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Senator Eric
Oemig
Legislative Blog
April 14, 2007
This morning, the Ways &
Means Committee came back to the table to discuss how to keep
the Sonics in the Northwest. Each time we sit down with the
Sonics ownership, the proposed deal gets a little bit better,
but, in its current form -- despite improvements -- I think the
proposal stinks.
The Sonics deal, as it
is today, asks the taxpayer so much and asks nothing of the
Sonics. That is not a deal. That's a giveaway.
First, we should get
rent revenue generated from the building by people who use it
(including the Sonics) for business and parking. We should get
naming rights of the building, and we need an iron-clad
agreement that if the Sonics leave town, they pay the rent on
the empty arena.
I don't believe in
walking away from the negotiating table. I believe in working
for a good deal.
In its current form, I
hope the proposal doesn’t make it to the Senate floor. If it
did, I would vote against it, but I’m glad we are letting the
Sonics keep working to offer a deal that rewards taxpayers
instead of millionaires.
April 12, 2007
Simple Majority (House
Joint Resolution 4204) passed the Senate today with super majority
support.
April 11, 2007
Mercury in vaccines.
House Bill 1098 passed the Senate today. I helped write an
amendment to protect children from getting accidental mercury
exposure from vaccines.
As I worked on the
amendment, it became clear there are many myths about mercury and
vaccines. Some vaccines have mercury and some do not. Contrary to
popular belief, it is legal to inject vaccines with mercury into
anyone. There are limits to how much mercury can be injected from a
single vaccine into an infant or pregnant woman.
Part of being a smart health
care consumer is information to make healthy choices. We clearly
need better disclosure about which vaccines have mercury and how
much mercury they contain. Then market forces can drive providers to
purchase and supply the safe formulations that patients and
customers demand.
March 2, 2007
Two of my education bills,
Senate
Bill 5843 and
Senate Bill 5864, got public hearings in Ways & Means today. The
companion to SB 5843 died in the House so it is extremely important to
keep SB 5843 moving in the Senate. The public comment was positive and
helpful.
I am so excited about SB 5843
because then we can finally see what our education dollars are buying.
Imagine trying to manage your
car’s performance without a speedometer, gas gauge, oil monitor or
anyway to check tire pressure, engine temperature or any of the other
important functions. We are driving almost blind in our public school
system.
In our public schools, one
example where we are failing is math. How do we fix it? We should buy
more of the things that work and cut the things that don’t work. And how
do we decide? We look at performance data. And where is that? Right now
it doesn’t exist.
Today we cannot answer questions
like: how many math teachers are there? What are their certifications?
What subjects do they teach? How many kids are in a math class? How many
minutes of math class do kids have in a week?
SB 5843 will help fix that.
March 1, 2007
Today's hearing on my
joint
memorial to Congress to investigate the president and vice president
went better than I could have imagined. 300 people packed into three
committee rooms to hear testimony in support of the measure. The people
were very moving and very persuasive. No one testified in opposition.
People – including vets of the Iraq war and parents of fallen soldiers –
made it clear that they don’t accept the recycled argument, “shut up if
you support the troops.” They made a strong argument that the best way
to support the troops, repair our standing in the world and speed up a
diplomatic end to the war is to investigate the administration that
fooled us.
January 26, 2007
I took my first hard vote on the floor today. I'm
sure there will be many more.
House Bill 1168 prohibits protests at funerals. I found this to be a
tough balance between free speech and personal safety. I chose to err on
the side of personal safety and voted for the bill. It passed the Senate
after clearing the House earlier in the week. It now goes to Gov. Chris
Gregoire, who's expected to sign it into law.
January 25, 2007
Clean elections. My
Senate Bill 5226 on publicly financed judicial campaigns had a jam
packed public hearing today. There were 44 people signed in favoring the
bill and 3 people who opposed it.
Our elections are supposed to reflect the
collective wisdom of the community.
The problem is, over time, our current system has
created two elections:
The first campaign is waged well before Election
Day. Its goal is about winning money.
The second campaign is about translating that
money into votes on Election Day.
There are two problems with using money as a proxy
for voting.
First, we’re all taught that the basic principle
of equal representation is one person, one vote. Everyone has the same
voice. But when money is part of the equation, that principle is
weakened. More money creates louder voices, and those loud voices can
drown out the others.
This bill will help to fix that by reducing the
hyper-representation that can be purchased with money.
Second, since money can come from out of state -
outside the community – people and interests are shaping elections in
which they cannot even legally vote.
This bill will help to fix that by encouraging
candidates to solicit support from legitimate voters instead of outside
moneyed interests seeking to purchase elections at the expense of a
given community’s best interest.
Finally, this bill attract more candidates and
more diversity of representation, which equals more competition.
Competition is good for the political market, just
as it is for the economic market. It offers more choices and, because
good incumbents will have to work harder to earn re-election, it offers
better choices
Businesses and outside groups have figured out
that spending money on elections is a great investment.
Campaigns are not free, and the costs are going to
be born by someone. If the public pays for them, the public benefits. If
special interests pay, special interests benefit. It’s that simple.
Search the web to see where "clean elections" are
already working around the country.
January 24, 2007
Intelligent metering. There's been some great
action in the WET (Water,
Energy & Telecommunications) Committee this week.
I called a work session on intelligent metering
and the presenters were fantastic. Staff did a great job lining up
impeccable experts to present. My take away is that the techniques and
technology that exist today will help reduce our consumption, reduce our
cost of energy delivery, improve reliability and help preserve the
environment.
Some investment needs to precede these dividends
and I am working with industry experts to precipitate adoption of these
technologies.
January 23, 2007
Life-cycle assessment (LCA). My energy committee
heard a great presentation from Rita Schenck that really sparked my
interest.
I am a capitalist. I trust our markets to organize
themselves and deliver efficient and effective business models. I am a
strong advocate of economic Darwinism: survival of the fittest for
business. I believe smart companies should be rewarded with profits and
ineffective companies should adapt or die.
LCA promises to be a great tool for helping to
price externalities of business activity.
Imagine a hot summer day. You are jogging through
the neighborhood and stop at nearby coffee stand. There are half a dozen
different brands of icy, refreshing bottled waters. All are priced at 99
cents. Because of LCA, you know that Brand X results in the destruction
of salmon habitat. You know that Brand Y uses environmentally hazardous
packaging and that Brand Z releases more greenhouse gas. But, brand
"Yummy" is safe and environmentally friendly.
LCA will help to inform consumer choice and drive
markets to deliver the safer, smarter products that customers demand.
January 19, 2007 – Second Week
It would be tough to know
which topics to zero in on in a short weekly blog entry, but
fortunately, you have been diligent at letting me know what you care
about.
Simple Majority for school
levies generated a lot of inquiries with the vast majority (super
majority) in favor of simple majority. I support bringing this issue
to the public and I voted to move
the
bill out of committee.
Sonics/Storm. Several people
pointed out it would be cheaper to buy the teams than to buy them a
new arena. I think that is a great idea. Hopefully the current
ownership can drive a profitable business plan w/o a taxpayer
subsidy to their bottom line. I am of course open to a revenue
sharing plan that would deliver great return on investment to
taxpayer “investors.”
PBDEs. In testimony, one witness suggested that this family of
toxins that build up in the human body might be LESS harmful than
ordinary table salt. I pointed out that salt is both nutritious and
delicious and asked if perhaps there was a USRDA amount for this
poison. I agree with most of you about the need to protect ourselves
from this environmental poison.
I held my first press
conference announcing some election bills with a few more in the
pipeline. The
clean elections pilot will be
heard on Thursday the 25th.
Taxes. I’ve been working on
a property tax exemption and discount for small business retailers.
I’ll drill into more detail later.
January 12, 2007 – First Week
The first week of session (and my first week on
the job) is finished.
This reminds of my first week at Microsoft…
there are a LOT of similarities. For instance, there are a lot of
super smart folks here who work really hard. And back in 1991, at
Microsoft, we were just starting to use laptops and the internet -
just like we are here.
I haven't gotten into to much trouble yet. I
missed my first roll call... on my first day... BEFORE I was sworn
in. That made me a little nervous that I might have to wait a day. I
saw my son signing "daddy" (in ASL) from the gallery and ran up to
give him a hug & kiss.
A lot of folks have come to see me or testify
to my committees. I'll share some tips on how to get the most impact
from your time in a future post. Meanwhile, I'll fit in as many
appointments as I can.
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