Legislative Reality Bites

Here's a sampling of the (somewhat disappointing) activity from the 1994 session of the Washington state Legislature, much of which fell below the radar of the mainstream media.

Civil Rights

Died - For the 17th time, a bill that would have outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Environmental Oversight

Passed - A bill to abolish the State Ecological Commission, a panel that reviews proposed changes in state environmental regulations. The commission has acted as an important check and balance to the state Department of Ecology.

Labor

Passed - A bill to include seasonal workers, including farm workers, in the state's health-care reform package, which the Legislature passed last year. A new advisory committee now must decide what "seasonal" means.
Died - A bill that would have permitted state employees to bargain collectively for salary increases and given them the right to strike.
Died - A bill that would have granted human-rights protection to all employees in the state. Currently, people who work for companies with less than eight employees are not protected from discrimination or harassment.
Died - A bill that would have protected workers from being fired based on their off-the-job conduct - such as riding motorcycles, skiing or drinking alcohol - if their work does not suffer. (A similar bill passed in 1992 but was vetoed by then-Gov. Booth Gardner.)
Died - An industry-backed bill that would have reduced the state's unemployment-insurance rainy-day fund and blocked the regular increase in unemployment-insurance taxes paid by businesses.

Water

Died - A bill that would have required seekers of water-rights permits to show that removing water from a given waterway would not harm animals or plants.
Died - A bill that would have required water users to pay for the water they remove from nature. Currently, users pay no fees or royalties on the water they take.
Died - A bill that would have tied the amount of water-rights permit fees to the amount of water requested. Because these fees currently are set so low, the state's general fund must subsidize the cost to review water-rights applications.

Mining

Passed - A watered-down bill intended to enhance oversight of the siting, operation and reclamation of mines. Supporters, arguing that current law is not adequate in regulating large-scale mining operations, unsuccessfully pushed for a law that would comprehensively manage larger mines, such as the planned Crown Jewel gold mine at Buckhorn Mountain in the Okanogan region. Among the provisions left out of the final bill was a requirement that mine tailings be dumped a safe distance from streams.

Pesticides

Died - A bill that would have required school districts to reduce the use of toxic pesticides and herbicides at schools and public libraries. The bill would have required schools to pursue "integrated pesticide management," a strategy that calls for the least toxic pest-control methods to be given top priority.
Died - A bill that would have banned the use of the country's most toxic pesticides on cropland.

-Compiled by Free Press staff





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Contents on this page were published in the April/May, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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