10 CapitalPress.com
March 3, 2017
Washington
State Farm Bureau joins suit Road closures delay potato planting
against pay, sick leave law
By MATTHEW WEAVER
WASH.
Capital Press
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Widespread
road closures
due to flooding
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OF ENERGY
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The Washington Farm Bu-
reau and other business groups
are suing to overturn the initia-
tive that raised the minimum
wage and mandated paid sick
leave, pointing to a 2016 state
Supreme Court ruling to bolster
their claim the double-barreled
measure is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit contends Ini-
tiative 1433 imposed two poli-
cies. Washington’s constitution
limits initiatives to one subject,
an article the high court cited
last year in voiding a tax-cut-
ting measure sponsored by Tim
Eyman.
Farm Bureau CEO John
Stuhlmiller said Friday that
he hopes the Supreme Court
will apply the same reasoning
to I-1433, though he acknowl-
edged it’s been a long time
since the high court sided with
his organization.
“That weighs heavily on
Kahlotus
Mesa
ak
Capital Press
261
17
ver
i a Ri
By DON JENKINS
suit in Kittitas County Superi-
or Court. I-1433 failed in the
Central Washington county and
it’s where the suit’s lead plain-
tiff, hay farmer and exporter
Brad Haberman, lives. Haber-
man is second vice president
of the Farm Bureau. Kittitas
County farmer Mark Charlton
and Chelan County farmer Bill
Wirth also are plaintiffs, along
with the trade groups funding
the lawsuit.
The state has yet to fi le a
response, an attorney general’s
offi ce spokesman said.
The Farm Bureau has high-
lighted the case’s similarities
to the challenge to Eyman’s
I-1366.
I-1366 required lawmakers
to either cut the sales tax or hold
a public vote on amending the
constitution to make future tax
increases tougher. In defending
the initiative, the attorney gen-
eral’s offi ce argued the measure
was demanding the Legislature
take just one action.
A King County judge
ruled the measure violated
the one-subject rule and also
sought to amend the state con-
stitution through unconstitu-
tional means.
21
Connell
o lu
mb
Groups go to court
to test initiative’s
constitutionality
everybody’s mind,” he said.
“Candidly, I don’t want to go
to the Supreme Court for any-
thing.”
I-1433 passed statewide
in November with 57 percent
of the vote, but failed in every
county east of the Cascades.
Several Western Washington
counties also voted against the
measure, but it won by lopsided
margins in the most populous
Puget Sound counties. The
initiative was championed by
unions and community activ-
ists. Gov. Jay Inslee collected
signatures to qualify it for the
ballot.
After I-143 passed, former
Supreme Court Justice Phil
Talmadge approached business
groups about challenging the
initiative. Talmadge referred
questions to Patrick Connor,
state director of the Nation-
al Federation of Independent
Business.
“There was substantial con-
versation about the likelihood
of success, but ultimately we
decided the challenge was
worth the time and cost,” Con-
nor said.
Talmadge launched the
challenge this month by fi ling
With about 170,000 acres
of potatoes to plant, many
farmers in the Columbia Ba-
sin face delays caused by
fl ooding and road closures, a
potato industry leader says.
Planting typically begins
around this time, said Dale
Lathim, executive director of
the Potato Growers of Wash-
ington, but almost no fi eld work
has been done yet.
Frozen ground caused by the
colder winter combined with
rain and snow melt has caused
fl ooding across the region.
Lathim is particularly con-
cerned about the impact of
road closures and restrictions
in Franklin County and, to a
lesser extent, Benton and Grant
counties.
Spring fl ooding washed out
some roads or made the road-
beds unstable. The county has
set load restrictions until the
dirt roads fi rm up.
It’s unusually widespread
through Franklin County, with
load restrictions on almost ev-
ery road that isn’t all-season,
Lathim said.
“As you can imagine, a
10-wheeler loaded with potato
seed is quite heavy and would
far exceed the load restric-
395
Area in
detail
WALLA
WALLA
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Walla Walla
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Place
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Capital Press graphic
tions,” he said. “It’s going to
cause a logistical issue.”
Some seed-cutting opera-
tions are not on all-season roads,
Lathim said.
“With the roads the way they
are, even if the fi elds were ready
to go, we’d have a hard time
getting seed to them right now,”
Lathim said. “We don’t know
how long it’s going to be until
they’re operational and usable.”
Growers will try to fi nd a
way to work around the clo-
sures, possibly using fi eld roads
instead of county roads, he said.
Farmers typically stagger
planting. When the soil be-
comes ready, a crop that normal-
ly would have been planted over
three weeks will be planted at
the same time. It will be diffi cult
for fertilizer and chemical com-
panies to service all the acres at
once, Lathim said.
Harvest will likely not be af-
fected, Lathim said.
“It will be the weather be-
tween when we plant and har-
vest that will determine that,
moreso than the actual planting
date,” he said.
Conservation
district
growing
urban ag
network
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
9-1/#4N
SPOKANE — The Spo-
kane Conservation District
is developing a network as a
way to connect urban farmers
with one another.
Pat Munts, small farm and
acreage coordinator for Wash-
ington State University Ex-
tension in Spokane County, is
directing the effort.
“It would
pull togeth-
er all the
groups and
people who
have been
working for
years on lit-
tle, individ-
ual projects
Pat Munts
scattered
all over the
place, so we can communicate
about who has what resourc-
es, who needs what resourc-
es,” Munts said.
The group will advocate
for urban agriculture and re-
lated issues the public needs
to think about, Munts said.
The Spokane City Council
and Mayor David Condon are
already showing support for
the project.
Munts considers urban
agriculture in several levels:
backyard gardeners growing
vegetables for personal use,
those raising small livestock
such as chickens, goats, pigs
and sheep; and those raising
vegetables on a city lot to sell
at a farmers’ market.
The last category is proba-
bly the least developed idea so
far, she said.
“That part is going to take
a lot more development at this
point,” she said. “We have a
few, but there’s a lot of things
we have to work out with the
city about what lots would
be available, how would we
get water to them, is the soil
quality up to what it needs
to be?”
Urban farmers need the
skills to operate in an urban
area, including dealing with
different “critters” running
around — “four-footed and
two-footed,” Munts said —
and city land use ordinances
about management.
So far, roughly 25 people
are attending meetings.
The district received a
$47,000 grant from the Na-
tional Association of Conser-
vation Districts last year to
encourage urban ag conser-
vation improvements, such as
water and soil management.
Contact Munts at pmunts@
spokanecounty.org or 509-
477-2173.