Come Wednesday, we will have a much clearer view of what state lawmakers hope to do for us, and to us, this year.
Since arriving in Olympia seven weeks ago, they’ve churned out 2,300 – and counting – proposed laws, a mind-numbing amount of minutiae seeking to touch every aspect of our lives.
The end is near for most of the propositions.
Policy bills – those that don’t deal with money and aren’t tied to the state budget – must win approval from a committee by Wednesday to have any hope of becoming law this year.
We’re talking about bills that create new rules, task forces, studies and regulations.
What survives this week’s cut will offer a better sense of what lawmakers see as the essence of change they want to bring to government this year.
Locally, Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, still has time to advance his proposal to include American Indian culture in the curriculum of the state’s public schools. And Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, is keeping his fingers crossed that his bill for carrying out flood-control pilot projects along the Sauk and Skagit rivers will move forward.
But hundreds of other bills are too far out in the political and practical sense to survive.
Trust me when I tell you that the attempt to abolish the death penalty is dead. Nor will a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage reach the ballot. Election reform won’t include adding “None of the Above” to ballots, as sought by Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish.
Those seeking a statewide prohibition on using lead shot will miss their target. They also will come up short in their attempt to start charging a tax of 24 cents per ounce of lead shot to use the money to clean up contaminated wild swan habitats.
With Democrats in the majority, Republicans are getting shuttered in their attempt to debate a ban on late-term abortions.
Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, will not succeed in her bid to require that medical reports of legal abortions be mailed to the birth mother and father. Nor will the bid by Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, who wants the state to require tubal ligation for women who give birth to drug- or alcohol-affected babies.
State pride is apparently not enough to propel a bill to create an official Washington veterans’ song. Rep. Jan Shabro, R-Sumner, is nominating “Thanks to Them” by Jerry Hayes.
Lawmakers made themselves the subject of several pieces of legislation, most of which are going nowhere.
One bill would allow legislators to avoid going to court on traffic tickets during the session. They’d get a reprieve until adjournment. Another would revise their oath of office to include voicing support for the “principles of the Declaration of Independence.”
Amid all the turgid verbiage of change comes a proposal from Republican Shirley Hankins of Richland, now in her 10th term. She wants the Legislature to start work later. She picks March.
It’s a deserving idea. She’s got three days left to sell it.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield’s column on politics runs every Sunday. He can be heard at 7 a.m. Monday on the “Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). He can be reached at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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