4013 AMS TED S2718.1

HJM 4013 - S COMM AMD

By Committee on Trade, Technology & Economic Development

    On page 1, after line 7, strike the remainder of the joint memorial and insert the following:

    "WHEREAS, The Washington State House of Representatives and Senate recognize that the permanent loss of jobs in natural resource-based industries has gravely and irreversibly impacted the coastal economies of Pacific and Grays Harbor counties and parts of Jefferson and Clallam counties; and

    WHEREAS, The loss of timber-related jobs has created a further erosion of jobs in coastal communities which presently do not have alternative employment opportunities; and

    WHEREAS, Hard-working families are losing their homes, automobiles, and other possessions and are going without adequate food, critically needed medical care, educational, and social services previously earned with wages from their jobs; and

    WHEREAS, The loss of sales tax, property tax, and other local revenues by local coastal communities resulting from the devastating economic dislocation is accompanied by a heavy additional burden placed on public services provided by local police, prosecutors, public health, and social service providers that manifestly precludes local government from financing an economic recovery program; and

    WHEREAS, In 1991 the federal government received an estimated one hundred forty-three million dollars in general tax revenue, exclusive of social security and unemployment insurance taxes, from Pacific and Grays Harbor counties; and

    WHEREAS, In 1991 the State of Washington received an estimated seventy-seven million dollars in general fund taxes from the two-county area; and

    WHEREAS, Implementation of the Coastal Economic Recovery Plan will provide jobs and improve the coastal economy so that at the end of ten years the federal government tax revenues will increase from one hundred forty-three million dollars a year to two hundred five million dollars and the Washington State general fund revenues will increase from seventy-seven million dollars a year to one hundred thirteen million dollars over the ten-year period; and

    WHEREAS, The millions of dollars monthly spent by the federal and state government for public assistance, unemployment compensation, medical assistance, food, retraining, and other social service programs can be sharply reduced through implementation of the coastal economy which emphasizes tourism, outdoor recreation, and commercial and sports fishing;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the federal government invest, along with the State of Washington, in a Coastal Economic Recovery Plan by funding the following elements of the plan:

    (1) Habitat restoration jobs, including Olympic peninsula, Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay drainages.  The primary beneficiaries of the work will be wild stocks of salmon:  Fifty million dollars;

    (2) Federal share of new coastal hatcheries including wild stock supplementation facilities:  Seventeen million five hundred thousand dollars;

    (3) Federal share of coastal tourism infrastructure facilities:  Twelve million dollars;

    (4) Federal funding of educational facilities at Grays Harbor College for Dislocated Timber Workers:  Five million dollars; and

    (5) Federal share of coastal transportation facilities for tourism and outdoor recreation:  Ten million dollars.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington."

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