Published: Sunday, February 28, 2010
Democrats are strangely silent on tribal revenue-sharing idea
Democratic lawmakers insist they’ve arrived at this point of boosting taxes after overturning every mattress and illuminating every nook in search of dollars.
There’s one cranny where they haven’t looked, at least not very hard, and that’s the coffers of tribes with casinos.
Ironically, on Jan. 6, five days before the start of the 2010 session, in a room of reporters and the cameras of TVW, a woman suggested to a bipartisan panel of House and Senate members they consider the possibilities.
Under gaming compacts with the state, tribes must dole out 2 percent of net receipts from table games into a fund that addresses the local impacts of casino operations. They also must pass out 0.5 percent of net receipts after payouts from machines through a charitable distribution.
What it means is tribes are writing checks to defray costs of law enforcement and fire services and supporting Boys & Girls clubs, public schools, nonprofit health care providers, chambers of commerce and local relief efforts.
In 2007, through these funds, the tribes statewide allocated roughly $13 million through these two channels.
If legislators and the governor sat down with tribal leaders, a valuable conversation could ensue on using those dollars to fill voids left by cuts of state funding to social and human services at the local level.
“Working with the tribes under consultation we may be able to look at how funds trickle down and help make up a little bit of the difference so those services are not so impacted,” the woman told the legislators.
Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate budget committees didn’t respond. Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, did and termed it an “an excellent way” to approach tribes.
Fifty-three days later, that woman, Seh Welch, executive director of the Stillaguamish Tribe, hasn’t heard from anyone, and time is running out.
“Too late? Is it ever too late to engage in conversations regarding potential solutions to ongoing challenges?” she said.
* * *
Considering Democrats began this session knowing they’d be raising taxes, they are proving pretty clumsy at getting it done.
In their stumbles in the Senate, they initially passed the wrong bill to suspend Initiative 960, which stood as the political impediment to tapping taxpayer billfolds and corporate bank accounts more easily. Amazingly, Senate Democrats wound up voting three times to anesthetize the measure when once should have been enough.
Their Democratic colleagues in the House avoided such missteps but not without obstacle. Republicans used a dusty old parliamentary rule to harangue them for more than a dozen hours over three days before the chamber voted on the bill.
Finally, on Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers finished what was supposed to be the simple step preceding the bigger battle on taxes.
However, completing the task did not inoculate House Democrats from further razzing.
That same day they released their budget balanced with $857 million in new revenue for which they had no identified revenue source. And it was still a mystery Friday evening when the House Ways and Means — or should it be Ways without Means? — approved the budget along party lines.
Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, the committee vice chairman, in a conversation earlier in the week, didn’t try to dress up all the missteps as anything but missteps. While it may seem embarrassing to some, it just shows Democrats don’t really practice this kind of stuff, he said.
“We’re crummy at raising taxes,” he said.
That’s why some citizens want Democrats to realize it’s better to do nothing well rather than something they fear can only end up badly.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
There’s one cranny where they haven’t looked, at least not very hard, and that’s the coffers of tribes with casinos.
Ironically, on Jan. 6, five days before the start of the 2010 session, in a room of reporters and the cameras of TVW, a woman suggested to a bipartisan panel of House and Senate members they consider the possibilities.
Under gaming compacts with the state, tribes must dole out 2 percent of net receipts from table games into a fund that addresses the local impacts of casino operations. They also must pass out 0.5 percent of net receipts after payouts from machines through a charitable distribution.
What it means is tribes are writing checks to defray costs of law enforcement and fire services and supporting Boys & Girls clubs, public schools, nonprofit health care providers, chambers of commerce and local relief efforts.
In 2007, through these funds, the tribes statewide allocated roughly $13 million through these two channels.
If legislators and the governor sat down with tribal leaders, a valuable conversation could ensue on using those dollars to fill voids left by cuts of state funding to social and human services at the local level.
“Working with the tribes under consultation we may be able to look at how funds trickle down and help make up a little bit of the difference so those services are not so impacted,” the woman told the legislators.
Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate budget committees didn’t respond. Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, did and termed it an “an excellent way” to approach tribes.
Fifty-three days later, that woman, Seh Welch, executive director of the Stillaguamish Tribe, hasn’t heard from anyone, and time is running out.
“Too late? Is it ever too late to engage in conversations regarding potential solutions to ongoing challenges?” she said.
* * *
Considering Democrats began this session knowing they’d be raising taxes, they are proving pretty clumsy at getting it done.
In their stumbles in the Senate, they initially passed the wrong bill to suspend Initiative 960, which stood as the political impediment to tapping taxpayer billfolds and corporate bank accounts more easily. Amazingly, Senate Democrats wound up voting three times to anesthetize the measure when once should have been enough.
Their Democratic colleagues in the House avoided such missteps but not without obstacle. Republicans used a dusty old parliamentary rule to harangue them for more than a dozen hours over three days before the chamber voted on the bill.
Finally, on Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers finished what was supposed to be the simple step preceding the bigger battle on taxes.
However, completing the task did not inoculate House Democrats from further razzing.
That same day they released their budget balanced with $857 million in new revenue for which they had no identified revenue source. And it was still a mystery Friday evening when the House Ways and Means — or should it be Ways without Means? — approved the budget along party lines.
Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, the committee vice chairman, in a conversation earlier in the week, didn’t try to dress up all the missteps as anything but missteps. While it may seem embarrassing to some, it just shows Democrats don’t really practice this kind of stuff, he said.
“We’re crummy at raising taxes,” he said.
That’s why some citizens want Democrats to realize it’s better to do nothing well rather than something they fear can only end up badly.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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