PORT ANGELES — Olympic Peninsula lawmakers will begin a 60-day legislative session today with an eye to education reform and projects specific to the 24th Legislative District.
State legislators hope to use the short session — a biennial budget was passed last year — to address the McCleary decision, a Supreme Court ruling that said the state wasn’t spending enough on basic education.
“What we’re hoping to do is end up with some kind of bipartisan bill that sets in place a process that will actually allow us to pass legislation in 2017, the budget year, to solve the McCleary issues,” said state Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, whose 24th District covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and much of Grays Harbor County.
“We’re hoping to get that done.”
The Legislature is being fined $100,000 per day for failing to fund public schools under the McCleary order.
A bipartisan plan to finish paying for basic education by a court-imposed 2018 deadline could halt the sanctions on the Legislature, said Hargrove, a veteran lawmaker and lead budget writer for the Senate Democrats.
State Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim, said state levy equalization will be a key to education reform.
“It’s a pretty complicated process,” Tharinger said.
The court order said basic education is too dependent on local tax levies.
“We should continue making inroads in funding the McCleary decision,” state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim said.
“A lot of the legislative groundwork has been laid.”
Van De Wege, House majority whip, previewed several pieces of legislation that he plans to introduce this year.
Among them is a fire prevention bill that would restrict outdoor burning and all fireworks during the summer months.
Van De Wege, a firefighter/paramedic for Clallam County Fire District No. 3, said the legislation is in response to deadly wildfires that have pummeled parts of the state in recent years.
“The best way to put out a fire is to not let it start in the first place,” he said.
Van De Wege also plans to introduce legislation that would allow a small transportation service to operate electric vehicles on low-speed highways in Port Townsend.
Another bill on his list would allow Olympic Game Farm in limited circumstances to take in exotic animals that are being outlawed in other states.
Tharinger, chairman of the Capital Budget Committee, said he will try to backfill previously-appropriated funding for a project at the shuttered Port Angeles landfill that was spent in other parts of the state. The project is to shore up a failing bluff.
He also plans to introduce a bill that would allow patients to be released to volunteer caregivers if they have no family to pick them up from a hospital.
Hargrove said he plans to work to restore funding to 1995 legislation he originally sponsored that protects runaway youth.
Funding for the Becca bill, named for the late Rebecca Hedman, was cut during the great recession, Hargrove said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
