caption: Task force governing.
art cred: malcolm smith
Two proposals dominated the news from Olympia as the legislative
session came to a close last week: (1) A last-minute request that the
state kick in $75 million to help renovate the Sonics’ KeyArena, and
(2) A homebuyers’ bill of rights, which would have given people the
fundamental right to sue contractors for shoddy work.
Predictably, the leadership in Olympia responded to both
lightning-rod issues without showing a hint of leadership.
On the Sonics, Governor Christine Gregoire and house Speaker Frank
Chopp (D-43) outlined their big solution in a March 10 letter: “A joint
task force on financing options.”
On the homebuyers’ bill, Chopp put senate-approved legislation
creating a right to sue contractors aside and, in a March 11 letter,
proposed his own legislation that would set up “a legislative task
force to study consumer remedies.”
It was a fitting end to what could be called the session of
the task force.
Earlier in the session, two of the most relevant bills to come
up—a universal health-care bill sponsored by Senator Karen Keiser
(D-33, Kent) and a tax credit for working families proposed by Senator
Craig Pridemore (D-49, Vancouver)—were both ditched in favor of
substitute legislation calling for “work groups,” “contracts with an
independent consultant,” “deliberations to review,” and finally, rather
than any legislation, “a report.”
The task-forced version of Senator Keiser’s health-care bill
actually called for a study of a previous study. I’m not joking.
SB 6333 “Required the work group to… begin deliberations by reviewing
in detail the findings and recommendations of the 2006 blue-ribbon
commission on health-care costs.”
Our quick review found that the legislature created no fewer than 14
new “advisory committees,” “work groups,” “interagency work groups,”
“studies,” and “task forces” this session to deliberate on everything
from the financial-services industry to tolls to the student
achievement gap (didn’t we already have a huge blue-ribbon
commission on education, “Washington Learns,” in 2005?). And as I
already mentioned, the legislature opted for task forces instead of
legislation on health care and tax credits for working families.
Maybe somebody should set up a task force to review the legislature
and come back with a recommendation for how it can actually legislate.
