OLYMPIA – A property tax amendment, keeping funding in place for widening a local stretch of U.S. Highway 101 and the appropriation for the Port Angeles graving yard settlement are among the issues local legislators will attend to in during the 60th Legislature.
When the gavel bangs down at noon Monday, the 24th District will be well-positioned through committee assignments to benefit from the largest Democratic majority in more than a decade.
The 105-day session, which will include producing the 2007-09 state operating and transportation budgets, is scheduled to adjourn on April 22.
In addition to House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, the district that includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and one-third of Grays Harbor County also will be represented by newly-elected Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and longtime Senate Democrat Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam.
The Democrats now have a 62-36 margin in the 98-member House and a 32-17 margin in the 49-member Senate – plus Democrat Chris Gregoire in the governor’s mansion.
Kessler’s committee assignments are the House Appropriations, Rules and Executive Rules committees.
“I work with the appropriations chair and vice-chair. We meet every night into the evening to write the budget. The meetings already are starting.
“It’s a big job. I represent the caucus as majority leader in those meetings,” she said.
One issue where Kessler plans to use some of that clout is preserving the $32 million to widen the 2.5-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 between Shore Road and Kitchen-Dick Road to four lanes.
The funding remains in the state’s 2009-11 budget period for now.
But steep cost increases for steel, asphalt and other construction materials have created a $950 million budget shortfall.
But legislators have pledged to only delay – not to cancel – any of the projects included as part of the 16-year, $8.5 billion transportation plan approved in the 2005 session.
“Widening U.S. Highway 101 is going to be a big, big issue for me. I voted for these taxes and our district has to have this.
“I don’t want this bumped so we can build something elsewhere.
“This project comes out of the nickel gas tax increase. This is a high priority for me,” Kessler said.
Meanwhile, Hargrove once again is setting his sights on major overhauls of the state’s criminal justice system and processes.
He will be chairman of Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee; and also will serve on the Senate Natural Resources, Ocean and Recreation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I’ve got a number of things in the formative stages.
“I’ve worked my whole career on reducing crime, including the Becca bill and the mental health and substance abuse legislation,” Hargrove said.
“Another huge factor in reducing crime is reducing the recidivism rate, or re-offend rate, which is about 40 percent now.
“There’s a number of research-based programs for those still in prison that reduce reoffending significantly and save building a couple new prisons,” he said.
The delegation’s newest member, Van De Wege, said Friday his overall priorities this session are going to be health care and education.
“In education, I think we have a chance of getting all-day kindergarten. I’d like to see that fully funded.
“It’s critical for early childhood education. Kids are sponges at that age,” he said.
Van De Wege said he also wants to work on providing lower cost medical insurance and better access to it, especially in rural areas.
But his committee assignments are agriculture and natural resources; technology, energy and communications; and the appropriations subcommittee on general government and audit review.
He will concentrate his personal legislation on natural resources issues, since the 24th District is very natural resources-dependent, Van De Wege said.
