Name: Mary Margaret Haugen
Age: 63
Hometown: Camano Island
Experience: State senator for 12 years, 10 years in the House, retired small business owner.
Top issues: Transportation – get more money for cities and counties, look at new sources of revenue such as project-specific tolls or the private sector. Health care – use state’s leverage to pool health care to help small businesses. Education – supports the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, favors more local flexibility on federal mandates, favors a new four-year college.
Fun fact: She loves to fish.
Name: Brett Wilhelm
Age: 54
Hometown: Greenbank
Experience: Volunteer campaign manager for Initiative 881, which would end the sales tax on prepared foods and vitamins; state Libertarian candidate in 2002; founded a community-based home medical supply firm; president of a physical therapy equipment manufacturer.
Top issues: Access to medicine – doctors and patients, not government, should decide which medicines are needed. Environment – polluters should be forced to pay full restitution for cleanup. Education – get the public out of providing school services and allow free market competition for public tax dollars.
Fun fact: One of his great-grandfathers was a congressman during the presidencies of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Name: April Axthelm
Age: 42
Hometown: Mount Vernon
Experience: Eight years on the Mount Vernon City Council; co-owner of Axthelm Construction; former teacher; has managed a nonprofit group.
Top issues: Improve business climate – favors allowing small businesses to pay taxes based on net sales, not gross sales. Health care – favors reform to scale back lawsuit awards that are increasing insurance premiums. Education – supports the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, favors higher teacher salaries and less money spent on administration.
Fun fact: Earned college degrees and teaching credentials while raising five children.
reader questions
reader questions
QRegarding growth, respond to this scenario: A developer wants to build 10 new homes on 2 acres, while neighbors prefer three homes.
Haugen: Land use is under the jurisdiction of counties and cities. The developer needs to work with local elected officials. The neighbors need to make their concerns heard and can ask for a public hearing on a change in land use.
Wilhelm: Voluntary solutions are best. To limit growth while respecting the developer’s equal rights, equal opportunity and equal protection under the law, the neighbors should chip in or borrow funds to buy the 2 acres, record a deed restriction limiting development and resell the site with a three-home limit.
Axthelm: If zoning is in place that allows the developer to put 10 home on 2 acres, the city or county is legally liable if they refuse to honor the zoning. However, if the zoning is to be changed, then the neighbors can make a difference, and cities and counties are every bit within their rights to limit the density.
QHow do you propose to fund traffic improvements?
Haugen: Use existing dollars wisely by investing in high- priority, high-impact projects that solve congestion and safety problems. Look at innovative ways to increase funding for state and local projects – such as federal dollars, bonding, infrastructure bank loans, tolls on major new facilities, public-private partnerships and closing tax exemptions.
Wilhelm: Motor vehicle fuel taxes are fair because the amount each driver pays corresponds to their road use. Let’s invest that revenue to build and maintain road capacity. I support rail, transit and ferry services provided by investor-owned businesses rather than taxpayers.
Axthelm: I would like a true, full-performance audit by the state auditor’s office to help the Department of Transportation analyze for economy and efficiency within the existing budget. Texas did performance audits and saved $9 billion over a 10-year period. I believe we will find savings within the Transportation Department’s budget we can utilize.
QWhat plans do you have to help the economy in this district?
Haugen: I will continue to work to reduce regulations and taxation that affect small businesses, which are the backbone of this district. I also will work to fund needed transportation and infrastructure projects, and I will continue to work to preserve farming in the district.
Wilhelm: Traffic congestion causes a major drag on our district’s economy. I would work to convert the underutilized high occupancy vehicle lanes into fully utilized toll lanes with demand pricing and privacy-protecting transponders for no-stop toll collection. I support independent performance audits and eliminating inefficiencies that waste taxpayers’ money.
Axthelm: I would encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses, which provide over 70 percent of the employed people in the state with jobs. I would also analyze how transportation investment can be best utilized to enhance citizens’ transportation goals for healthy communities, as well as for special-needs freight movement.
QWhat would you do in the legislature to support or not support a new NASCAR track in north Marysville?
Haugen: I have serious concerns and will be asking very hard questions. I will work to protect property rights and investments of people living near the site. I also will work to ensure that our existing transportation needs in Snohomish County are not forsaken and that public money is not invested into road projects just for the racetrack.
Wilhelm: Government should protect individual rights – not pick winners and losers. When a suitable location is found, track developers should buy the real estate without using eminent domain or taxpayer subsidies (no corporate welfare). At their own expense, developers must protect neighbors’ property values by mitigating event traffic and noise.
Axthelm: I have tried to keep an open mind about NASCAR, but International Speedway Corp. only plans to spend $50 million, expecting $250 million from taxpayers. I would never allow taxpayer dollars to be used in that manner. Also, I am concerned with people living near the track. I am concerned for their quality of life and property values.
QWhat concrete steps, if any, would you take to keep local military bases open?
Haugen: Continue working with U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, my local elected officials and officers of Naval Air Station Whidbey and the Everett home port to make sure the state is addressing the needs of these bases and the people who serve them.
Wilhelm: Military base locations should be based on strategic and tactical needs, as determined by the military. Politicizing such decisions increases the risk of compromising national security.
Axthelm: I am committed to advocating Congress and BRAC in a consistent manner on behalf of the residents of Island and Snohomish counties. It has been estimated that 88 percent of the economic activity in Island County is linked to the Navy presence. It is vital to our local economies that we protect our military base presence.
QWhat is the most important educational issue in your district, and what would you do to solve the problem?
Haugen: The challenge of how to use limited resources to meet the needs of students while trying to meet state requirements and federal mandates to increase standards and accountability.
Wilhelm: I can’t think of a single thing that would help children more than replacing the government-run school monopoly with free-market schools. Let’s unleash the creativity of teachers to start new schools free from excessive government interference. The kids deserve a better education and parents deserve a choice.
Axthelm: Today’s economy demands from our graduating students a greater knowledge and a firmer grasp of skill than ever before. I believe we need to get more money that’s in the education system into the classroom. That translates into high-quality resource materials for our children and better teacher pay.
QIsland County’s split geography brings up the idea of passenger or car ferries between Whidbey and Camano islands. What is your stance on such efforts?
Haugen: I support the concept, especially if there is a public-private partnership. However, the major problem would be finding a suitable site; there is little or no public land available, and parking would create serious problems for homeowners.
Wilhelm: I support investor-owned ferries that compete to earn business in a free market, where profits and losses accrue to investors. I oppose government-owned ferries because losses are shifted to taxpayers. At their own expense, ferry businesses must protect neighbors’ property values by solving traffic or noise problems.
Axthelm: A passenger ferry would reduce the time some Camano residents spend going around the island to go to the county courthouse. The problem I foresee with a car ferry is the inadequacy of roads on and off Camano to handle extra traffic. It is ridiculous commuting to and from Camano from I-5 during peak hours.
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