Chief
03-07-2007, 02:20 PM
http://columbian.com/news/localNews/03072007news112782.cfm
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
By KATHIE DURBIN Columbian staff writer
OLYMPIA -- A bill that would allow Vancouver and other cities to tack $20 onto car license fees to pay for local transportation projects survived its latest legislative hurdle -- without the votes of two Clark County lawmakers.
Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, voted against House Bill 1858 in the House Transportation Committee last week. Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, who also serves on the committee and who co-sponsored the bill, was excused at the time it came up for a vote last Thursday.
The measure, prime-sponsored by Rep. Bill Fromhold, D-Vancouver, passed anyway, and was sent to the House Rules Committee. A top legislative priority for the city of Vancouver, it would allow city officials to levy the annual fee without voter approval.
That's why she voted against it, Wallace said.
"The Legislature has already taken some bold steps to provide badly needed resources for road projects," she said in a statement. "But if we're going to go right back and ask for more, I think it should be decided by the voters."
Wallace noted that in recent years lawmakers had enacted two state gas tax increases, hiked weight fees and vehicle license fees, and given cities and counties the authority to ask voters to raise vehicle license fees by up to an additional $100.
She said the so-called "local option" license fee increase now under consideration would raise only enough to pay for a few sidewalks or a small interchange.
Monday was the deadline for policy bills to pass out of fiscal committees. Most measures being tracked by Mark Brown, a lobbyist for the city of Vancouver, survived the latest cutoff.
Two exceptions were bills changing the method by which citizens can petition for annexation to cities and a bill that would have helped cap the costs cities and counties must bear for jail inmate medical costs.
Other casualties include a rail preservation bill, sponsored by Wallace, which failed to emerge from the Transportation Committee, and a bill calling for a study of oil pipeline capacity, sponsored by Curtis, which failed to get out of the House Appropriations Committee.
Legislation to cap the costs cities and counties incur in providing health care for jail inmates failed to get out of House Appropriations. The bill would have capped the costs to local governments at 160 percent of Medicaid rates. Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, does not cover health care for jail inmates.
Other bills of interest to Vancouver and Clark County have undergone changes along the way. For example, Fromhold sponsored a bill that would mandate inventories and inspections of septic tanks by 2009 in a number of cities, including Vancouver and Longview.
According to Brown, the bill is alive but has been amended to extend the deadline for creating septic tank inspection systems -- and to nullify the new mandates unless the final state operating budget includes funds to pay for the program.
Kathie Durbin covers state government. Reach her at 360-586-2437 or e-mail kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
By KATHIE DURBIN Columbian staff writer
OLYMPIA -- A bill that would allow Vancouver and other cities to tack $20 onto car license fees to pay for local transportation projects survived its latest legislative hurdle -- without the votes of two Clark County lawmakers.
Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, voted against House Bill 1858 in the House Transportation Committee last week. Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, who also serves on the committee and who co-sponsored the bill, was excused at the time it came up for a vote last Thursday.
The measure, prime-sponsored by Rep. Bill Fromhold, D-Vancouver, passed anyway, and was sent to the House Rules Committee. A top legislative priority for the city of Vancouver, it would allow city officials to levy the annual fee without voter approval.
That's why she voted against it, Wallace said.
"The Legislature has already taken some bold steps to provide badly needed resources for road projects," she said in a statement. "But if we're going to go right back and ask for more, I think it should be decided by the voters."
Wallace noted that in recent years lawmakers had enacted two state gas tax increases, hiked weight fees and vehicle license fees, and given cities and counties the authority to ask voters to raise vehicle license fees by up to an additional $100.
She said the so-called "local option" license fee increase now under consideration would raise only enough to pay for a few sidewalks or a small interchange.
Monday was the deadline for policy bills to pass out of fiscal committees. Most measures being tracked by Mark Brown, a lobbyist for the city of Vancouver, survived the latest cutoff.
Two exceptions were bills changing the method by which citizens can petition for annexation to cities and a bill that would have helped cap the costs cities and counties must bear for jail inmate medical costs.
Other casualties include a rail preservation bill, sponsored by Wallace, which failed to emerge from the Transportation Committee, and a bill calling for a study of oil pipeline capacity, sponsored by Curtis, which failed to get out of the House Appropriations Committee.
Legislation to cap the costs cities and counties incur in providing health care for jail inmates failed to get out of House Appropriations. The bill would have capped the costs to local governments at 160 percent of Medicaid rates. Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, does not cover health care for jail inmates.
Other bills of interest to Vancouver and Clark County have undergone changes along the way. For example, Fromhold sponsored a bill that would mandate inventories and inspections of septic tanks by 2009 in a number of cities, including Vancouver and Longview.
According to Brown, the bill is alive but has been amended to extend the deadline for creating septic tank inspection systems -- and to nullify the new mandates unless the final state operating budget includes funds to pay for the program.
Kathie Durbin covers state government. Reach her at 360-586-2437 or e-mail kathie.durbin@columbian.com.