OLYMPIA — The tune has a relentless beat, but state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege says he can’t dance to it.
The Sequim legislator wants to restrain the refrain by music copyright agencies that he says drive live performers out of small venues like the Oasis Bar and Grill in Sequim or ban buskers at the Sequim Farmers Market.
Organizations such as Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) enforce copyrights on behalf of composers of popular tunes.
Cover bands perform such melodies. They or the places they play are asked to pay royalties to the companies, which then distribute the money to composers.
Van De Wege said that forces some businesses to stop the music.
He wants to require royalties companies to register with the secretary of state and pay annual fees.
Meanwhile in the state Capitol, a bill sponsored by state Rep. Steve Tharinger of Sequim to eliminate vague “personal” exemptions to school children’s vaccination laws drew support from Gov. Jay Inslee in the wake of a measles case in Port Angeles.
And state Sen. Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam said the Ways and Means Committee has passed a bipartisan early action supplemental budget to pay for last year’s forest firefighting and the costs of the Oso landslide.
Van De Wege, Tharinger and Hargrove represent Washington’s 24th District that comprises the North Olympic Peninsula and most of Grays Harbor County. All are Democrats.
Although Van De Wege’s House Bill 1763 wouldn’t directly govern organizations like BMI, it would require $1,500 annual fees from them that would fund efforts to educate music venue operators about their rights to perform or present music.
Van De Wege said the issue was brought to him by Dale Dunning, owner of The Oasis Bar and Grill in Sequim.
Dunning has been contacted by three music-licensing companies he said demanded he pay almost $9,000 to play live and recorded music, claiming copyright infringement but not providing any documentation.
“By regulating their activity and verifying their claim to certain performing rights, we’re protecting small businesses all across the state and generating revenue to make sure these venues know their rights,” Van De Wege said.
HB2009, cosponsored by Tharinger and 10 other legislators, would tighten requirements that parents and guardians have their children vaccinated before they attend school to guard against, among other diseases, measles, mumps and rubella.
Information about exemptions from vaccination has been distributed in the wake of reports of measles cases, including one in Port Angeles.
While Washington is one of 48 states that allow exemptions for medical reasons or on religious grounds, in 2011 it became one of 20 states to add a “personal” or “philosophical” exemption that has no precise definition.
Parents in Jefferson County, for instance, invoked it to send more than half of the county’s kindergartners to school without full immunization.
(A report in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News listed exemption percentages, numbers of students and types of exemptions in schools across the North Olympic Peninsula.)
The immunization bill, introduced Wednesday by state Rep. June Robinson, D-Everett, won endorsement Friday from Inslee, who said, “Immunizations save lives and are among the most effective ways to protect everyone from serious, preventable illnesses — especially young kids.”
That same day, Tharinger added, “There are huge public health ramifications. We need a 90 percent rate to maintain public immunity.”
Only about 71 percent of Washington students are fully immunized.
Regarding the shots, “it is safer for the individual and definitely safer for the community to get that vaccination,” Tharinger said.
Also on the health care front, Tharinger saw his HB1132 advance through the Joint Committee on Aging and Disabilities last week.
It would ease restrictions on adult family homes that are run by couples in the event that one spouse dies.
He also introduced HB1286 to initiate a study of public/private partnerships to provide long-term health insurance he said currently is “unaffordable” from the private sector.
Only one in four Washington families has savings of $25,000 or more, he said, an amount that can vanish quickly during an extended illness.
Another of Tharinger’s proposals, HB1531, he said, would add flexibility to requirements for respite-care providers to persons with long-term disabilities.
And in what he called “sort of my day in the Wellness and Health Care Committee,” the panel Friday advanced HB1784 that adjusts staffing levels to the acuity of care and adjusts Medicaid reimbursement rates in nursing homes.
As for Hargrove, he said one of his proposals had won support of advocates for victims of property crimes.
The justice reinvestment initiative would reduce jail sentences but expand court supervision of property offenders.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
