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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 13, 2022     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 13, 2022
 
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Matt Baide matt@masoncounty.com State representatives Drew MacEwen and Dan Griffey and state senator Tim Sheldon were given a Mason County sendoff at the Shelton Yacht Club last Friday before the 2022 legislative session. The event was put on by the Shel— ton-Mason County Chamber of Com— merce, North Mason Chamber of Com- merce and the Economic Development V Council of Mason County. Sen. Shel- don, D-Potlatch, spoke first at the event and said there weren’t a lot of highlights to report from the 2021 leg— islative session. He said the biggest thing he believes will be changed this year is the bill passed in 2021 regard- ing long-term care. , “Actuarily, the bill doesn’t work. I think the majority party has finally discovered that and admitted it. They knew, a lot of people knew before it was passed but it was a partisan bill and I was the only Democrat that vot- ed against it,” Sheldon said. “The issue is you can’t afford it and there was an initiative that didn’t make the ballot but we’re going to review it and I think the bill will certainly be on hold or on ’ pause at least for two years.” Sheldon said the law enforcement accountability bill will also be looked at and possibly 'changed. He said there were some good things, including the ‘ rural broadband bill and the wildfire bills. In the upcoming session, Sheldon hopes to break ground on the Shelton Veterans Village. He said he got the appropriation for $6 million for two ve g erans’ villages. He also wants to ' break ground on the Belfair Bypass. “We’re not going to accept phasing the project. Phasing means shorten- ”"Sheldon said. “That’s what they did“Wit‘h“ the improvements through Belfair, should have continued from Sweet Water Creek all the way- to l’state Reute) 106 and that we should ' finished as well.” , Sheldon also said he hopes to pass a bill to allow fire districts to use their own'treasurer instead of going through the city or county for money. , Rep. Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, said last year was tough and talked about his speech on the floor about the police re- form bill. ‘ “I said there were going to be riv— ers of tears cried because of the bills we passed this day,” Griffey said. “We didn’t help sexual—assault survivors with that bill, we didn’t, help people that were murdered, the families, we didn’t help law enforcement be pro- active in policing, we didn’t do any of those things. It was a terrible bill. We fought the entire session to, it was sev- eral of us, we fought the entire session to say no, the unintended consequenc-‘ ‘ es of those bills are going to be terrible for everyone. Now the majority party has asked us, because I serve on the public safety committee, my ranking member and the rest of the public safe- ty committee, how do we fix this bill? We can’t deal with the backlash any- more. I’ll tell you what, between that and the long-term health tax, we know that the majority party will listen to people because they have backed down on both of those policies'and are ac— tually asking for help so this is good news.” , r Griffey saidvbecause the last session- was virtual, it was easier to pass bills with the majority instead of bills that had due diligence. He said he wants last year to “be in the rearview mir—, ror” and one of the first bills that will be passed after negotiations is to put the “genie back in the bottle” when it comes to law enforcement reforms. He said House Republicans will be releasing three top priority bills. Griffey said Republicans have a trans- portation package to restore bridges ,. and'lroadmwithout raising Etaxes and h they are going to Write a budget as if ‘ they were the majority party. He also noted Republicans haVe an environ- mental policy that reduces carbon, but doesn’t raise taxes. Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022 — Shelton—Mason County Journal — Page A—15 Legislators Speak at '202‘21egislative sendoff ’ Griffey also stated House Republi- cans put the speaker “on notice” that they want to eliminate the governor’s emergency powers. He also wants to make sure people cannot show por= nography to children and says it is a grooming technique. “I couldn’t even get a hearing last year because the majority party said they were really worried about the rap music industry’s concern with that bill. Well. I say heck with that, BS,” Grifl'ey ’ said. “It is really time for us to say we are going to take care of our children. I don’t care what the rap music industry says. We need to stop sexual violence before it happens. Those that are sexu- ally violated at a young age turn into sexual predators themselves and I’m tired of it. So, I will be very loud again on this, but it is time we all put our feet in the ground. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, the right is right now. We’re not going to protect the rap music industry in Washington state, we’re going to pro- tect sexual assault survivors.” Rep. MacEwen, R—Union, said it _was not a good session last year, spe- cifically mentioning the way session was conducted remotely. “When we have public hearings, yeah, people sign in, they give their testimony. Granted, it’s only a min- ute, sometimes it’s three minutes de- pending on the complexity of a bill but what’s more important is when you’re. sitting there and you look out at a group like this, and called into a hearing room, and you can read peo- ple’s faces,” MacEwen said. “You can tell what they’re thinking and then the committee adjorns and you go out in the hall and you' get grabbed and all of these people who testified are tell- ing you their thoughts and that was totally lost and I firmly believe the Linajorityparty tOOk advantage of that. end of Shelton’s Urban Growth Area They raised. your taxes a couple times. They made the streets worse. We’ve. done nothing to solve the housing cri-_ sis. It was just this ram‘rod-‘that went through and then when we adjomed this virtual sessions, they would go to their favorite box store and go shop- ping with 500 of their closest people but we couldn’t figure out how to put 90 people in the biggest building in Olympia? It was not good.” . MacEwen-called out Gov. Jay In- slee, saying the budget that passed last year was over $56 billion and the supplemental budget he released for this session is $65 billion and asked the crowd if things have ‘gotten better. “We’ve got mass inflation headed our way, what is that going to do to our state budget? We cannot continue to spend every last dime as the gover- nor’s proposed in every budget cycle,” MacEwen said. , Mason County Economic DeVelop- ment Council Board Chair Joe Schmit talked about four priorities for the EDC, including infrastructure, ex- tending the 0.09% sales and use‘ tax for public facilities and economic de- velopment activities in rural commu- nities, continue to support the state department of commerce’s request for $7.5 million in the community eco- ' nomic revitalization board to build in— frastructure to foster job growth in our rural and urban communities and sup- port and protect state level leadership and funding for economic development including full support for business re— cruitment, retention and expansion programs. _‘ Shelton City Manager ‘Jeff Niten said he wants the Legislature to look at the 10—year cap for transportation benefit districts and see how it could work better for the city in the future. He said he hopes representatives and Sheldon can help with the deck at the Shelton Library, safety and security for parking improvements for Shelton Police and moving forward with the Water reclamation plant on the north and to expand" capacity in“ that area; He said Shelton‘will also be investing in a piece of property to make thata reality and to eventually no longer’be discharging into Oakland Bay. ' ,I unfrastructu re among S‘heldon’stop priorities By Matt Baide \ matt@masoncounty. com , ' Legislation for the 2022 session includes a bill I already have introduced (SB 5565) that would al-‘ This Would help compensate for the losses:We are seeing as more motorists choose electric carsand The 2022 legislative session kicked off Monday, and it is another virtual session due to COVID-19. ’ The Journal sent questionnaires to 'Sen. Tim Sheldon and Reps. Drew MacEwen and Dan . Griffey, with only Sheldon responding before the ’ Journal’s print deadline. Q: What are some of the goals you would like to accomplish during. the 2022 legislative session? Any legislation you are planning on introducing? Sheldon: The 2022 legislative session will be a short 60—day session in an election year, and I - doubt there will be enthusiasm for taking on big new matters of controversy. We have plenty of old ones to keeprus busy.‘Much of our focus this year will be on fixing problems created by major pieces of legislation passed'by‘my fellow lawmakers in previ— ous sessions, including taxation, public safety, and a new state long-term care insurance program that appears to be insolvent even as it debuts. . We also have many projects we need to see through to completion. Nowhere is this more true ‘ thanin the 35th_Legislative District. ‘We have money appropriated for a veterans’ housing project in Shelton, but the project has stalled for techni- cal reasons, and we need to determine whether the LegiSlature ’will need to take further action or the , Department of Commerce can deal with the issue on, its own. The Belfair'Bypass also needs attention . I’ obtained the first'appropriation for that project in’2005‘, and we are still waiting for ground to be ., broken. And weneed to complete improvements to. the existing Highway 3 through Belfair, to relieve some of the congestion we see in that community at peak travel times. ,' -~ ‘ fuel and electricity. low larger fire districts to hire their oWn treasurers, rather than going through existing county and city governments for services related to bond issues. Another bill 'I introduced toward the end of the last legislative session remains underconsideration in 2022, a measure that Would give judges more ‘dis—.. cretion in imposing fines, restitution and otherfi- ' nancial obligations on indigent persons convicted of crimes (SB 5486). I also am planningto reintroduce a bill «I offered in 2019 making it easier for the'De- partment of Natural Resources to provide designat- ed areas for target shooting on the 3 million acres of public land that it controls. Q: What would you'like to see the commit- tees you’re a part of (Environment, Energy & Technology, Transportation) address during: the session? ~ . « Sheldon: In' the Environment, Energy and Techi- nology Committee, we need to ensure the rural per- ’ spective is heard in our never-ending debates over climate-related legislation; We want clean energy, too, but we don’t have money to burn like they do ' in Seattle, and people here are far more sensitive to measures that would increase the prices of motor In Transportation, we need to continue laying the groundwork for a new transportation package it’s the only way'we’re going to get new highways built and relieve traffic congestion. This is espe- cially importantin the 35th District ~ we are the 1 most rural district of the state, and we also have its longest commutesl‘I don’t think we’ll finalize a pro-' 1‘ posal this year, but transpbrtation packages often take several years to develop. One element I would liketo see as part of the next package would be to dedicate sales taxes on vehicles to transportatibn. stop paying gas taxes, and as COVID continues to , discourage travel. c Q: What are some of thereoncerns and is-” sues you are hearing about from yOur constit- i V uents in Mason County? Was 2021 a’good year for Mason County in your view? Sheldon: I’m certainly hearing about COVID and vaccine mandates. Here I think we must be careful. I think people can get better advice about COVID from their doctors than frOm their politicians. We know more about laws than we do about disease. ‘ Yet I think many of us in the Legislature, in both parties, are concerned that we have been under an official declaration of emergency for nearly two v years, giving the governor sweeping authority to suspend laws and issue decrees._Last week [refers to week of Jan. 2-8] we reached 'the 67 5thrday of this emergency. When an emergency drags on like, this, there comes a point when it’s not an emer- gency anymore and it’s just crisis-as—usual. The Legislature ceded its authority regarding COVID to the governor at the start of the 2021 session, and I think that was a mistake. The people’s Voice needs - to be heard in decisions regarding COVID, and the Legislature needs to reassert its authority and par- ticipate in-the process.- r 2021 certainly was a good year for Mason Como gOvernment, but this has less to do with the'Legis- lature than skyrocketing home prices. The higher prices go, the more the county, collects in real estate r excise tax. In 2019, we had just one house in Marion, County that sold for more than $1 milliOn. 11112020 H it was three, and in 2021 it was 36. Unfortunately, what’s good for local government isn’t good for the see SHELDON, page A-16