This year's session requires remote representation
Feb. 28—POMEROY — The familiar faces popping up on Rep. Mary Dye's computer screen remind her of watching "Hollywood Squares," but this isn't a game show.
Dye, R-Pomeroy, is working remotely from a borrowed office at the Garfield County Hospital during a state legislative session unlike any other. Instead of being on the floor at the Capitol, elected officials across the state are glued to multiple monitors on a daily basis, participating via the internet.
While the Capitol campus in Olympia remains closed to the public, Dye and the other two 9th District lawmakers — Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, and Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville — said they are logging in long hours to stay on top of issues that could affect their constituents in southeastern Washington. The district includes Asotin, Garfield and Whitman counties.
Retroactive overtime pay for farm laborers has been a hot issue, along with low-carbon fuel standards and a push to ban natural gas in all new construction by 2030. A proposed state income tax on capital gains and reopening eastern Washington after a year of tight COVID-19 lockdowns are other top areas of concern.
Schmick and Schoesler are working in Olympia, but Dye left the locked-down campus and headed home after four nights on the west side in January. A winter storm knocked out internet connectivity at her hotel, and she wound up working on a laptop in a Safeway parking lot.
"The hospital district here was gracious enough to set me up with my own office, and I'm so appreciative," she said. "This office is great, closer to the size of senators' in Olympia."
Dye uses multiple monitors to stay abreast of what's happening in committee hearings and her caucus, and a green screen helps with the background. Technology glitches are not uncommon for the legislators, but Dye said her temporary Pomeroy office offers better connectivity than working from her home, which is 12 miles away in rural Garfield County.
Being there in person hasn't been much better. Schmick, who is splitting his time between Colfax and Olympia, calls his worksite at the Capitol an "office prison."
"I see no one," he said in a recent phone interview with the Lewiston Tribune. "There's nobody here. Public cannot get on campus, and there are no face-to-face meetings. We all wear masks, as I do anyway, even if we are the only ones here."
In a newsletter to constituents, the three lawmakers said they thought it was like using "a sledgehammer to knock out a mosquito" when Gov. Jay Inslee called in the National Guard and had fencing laced with crime tape erected around the state Capitol building, in the wake of rioters breaching the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.
"I believe the barriers — as they currently sit — prevent people from experiencing their Capitol campus," Schmick said. "They send the wrong message to the people about the legislative process."
The good news is people have the ability to testify remotely, Schoesler said, and emails and phone calls are a common form of communication. At the same time, constituents are relying more on newsletters for updates, as on-site print and radio sources dwindle in Olympia, he said.
The lack of in-person participation concerns some area farmers, ranchers and loggers, such as Jay Holzmiller, of Anatone. Holzmiller keeps tabs on issues that could have dire consequences at the local level, but he said it's been tougher than usual to get information this session.
"I think the Democrats are drunk on power, and the press can't get in there and report what's going on," he said. "People have no access other than Zoom or Skype, and I think there's a lot of backroom dealing going on. I know people are pretty burnt out on politics, but they need to be paying attention."
Dye, a ranking Republican on the House Environment and Energy Committee, is leading opposition to Gov. Inslee's climate change agenda and closely following legislation that would create a low-carbon fuel standard mandate.
In recent weeks, she was focused on a bill that would prohibit expansion of natural gas for residential and commercial construction by 2030. It appears to be dead, but Dye and the other lawmakers are concerned it could emerge again.
"The bill proposes to use the power of government to make people's jobs obsolete," she said. "It is the worst kind of trifecta: it kills jobs, it makes home heating more expensive and it takes away choices."
Schmick said the bill did not move out of committee last week, but that doesn't mean the fight is over.
"I'm hoping that bill is dead, but what I've learned over the years is nothing is ever dead in Olympia," he said. "I think after what happened in Texas, it's not good risk management to depend on a single source of electricity."
Unfortunately, some of the onerous farming bills are still alive and moving forward, said Schmick, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and the House Rural Development, Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee.
If passed, the new low-carbon fuel standards will increase gas and diesel prices, and the legislation establishes a market for carbon trading that won't benefit people here, he said.
Holzmiller said he and many other heavy-equipment operators are upset about how the new "green" standards would affect eastern Washington farmers and loggers.
"I think there are only about three combines in Asotin County that would meet those new requirements," he said. "You can't just go out and buy all new equipment. I think we're going to get hit with a charge to run our old stuff."
Schoesler said any form of carbon tax is devastating to agriculture, because farmers and ranchers are "price takers, not price setters."
"We're clearly the ATM," Schoesler said in a recent phone interview. "At the same time we're seeing hope in the grain market, there are some dark clouds on the horizon over here."
The back pay for farm laborers is especially concerning to the agricultural community, the 9th District lawmakers said.
For 60 years, state law exempted agriculture from paying overtime, but the Washington state Supreme Court ruled in November that the long-standing law was unconstitutional. Several eastern Washington lawmakers are working on legislation that would prohibit employers from being assessed damages for three years of retroactive compensation, plus interest charges, but amendments to the bill have hampered their efforts.
"This would affect everyone in agriculture," Schmick said. "They want to go back three years for overtime pay, and I think that's totally wrong. All of the growers I know were following the law as it was written. The back pay for three years is really the argument."
Holzmiller believes the new overtime pay rule is one of the most appalling laws on the books.
"To go back and ask people to pay overtime for the past three years is like changing the speed limit on a road from 50 mph to 35 mph and then asking people to pay fines for driving over the legal speed limit for the past three years," he said.
Despite objections from Schoesler and other Republicans, a Democrat-sponsored proposal that would create a state income tax on capital gains is moving forward. The longtime senator calls it "a classic example of the majority party cramming a very bad and unnecessary bill down the throat of Washingtonians."
The state doesn't need or want an income tax on capital gains "yet the Democrats still insist on creating one," said Schoesler, who serves on the Ways and Means Committee. "What adds insult to injury is that this bill includes an emergency clause, which means that if it's signed into law by the governor, the very person who requested this tax in the first place, then it cannot go before the state's voters as a referendum. Chances are that this bill, if passed and then signed by the governor, will end up in court."
On the bright side, the Senate committee approved a bill sponsored by Schoesler that would provide property-tax relief for Malden residents and others in the state who are rebuilding homes damaged or destroyed by wildfires last September. The bill now advances to the Senate Rules Committee before it can reach the floor for a full Senate vote.
Under the bipartisan proposal, Washington residents who lost a home to wildfire between Sept. 1 and Sept. 19, 2020, would be exempt from paying property taxes on the full value of the original structure for three years, if the home is being rebuilt or physically improved.
"I'm thankful everyone on the Ways and Means Committee approved this bill that would help homeowners in Malden, Pine City and other parts of our state that were destroyed or damaged by the terrible wildfires last Labor Day," Schoesler said in a news release.
In addition to natural disasters, the coronavirus pandemic has hit eastern Washington hard. Small businesses are struggling to stay afloat, and many children haven't returned to school for full-time, in-person classes. The 9th District representatives said they are in favor of leaving reopening decisions to the locals and retaining county health departments.
"I'm still a firm believer in local control when it comes to governing," Schmick said in a recent newsletter. "The government closest to the people usually is more accountable, more knowledgeable of local issues, and takes the unique characteristics, priorities and principles of the local population into account."
As for state government, Dye said she's looking forward to saying farewell to the "Hollywood Squares" form of communication and returning to Olympia in a post-pandemic setting.
"We need to talk to each other in person, to build trust and working relationships," she said. "Without that goodwill, we can't build solutions. Right now, we are talking past each other. I hope as COVID continues to subside, we can get back to work in Olympia."
All three lawmakers are providing updates on the pending legislation on their websites, and they encourage constituents to contact them with questions or concerns. The remote session is scheduled to end April 25.
Sandaine may be contacted at kerris@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2264. Follow her on Twitter @newsfromkerri.
How to contact your 9th District lawmakers
Sen. Mark Schoesler: Olympia office phone is (360) 786-7620, email him at mark.schoesler@leg.wa.gov
Rep. Mary Dye: (360) 786-7942, email is mary.dye@leg.wa.gov, website is www.representativemarydye.com
Rep. Joe Schmick: Olympia cellphone (360) 545-5978, email is joe.schmick@leg.wa.gov
Online information about the 2021 session can be found at leg.wa.gov, and www.tvw.org
"I think the Democrats are drunk on power, and the press can't get in there and report what's going on. People have no access other than Zoom or Skype, and I think there's a lot of backroom dealing going on. I know people are pretty burnt out on politics, but they need to be paying attention."
Jay Holzmiller, of Anatone
"This would affect everyone in agriculture. They want to go back three years for overtime pay, and I think that's totally wrong. All of the growers I know were following the law as it was written. The back pay for three years is really the argument."
Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax
"I'm thankful everyone on the Ways and Means Committee approved this bill that would help homeowners in Malden, Pine City and other parts of our state that were destroyed or damaged by the terrible wildfires last Labor Day."
Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, in a news release.
