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8 CapitalPress.com January 23, 2015 Washington Don Jenkins/Capital Press Federal Way Sen. Mark Miloscia speaks Jan. 15 in Oympia at a press conference on legislation to gradually increase Washington’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2019. Miloscia was the only Republican to attend. Behind Miloscia are, from left, Seattle Sen. Pramila Jayapal, Kirkland Sen. Cyrus Habib, Tacoma Rep. Laurie Jinkins and Seattle Rep. Jessyn Farrell. Wash. lawmakers push for higher minimum wage not raising the minimum wage in a vacuum,” Farrell said. “The data is really clear. You typically don’t lose jobs because of a minimum wage increase.” Washington Farm Bureau opposes a state minimum wage different than the fed- By DON JENKINS eral wage because produc- Capital Press ers compete nationally and OLYMPIA, Wash. — Two internationally, according to dozen legislators Thursday the organization’s assistant presented a united director of government front and championed relations, Scott Dilley. gradually raising the “Laws that increase state’s minimum wage wage rates and other to $12 an hour by 2019 employment policies and annually adjusting place our farmers at a the wage for inflation. competitive disadvan- “That is a modest Rep. tage,” Dilley said in an Farrell increase,” said Seattle email. “Our growers Rep. Jessyn Farrell at a aren’t necessarily paid press conference. Farrell and more for their products in the other lawmakers argued a national and international higher minimum wage would marketplace, yet their input help the economy. costs go up.” “Putting money into the Increasing the minimum pockets of our workers goes wage would hurt food proces- right back into our local busi- sors, according to Northwest nesses,” she said. Food Processors Associa- Washington’s minimum tion’s director of government wage increased Jan. 1 by 15 relations, Ian Tolleson. cents to $9.47, the highest in “Not only could it raise the country, according to the the price of food, but it will National Conference of State make Washington a less com- Legislatures. The wage is petitive place for expanding adjusted each year based on current operations here and inflation. detour investment of new Lawmakers said a high- processing plants,” he said in er minimum wage will more an email. fairly compensate workers The proposal will have an and make them less depen- uphill climb in the Republi- dent on government services. can-controlled Senate. The “By raising the minimum only Republican at the press wage, we’re responding not conference was Federal Way only to the worker, but also Sen. Mark Miloscia, who was the taxpayer,” said Sen. Pra- a Democratic lawmaker until mila Jayapal, D-Seattle. he switched parties last year. A bill has not yet been Kirkland Sen. Cyrus introduced. Farrell said the Habib predicted the mini- proposal won’t include an mum wage eventually will be exemption for agriculture or raised. provide for a training wage. “We have a fight ahead of “We’re not going to leave us, but I know we’re going to workers behind,” she said. win,” he said. Seattle and SeaTac have Farrell introduced a bill embraced raising the mini- last year to raise the minimum mum wage to $15 an hour. wage to $12 over three years. President Barack Obama has The bill passed the House La- proposed raising the federal bor and Workforce Develop- minimum wage from $7.25 ment Committee, but was not to $10.10 an hour. Ten states brought to the floor for a vote and the District of Columbia by the full House. raised their minimum wag- Farrell said she will pro- es in 2014, according to the pose phasing in the increase NCSL. over three years to give em- “The great news is we’re ployers more time to adjust. Farm Bureau warns about putting state’s producers at disadvantage Dan Wheat/Capital Press Rena and Jim Doornink are shown with the Northwest Cherry Growers’ Cherry King crown at the trade association’s Cherry Institute at the Yakima Convention Center on Jan. 16. Doornink named cherry king By DAN WHEAT Capital Press YAKIMA, Wash. — A Wap- ato cherry grower and long- time chairman of the Wash- ington Tree Fruit Research Commission, Jim Doornink, has been crowned 71st king of the Pacific Northwest cherry industry. The honor was bestowed by past cherry kings at the annual Cherry Institute, in Yakima, Jan. 16. Doornink was chosen for years of commitment and service to the industry. Now 63, Doornink ran his first cherry harvest at his fam- ily’s orchard when he was 14, thrust into the role one summer morning when the ranch fore- man quit. Doornink worked on the ranch through high school. When attending Washington State University, he would put on his work clothes before leav- ing Pullman so he could jump right into work the moment he was home, B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherry Growers, revealed in announc- ing Doornink’s coronation. “Put simply, our king has a passion for God, family and tree fruit,” Thurlby said, also noting his enthusiasm for tech- nology. “It’s a great honor to get some recognition from the in- dustry you love,” Doornink said in accepting the award. “It’s been a great ride and I hope to enjoy it for a long time to come,” he said. He then quickly issued three decrees: That 2015 is the year of the cherry. That it will be a good cherry year and that it won’t rain on the crop. Washington reps look to keep daylight savings hours Public testimony given on bill Jan. 22 By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Washington legislators are asking Congress to allow states to keep daylight savings time hours year-round. HJM 4001, sponsored by Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Col- fax, and Rep. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, was scheduled for a public hearing in the House Committee on State Govern- ment on Jan. 22. The bill argues that chang- ing the clocks twice a year has a negative impact on agriculture, and an extra hour of sunlight would reduce crime and auto- mobile accidents. “I’ve had a number of con- stituents ask me to start the con- versation about this,” Schmick said. “A lot of people (get) that extra hour of light and say, ‘I feel better if I could spend more time in the natural sun- Matthew Kotchen, light.’” professor of economics The health viewpoint in the School of Forestry is Schmick’s primary and Environmental Stud- consideration, more than ies at Yale University, possible agricultural im- studied electricity con- plications. sumption during daylight “Most farmers I know Rep. Schmick savings time. He found work from sun up to sun that, contrary to the stat- down — whenever that is, they ed goals of reducing electricity, work,” he said. “They’re always demand for electricity actually working the daylight hours any increases. way, and then some.” Kotchen said the public gen- A state could decide to stay erally believes daylight savings on regular time, authorized by time serves an agricultural pur- Congress, Schmick said. But pose. staying on daylight savings time “Which is tremendously year round requires approval by ironic, because traditionally, Congress. farmers have been those most The bill has a big supporter opposed to daylight saving in Connell, Wash., attorney and time,” he said. “If markets are rancher Toni Meacham, execu- coordinated based on clock tive director of the Washington time, they have to get up an hour State Agriculture Legal Foun- earlier in the dark to milk the dation. cows or get their eggs to mar- “Feeding animals in the ket.” dark, you don’t get as good a People are more likely to use look at your animals,” she said. the extra hour at the end of the “It’s very detrimental to agricul- day to pursue outdoor leisure ture and animal health.” activities, Kotchen said. He sus- pects farmers would prefer more daylight in the morning than af- ternoon, depending on their lo- cation. Kotchen said it can be costly for locations to not be aligned with the states around them. “It seems to me that if people in a particular area, particularly in a rural area, want to adjust in ways that are more aligned with the sun, just change the time you open and close your stores, in- stead of having it be so that the clock in your house is different from what it is in the rest of the country,” he said. If approved, the change is not likely to occur this year. “You know how fast Con- gress moves,” Schmick said. But he looks forward to the discussion during the hearing. The committee chair would de- cide whether to move the bill forward. “It could move and it could die,” Schmick said. “I think it will really be a matter of what the committee hears.” New league chairman: Water project urgently needed Johnson impacted by declining aquifer By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press The new chairman of the Columbia Basin Development League knows all too well the importance of tapping the Co- lumbia River to replace declin- ing groundwater levels in the Odessa Subarea. 4-7/#5 “We have three deep Johnson farms 4,000 wells that went dry, quit to 5,000 irrigated acres pumping last August,” north of Connell, Wash., farmer Orman Johnson and east of Othello, said. Though his wells Wash. He raises potatoes, may come back for a onions, wheat and organ- while this growing sea- ic crops with his brother, Johnson son, “the urgency is there nephew and son-in-law. for the league, but even Roughly 75-80 percent more so for the farmers that are of his acreage is impacted by the facing situations like we are.” declining aquifer, he said. Johnson was elected earlier Johnson and his family this month and will serve a one- members decided further drill- year term as the league’s chair- ing of wells would be too ex- man. The league supports the pensive, and rented ground with development of the Columbia better water access. Basin Project. “The water you get when 4-2/#4X Online http: //cbdl.org/ you redrill is poorer quality,” he said. “It’s a million dollars, it’s hard to recover costs.” Johnson said problems have arisen during the last few years, but last year was the first in which his wells went dry. He has also seen yields decline because of less water availability. He estimates the cost to his opera- tion to be in the hundreds of thou- sands of dollars each year. Johnson hopes to soon be able to replace well water with water from the river. Construc- tion is underway in the East Co- lumbia Basin Irrigation District extending the East Low Canal from the river to the farm land. The league hopes to obtain $25 million to $30 million in federal funding to continue the project. Johnson said the league’s short-term goal is to speed the process of getting water from the Columbia River to deep- well farmers. In the long term, it hopes to get water to all land slated for development in the original federal Columbia Basin Project. The project currently in- cludes roughly 671,000 acres of the 1.03 million-acre project in east central Washington. Johnson said 7,000 to 8,000 acres of farm land will receive river water this year. “Hopefully in 2016 there’s some more acres and in 2017 there’s more acres being deliv- ered to,” he said. “Our biggest hope is to have water being de- livered and in the process of ex- panding to the other acres.”