Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2015)
March 6, 2015 CapitalPress.com 5 Washington wolf bill passes key committee Democratic- controlled House budget approves measure Don Jenkins/Capital Press Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellens- burg, leads the debate against a bill to raise Washington’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2019 during a floor debate March 3 in Olympia. The bill passed on a party-line vote in the Democratic-controlled House. House passes wage, paid leave bills to uninterested Senate By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — Bills to raise the state’s minimum wage and mandate paid leave, including for seasonal workers, passed the House Tuesday, but are likely to be shelved in the Sen- ate. Both bills passed on par- ty-line 51-46 votes in the Dem- ocratic-controlled House. House Bill 1355 would lift Washington’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2019. House Bill 1356 would re- quire employers to provide at least 40 hours of paid leave a year. Workers would be eligi- ble for paid leave for sickness, family illnesses, to escape an abuser or stay home with a child whose school or daycare closed because of a public health emergency. Gov. Jay Inslee issued a statement praising the bills. “I hope the Senate will act on these bills and follow the House’s leadership in building an economy that works for all Washingtonians,” he said. The Senate already has had a chance to act this session on both policies, but didn’t. Iden- tical minimum wage and paid leave bills were introduced by Senate Democrats, but the GOP-led Senate Commerce and Labor Committee didn’t hold hearings, letting the mea- sures die. Washington’s minimum wage, adjusted each year for inflation, is currently $9.47, al- ready the highest in the country. Democrats said raising the minimum wage was a moral imperative in an economy in which most minimum-wage worker are adults, many of whom have children to sup- port. “It’s a move in the right di- rection,” said House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Cov- ington. Republicans said hiking the wage floor was bad economics and defied the law of supply and demand. Raising labor costs will reduce the demand for it, said Rep. Matt Man- weller, R-Ellensburg. “Unless we have a bill com- ing from the Flat Earth Society, this is most anti-science bill we will ever have,” he said. Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Col- fax, said farmers would have to subtract higher labor costs from their bottomline. “Agriculture has a problem in the fact that it can’t pass the cost along,” he said. Dayton Republican Terry Nealey linked the community’s loss of Green Giant a decade ago to the state’s nation-leading minimum wage. The company moved its as- paragus canning plant to Peru in 2005. The loss of hundreds of jobs devastated the town, Nealey said. “We want to keep many Jolly Green Giants alive. Let’s turn this bill down,” he said. The Washington Farm Bu- reau opposed the bill, arguing the state’s minimum wage puts producers at a competitive dis- advantage against growers in states that follow the federal standard of $7.25. Under HB 1356, business- es with four to 50 employees would have to provide 40 hours of paid leave, businesses with 50 to 250 would have to provide 56 hours and businesses with more than 250 workers would have to provide 72 hours. By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA, Wash. — Leg- islation calling on the Wash- ington Department of Fish an Wildlife to reopen its wolf recovery plan won approval Friday from a key committee in the Democratic-controlled House. House Bill 2107 received bipartisan support from the Appropriations Commit- tee. Before passing, it was amended to add another lay- er of environmental review, which could increase the cost and delay when game manag- ers will finish their review. The bill must still win ap- proval from the full House and survive final budget ne- gotiations. The vote was a milestone in an effort by northeast Washington representatives to gain acknowledgment in the House that the reintroduc- tion of wolves has harmed their constituents. The bill would require state game managers to re- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service A key Washington legislative committee has approved a bill calling for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to rewrite its wolf recovery plan. consider the recovery plan in light of the fact wolves are concentrated in northeast Washington and attacking livestock. The current recov- ery plan calls for wolves to remain on the state’s endan- gered species list until they are more widely dispersed. WDFW estimates the recov- ery may occur by 2021. HB 2107’s prime spon- sor, Okanogan County Rep. Joel Kretz, proposed reopen- ing the plan to study how to hasten recovery and to con- sider how conflicts between wolves and livestock can be reduced. Before approving the bill, the House Appropri- ations Committee added a provision that would require WDFW to subject any pro- posed changes to a review under the State Environmen- tal Policy Act. Previously, the bill ex- empted wolf plan revisions from SEPA. WDFW had estimat- ed revising the plan would cost $420,000. Following SEPA may increase the cost, WDFW wolf policy lead Dave Ware said. “It may or may not add much money,” he said. SEPA also could add time. The bill calls for changes to be made by June 30, 2017. Ware said if required to fol- low SEPA, the department would want until the end of 2017. In lobbying for the bill, northeast Washington offi- cials and ranchers told law- makers it was important for the state to act soon.
