[[VIEW_THIS]]  Feb.18, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, In the same week that state government’s budget surplus hit the $15 BILLION mark, the state Senate rushed a bill through that would mean triple-digit increases in certain costs for Washington drivers and has our neighboring states accusing ours of trying to tax...

[[VIEW_THIS]]  Feb.11, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, Both chambers of the Legislature are in the middle of an eight-day stretch of floor action. This is when, with few exceptions, we spend the entire day at our desks on the floor of the Senate chamber and take action on bills forwarded...

Feb. 4, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, We’re at a point in the 2022 session when bills begin to stall – or “die,” as some put it – because there isn’t enough support to move them forward. This can happen for several reasons. For instance, a bill may need more...

Jan. 28, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, If you had asked me Monday morning, I would have said the 11 bills I’d filed during the first two weeks of our session – the latest being an updated version of my emergency-powers reform – would be it. But after seeing the...

Jan. 21, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, This past week’s e-news mentioned how our 2022 session is limited to 60 days. The pace of a “short” session like this is faster, understandably, because the deadlines for acting on legislation come up sooner. The first of these “cutoff” dates is less...

Jan. 14, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, I hope this finds you and your family well. The first week of our 2022 session ends today. Being that it’s an even-numbered year, this is a 60-day “short” session; the shorter length (compared to the 105 days allotted by the constitution in...

Nov. 10, 2021 Hello Friends and Neighbors, I hope this finds you and your family well. It was good to see people from our legislative district take part in the recent Tax Structure Work Group meeting for our corner of the state. I had hoped there would be discussion about...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, This second half of July has been more than unusually hot and dry. It’s also been unusually violent, with a string of shootings – many of them fatal – in our state’s largest city, while here in Clark County, a Clark County deputy sheriff was killed...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, The Legislature’s 105-day session ended last evening, shortly after the passage of a new state operating budget that is – unfortunately – much more partisan than it needed to be. The budget wasn’t the only disappointing news to come out of our final week (and weekend)...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, The final day of our 105-day session is a week from this Sunday. I mentioned in my previous report how there’s no excuse for going past that deadline when one party controls both houses of the Legislature… but sure enough, the chatter about an overtime session...