Washington state Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, answers questions during a virtual town hall featuring her and 17th Legislative District lawmaker colleagues March 15.
Lawmakers from the Washington state 17th Legislative District sounded off about what they saw this year in the recently-concluded 2021 legislative session, notable for being largely remote as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Alongside conversations about the signed capital gains tax and the replacement of the Interstate 5 bridge, state Reps. Paul Harris, Vicki Kraft, and state Sen. Lynda Wilson, all Vancouver Republicans, discussed the state’s economic forecast, the governor’s emergency powers, education during and after the pandemic, and the decriminalization of drug possession, among other topics during the town hall event May 13, hosted remotely on Zoom.
For the state’s funding, Wilson said every revenue forecast meeting showed a rosier picture on how much the state is anticipated to take in, saying the state went from a potential $9 billion deficit to a $3 billion surplus. She said the Legislature was able to fund state government without making major cuts, adding the state’s rainy day fund was maintained at about $1.8 billion.
Kraft said a chief concern in the session was the emergency powers the governor has, which have been on full display during the pandemic, garnering the attention of lawmakers who feel Gov. Jay Inslee has too much power.
“We effectively have one person, our governor, running the state,” Kraft said.
She introduced HB 1381 to rein in the governor’s emergency powers, requiring a two-thirds vote by the Legislature to see if emergency orders would continue, although the bill never saw a committee hearing.
“My hope is no matter who’s sitting in the governor’s seat or a legislator’s seat, our state constitution was designed with checks and balances, and really needs to run that way,” Kraft said.
Kraft agreed with the initial shutdowns when the pandemic was in its first wave, though as time went on the lack of input from lawmakers became a problem.
“My concern is that we have not, as a Legislature, really inserted our piece of the checks and balance process that is required by the state constitution,” Kraft said.
She mentioned a letter she and two dozen other lawmakers signed in March asking that Washington’s state of emergency end before the legislative session adjourned.
“We’re all elected officials, and we represent you all, and if your voice can’t be heard because only one person is allowed to make decisions, that is not right,” Kraft said.
Should the Legislature come back for a special session this year, Kraft said she would continue the push to rein in executive emergency powers.
Kraft also introduced a bill allowing Washingtonians the right to refuse vaccines, though it, too, did not get a committee hearing.
“I am glad to see some things are reopening, but we’re starting to hear more about ‘if you’re vaccinated, you get freedom. If you’re vaccinated, you don’t have to sit in the segregated section.’ That’s concerning to me,” Kraft said. “It’s setting a tone that effectively is unconstitutional, in my opinion.”
“It is subtly forcing people to think they need to get a vaccine to return to freedom,” Kraft said. “That’s not ever OK.”
A third bill of Kraft’s that went without a committee hearing would have given families $7,000 to go toward private education tuition or homeschooling. She said about 40,000 students left public education in the past year due to a variety of reasons, including the impacts of remote learning during the pandemic.
“We have a paramount duty as legislators to make sure our students can learn, and if they can’t learn in the traditional public K-12 system, then we need to make public taxpayer funds available with no strings attached,” Kraft said. “The bottom line is parents need to be able to decide what’s best for their students to make sure their students can get a great education. That’s what school choice will do.”
Wilson also touched on pandemic-era education, speaking of the ways remote learning had been a burden on students and their families.
“For us, it was very important to get children back to school,” Wilson said, explaining she introduced a bill that would require school districts to offer in-person instruction as an option for families unless otherwise prohibited by the governor, the state secretary of health, or a local health officer, though it did not make it out of committee.
“It would have taken a constitutional amendment, but we were prepared for that,” Wilson said. She made mention of one constituent’s son who committed suicide due to the isolation he experienced during the pandemic.
“Not only were they losing … their own education, but everything else around the school. … Everything else that they were able do that they couldn’t do,” Wilson said.
The lawmakers also touched on the impacts of a recent state Supreme Court case, which had a ruling effectively decriminalizing drug possession. Wilson noted the Legislature passed a bill that would re-criminalize possession as a misdemeanor, which she explained would allow therapeutic courts to continue offering a way for offenders to receive addiction treatment.
“For almost all of us, the concern was we wanted to make sure that people could get the treatment that they deserved and wanted,” Wilson said.
Harris serves on the board of directors for Columbia River Mental Health Services. He said there is a “very serious shortage” of addiction counselors, adding the bill will send offenders into the already overworked system, and in some cases, weren’t likely to receive help.
Harris said although there are likely incarcerated individuals who could benefit from the help offered for substance use, the bill treated all those charged with drug possession the same, which he felt wasn’t the best way to go about the issue.
“We’re not all the same, especially when it comes to the use of drugs and drug abuse,” Harris said. “We went from one extreme to the other, and the system can’t handle what we’ve done.”
“The well-intentioned aspect of this (legislation) is great — trying to help people who are addicted get off of that cycle,” Kraft said. “(But) you have to want to get the help, and so many of these people just aren’t ready. … For those who, bottom line, aren’t going to go that (treatment) route, we have to have a mechanism to keep the public safe.”
Harris addressed the Legislature’s work on police reform, noting there were two bills on the governor’s desk handling police tactics and equipment, and police oversight and accountability, respectively. He said he hoped for greater discussion on reform this session.
“I believe the vast, vast majority of our officers are doing a phenomenal job. A difficult job,” Harris said, adding he felt the legislation tied law enforcement’s hands and led to second-guessing decisions on the part of officers.
Harris believes the bills, should they be signed by Inslee, would lead to more retirements of officers. Though he supported de-escalation training and potentially involving social workers on calls, he noted those changes would have a financial burden.
“We actually need to fund the police even greater,” Harris said. “We need to give our policemen more resources. We need to train them better. But we also need to ask ourselves again, ‘how many social workers want to be on the frontline?’”
