Tag Archives: K-12 education

Want to feel inspired?

Joining me at the recent graduation ceremony at the state prison in Connell were, from left: Denise Kammers, the Dean of Corrections Education for Walla Walla Community College; Dante Leon, WWCC Vice President of Instruction; Dr. Chad Hickox, WWCC President; Ricardo Chavez, WWCC Director of Adult Basic Education for Corrections Education; Hanan Al-Zubaidy, Associate Director for Corrections Education from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (front); Dr. Allen Sutton, WWCC Director of Connection and Belonging (back); Lauren Reed, WWCC Director of Education Operations at CRCC; and state Representative Alex Ybarra, from the neighboring 13th Legislative District.

Good things are happening — people are making their lives better

Dear Neighbor,

It’s easy for state legislators to get caught up in what’s coming out of Olympia or the “other Washington” and miss the positive things that are happening right in front of us. That’s why I’m postponing a report on some of the new laws that just took effect, in favor of sharing some recent experiences that highlight good things happening locally.

The first involves the two state prisons east of the Cascades, which are both in our 16th Legislative District: the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, and Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell.

Walla Walla Community College has education and training centers at both facilities. Each offers a variety of programs from basic education to college degrees, mostly AAS (Associate of Applied Science).

WWCC President Chad Hickox attended one of the legislative town hall meetings we held after the session, and extended an invitation to attend the upcoming graduation ceremonies at each institution. It wouldn’t have been right to choose one over the other, so I went to both. CRCC’s was on July 17, and the WSP graduation was July 23.

These were specifically for minimum-security students who had completed a program this year: high-school equivalency, automotive mechanics technology, carpentry or business.

I appreciated meeting the graduates, their families, and the staff, and enjoyed hearing their stories. While I’m a firm believer in holding people accountable when they are convicted of crimes, and generally skeptical about the re-entry policies favored by the majority side, I also have respect for people who are making an effort to change their lives instead of just doing their time and falling back into the same old lifestyle when they return to their communities.

An example of this self-improvement was the young man at Coyote Ridge who graduated in auto mechanics and had been resourceful enough to obtain a grant to get tools that he’ll be able to use when he gets out in a matter of months. You can’t help but cheer for him, or for the young man at WSP whose criminal troubles began after dropping out of high school but now wants to build on the degree he earned through WWCC by attending Eastern Washington University.

Someone expressed interest in starting a non-profit that could help support inmates after their release, to get them off to a better start on the outside. And when I met a graduate at WSP who had been in correctional facilities since he was a youth, I took the opportunity to ask what he thinks of the “JR-to-25” policy that basically keeps offenders in state-run juvenile facilities for several years after they turn 18, even though that has led to overcrowding and other safety and security concerns.

And let me tell you, as a member of the Senate committee on K-12 education, seeing guys in their 40s and 50s getting their high-school equivalency certificates was a stark reminder of what “basic” education means – and how we have work to do to address chronic absenteeism in our schools and increase the graduation rate.

Of course, there were unavoidable reminders at WSP that we were inside a correctional facility. Still, the ceremonies there and at CRCC did a great job of celebrating the accomplishments of these men in preparing for another chapter of their lives. It was moving to hear them talk about their perseverance, and see those smiles as they took part in the traditional tassel-flipping at the end. It was as uplifting and full of hope as any graduation I’ve attended.

That made the note my office received on July 24 from the WSP director of education all the more special. It included this about the reaction of the graduates:

“Many of them expressed varying levels of disbelief that a government official actually showed up…they are accustomed to hearing that people “might” come, and often see that fail to materialize…so, it had a positive impact and I thought he should know that. We appreciate his support and hope that he felt even a portion of the inspiration from this event, that we feel on a daily basis in our quest to change lives for our students and the communities that they eventually become a part of.”

I certainly did feel inspired, and that brings me to the visit I recently made to Hope Street House, a “sober living” home for women in Walla Walla. It’s been in the news over the years, like when the lease was signed with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and when its first resident was accepted in 2021; my visit late this past month happened because some of the residents had invited me when we met at the Capitol during this year’s session.

If you like stories about people who have struggled but are getting their lives together, it would be hard to do better than my experience at Hope Street. It’s a great facility and a wonderful asset to the community. I’m grateful to Chloey for asking if I would visit, because you never know when I’ll have an opportunity in Olympia to be an advocate for resources like this and the good works of the people who make them possible.

With that in mind, if you know of more inspirational things happening in our area — especially examples of people working to make their lives better — please let me know!

Drought conditions = higher fire risk, at a bad time

According to this drought monitor map, most of the 16th Legislative District is experiencing a moderate drought — with the remainder being one step better (“abnormally dry”) or worse (severe drought) on the scale.

It’s worse still to the east of us, with parts of Whitman, Asotin and Garfield counties considered to be in extreme drought. That’s as bad as it gets, and can affect crop yields and cause toxic algae blooms.

According to drought.gov, we had the third-driest June on record since 1895 — which probably has something to with how Washington had the seventh-driest January since that same year.

This is happening as many of us are harvesting wheat, and as farmers and firefighters know, the conditions increase the risk of wildfire. I’m aware of several wheat fields catching fire, one of them about three miles from our house earlier this week – and a farmstead was also lost. Let’s hope we get through harvest and the rest of the heat of summer without losing more crops or equipment. Farming is enough of a challenge as it is!

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

EMAIL: Perry.Dozier@leg.wa.gov
OLYMPIA PHONE: (360) 786-7630
OLYMPIA OFFICE: 342 Irving R. Newhouse Building
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 40416, Olympia, WA 98504

 

 

Legislature adjourns; here’s a snapshot of what happened

It’s normal for the new state budgets to be adopted on the final day of our regular legislative session, and this year was no different. This is how the operating budget looked as it sat on the “bar” at the front of the Senate chamber on Sunday. The stack contains the budget adopted by the Senate on March 29, the version approved by the House on March 31 and the compromise between the two chambers, which few people saw until Saturday morning — which is a concern all by itself.

Dear Neighbor,

It was a very challenging legislative session that wrapped up this past Sunday, on schedule. The session felt longer than 105 days because of all the time we spent opposing the bad policies and harmful decisions the Democrat majority seemed determined to bring before us.

As we came into this session back on January 13, we knew that we were facing a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall and that the majority would use this as an opportunity to go on a tax-raising spree. Their first attempt at an operating-budget proposal did just that – it would have increased taxes in our state by $21 billion!

The Democrats’ agenda also continued to lean away from freedom and the free market with controversial legislation that would undermine your rights as a parent, cripple small business, worsen the education gap and limit your Second Amendment rights.

It didn’t have to be this way

We could have had a budget with zero new taxes. That’s right: the operating budget Senate Republicans proposed (Senate Bill 5810) proved we could have funded the priorities Washingtonians share — with no new taxes or fees and no cuts to services!

No one should be fooled by claims that higher taxes were inevitable because of the state’s budget shortfall. To be clear, the shortfall was never as large as Democrats claimed it was; we heard $12 billion, $15 billion, even $18 billion, but according to our non-partisan budget staff — people who don’t have a political agenda – it topped out at about $7.5 billion. That’s a lot less than the size of the Democrats’ tax package. What was clearly evident is this shortfall was the result of the majority’s reckless and uncontrolled overspending for too many years.

On Sunday, only Democrats voted for their budget. Republicans wouldn’t pile all those taxes and fees on the people of our state.

Defending the people we serve

Our no-new-taxes ‘$ave Washington” budget is an example of how Republicans offered ideas that are better for our state but don’t have the votes to get them all to the governor’s desk. For that reason, our victories this session were more about the bad legislation we derailed so it wouldn’t have lasting effects on the people we serve.

The following is a list of just some of the positive things we accomplished:

Public safety

  • Created a grant program to help law enforcement agencies hire more officers; a bill I’ve sponsored finally found enough traction this year, thanks to a push from our new governor.
  • Stopped included legislation that would have reduced penalties for sex offenders and allowed violent felons to seek early release.
  • Prevented the state from having the power to decertify county sheriffs elected by the people.

Affordability

  • Stopped the pay-per-mile tax
  • Successfully fought off another attempt to increase property taxes by lifting or eliminating the 1% cap on the annual growth of property-tax rates.
  • Made it easier to build more housing through zoning reform.

Better for education and children

  • Kept the majority from lifting the 10-year-old cap on college tuition growth
  • Ended some of the unnecessary regulation that makes childcare even harder to afford.
  • Protected new mothers receiving Medicaid by preserving 12 months of postpartum maternity care.
  • Prevented children from being exposed to a harmful, inappropriate far-left agenda in school.

Bonus: We stopped the “initiative-killer bill” which would have put unreasonable requirements on people gathering signatures on initiative petitions.

Majority balances budget
on backs of working families

There’s much to be said about both budgets, and because the final operating budget was negotiated in secret by a handful of Democrats and wasn’t seen by anyone else until Saturday, we’re still learning what all is in it. So for now, here’ s a quick summary:

  • Watch for your property taxes to go up, because school districts are now authorized to pursue bigger local levies. Funding our K-12 schools is the paramount duty of state government, and Democrats shouldn’t be pushing more of that responsibility down to the district level, but they are.In its way, this is even worse than the straight-up property-tax increase they pushed, then abandoned — because it also sets the state up for another education-funding lawsuit (like the landmark McCleary decision of 2012) that could mean even more tax increases down the road.
  • The expanded sales tax on services ($2.6 billion) — which applies to cable and streaming TV, for instance — and the increase in the business tax (nearly $6 billion) will eventually end up at the consumer level, one way or another.
  • As Republicans predicted, the income tax on capital gains is already going up, after just two years’ of collections. The death tax is also going up, with the increase being retroactive to the start of this year!
  • One of the tax bills in the Democrats’ package would slap a business tax on self-storage rental companies, and more… which again, will trickle down to consumers. It’s like they looked under about every rock they could turn over in search of more money.
  • In all, the tax package means a $9.6 billion increase in state-level taxes, which becomes $12.5 billion when the property-tax increase and the local effect of the sales-tax increase are factored in.
  • On top of all these taxes, the majority doubled childcare co-pays and tripled the per-bed license fee for nursing homes.They also raised the cost of hunting and fishing licenses by 38%, and added 50% to the cost of the annual Discover Pass. The bizarre thing is that the Democrats expect the higher fees will reduce sales, so are they just — as the saying goes — taxing behavior they want to discourage? Do they want fewer people to visit state parks and use boat launches?

Governor Ferguson said late in the session that he didn’t want to see tax increases that hit working families. If he backs that up by using his veto pen on the higher property and sales taxes in this new budget, there’s a chance legislators could be called back for a “special” session of the Legislature. We’ll have until May 20 to find out.

Higher taxes on gas, diesel coming

The new transportation budget for 2025-27 provides funding to keep important projects going in the face of higher labor and material costs.

While those projects include ongoing improvements to U.S. Highway 12 in our district, I could not vote for the budget because of the fuel-tax increases and weight-fee increases tied to it.

Although it’s been nearly a decade since the state portion of the gas tax went up, and another six cents per gallon may not sound like much, the tax on diesel will go up twice as much: six cents more now, then another 3-cent increase each of the next two years.

It isn’t clear why diesel is getting hit harder, unless the environmental activists on the Democratic side of the aisle had a role, but another 12 cents per gallon will obviously add to the cost of anything hauled by big trucks.

To be fair, though, the gas tax does pay for highway projects. It’s projected that by 2028, two of Jay Inslee’s favorite laws — the Climate Commitment Act and the low-carbon fuel standard — will add 30-plus cents to fuel costs all by themselves, and those don’t pay for projects to make our roads safer.

Capital budget brings variety
of investments to 16th District

The third of the three budgets adopted Sunday is the budget that funds school construction, community projects and much more: the capital budget. The broader details are in the news release Sen. Mark Schoesler and I issued that day.

Here’s a summary of the local projects funded in the new capital budget:

  • Columbia Basin College – $54.5 million to replace the Performing Arts Building. The “P Building,” dates to 1971 and is home to the college’s School of Arts, Humanities and Communication.
  • Kahlotus and Prescott school districts – $6 million to each district for modernization projects.
  • Walla Walla environmental cleanup – $3.5 million from the Model Toxics Control Account for monitoring/cleanup of soil contamination underneath the Chevron station downtown.
  • Walla Walla Water 2050 plan – $2.4 million toward this water-management plan.
  • Walla Walla County courthouse – $2 million for historic preservation.
  • Franklin County Fire District 2 – $1 million to complete the Kahlotus station.
  • Lions Park Community Center, College Place — $1 million toward the ongoing project to renovate the park and build a new community center. It’s the second straight time this project has received capital-budget support.
  • Mid-Columbia Children’s Museum — $1 million
  • Port of Walla Walla – $773,000 for Tri-Cities Intermodal cargo handling.
  • Christian Aid Center – $160,000 for Walla Walla rescue mission.

The capital budget, like the operating and transportation budgets, will go into effect July 1. Most of the other bills passed this session will take effect July 27, which is 90 days from the end of the session.

***

SAVE THE DATE — Saturday, May 31
16th District town hall meetings

***

Late in the session, as more bills came up for deciding votes, it was common for senators to step out of the chamber for interviews with the news media. This was for a Seattle TV station about a public-safety bill.

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

 

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

Senate unanimously approves capital budget ‘for the entire state’

The Senate today unanimously approved its version of the 2025-27 state capital budget, with the Republicans who helped develop the spending plan praising it for addressing needs throughout Washington.

“What we have is a capital budget for the entire state,” said 9th District Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, the lead Republican for the Senate capital budget. “We looked at this budget and saw fewer resources, so we made tougher decisions every step of the way, working on priorities that made both our side and our Democrat counterparts happy.

“This budget also leaves healthier reserves than we often have going into the second year of a biennium. When we come back next year, we can address unforeseen problems with those reserves.”

Schoesler’s full remarks prior to today’s vote may be viewed here.

“I’m really pleased with how well the Senate capital budget addresses needs throughout Washington,” said Sen. Perry Dozier, R-Waitsburg. He became assistant Republican leader on the capital-budget team this year, bringing government-budgeting experience from two terms as a Walla Walla County commissioner.

“We all made sure there is a lot of support for K-12 education, which is our state’s paramount duty, but this particular budget is also good for things like water projects, housing and fish hatcheries. That makes sense, if you look at the mix of backgrounds and priorities of the four senators who crafted it. I’m also glad we made progress on addressing some long-standing concerns about support for public-works projects.

“The capital budget has a reputation for being the most bipartisan of the three state budgets, and now I know why. We placed a lot of trust in one another in the course of developing this – each of us tried to be responsive to what the others brought to the table. That shows through in the budget itself and today’s unanimous vote.”

The Senate capital budget has a total price tag of $7.3 billion, with an ending-fund balance of $222 million.

It features $1 billion for K-12 education and early-learning projects, including $563 million for the School Construction Assistance Program. There is $201 million for Small District and Tribal School Modernization construction and planning grants, which will fund 40 additional small-school construction projects. Another $143 million is provided for additional school seismic-safety grants, plus $12 million for the new school security and preparedness infrastructure grants program.

The Senate capital budget spends $770 million on a variety of housing programs.

Schoesler and Dozier, both farmers, noted the state’s fairs benefit from this budget, which allocates a record $12 million for competitive grants to agricultural fairs for access- and safety-improvement projects.

The Senate capital budget also provides plenty of money for water-related needs on both sides of the Cascades, with robust funding for eastern Washington water-infrastructure programs. Those appropriations include $69 million for the Columbia River Water Supply Development Program, of which $44 million goes to the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program, plus $53 million for the Yakima River Basin Water Supply Program and $13 million for the Yakima-Tieton Canal to start fixing damage to a wildfire.

In western Washington, $80 million is provided to fully fund the Chehalis River Basin Strategy, which includes flood control and salmon recovery.

There is also $85 million in the two-year plan for 15 fish hatcheries statewide – another record.

A total of $1.2 billion is allocated for projects at Washington’s four-year universities and other higher-education institutions. They include:

  • University of Washington: $40.8 million for Anderson Hall renovation.
  • Washington State University: $25 million for the Sciences Building, plus money for preventive facility maintenance and building-system repairs.
  • Central Washington University: $12 million for the emergency backup power system, $11 million for the university’s Humanities and Social Science Complex, and $10 million for an expansion of CWU’s aviation-degree program.
  • Eastern Washington University: $10 million for the dental-therapy lab, as well as funding for facility-preservation projects.
  • The state’s community and technical college system receives $400 million for various projects.

Once the House of Representatives passes its capital budget, budget writers from the Senate and House will meet as a “conference committee” to hammer out a compromise capital budget for both chambers to consider.

The 2025 legislative session is scheduled to end April 27.

Count ’em: 107 bills in two days!

Ways 2-25

I don’t believe unemployment benefits are meant to be paid to people who walk off the job and go on strike, yet on Friday the majority Democrats on the Senate budget committee endorsed a bill to allow that. To view the public hearing that led to the vote on SB 5041, click here.

Dear Neighbor,

When I was appointed to the Senate Ways and Means Committee ahead of this legislative session, I figured it would keep me busier than any of my other committees. This week, “busier” was an understatement. Wow!

To make a long story short, bills that have a cost associated with them need to go before a budget committee after coming out of a Senate policy committee – and except for bills related to transportation, they all come to our Ways and Means committee.

As a result, Monday’s committee agenda had public hearings for 27 bills, Tuesday brought hearings on 21 more. There were 31 hearings on the Wednesday agenda, and on Thursday… we began voting. That list had 58 bills, and yesterday’s voting list had 49.

This is on top of the hours spent in the Senate chamber this week, debating and voting on bills that had cleared the necessary committee hurdles.

Does our state need all 107 of the bills we saw Thursday and Friday to become law? Absolutely not. A good example is SB 5041, which would provide taxpayer-funded unemployment benefits for striking workers.

If you get laid off, you can apply for unemployment benefits – but not if you quit. The same logic applies to going out on strike. It’s still a case of voluntary separation.

Striking workers would have less financial incentive to stay at or return to the bargaining table if they’re allowed to collect unemployment benefits. That would give them a distinct advantage over the employer, which explains why SB 5041 is a high priority for our state’s labor organizations. But it hardly seems like a good use of taxpayer dollars.

I’m not on the Senate labor committee, so if it wasn’t for my seat on Ways and Means, I wouldn’t be able to ask questions that help expose the flaws in this bill, as I did during the public hearing on it Wednesday.

Here’s a sampling of some other bills that came before the Ways and Means committee this week:

  • SJR 8200: Amends the state constitution to allow increases in property taxes through school bonds by removing the 60% vote needed and lowering it to a simple majority (94% “con” testimony in committee)
  • SB 5626: Provides unemployment benefits for undocumented workers in a way that easily allows fraud
  • SB 5179: Allows the state school superintendent to go after schools/officials if they don’t comply with legislative mandates
  • SB 5266: For those sentenced as juveniles, eliminates the 20-year waiting period to petition for release – even if convicted of violent crimes
  • SB 5382: The “initiative killer” bill, which includes threatening signature gatherers for initiatives with fines and jail time if certain requirements aren’t met, and preventing people who don’t have addresses or who use post-office boxes from signing initiative petitions

With the close of business Friday, the Senate’s two budget committees (Transportation is the other one) joined the policy committees that are already on break.

Starting Monday the activity in the Senate will move full-time to the Senate chamber through March 12. During that time you’ll find Republican and Democratic senators doing one of two things: meeting in their respective caucuses to discuss bills, and amendments to those bills, or out on the “floor” debating and voting on those bills and amendments.

From the Mailbag: Keeping tax dollars local?

Earlier in this session I shared part of an email that came from a constituent in Richland, who was expressing her concerns about actions being taken at the federal level. Today let me share an excerpt from an email sent by a Walla Walla constituent, which is about the relationship between the state and its many municipalities.

“Your newsletter spends much of its digital ink attacking Democrats, as is usual for Republicans who seem to have few ideas other than ‘lower taxes.’ How about favoring some kind of bill allowing local areas to keep more of their tax money rather than sending it to the state? I’ve long advocated that each county in the state be forced to pay its own way.

“That would mean, of course, that Walla Walla County, where I live, could take in no more in state spending than it collects in taxes. This could be regulated over a three year period to account for large projects. Allowing locals to collect and spend their own money is an intensely Republican idea, i.e. devolving government to its most local level.”

He’s right, Republicans do prefer local control because it means decisions are made closer to the people they affect. That’s why we typically oppose legislation that dictates school-related policies from Olympia in a way that overrides the authority of local school boards.

But to get to this constituent’s point: In 2022 I co-sponsored a bill to assist with the hiring of law-enforcement officers. It would have basically allowed cities and counties to collect and spend 1/10th of 1 percent of the sales tax that would normally have gone to Olympia. The bill didn’t even make it out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Maybe my Democratic colleagues were opposed to letting the locals keep some tax dollars. Perhaps they were opposed to helping communities rebuild their law-enforcement agencies after the exodus of officers we saw in the 2020-21 timeframe. I have no way of knowing. But there’s an example of how I tried to keep more tax money at home, and it didn’t work.

By the way, the bill’s Republican sponsor reworked it so the funding source became grants from the state budget rather than tax credits. His perseverance seems to have paid off, because Governor Ferguson publicly endorsed the bill in his inaugural address. SB 5060 was passed by the Ways and Means Committee Thursday!

As for “attacking” Democrats – like a baseball umpire, I call ‘em as I see ‘em. If my experience tells me legislation introduced by a Democrat is bad policy, either for our district or state, it should be OK for me to let my constituents know.

Republicans don’t have a corner on good ideas, which is why I’ve co-sponsored a couple dozen bills this session that were filed by my Democratic colleagues. I also welcome ideas from constituents, like this one from Walla Walla. But to be clear, “lower taxes” are always a worthwhile goal, in my book.

March 17 THM notice

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

My priorities (shared by Senate Republicans) are:

Here’s how to:

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

dozier signature

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

EMAIL: Perry.Dozier@leg.wa.gov
OLYMPIA PHONE: (360) 786-7630
OLYMPIA OFFICE: 342 Irving R. Newhouse Building
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 40416, Olympia, WA 98504

Here they come: one proposed tax hike, then another, then…

BFST committee

Dear Neighbor,

The results of a recent survey of 600 Washington voters showed up in my inbox earlier this month. Most of the survey questions had to do with state spending, one way or another. That makes sense considering how years of overspending have finally caught up with the majority Democrats, and put state government in a multibillion-dollar hole that has to be solved before legislators can adjourn for the year.

It’s no surprise to me that more than three-fourths of those responding think the Legislature doesn’t need more money to address important priorities, and more than three out of five responding simply don’t trust the Legislature on spending.

poll result

Click here for a full presentation of the survey results.

So what are the Democratic majorities in the Senate and House doing? Well, they’ve stepped up their efforts to raise taxes. It’s the easy way to get out of the budget hole while continuing to add to the size of state government.

In the meantime, Republicans are coming up with ways to reduce spending and solve the budget deficit without tax increases. I invite you to look at some of the cost-saving ideas at our $ave Washington webpage.

Here’s where three of the Democrats’ proposed tax hikes stand as the fifth week of this year’s 15-week legislative session wraps.

  • A new tax on each mile you drive? For many years, Democrats have wanted to impose a mileage tax. Senate Bill 5726, introduced Tuesday, would create a “road usage charge” (RUC for short) starting at 2.6 cents per mile, plus an assessment of 10% on the total RUC a person pays. That’s right — the “assessment” is really a tax on a tax.The supporters of a mileage tax argue Washington’s 49.4-cent per gallon gas tax isn’t generating enough money as it is, with more electric and hybrid vehicles on our state’s roads. But I wonder if they understand, or appreciate, how a mileage tax would hurt rural drivers disproportionately.

    Also, this would be another “regressive” tax — meaning it hits lower-income people harder — from the party that is always complaining about Washington’s tax code being regressive.

    Washington’s constitution guarantees gas-tax money can only go toward highways and bridges. The mileage-tax bill doesn’t (and can’t) guarantee how the 2.6 cents per mile would be used. Also, the 10% assessment could be used only for “multimodal,” meaning transit, rail, and pedestrian/bicycle purposes.SB 5726 will get a public hearing Tuesday afternoon before the Senate Transportation Committee. If you want to testify about the bill or at least make your opinion known, there’s a link at the end of this report that will help.

    The identical House bill (HB 1921) already received a public hearing. From what I’m told, the House majority is pushing harder for this tax than the Senate, but that is not reassuring.

  • Higher property taxes, Part I: Last year the Senate Democrats tried to lift the cap on the annual growth of property-tax rates. They wanted a 3% limit, rather than the 1% Washington voters had approved (which was later confirmed by a Democrat-controlled Legislature).That attempt fizzled after intense opposition from the public and Senate Republicans. But this year the House Democrats are making a run at tripling the property-tax growth rate, with House Bill 1334.

    It’s the same bad idea as before, and my argument against it is also the same. Beyond the fact that this would be another regressive tax increase that makes living in our state harder to afford, cities and counties already have the ability to increase property-tax rates beyond 1%. They try to make it sound like the Legislature is holding them back, but that’s false. All they have to do is get permission from the voters.

    The 1% cap applies only to the annual property-tax increases that get voted on at the council/commission level. This bill would basically let local governments take more without asking first. HB 1334 received a committee hearing Tuesday, and I expect it will continue to move ahead unless, like last year, enough pressure is applied to stop it.

  • Higher property taxes, Part II: There’s a reason a 60% majority vote is required to pass school bond issues. Unlike enrichment levies, school bonds create debt that typically takes decades to pay back. To me — and according to Washington’s constitution, for the past 80 years — such an obligation needs to be supported by more than a simple majority.The Democratic members of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee, on which I serve, voted yesterday to pass legislation that would require only a simple majority to approve bond issues: Senate Bill 5186, and Senate Joint Resolution 8200. I and the other Republican committee members voted no, meaning we want to maintain the taxpayer protection afforded by the long-standing three-fifths approval standard.

    Because dropping to simple-majority approval would require a change in the state constitution, SJR 8200 would have to be passed with a two-thirds vote in the Senate and in the House, then a majority of voters would have to agree at the next general election.

    I know the supporters of bond issues are disappointed when those measures fail, but let’s not blame the 60% approval requirement. If a school district makes a persuasive argument to the voters, and the bond issue is the right size at the right price, shouldn’t 60% support be attainable?

media Feb 11

Each week, if there’s a long enough break between committee meetings and floor sessions, Republican lawmakers make themselves available to news reporters who are covering the 2025 session. I took part in this week’s meeting, commenting on tax-related questions as a member of the Senate Ways and Means committee — and was prepared to field questions about parental rights, being the originator of the Senate’s parental-rights bill and a member of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee. To learn what reporters are asking about, and hear our responses, click here.

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

My priorities (shared by Senate Republicans) are:

Here’s how to:

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

dozier signature

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

E-Newsletter: The ‘freeze’ is coming!

Dear Neighbor,

Greetings from… here in the 16th District!

Let me begin with a quick piece of housekeeping. Legislators who declare their candidacy for public office (like being re-elected to the Senate) must abide by a strict set of rules when it comes to communicating using official tools.

For me, those tools include my Senate website, my legislative Facebook page, and e-newsletters. Therefore, I can’t update my website and FB page or send you another report like this until after the November election. Some refer to this as the “campaign freeze.” However, I am free to continue responding to questions and messages – so please, keep the emails, phone calls and letters coming!

The session summary from our 16th District delegation was also mailed recently; click here or on the image below to view it. Among the topics it covers are the history-making six initiatives submitted to the Legislature, and how three were passed – with the other three going to the November ballot.

The post-session report also details some of the dozen bills I sponsored that are becoming law this year, led by my SB 6328. It updates a property-tax exemption that benefits the widows and widowers of honorably discharged veterans. I wish we could have done more to control property taxes, but at least we kept the majority from clearing the way for the largest property-tax increase in state history.

Also, thanks again to the many who took time in early April to attend our 16th District town halls in Prosser, Pasco and Walla Walla. I always appreciate the questions and conversations!

Stunning loss of Washington farms
confirms need for ‘Cultivate Washington’  

I knew the number of farms in our state has been dwindling, in part because of onerous state regulations. But I didn’t realize it was to the extent described by another farmer recently in The Seattle Times.

A guest column from Pam Lewison, who farms in the Moses Lake area and directs the Center for Agriculture at the Washington Policy Center, cites some painful statistics from the U.S. Census of Agriculture.

Between 2017 and 2022, our state lost 3,717 farms and ranches. That’s 14 farms per week, on average. And more than the 3,456 farms lost during the decade ending in 2017.

Click here for the full column, which does a thorough if sobering job of ticking through many of the factors that are behind this stunning drop in the number of farms, and explaining why it should alarm people across our state, not just those in the agriculture sector.

After more than 40 years of farming, I can relate all too well to these concerns. As a senator and former county commissioner, I have an even broader sense of why they exist and how government is involved.

If you did not receive my special post-session report on agriculture, it’s posted online here. Also, several of the reasons line up with the priorities in the Cultivate Washington agenda I and other Senate Republicans unveiled late last year. Click here for it.

Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, has been a tremendous ally on issues facing our part of the state.

16th District among many caught up in ‘gerrymandering’

During the 2022 session I was among the majority of legislators who supported the resolution adopting new boundaries for our state’s 49 legislative districts.

In Washington, the boundaries are set by an independent, bipartisan commission, using the latest U.S. Census data. Because our state’s population expanded and shifted in the previous 10 years, the commission had to create and approve a map that would make legislative districts as even as possible in population – approximately 157,000 residents per district.

The map we endorsed had been created and approved by the commission in November 2021. One of the notable aspects was that it made the neighboring 15th Legislative District, which spans most of the Yakima Valley, a “majority-minority” district.

The commission agreed that the voting-age population in the 15th District, based on the census numbers, would be 51.5% Hispanic; the overall population was 73% Hispanic.

Amazingly, the district wasn’t Hispanic enough for the out-of-state interests that filed suit soon after we had approved the new map(s). In the 2022 election, the district’s voters overwhelmingly chose a Hispanic woman as their new senator – a first in the 15th District. Even so, the plaintiffs chose to continue their legal challenges. I figure it’s because that senator, Nikki Torres of Pasco, is a Republican.

Under Washington law, responsibility for modifying a legislative-district map clearly belongs to the state redistricting commission. We could and should have called a very brief, “special” legislative session back in the fall to reconvene the commission. The governor and the Legislature’s top Democrats all refused.

I also supported an effort early in this year’s legislative session to reconvene the redistricting commission. Our majority colleagues said no, knowing it would allow a federal judge to take over and redraw the map without any legislative oversight or assurance of bipartisanship.

As a result, many legislative districts have new boundaries – from a map drawn by the plaintiffs, which doesn’t seem impartial.

Senator Torres, who has been a terrific colleague these past two years, now finds herself a resident of our 16th District. She can still serve the rest of her term without having to relocate, but I know there were other ways to redraw the 15th District without having such a ripple effect. The senators for the 12th and 14th districts also got “redistricted out.” They too are Republicans.

The term “gerrymandering” goes back more than 200 years. It refers to giving one party an unfair advantage. In 1983, when Washington voters handed the responsibility for redistricting to an independent, bipartisan commission – at the Legislature’s request – it seemed like our state would be safe from gerrymandering.

Apparently not, because a bunch of partisans figured out how to do an end-run on the commission. I realize the 15th District has been represented in the state Senate by Republicans since 1943, but come on. Let’s play fair. This is wrong.

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

Dozier helps pass historic initiative to reinforce parental rights concerning school information

OLYMPIA… Three years after he first introduced legislation to create a “parents’ bill of rights,” 16th District Sen. Perry Dozier today saw his goal achieved with the Legislature’s passage of Initiative 2081.

“This is a momentous day for the parents across our state who want to engage with their child’s school but have found it challenging to do so, especially when it comes to having certain questions or concerns addressed,” said Dozier, R-Waitsburg, who serves on the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.

“Parents shouldn’t have to wade through state laws and rules to figure out what their rights are when it comes to knowing what is being taught at their child’s school, or how the school responds to the health questions of students. In this day and age they should be able to pull up a website and quickly get answers.

“This initiative covers even more ground than the policy I’ve proposed each of the past few years, and I’m happy to see it become law.”

The parental-rights measure was passed by a 49-0 vote in the state Senate and a 82-15 vote in the House of Representatives. It is one of three initiatives to the Legislature, submitted by Washington voters earlier this year, to win legislative approval today. Lawmakers have never enacted three initiatives in any year since Washington’s initiative process was created in 1912.

“Our public schools should want to be as transparent as possible. They should want to make it simple and convenient for parents to get the information they seek, because that can make the difference between a parent who is engaged versus a parent who gets frustrated and starts looking for alternatives for educating their children,” said Dozier.

“More than 454,000 Washington voters signed the petitions for I-2081, which was second only to the initiative to repeal the hidden gas tax represented by the cap-and-trade law,” he added. “I have to believe many of them are parents who look back on how the pandemic affected students and see I-2081 as a step toward being more involved going forward.”

Because the initiatives do not go to the governor for consideration like other legislation, the laws created by I-2081, I-2111 and I-2113 will take effect 90 days after the legislative session ends this Thursday.

The income-tax ban was passed 38-11 in the Senate and 76-21 in the House. The pursuit reform received a 36-13 vote in the Senate and passed 77-20 in the House.

Leaders of the Democrat majorities in the two legislative chambers say three more initiatives submitted to the Legislature will not receive any attention this session, despite each receiving well over 400,000 voter signatures: I-2117, to repeal the cap-and-trade law (officially, the “Climate Commitment Act”); I-2109, to repeal the state tax on income from capital gains; and I-2124, to let workers opt out of what is now a mandatory payroll tax for the state-run long-term care act.

If lawmakers adjourn on schedule Thursday without enacting those measures, as expected, Washington’s constitution requires them to automatically go on the November statewide general-election ballot.

E-News: Hearings scheduled on initiatives next week; this week went to budgets

with Sen. L. Wilson

With Sen. Lynda Wilson of Vancouver in the Senate chamber. The supplemental operating budget passed today by the state Senate reflects some of my input, which I worked through her as Senate Republican budget leader and her counterparts on the majority side. Keep reading for details.

Dear Neighbor,

Greetings from the state Capitol! I have important news about voter initiatives that couldn’t wait… for reasons that will become apparent.

This past weekend I reported to you how our Democrat colleagues had finally committed to holding public hearings for three of the six initiatives submitted to us by the people. Now we have a schedule for those hearings, and opportunities for you to participate.

The three measures to be considered are Initiative 2111 (total ban on income taxes in our state), Initiative 2113 (restore the ability of police to conduct vehicle pursuits) and Initiative 2081 (parental rights regarding their children’s education).

I-2081 builds on the parents’ bill of rights legislation I have sponsored since 2021. It will come before the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, on which I serve, and I am working with others on the committee to make sure the hearing covers the most important aspects during the one hour (!) allotted.

Unfortunately, the majority is still refusing to hold hearings on the initiatives to repeal laws that are about taking money and giving it to the state: I-2117, I-2109 and I-2124. Washington’s constitution does not say to give precedence to half the initiatives and ignore the rest. The people are the sponsors of these initiatives, and they deserve to be heard on all six!

To support the initiatives next week sign in as PRO, using the links below. Be sure the button next to the initiative number under “select agenda item” is checked, to display your options — which include submitting written testimony or testifying “live” in person or remotely:

For more detail about the six initiatives click here. I want to hear from you about all of them. Please take a few minutes to click on the link or the QR code and complete my survey!
survey QR code

Take my online survey about the six voter initiatives submitted to the Legislature this session!

Scan the QR code or click here to begin

initiative box

Local projects supported in budgets adopted, proposed this week

State government runs on a two-year budget cycle, with new budgets developed and adopted in odd-numbered years. This is why we alternate between 105-day sessions and 60-day sessions; in this year’s “short” session we are reopening the budgets approved in 2023 to make adjustments that are intended to carry through the remainder of the budget cycle (until June 2025). Those changes are captured in “supplemental” budgets.

This week the Senate adopted supplemental versions of the 2023-25 operating budget and capital budget. A high-level summary of the supplemental operating budget is here; before the final vote I worked with the budget leaders from both parties to make two adjustments of interest to our area.

One adds a $501,000 appropriation to help with the cleanup of gasoline contamination in downtown Walla Walla; the second creates a fourth tier in an agricultural-fuel reimbursement I discovered in the budget after it became public Monday. For those who purchase 10,000 gallons or more of farm diesel annually, the payment would go to $4,500, up from $3,400 (which remains the third-tier payment).

While I appreciate the majority’s support for my amendment, this approach still does not — as I stated publicly this week — truly reimburse those stuck paying a surcharge on farm fuel due to the state’s cap-and-trade law. The best solution is to do away with cap-and-trade completely, which is the purpose of Initiative 2117. It will save money for anyone who buys any kind of motor fuel or uses natural gas for any purpose, residential or commercial.

The capital budget adopted by the Senate appropriates another $6.6 million toward projects in our 16th Legislative District. I’m happy that includes another $1.5 million for the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery (it’s still listed as Three Rivers Behavioral Health Center, as the name changed after the underlying budget was adopted in 2023). Even better, in its way, is the $300,000 for a trio of local projects: resurfacing and revitalizing the public swimming pool in Prescott, funding a childcare center for Waitsburg and support for the Prosser Clubhouse, run by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin counties.

From here, the leaders for the operating and capital budgets from the Senate and House will get together and hammer out the differences between their respective spending plans, then come back with a compromise for another vote.

I also have an important appropriation in the Senate’s proposed supplemental transportation budget, for the State Route 224/Red Mountain project in the Benton County part of our district. Click here for my news release on it, from earlier this week. That budget will come up for a vote from the full Senate this next week, then it will go through the same compromise process.

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. If you don’t already, also consider following me on Facebook. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

dozier signature

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District

E-News: Property-tax threat goes away, but threat to rural health care remains

 

I was happy to welcome members of Teamsters 117, which represents Department of Corrections employees, when they came over from Walla Walla to visit the Capitol earlier this month. In response to the question “Who has been assaulted on the job?” probably half raised their hands. Feedback like this often inspires legislation, and I will be following up with them on this and other concerns in the spring.

Dear Neighbor,

Greetings from the state Capitol!

This week the state Senate wrapped up its work on bills introduced by senators, with the exception of updates to the three state budgets. The “cutoff” for approving Senate bills arrived at the end of Tuesday; we then went back to meeting as committees to take up the House legislation passed over to us (and the House committees are doing the same with Senate legislation).

The six voter initiatives submitted to the Legislature this session continue to get attention one way or the other. I and other Republicans have called for public hearings on these measures, in line with a requirement in our state constitution; the majority Democrats finally made commitments about three this past week. I’d like to know what you think about how the Legislature should handle these, and invite you to take a quick online survey. Details are below.

Dozier bills move to House for consideration

Early this week the state Senate unanimously passed my Senate Bill 6238, to update a property-tax exemption that benefits the widows and widowers of honorably discharged veterans. It was created in 2005 but has not kept pace with similar exemptions since then. SB 6238 was referred to the House Finance Committee for consideration; being a fiscal committee, it has until Feb. 26 to move my bill forward.

Also getting unanimous approval was SB 5801, a bill that has to do with the banking industry. I introduced it at the request of our state’s Uniform Law Commission, and the bill is a good example of just how narrowly focused and non-partisan a piece of legislation can be. That’s probably why it is moving so quickly through the House, with  a public hearing Wednesday and a “yes” vote from the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Business yesterday morning, well ahead of next Wednesday’s deadline for policy committees to act on legislation.

Property-tax proposal pulled due to public pressure

Sometimes it’s more important to keep a bad piece of legislation from becoming law, which is why I’m happy about the demise of SB 5770. It would have opened the door to tripling the growth of local property taxes…without voter approval!

Since 2001, and the passage of Initiative 747, the annual growth rate of property taxes has been limited to 1% annually, unless voters agree to a larger increase. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue, as that cap was confirmed in 2007 by a Democratic-controlled Legislature at the request of a Democratic governor.

Still, a group of Democrats from Puget Sound pushed SB 5770 through the Senate Ways and Means Committee and onto the Senate voting calendar. That’s when the public rose up in protest, and we held a news conference that resulted in a lot of media attention. The prime sponsor of the bill then announced he would stop trying to get it through the Senate, which was the right decision – but the excuses he gave in this news report are concerning.

One is that “supporters need to work on better explaining the needs of cities and counties…and helping the public better understand the mechanics of property taxes.” Having been a county commissioner for eight years, I have a good sense of what local governments need, versus what they might want. Also, to be clear, the 1% cap has never prevented local governments from asking voters for more than 1%. If a majority of voters in King County (where the prime sponsor is from) approve a 10% increase in their property taxes, for whatever purpose, they are free to tax themselves more.

I wonder if the supporters of this property-tax proposal understand the “mechanics” families must go through to contend with all the costs being layered upon them in recent years, through a variety of government policy decisions. A great example is the cap-and-trade law that was passed in 2021 and took full effect in 2023, which has raised the cost of just about everything, starting with gas at the pump and natural-gas heat (which the majority is now trying to ban through HB 1589, which was passed by a Senate committee yesterday). Don’t get me started on what cap-and-trade means for our agricultural sector, and how promises made in the cap-and-trade law aren’t being honored by Governor Inslee’s administration.

The real purpose of SB 5770 is to allow a higher annual increase in the tax rate without going to the voters. That sounds like the opposite of “democracy” to me. Besides, the housing shortage in our region and our state as a whole is challenging enough without allowing tax hikes that would hit not just property owners but also renters.

I was pleased that none of the counties I serve in the 16th District came to me asking for this bill. They realize they can ask their voters to go above the 1% limit, and I appreciate that our area commissioners are living within the means provided by the taxpayers, even if it makes budgeting more challenging.

I’m glad the proposal has been dropped for this year, but unfortunately, we should expect to see it again.

 

Proposed hospital-merger restrictions could be very harmful to rural Washington

With the majority’s proposed property-tax increase off the table, Senate Bill 5241 becomes the worst bill of the session so far – at least from the Senate side.

This bill has the meaningless title of “Concerning material changes to the operations and governance structure of participants in the health care marketplace.” That offers no clue about the true effect SB 5241 would have on our state. An accurate title would be something like “Allows a partisan state official to decide whether a hospital closes.” The trouble is, being that clear would alarm people across our state and keep this misguided proposal from flying under the radar.

The prime sponsor claims this is about preserving access to affordable health care, but as they say, the devil is in the details – she also acknowledges the intent is to ensure hospital mergers and acquisitions specifically don’t restrict access to “end-of-life, reproductive and gender-affirming care.”

Let’s suppose a small rural hospital is at risk of closing, and its only chance to continue operating is to be acquired by a larger hospital with a religious affiliation. SB 5241 would give the attorney general’s office the power to determine – over a 10-year oversight period – if such a transaction would affect access to end-of-life (assisted suicide), reproductive (including abortion) and gender-affirming care, which is defined in detail in the bill. That’s a very long time for a rural community to have a sword hanging over the head of its nearest health-care facility, should a merger be the only way to keep it open.

The version of the bill brought to the floor of the Senate was a 27-page rewrite that was made available for review only that day, while we were in the middle of debating and voting on a long list of other bills. I stood up during the 3-hour debate on SB 5241 and explained, using a recent trip to the Dayton General Hospital emergency department as an example, the danger this approach presents to health-care access in our area. It’s as though the supporters of this bill would rather see hospitals close than to have them remain open under an agreement that somehow involves religious affiliations.

SB 5241 is part of an agenda, which is why Republican amendments meant to protect consumers, involve the secretary of health, etc., were rejected, and why the bill is whizzing through the House – a vote in the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee is scheduled Tuesday. Doesn’t it seem odd that a “health care marketplace” bill isn’t coming before a health-care committee in either chamber?

It was my privilege to sponsor Olivia Smasne as a Senate page this past week. She’s a 9th-grader at Prosser High and is the daughter of Brent and Jamie Smasne of Prosser. I know Olivia appreciated being able to see a side of the Senate and the lawmaking process that isn’t shown on the TVW network, and she was here at one of the most important times of any session. Thanks, Olivia!

Democrats agree to committee hearings on only three initiatives, despite constitutional requirement

Article II, Section I of Washington’s constitution is clear about how legislators should treat initiatives submitted to them: “Such initiative measures, whether certified or provisionally certified, shall take precedence over all other measures in the legislature except appropriation bills and shall be either enacted or rejected without change or amendment by the legislature before the end of such regular session.”

That part about “take precedence” means we are supposed to consider the initiatives ahead of every other bill except spending bills (like the budgets).  Yet here we are, two-thirds of the way through the session, and only now is the majority side responding.

Yesterday afternoon the top Democrats in the Senate and House announced there will be joint Senate/House hearings week after next on three initiatives: I-2113 (police pursuits), I-2111 (income-tax ban) and I-2081 (which would create a parental bill of rights concerning , similar to legislation I’ve introduced each of the past three years).

They confirmed there will not be hearings on I-2117, which would repeal the cap-and-trade law that is driving up everyone’s gasoline and natural-gas costs; I-2109, which would repeal the tax on income from capital gains, and I-2124, which would end the mandatory payroll tax tied to the state-run long-term care program.

The chair of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee announced this past week that she intends to hold a work session on I-2124, but that is not the same as a hearing because the public is not allowed to testify.

I have no question the Democrats’ decision to have any hearings is due to the pressure Republicans have been applying all session long, but still, the bottom line is that they’ll let the people be heard on only half of the six initiatives.

I want to hear from you about all of them, however. Please take a few minutes to click on the link or the QR code and complete my survey!

Take my online survey about the six voter initiatives
submitted to the Legislature this session!

Scan the QR code or click here to begin

***

I am working to make living in our state more affordable, make our communities safer, uphold our paramount duty to provide for schools, and hold state government accountable. I’ll work with anyone who shares those goals and wants to find solutions.

Please reach out to my office with your thoughts, ideas and concerns on matters of importance to you. If you don’t already, also consider following me on Facebook. I am here to serve and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Perry Dozier
State Senator
16th Legislative District