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SECOND DAY
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AFTERNOON SESSION
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Senate Chamber, Olympia, Tuesday, January 11, 1994
The Senate was called to order at 4:30 p.m. by President Pritchard. No roll call was taken.
MOTION
On motion of Senator Spanel, the reading of the Journal of the previous day was dispensed with and it was approved.
INTRODUCTION AND FIRST READING
SB 6064 by Senators Vognild, Nelson, Sellar and Oke
AN ACT Relating to motor vehicle emission inspections; and amending RCW 70.120.170.
Referred to Committee on Transportation.
SB 6065 by Senators Ludwig, Nelson, Wojahn, Fraser, Snyder, Bauer and A. Smith
AN ACT Relating to imposition of costs; and amending RCW 10.01.160.
Referred to Committee on Law and Justice.
SB 6066 by Senators Ludwig, Nelson, Wojahn, Snyder, Bauer and A. Smith
AN ACT Relating to the number of district court judges; and amending RCW 3.34.010 and 3.34.020.
Referred to Committee on Law and Justice.
SB 6067 by Senators Wojahn, Ludwig, Nelson, A. Smith, Fraser, Snyder and Bauer
AN ACT Relating to courts of limited jurisdiction; and amending RCW 2.52.010, 3.38.010, 3.70.010, 3.70.020, 3.70.040, 10.04.800, and 12.40.800.
Referred to Committee on Law and Justice.
SB 6068 by Senators Fraser, Deccio, Spanel and Oke
AN ACT Relating to appeals involving boards within the environmental hearings office; amending RCW 90.58.170, 90.58.180, 43.21C.075, 43.21B.180, 43.21B.190, 43.21B.230, and 76.09.230; adding a new section to chapter 90.58 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 43.21B RCW.
Referred to Committee on Ecology and Parks.
SB 6069 by Senators Haugen, Winsley, Prentice and Pelz
AN ACT Relating to nonvoter-approved municipal indebtedness; and amending RCW 39.36.020.
Referred to Committee on Government Operations.
SB 6070 by Senators Loveland, Winsley and M. Rasmussen (by request of Secretary of State)
AN ACT Relating to public records preservation, maintenance, and disposition by agencies of local government and the secretary of state; adding new sections to chapter 40.14 RCW; and creating a new section.
Referred to Committee on Government Operations.
SB 6071 by Senators Snyder and Hargrove
AN ACT Relating to industrial development levies; and amending RCW 53.36.100.
Referred to Committee on Ways and Means.
SB 6072 by Senators Prentice and Newhouse (by request of Employment Security Department)
AN ACT Relating to disqualification from unemployment compensation benefits; amending RCW 50.20.060; creating new sections; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.
Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce.
SB 6073 by Senators Prentice, Newhouse and Vognild (by request of Employment Security Department)
AN ACT Relating to unemployment compensation; amending RCW 50.04.020 and 50.04.223; creating a new section; providing effective dates; and declaring an emergency.
Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce.
SB 6074 by Senator Gaspard
AN ACT Relating to the Washington award for excellence in education program; amending RCW 28A.625.060 and 28A.625.065; reenacting and amending RCW 28A.625.041; adding a new section to chapter 28A.625 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28B.80 RCW; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.
Referred to Committee on Education.
SB 6075 by Senators Talmadge, Deccio and Fraser
AN ACT Relating to the listing and setting of priorities for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites; amending RCW 70.105D.030; and creating a new section.
Referred to Committee on Ecology and Parks.
SB 6076 by Senators Wojahn, Deccio, Skratek, Moyer, Franklin, Gaspard, Prince, Oke and Erwin
AN ACT Relating to signage concerning alcoholic beverages; and adding a new section to chapter 66.08 RCW.
Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce.
SJM 8026 by Senators Wojahn, Talmadge, Sellar, Snyder, Newhouse, Bluechel, Winsley, Nelson and M. Rasmussen
Concerning Taiwan.
Referred to Committee on Trade, Technology and Economic Development.
MOTION
On motion of Senator Spanel, the Committee on Rules was relieved of further consideration of the following listed bills and the bills were referred as designated:
SENATE BILLS - SECOND READING
SB 5236 f Water supply system operatrs Ecology and Parks
SB 5308 f Forest fire protection Natural Resources
SB 5970 State highway bonds Transportation
SCR 8404 Veterans/military personnel Government Operations
SCR 8405 f Higher ed coordinating board Higher Education
MOTION
At 4:33 p.m., on motion of Senator Spanel, the Senate was declared to be at recess.
The members of the Senate retired to the House Chamber for the purpose of a joint session.
JOINT SESSION
The Sergeant at Arms announced the arrival of the Senate at the bar of the House.
The Speaker instructed the Sergeants at Arms of the House and Senate to escort the President of the Senate, Lieutenant Joel Pritchard, President Pro Tempore R. Lorraine Wojahn, Vice President Pro Tempore Al Williams, Majority Leader Marcus S. Gaspard, and Minority Leader George L. Sellar to seats on the rostrum.
The Speaker invited the Senators to seats within the House Chamber.
The Speaker presented the gavel to President Pritchard.
APPOINTMENT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES
The President of the Senate appointed Senators Haugen and Oke and Representatives Orr and Ballasiotes as a special committee to advise His Excellency, Governor Mike Lowry, that the Joint Session had assembled and to escort him from his office to the House Rostrum.
The President of the Senate appointed Senators Adam Smith, Ludwig and Roach and Representatives Johanson, Caver and Foreman as a special committee to escort the Supreme Court Justices from the State Reception Room to seats within the House Chamber.
The President of the Senate appointed Senators Rasmussen, Erwin and Drew and Representatives Veloria, Moak and Chandler as a special committee to escort the State Elected Officials from the State Reception Room to seats within the House Chamber.
The President of the Senate introduced the Supreme Court Justices and the State Elected Officials.
The President called the Joint Session to order.
The Clerk of the House called the roll of the House.
The Secretary of the Senate called the roll of the Senate.
The President of the Senate presented Speaker Ebersole.
REMARKS BY SPEAKER EBERSOLE
Speaker Ebersole: "Representatives, Senators, distinguished guests all, I now have the privilege and honor of introducing the Governor of our great state. Mike Lowry became the staff director of the State Senate Ways and Means Committee in 1969, and he's devoted his life to the people of this great state ever since. That's twenty-five years of service and that makes this a silver anniversary of sorts. For twenty-five years, Mike has given our state his dedication, his energy, his passion for justice, his compassion for people, his unfailing optimism, his decency, and most of all, his love for our great state. And last year, let's not forget, Mike had a hand in giving us a great and gracious First Lady, Mary Lowry, who's here with us now. Let's give Mary a round of applause.
"I won't try to describe how much Mike Lowry has done for this state over the past twenty-five years. There is not enough time, but as we welcome our Governor to the rostrum for his State of the State address, let's show with our applause how much we value his quarter century of service to this state. Ladies and Gentlemen, Governor Mike Lowry."
BY GOVERNOR MIKE LOWRY
Governor Lowry: "Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, distinguished members of the State Supreme Court, distinguished State Elected officials, distinguished members of the Legislature, and to those who are most important to all of us in this chamber, the people of the state of Washington. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today and thank you for the privilege of serving as your Governor.
"When I addressed you a year ago, our state faced dramatic challenges and daunting choices. Many saw nothing but doom and gloom in our future, but I was optimistic about our future a year ago, and I am even more optimistic about our future today. I am confident because of our accomplishments of the past twelve months.
"This Legislature and this administration, last year, met a difficult economic challenge in our state's budget. We pared $700 million in the state general fund. We held growth in state expenses and employees to historically low levels. We launched major reforms in our capital budget process and in the state's civil service system. We consolidated agencies and slashed spending on travel, consultants, and furnishings. We did all this without ignoring the pressing needs of the people of the state.
"We inaugurated the most ambitious health care reform ever undertaken by a state, a program now in the process of enrolling 170,000 people -- most of them children -- while saving taxpayers nearly $60 million in lower insurance premiums for public employees. We initiated major reforms in public school education and we expanded college enrollments while reducing administrative overhead. We responded to the plight of displaced workers and communities by funding retraining for 5,000 people so that they can fill the jobs of tomorrow.
"Foremost, we forged new partnerships to meet the problems and opportunities before us. We joined forces and we faced the future with confidence, not fear. And we proved the pessimists wrong. Today, there are thirty thousand more jobs in Washington State than one year ago -- despite the layoffs in the aerospace industry. New and expanding businesses have pumped more than $1.5 billion in new investment into our economy in the past year. Unemployment has fallen. Our population is growing at twice the national average, and our rate of growth ranks seventh among all states. We have proved the pessimists wrong.
"Our state's strength was spotlighted for the whole world to see last November, when many of the most powerful political and industrial leaders of the whole world gathered in Seattle for the summit of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation. Washington showed the world that we have the natural resources, the educated work force, the creative entrepreneurs, the ideas, the products, the energy, and the skills to compete in the international marketplace. All who visited Washington during APEC marveled at the quality of life in our state that we have achieved in the arts, in our rich history, in the diversity of our many cultures, in our deep love for nature, and in our respect for human rights and dignity.
"No single institution or sector of society alone can claim credit for these outstanding assets in our state. They are owned in common by all, and they can be enriched through partnership at every level of the community. Partnership -- what is the role of state government in this partnership? First and foremost, we must set and maintain the highest standard of ethics at all levels of government. Everything we aspire to achieve will be impossible if government does not enjoy the respect and the confidence of citizens and taxpayers. That is why under the outstanding leadership of Attorney General Christine Gregoire and co-chairs, Professor Hubert Locke and citizen-activist Delores Teutsch, the seventeen member, bi-partisan Commission on Ethics and Campaign Practices submitted the toughest set of ethical guidelines and enforcement procedures ever proposed for any state government. I will ask you to adopt those recommendations, recognizing Washington State as the national model for integrity in government.
"Second, government must be efficient. We must be diligent and creative in finding new ways to tackle old problems. In this first year, in five major agencies, we have compressed thirty-three divisions into eighteen. What was thirty-three divisions in state government last year, is now eighteen. This session I have proposed that we eliminate fifty boards and commissions. Across state government, we are replacing eight hundred classifications of managers with four -- yes, you heard that right, eight hundred down to four. We have reduced the growth in the state general fund to its lowest level in decades. Where state expenditures had been increasing an average of more than nine percent a year, my budget has cut that to only 3.6 percent -- far below the rates of inflation and population.
"I really appreciate that applause for that, but also I was pausing here because I wanted to give credit to the people really responsible for this achievement and efficiency -- the public employees of Washington State. It has become politically fashionable to deride and scorn public officials and to deride and to scorn public employees, but the public employees, they are the ones who deliver on our promises and our goals. To the extent that we, in this chamber, have enjoyed any measure of success, it is because of the skill, the diligence, creativity and sacrifice of public employees and teachers. Speaking for all of the citizens of the state of Washington I say to you, the employees of this state, 'thank you for a job well done.'
"There are some who believe that the only way to become more efficient is to say, 'No' to old obligations. They could not be more wrong. The way to become more efficient is to say, 'Yes' to new ideas. For proof of this, we need look no further than the health care reform program which this Legislature approved nine months ago. The changes taking place now in our health care system have helped state government reduce health insurance premiums for its employees, saving the state $59 million. Our state's private employers, who have seen the cost of health benefits rise between fifteen and twenty percent a year, are also benefiting from the measures to tame health care inflation. Our health care plan is now recognized as a model for the nation for a very simple reason. It works and it works well.
"There is much more to be done. The citizens of Washington State are sending us a clear, sensible and fair message. Last November they recognized that deep tax cuts would endanger our fundamental priorities for education, health care, the environment, infrastructure and other investments. At the same time, the voters said, 'Make government more efficient.'
"To this end, I have submitted a supplemental budget which will further tighten state general fund spending by $93 million and will cut total state funding by $155 million. It will further reduce authorized state employment by two hundred and seventy full-time positions. We can and we will meet the voter's rightful demand for a dollar of value for every dollar of tax paid. This Governor is determined to make this government highly efficient. We are right on course and I want to thank the state elected officials and the legislators in this chamber for helping to make that happen.
"Government integrity and efficiency, while so important, are not enough, to assure our future success alone. A third responsibility is to be a reliable and responsible partner. Our future economic success depends on forging creative public and private partnerships among business, labor, educators, and environmentalists, Republicans, Democrats, Independents and any and all willing to help shape a better tomorrow.
"The next industrial revolution is here. The business strategies and public policies of the past will no longer create the family-wage jobs of the future. The real-world economies are driven by free and open trade, by technological innovation, and by the most productive application of private and public resources. In our state, we have those resources -- an outstanding private sector, with Boeing and Microsoft, the flagships, but hundreds of other high technology companies, and critically important, the leading research institutions such as the University of Washington, Washington State University, and Fred Hutchinson.
"Washington has the assets to succeed. We have the position and the infrastructure to be the trading hub of the Pacific Rim. We have the knowledge, the skills and the drive to be a world leader in technological innovation and production, and we are building partnerships to turn this promise into prosperity.
"To ensure this state's leadership in world trade -- world trade -- my supplemental budget dedicates $1.6 million to expand our trade outreach in Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Canada, China, Korea and Russia. When this plan is approved, Washington State will command the largest and strongest presence in the Pacific Rim of any of the fifty states of the Union. This will produce high quality, family-wage jobs.
"To ensure this state continues to produce cutting-edge technologies and products, our budget will provide tax incentives for the development of local high-tech industries. We recognize the long lead-time required by high-tech firms to bring their products to market. This proposal minimizes the burden imposed by our state's regressive B&O tax on the most important growth sector in the state's economy. This proposal will produce high quality, family-wage jobs.
"To every community and every citizen, to make sure that all communities have the chance to compete and succeed in the new international economy, this budget proposal contains additional incentives to encourage new manufacturing companies to locate in our depressed economic areas, where we have an outstanding workforce that deserves new opportunities. That proposal, too, will produce high quality, family-wage jobs.
"To ensure that we do not waste public or private resources, we need to implement key recommendations of the Governor's Task Force on Regulatory Reform and we need to coordinate planning under the Growth Management Act with existing environmental laws. That task force on regulatory reform has made a very productive start, and we will continue that work until the job is done. In our state, it is the environment and jobs.
"Just as we can't afford to write off any area of the state, we can't afford to squander a single individual's energy -- least of all through the blindness of ignorance and prejudice. Our economic future and the business climate is dependent on respecting and encouraging diversity. It is essential that we all stand together against all discrimination and guarantee that everyone has equal opportunities and rights in the state of Washington. This supplemental budget proposal is responsive and responsible. It strengthens our state's competitive advantage in the international economy, it primes the industries that will create tomorrow's family-wage jobs, and it keeps faith with the demand of the voters for administrative efficiency and fiscal prudence.
"All of this would be meaningless if it ignored the only bottom line that really matters for society -- our children. Violent crimes perpetrated by young people have doubled since 1981. Most of the victims are other children. Homicide is now the leading cause of death among young African-American males. Our children are killing themselves -- and it must stop. We cannot hope to advance any agenda for this state's future unless we act on the Youth Agenda.
"This supplemental budget invests $13.2 million in a far-reaching and integrated strategy to reduce violence in our school yards and communities, to strengthen families, and to train and employ teenagers at risk. It recognizes that our children cannot repel the onslaught of violence unless we root out its causes and invest in its prevention. This Youth Agenda was developed through the concerted efforts of hundreds of social service professionals, educators, and law enforcement officials. It builds on the experience of successful local programs and reflects the ideas and comments of more than seven hundred concerned people who attended town meetings around the state. The most important input at those town hall meetings came from the young people themselves.
"This Youth Agenda reorganizes key state agencies delivering family services. Who best knows how to combat crime in their neighborhoods than those who live and work there every day? Our proposal will give these local communities greater responsibility and control. This Youth Agenda challenges the media, educators, business and local governments to create new models for the peaceful resolution of disputes.
"The Youth Agenda does not duck from the epidemic of firearms in the community. It recognizes that the number of guns in the hands of young people is simply out of control and responds by significantly limiting minors' access to handguns. It calls for stiffer penalties for young violent offenders and for those who possess or use handguns and for adults who provide them to them. Let the word go out from this chamber. There is no excuse for the criminal use of a firearm -- be it by a minor or an adult.
"More than two thousand years ago, people asked the philosophers of Greece to define the difference between barbarism and civilization. They replied that barbarians think of only today, that they plunder and consume their resources without thought for tomorrow's needs. Civilized societies, on the other hand, pledge their resources first to the needs of their children and the generations to come. As we approach the turn of this century, this answer is just as true today as it was at the time of Aristotle.
"When all the cuts and adds are totaled, when all the numbers have been crunched, when all the forecasts are in and all the revenues and expenditures have been nailed down to the last decimal point, a budget is just ink on paper if it does not give our children hope for a better life and the opportunity to pursue their dreams. All our grand planning and strategies for this state's economic future -- all the CTEDs, APECs, NAFTAs and GATTs -- will just be alphabet soup if we do not guarantee our children the elementary right of safe schools and neighborhoods in which to learn and master the skills they will need to do the world's work in the 21st century.
"I am confident that they will have that security and that opportunity because this Legislature is ready to do the state's work today. And that is why I remain so optimistic. Let's build on the outstanding progress we have made. Let's do the job that people sent us to do and leave this chamber in two months having achieved:
"A government that meets the strictest standards and codes for government integrity;
"A government that produces the highest value of service for every dollar of revenue;
"A government engaged in creating a productive partnerships with the private sector, local communities, and other institutions to create tomorrow's products, jobs and opportunities;
"A government committed to giving our citizens the best education, a sound environment, affordable health care, secure communities and strong families; and
"Finally, and most importantly, a government that gives our children not only the chance to live and learn, but the optimism to reach for, and build, a better world for their children and all the generations to come. Thank you."
The President of the Senate instructed the special committee to escort Governor and Mrs. Lowry to the State Reception room.
The President of the Senate instructed the special committee to escort the State Elected Officials from the House Chamber.
The President of the Senate instructed the special committee to escort the Supreme Court Justices from the House Chamber.
MOTION
On motion of Representative Peery, the Joint Session was dissolved.
The President of the Senate returned the gavel to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Speaker instructed the Sergeants at Arms of the House and Senate to escort the President of the Senate, Lieutenant Joel Pritchard, President Pro Tempore R. Lorraine Wojahn, Vice President Pro Tempore Al Williams, Majority Leader Marcus S. Gaspard, and Minority Leader George L. Sellar and members of the Washington State Senate from the House Chamber.
The Senate was called to order at 5:27 p.m. by President Pritchard.
MOTION
At 5:27 p.m., on motion of Senator Spanel, the Senate adjourned until 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, January 12, 1994.
JOEL PRITCHARD, President of the Senate
MARTY BROWN, Secretary of the Senate