed my bill, House Bill 2224, which would enable more students to graduate on time.

House Bill 2224 builds off my earlier House Bill 1046, which would have delinked all state tests from high school graduation requirements. HB 1046 was approved three times in the House earlier this year, but stalled in the Senate on each occasion. I knew we’d have to go back to the drawing board if we were going to get anything done this year. The bill we developed is a solid compromise I’m satisfied with.

While state tests would not be delinked from graduation under the new bill, math and English language arts assessments would be moved up from 11th to 10th grade beginning in 2019. This would provide students with more time to meet the standard necessary for graduation. Additionally, meeting standard on the state’s biology assessment would be delayed as a graduation requirement until the class of 2021. That change would also apply retroactively to the class of 2017.

In addition to these changes, the bill would:

Establish an expedited appeals process for students in the 2014-2018 graduating classes who have not met standard on the math and/or English language arts assessments;
Discontinue the collection of evidence objective alternative assessment;
Allow, beginning in the 2018-19 school year, qualifying students to meet the applicable state standard by: 1) taking and passing a locally determined course in the content area in which the student was not successful, and 2) completing a state-approved and locally administered assessment. Students would also have the opportunity to successfully complete a dual credit course in English language arts or math, which would qualify as an approved alternative assessment; and
Require school districts to provide students who have not earned a certificate of academic achievement (CAA) before the beginning of the 11th grade the opportunity to access interventions and academic supports, courses, or both to enable students to meet minimum high school graduation standards.

The bottom line is it’s our job to do what’s in the best interest of our students. As I’ve said repeatedly, I strongly believe delinking state tests from high school graduation requirements is the right policy for our state. However, this bill will move us forward and help students who are graduating this year and in the years to come. That is what’s needed at this moment.

House Bill 2224 was unanimously approved by the state Senate on Friday, and has since been sent to the governor to be signed into law.

Contacting me

As much as I enjoy long days and nights working at the Capitol, my favorite part of being a legislator is being back in district, working in our communities to help solve problems. Please continue contacting me with any questions, concerns or comments you have. Also, if you would like me to visit your community group, school or business, I am always available to do so. You can contact my legislative assistant, Pam Kentner, to make arrangements.

It is an honor to serve you in the state House. Have a safe and happy Independence Day!

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: April 20, 2017

In my last email update, I mentioned how unlikely it was that we’d be able to finish our work on time due to the vast differences in the operating budget proposals on the table. Unfortunately, budget negotiations between the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus and the House Democrats have not been fruitful, which means we’ll soon be heading into our 14th special session since 2010.

I want you to know I share your frustration with our habitual need for these overtime sessions, which is why I introduced House Joint Resolution 4205 earlier this session. HJR 4205 would have suspended my pay, and the pay of every other legislator, for failing to present an operating budget proposal to the governor by the time the clock ran out on the regular session. Some may view this as gimmicky, but I take this issue very seriously. We should be able to complete our work in the 105 days we’ve been given. Why we continue to fail to do so is beyond me.

House Bill 1046 rolled into Senate Bill 5639

House Bill 1046, my bill to delink state tests from high school graduation requirements, has been rolled into Senate Bill 5639. If this bill becomes law, not only will a weight be lifted off the shoulders of our students, but the state will save tens of millions of dollars over the next decade. As I’ve said before, we should rely less on these federally designed tests, and more on the curriculum and our great teachers to prepare our students for the next stages of life.

Navy Appreciation Day at the Capitol

As a Navy veteran, it’s always an honor to celebrate Navy Appreciation Day at the Capitol. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to deliver remarks on the House floor in support of House Resolution 4637, recognizing the contributions of Navy personnel and their family members. I spoke about the importance of our Navy and highlighted some of its many accomplishments, while also mentioning the need for our nation to have a strong Naval presence around the globe. I also talked about my two sons who are currently serving in the Marine Corps, which falls under the administration of the Department of the Navy. I couldn’t be prouder of them, and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take a photo with my son, Christian, on the House floor earlier this month.

Left: With my son, Christian, on the House floor.
Right: Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, and I with U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gary Mayes and five distinguished ‘sailors of the year’ from their respective commands.

House Page Program in full swing

Since late March, I’ve sponsored four students from the 35th District as House pages. Sebastian Engel and Clairee Waylett are students at Oakland Bay Junior High School in Shelton, Ian Connolly attends Washington Middle School in Olympia, and Taylor Dickinson attends North Mason High School in Belfair. They’re all great students, and I appreciate their service to the House!

Top L-R: Sebastian Engel and Clairee Waylett
Bottom L-R: Ian Connolly and Taylor Dickinson

I also had the opportunity to expand my reach 5,000 miles beyond the county’s border to sponsor two European students as House pages last week. Monika Motyka from Poland and Hanna Bluem from Germany are currently spending 10 months in the United States as foreign exchange students. They’re being hosted by Kevin and Catherine Shutty of Shelton, and attending North Mason High School. Kevin was my public information officer before being elected Mason County Commissioner last fall. He and Catherine are both dear friends, and I can’t imagine two better people for Monika and Hanna to be staying with.

In the week they spent serving in the House Page Program, I could tell Monika and Hanna were wowed by the campus and excited to learn more about how our system of government works. I wanted them to share a little bit with you about their experience, so we recorded this video update up in the House gallery. Take a look:

I also had them write down some thoughts on the week.

“When I first heard about the House Page Program a few months ago, I couldn’t wait to participate and learn more about American government and politics. I would never have the opportunity to experience a program like this in Poland. During the week, I learned about how a bill becomes law and what an average day for a state representative looks like. It’s interesting to see what challenges they have to face every day. I got to meet a lot of new people who inspired me in different ways, and will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to serve as a page. It was a fantastic adventure.” – Monika

“The House Page Program is an amazing and unique experience for teenagers. I learned more in one day here than I usually learn in a week at school. The process of how a bill becomes law is complex, but serving as a page, you can see how each part of the process unfolds. That makes it easier to understand. When I delivered messages and documents to legislators and staff, I got to meet so many people and see every corner of this beautiful campus. It was just an amazing experience.” – Hanna

On the House floor with Monika (L) and Hanna (R).

Contacting me

It’s an honor to serve you in the state House. Please feel free to contact me any time with your questions, comments or concerns. My contact information is below.

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: March 30, 2017

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” As they did in the 2015 session, House Democrats have released an operating budget proposal that calls for billions in new taxes, massive spending increases, and puts more money into the state’s regressive levy system. The fact is this is not a realistic budget proposal. It’s yet another ‘wish list’ budget that is fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable.

Not only is there no need for $8 billion in tax increases through the 2019-21 budget cycle, there is no appetite for these tax increases either. Especially at a time when the latest revenue forecast revealed the state will have $2.6 billion more to spend next budget cycle than in the current budget cycle that ends June 30.

The bottom line is these tax increases would dampen entrepreneurship, discourage businesses from relocating to our state, and stifle economic growth — and more than 90 percent of them would not even go toward K-12 education funding. The fact is their K-12 funding proposals could be paid for with existing revenue.

My other frustration with the House Democrats’ budget is the way they went about unveiling it. While they gave the required five days of notice prior to the public hearing on their proposal, they had not yet released it for review. How could constituents realistically be expected to testify on something that wasn’t made public until noon on the day of the hearing? They couldn’t. Yet every special interest group was lined up to testify, which means they had been given a heads up about what was in the budget. This led to a one-sided public hearing, with the only testimony coming from people who would benefit from the budget. That is not how government should operate.

In the other chamber, the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus (MCC) released their budget proposal last week. While it isn’t perfect, it gets a lot of things right. It doesn’t impose any new or major tax increases, and it builds on the previous $4.6 billion in additional education funding over the last two budget cycles — which marked a 36 percent increase in funding — by providing $2 billion in new K-12 education spending. If this funding is adopted, K-12 spending would represent more than 50 percent of the operating budget for the first time since 1983. Other highlights of the MCC’s proposal include:

Makes higher education more affordable and more accessible by funding 1,800 new enrollments, with a significant focus on STEM degrees.
Protects the most vulnerable and those with mental health issues.
Makes significant investments to protect foster children and those with developmental disabilities.
Leaves $2 billion in the Rainy Day Fund.

One of the most important things the MCC’s budget does is replace the state’s K-12 education funding system, in which property-wealthy districts can generate more funding per student at a lower tax rate than property-poor districts. Instead of continuing this system, the MCC has called for a flat, statewide local effort property tax, which would provide equitable funding to students, regardless of their ZIP code. This would not only be great for them, but according to Senate fiscal documents, the average homeowner in the 35th District would see a property tax decrease of $279.

Neither budget is indicative of what the final budget will look like, but at least the majority party in the Senate put a realistic proposal on the table. The House Democrats’ budget proposal makes it extremely unlikely we’ll be able to finish our work on time this year. It’s simply a non-starter, which means negotiations will take even longer. Longer negotiations lead to special sessions.

Our poor track record when it comes to completing our work on time is why I introduced House Joint Resolution 4205 earlier this session. This bill would have imposed monetary fines on legislators for every additional day past sine die we needed to complete our work. It didn’t go anywhere, but I still believe it would be the right thing to do to ensure we remain focused on the task at hand and are giving you the respect you deserve as constituents.

Instead, we will almost assuredly require our 14th special session since 2010. This complacency is unacceptable. I’m the assistant ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, and the governor’s office has still not scheduled a time to hold a budget meeting with me. It’s a shame the governor has been more focused on making national headlines than tending to the state’s business of developing a balanced budget, working to solve K-12 and mental health challenges, and bringing negotiators together. That is not leadership.

An update on my bills

I wanted to provide a quick update on the status of the following bills.

House Bill 1046 would delink state tests from high school graduation requirements. Not only would this be great for students, but it would save the state roughly $21 million in the 2017-19 biennium, and $18 million each biennium thereafter. I strongly believe these tests have been more of a hindrance than a help to our students, and will keep fighting to ensure we are not imposing unnecessary burdens on them. As I’ve said before, we should rely less on tests and more on the curriculum and our great teachers to prepare our students for life. While I’m grateful the bill received a hearing in the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, I’m disappointed it was not voted out this week. Even so, the bill remains alive and will be one of the negotiating pieces on the table as budget negotiations get under way.

House Bill 1058 would ensure incarcerated criminal offenders pay court-ordered restitution to their victims in a timely manner. Under the bill, courts would be prohibited from granting postponement of an offender’s restitution payments — paid by the offender over a specified period of time for a victim’s damages — until after their release from confinement. This bill advanced out of the Senate Law and Justice Committee yesterday, and is now in the Senate Rules Committee.

Town hall recap

Thank you to everyone who came out to the 35th District town hall last week at Olympic College Shelton. We had a great crowd and I really enjoyed the opportunity to provide an update on the legislative session and answer questions on a wide variety of issues. I know Rep. Griffey did as well.

Visiting with students from Hawkins Middle School

It’s always fun to meet with students from schools in the 35th District. Earlier this month, students from Hawkins Middle School in Belfair traveled to Olympia to tour the buildings on the Capitol Campus and learn more about their state government. Many of the students had never been to the Capitol before, so it was great to have the opportunity to spend some time with them and talk about what we do as state representatives.

Contacting me

It’s an honor to serve you in the state House. Please feel free to contact me any time with your questions, comments or concerns. My contact information is below.

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: March 10, 2017

It’s been a busy month so far, as we’ve spent much of the past 10 days on the House floor voting on bills — more than 300 in total. Now that house of origin cutoff has passed, bills that were approved by the House head to the Senate, and vice-versa. Instead of spending long hours on the floor, we will now be spending long hours in committee considering Senate bills.

Three of the bills I introduced this session were brought to the floor and approved by the House before the cutoff. In a 92-6 vote Monday, the House passed my bill to delink state tests from high school graduation requirements. Under House Bill 1046, the state’s testing system would be left intact, but successful completion of the Certificate of Academic Achievement or Certificate of Individual Achievement would no longer be required for students to graduate. This bill would save the state roughly $21 million in the 2017-19 biennium, and $18 million each biennium thereafter.

At the heart of this bill is my belief that these tests have been more of a hindrance than a help to our students. Requiring them to pass a federally designed test that was never intended to be linked to graduation is an unnecessary burden that we should not be imposing on them. Instead, we should trust the curriculum and our great teachers to prepare students for the important next steps of life.

Two other bills I introduced would protect and support crime victims.

House Bill 1058, which was approved unanimously, would ensure incarcerated criminal offenders pay court-ordered restitution to their victims in a timely manner. Under the bill, courts would be prohibited from granting postponement of an offender’s restitution payments — paid by the offender over a specified period of time for a victim’s damages — until after their release from confinement. It’s important we ensure restitution is being prioritized and not placed behind other financial obligations an offender may have. Our criminal justice system should not require the financial burden already incurred by victims to be adjudicated repeatedly.

House Bill 1022 was approved 95-1. It would allow undocumented crime victims to seek assistance from local law enforcement without fear of deportation. This bill would not change immigration law, nor do anything to encourage illegal immigration. Rather, it would bring Washington in line with most other states and codify us with federal law. While I support efforts to secure our borders and enact strong immigration policies, that’s a matter for Congress. This bill would simply protect victims of rape and other vicious crimes, and provide them the opportunity to seek justice.

House Bill 1046 now advances to the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, while House Bills 1022 and 1058 advance to the Senate Law and Justice Committee.

Bill to extend levy cliff heads to the governor’s desk

In late January, the House passed House Bill 1059, which was brought forward by the majority party in an effort to delay the coming “levy cliff” by extending current levy policy for one year (more on the background of that bill here). I voted against the bill because it felt like we were kicking the can down the road with 12 weeks of session remaining instead of working to solve the fundamental problems with the way we fund K-12 education in our state.

While House Bill 1059 died, a different bill to extend current levy policy passed the Senate and came before the House earlier this week. Senate Bill 5023, which was approved 87-10 in the House, would do two important things House Bill 1059 did not. First, it would establish transparency and enable detailed accounting by requiring levy dollars to be deposited into a subfund. Second, it would help ensure levy dollars are spent as intended by requiring school districts to submit reports to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) detailing the programs and activities to be funded through local levies. These reports would then need to be approved by OSPI before districts were able to put the levy on the ballot.

I voted for Senate Bill 5023 because we need to provide school districts with certainty and flexibility as they start their budgeting processes. That said, it is my hope that we don’t use this bill’s passage as an outlet to further delay a comprehensive K-12 education funding solution. Though there are various proposals on the table, we’re still not close to where we need to be to come to an agreement. Helping us get to a compromise that amply and equitably funds K-12 education in all of our districts remains my top priority.

Sewage spill reveals double standard in environmental priorities

Earlier this week, the Seattle Times published an op-ed submitted by Reps. Vincent Buys, David Taylor and myself about the catastrophic failure at King County’s West Point Treatment Plant last month. In the op-ed, we ask why politicians, state agencies and environmental groups are so quick to pounce on environmental issues in rural communities, but not in urban communities.

An excerpt:

“Instead of focusing their efforts on a real environmental problem happening in our state’s most populated city, they would rather push policies that punish landowners and jeopardize development in rural communities. They would rather go after a county’s potential water quality impact due to septic systems than hold the officials and one of the largest culprits in devastating our water quality accountable for discharging hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated stormwater and raw sewage into Puget Sound. Rural counties can’t rely on septic systems, but it’s OK for King County to continue to sweep its ongoing sewage treatment problems under the rug?”

You can read the whole piece here.

Weekly radio interview on KMAS

Every Wednesday morning during session, I have the opportunity to join KMAS’ Jeff Slakey live on the air to discuss legislative issues. Earlier this week, Jeff and I discussed house of origin cutoff and my bill to delink state tests from graduation requirements. You can listen to this segment, as well as past segments, by clicking here.

Contacting me

It’s an honor to serve you in the state House. Please feel free to contact me any time with your questions, comments or concerns. My contact information is below.

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: Feb. 23, 2017

Last Friday marked our first major deadline of the session — policy committee cutoff. This means non-fiscal bills that did not pass out of committee are now considered “dead” for the year unless deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB) or necessary to pass the budget (NTPB). Bills with these designations are exempt from cutoff dates and remain alive throughout the budget negotiation process. This Friday marks fiscal committee cutoff, which means bills that do impact the state’s three budgets (operating, transportation, capital) must pass out of appropriations committees or be considered “dead” for the year unless deemed NTIB or NTPB.

Outside of committee action, our top priority as a Legislature remains coming up with a comprehensive K-12 education funding plan. The most difficult piece of the budget puzzle will be agreeing on what that plan looks like. Yesterday, the majority party in the House brought their proposal, House Bill 1843, to the floor for a vote. We had a robust debate, with Republicans introducing seven amendments — including one of my own — that would have drastically improved the bill.

The intent behind the amendment I sponsored (you can watch my floor speech here) was to provide more affordable and equitable health benefit coverage to classified school employees, who tend to be disproportionately burdened by the current K-12 health benefit system. It’s a fact K-12 employees with families pay seven times more for coverage than individuals. My amendment would have helped lower their costs by requiring health benefits to be provided to them through the Public Employees’ Benefits Board. This would have ensured these classified state employees would pay no more than three times more for coverage than individuals. The amendment was voted down, as were five others.

The one amendment the majority party did accept would require that funds allocated for smaller K-3 class sizes would go exclusively toward that purpose and nothing else. While I’m glad the amendment was accepted, with six of the seven others voted down, I could not support the bill. In its current form, it doesn’t create a K-12 funding system that is ample, equitable or accountable, nor does it provide adequate reforms. We also have no idea how it would be paid for. Nobody in the majority party revealed any details on that front yesterday.

In addition to not having an adequate funding system in place, another major problem of the plan is that it continues the existing local levy policy where property-wealthy districts can generate more funding per student at a lower tax rate than property-poor districts. The Senate Republicans’ proposal would replace this existing system with a flat, statewide local effort property tax, which would provide equal funding to students, regardless of their ZIP code. It would also mean reduced property taxes for taxpayers in many legislative districts, including the 35th. This idea makes far more sense than simply relying on what’s not working. We must ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed, and that will not happen as long as we keep the current regressive local levy policy in place.

To watch yesterday’s entire floor debate, click here.

Telephone town hall a big success

Thank you to all of you who participated in last week’s telephone town hall! We took 13 calls, with topics ranging from the Hirst Decision and infrastructure improvements, to education funding and the nuances of the levy cliff. We also had time to ask two poll questions.

1. Legislation has been proposed to abolish the death penalty. Do you support ending capital punishment?

Yes: 24.1%
No: 63.9%
Unsure: 12.0%

2. Do you support legislation to reform the state’s B&O tax to exempt all businesses from B&O tax liability on their first $200,000 of taxable income?

Yes: 76.6%
No: 7.5%
Unsure: 15.9%

I really enjoy these telephone town halls because they allow you and I to have an open and honest dialogue with one another. Whether we agree on a particular issue or not, please know I am focused on solving problems in our district and am here to serve you. I have and will continue to bring your voice to the forefront in the Legislature.

Upcoming in-district listening tour; contacting me

If you missed my telephone town hall, please feel free to send me an email or give me a call any time at (360) 786-7902. I’m also working on securing dates and times for an upcoming in-district listening tour. I’ll have more information about that in future updates, but if you have any ideas for locations in your community where I could come and visit, please let me know.

It’s an honor to serve you in the state House.

Rep. Drew MacEwen’s Legislative Update: Feb. 3, 2017

In late December, Gov. Inslee released an $8.7 billion tax package to solve the final piece of the McCleary puzzle. Since then, it’s been a waiting game to see when a more realistic proposal would be put on the table since there’s no appetite among Washingtonians for massive new tax increases, nor does the governor’s plan balance over four years.

Last Friday, Senate Republicans released the One Washington Education Equality Act, while House Democrats countered with their own plan on Monday. It’s good to see both of these proposals released so early in the session. While you’ll hear a lot of rhetoric being thrown around the next several weeks about which plan makes more sense, what I’m most concerned about is whether or not we’ll be able to pass a comprehensive plan that addresses the biggest problem our education system faces — districts’ overreliance on local levy dollars to fund basic education.

Last week, the House passed House Bill 1059, which would extend current state levy policy for one calendar year. The bill would delay the coming “levy cliff,” which is set to reduce the amount of money school districts are authorized to collect through local property tax levies. The state Supreme Court has ruled the state needs a constitutional funding source for basic education, which is why the passage of this bill is so disappointing. Raising the levy lid, which the Legislature did in 2010, was intended to be a temporary fix to allow time for the Legislature to enact sufficient reforms. All this time later, however, the fundamental problems with the way we fund K-12 education in our state still have not been addressed in an adequate and equitable way. This bill simply kicks the can down the road at a time when we should be focused on a long-term education funding solution.

Senate Republicans believe the best way to address this issue is by implementing a flat statewide “local effort levy” — or property tax. While this would present a big change from the current system, it would mean reduced property taxes for taxpayers in many legislative districts, including the 35th. It would also help achieve the overall goal of the proposal, which is to ensure students receive equitable funding and the same quality education in all 39 counties.

For their part, House Democrats have countered with a plan that simply pours more money into the current broken system and offers no meaningful accountability or reforms. It’s just more of the same from yesteryear. That’s unfortunate.

I am part of the House Republican negotiating team, which will come together with the other three caucuses to hash out one comprehensive plan. At the end of the day, I’ll be happy as long as we put students first, keep quality teachers in the classroom, promote increased accountability, and provide equitable and sustainable funding for our schools.

Holding the Legislature accountable

When you send us to Olympia to represent you in the Legislature, you expect us to get to work and finish in the time we’re allotted (105 days in odd years, 60 days in even years). What you don’t expect is for us to continually require 30-day special sessions because we’re not coming to budget agreements on time.

Since 2010, we’ve been called into 13 special sessions by the governor. Only once since 2010 have we not needed a special session. That signals a lack of respect for the timeframe we’ve been given, as well as a lack of respect for you, the taxpayer, because you have to foot the bill when we go into special sessions.

Because of our poor track record and the overall lack of urgency to complete our work on time, I’ve introduced House Joint Resolution 4205, which proposes a constitutional amendment to hold ourselves accountable. The resolution states that if we do not present an operating budget proposal to the governor by the time the clock runs out on regular session time, my pay and the pay of every other legislator would be suspended. Additionally, those in leadership would be fined $1,000 for every extra session day required. This bill is the right thing to do to ensure we remain focused on the task at hand and give you the respect you deserve as constituents.

Honoring Bronze Star Medal recipient Paul Buerger

I was honored to deliver remarks and take part in a ceremony last Wednesday to formally present Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class Paul Buerger with the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Vietnam. Buerger, who served in the conflict from March 1968 to December 1971, never received a formal presentation of his medal.

When he contacted American Legion Training Officer Syl Wiles last year to verify his Naval records reflected his Bronze Star Medal, he mentioned to her how much he would have liked to have had a ceremony when he received the medal in 1972. That comment spurred Wiles to action. She contacted me and began taking steps to coordinate the event held last week.

With more than 100 people in attendance — community members, law enforcement, and active and retired military — Rear Admiral Gary Mayes formally presented Buerger with the Bronze Star Medal. It was a very special day and I was honored to be part of it. Congratulations to Mr. Buerger and his family.

From left to right, Rear Admiral Gary Mayes, Paul Buerger, his wife Linda Buerger, and myself at the ceremony formally presenting Mr. Buerger with the Bronze Star Medal. (Jan. 25, 2017)

Death penalty survey results

In my last email update, I asked you to take a moment to answer the following survey question: “Do you agree with the current push by Gov. Inslee, Attorney General Ferguson and others to abolish capital punishment in Washington state?”

Of the 174 of you who responded, 110 of you also left comments. I know this is a sensitive issue, so I appreciate your participation and feedback. It’s incredibly valuable to me.

The results of the survey:

Yes: 41.95%
No: 54.60%
Undecided: 3.45%

If you would like to follow the progress of the death penalty repeal efforts, the bill in the Senate is SB 5354 and its companion in the House is HB 1935.

Weekly radio interviews on KMAS

Every Wednesday morning during session, I have the opportunity to join KMAS’ Jeff Slakey live on the air to discuss legislative issues. Last week, Jeff and I spoke about why I opposed House Bill 1059, my legislation to assist the maintenance of neighborhood association roadways, as well as my participation in the Bronze Medal Award ceremony for Paul Buerger.

This past Wednesday, we discussed education funding, as well as the many facets of the Senate Republicans’ budget proposal and how it would affect the 35th District.

You can listen to all past segments here.

Contacting me

It’s an honor to serve you in the state House. Please feel free to contact me any time with your questions, comments or concerns. My contact information is below.