Author Archives: Laudan
“Everybody knows government wastes money. The question is where is the waste?” says state Sen. Phil Fortunato. That’s why he introduced legislation that would reward state employees with a sizable bonus for finding government waste.
Senate Bill 6332, introduced in the first week of the 2018 legislative session, would re-establish the state productivity board, also referred to as the “employee involvement and recognition board.”
“In business there is an axiom that 50% of your advertising budget is wasted, the question is, which 50%. We have that same problem with state spending.” said Fortunato, R-Auburn. “Legislators like to claim that they have saved taxpayers a couple million dollars, but state employees have the potential to save taxpayers billions in recurring costs. They see first-hand how the state implements and spends money on programs, so who better to tell us where the waste is.”
The new Productivity Board would be directed to develop an employee suggestion incentive program. Cash awards up to $10,000 for suggestions generating net savings, revenue or both could be awarded.
“Legislators come up with ways to save some money once in a while, but front-line state workers are the ones who really know where savings can be found, so we should rely on them to rein in state spending. That means the more money in bonuses, the more taxpayer savings. That is a good investment.”
Sen. Phil Fortunato has cosponsored legislation in the first week of session to protect the privacy of concealed pistol license holders in Washington. Senate Bill 6173 would clarify state disclosure laws concerning information of concealed pistol license holders. The state Department of Licensing recently asked the less-than-gun-friendly state attorney general for guidance on whether the personal information of concealed pistol license holders is subject to the state’s public disclosure laws.
“I am very concerned that the privacy of law-abiding citizens will be infringed,” said Fortunato, R-Auburn. “I predicted before the session that anti-gun legislators who now control of all levels of state government could be problematic for gun owners in our state. The fact that a state agency is seeking this guidance when state law is clear necessitates legislative action.”
Current state law “exempts copies or records applications for concealed pistol licenses,” as noted in the Department of Licensing’s letter to the AG.
“If these anti-gun advocates are bent on invading people’s privacy, and the attorney general obliges, I think it is fitting that his personal information should be released,” said Fortunato.
November 30, 2017
|
||
|
||
|
|
Sen. Phil Fortunato responded strongly today to a new rule from the state’s Democrat lieutenant governor that will ban firearms from the Senate’s public gallery. In a hand-delivered letter to the lieutenant governor, whose duties include presiding over the Senate; Fortunato outlines numerous concerns with the ban, including its legality and enforceability.
“It’s no coincidence this ruling came right after the certification of the election giving the Democrats a majority in the Senate,” said Fortunato, R-Auburn. “This is just the first salvo of what I believe will be many anti-Second Amendment policies. The lieutenant governor’s actions merited an immediate response that challenges this ideologically driven, unnecessary and unconstitutional rule.”
In a letter explaining his decision to implement the ban on firearms once the Senate convenes Jan. 8 for the 2018 legislative session, the lieutenant governor cited the rule that defines the Senate president’s duties. Fortunato said a closer review of the Senate’s rules reveal no authority to restrict firearms.
“As presiding officer of the Senate, the lieutenant governor can do many things to preserve the decorum of the proceedings,” said Fortunato. “However, violating the public’s constitutional rights is not one of those. People lawfully carrying a concealed weapon is not a disruption and this action is unenforceable for numerous reasons that I’ve pointed out in my letter.”
Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, issued the following statement in response to the news that the House has refused a permanent Hirst fix:
House Democrats are being led by Seattle special interests that think that city water magically appears out of pipes in the wall but rural water taken from wells is a threat to the environment. Newsflash to urban dwellers—your water comes from rural areas. The differences are that no court suddenly decided you need to pay $20,000-$30,000 to hook up to city water and unlike the majority of well-water, the city water you use doesn’t return to the aquifer from which it came.
Neither the House nor the governor showed any real interest in solving the Hirst issue. In late April, our absentee governor admitted to no real understanding of the Hirst fix. Ironically, the governor that constantly warns of global warming causing drought is aiding the court-ordered manufacturing of a water shortage. The House has been moving the goalposts up to their pre-planned press conference where they shed crocodile tears at not getting a Hirst fix they never wanted.
The governor displays a total lack of understanding of how lending works. Who in their right mind thinks that lenders will want to loan money on a property that could have water rights revoked in 24 months? House Democrats holding a two-year delay up as a solution are fooling themselves and selling out rural Washington. Unless they are willing to open up a bank to loan money on these properties, I would not call their plan a fix but a complete, predestined, purposeful failure.
Failing to fix Hirst means lower property values which means lower revenues for state and local services that House Democrats claimed to champion. But when push came to shove, they chose their special interests groups over the working men and women in the rural areas of Washington. This means up to a $200 million property tax shortfall over 4 years with the devalued properties hurting schools and local economies—and no, a bottled water tax is not going to make up the difference.
To open this session, Inslee commuted death sentences for murderers and rapists. To close the session, he is ushering in a death sentence for rural Washington. It’s a shameful slap in the face to those of us living outside urban centers.
By now, you should have received my final legislative update for the year. Unfortunately, Senate rules governing election-year communications required that my final update be mailed prior to the end of our legislative business this year. You can read the entire newsletter by clicking the picture below.
In the newsletter, I discuss my legislation that would allow Seattle to become its own county, and the rest of us to form a new county. Seattle could still do all the crazy things it wants, it just couldn’t use our money to do them.
A recent Fox Business report noted some of the crazy things Seattle has been doing and coincidentally reinforced the need for my legislation.
Senator Fortunato was privileged to attend the June 28, 2017 Basic Law Enforcement Academy graduation ceremonies of Class 750. The academy is an essential institution that trains officers to protect us and themselves, and even to keep safe the people they are duty-bound to arrest. It ensures that every local officer has consistent and high quality training guided by 14 Commissioners and our state legislature.
This legislative session, Sen. Fortunato has been proud to support the needs of law enforcement. As a member of the Senate Transportation committee, Senator Fortunato supported making raises offered to Washington State Patrol troopers permanent and improving resources for public safety.
Pictured: Senator Phil Fortunato was proud to meet the class speaker, Officer Kyle Acito from the Auburn PD and Officer Chantel Johnson from the Enumclaw PD. Officer Acito was the president of his graduating class.
Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, has introduced Senate Bill 5946, which would phase out state funding for The Evergreen State College and ultimately sell the institution. Fortunato says the controversy over the request for a white professor to leave campus that has embroiled Evergreen in a national media frenzy, reveals a dysfunctional state institution incapable of keeping order or protecting free speech.
“What I see is an institution dedicated to indoctrinating kids into being perpetual victims,” explained Fortunato. “We saw videos of students disrupting classrooms, bullying administration, blocking police, and intimidating those around them and the response from the college president was to thank them for it. It is unbelievable.
“When this bill passes, they can still feed each other all the Marxist nonsense they want, they just won’t be able to do it with money from my constituents unless my constituents choose to donate to it—which I doubt.”
The legislation would transition Evergreen into a private institution and would seek to sell college assets at fair market value. A stipulation to the sale would be that the buyer would have to run the college as a four-year institution of higher education. If no buyer is found or if that stipulation is not met, the college would be placed under the governance of the board of trustees at Washington State University (Eastern Washington University in the House version).
“The student protesters claim Evergreen is a horrible, oppressive place,” said Fortunato. “To those of us watching the behavior of these students and their intolerance of differing ideas, Evergreen looks like a horrible, oppressive place. So we come to the same conclusion for different reasons—Evergreen is a horrible place, so let’s stop putting public money in it.”
Fortunato’s bill is a companion to HB 2221, sponsored by Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg.
Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, is calling on Sound Transit’s governing board to reverse a decision made last week to transfer millions of dollars of property over to non-profits at a financial loss. Sound Transit plans to transfer property valued at $18.5 million for a third or half of its market value in order to provide affordable housing sites in Seattle.
“Suddenly, the agency that claims every dime is essential for transit projects and can’t cut car tabs by a single penny, can afford to give away $10 million,” Fortunato said. “Sound Transit is taking millions from the budgets of families with school age children and seniors in the name of ‘congestion relief,’ so that it can turn around and give those millions away to something that has nothing to do with transit.
“This is pure bureaucratic arrogance. Tell voters it is all for congestion relief, then do whatever you want and give voters’ money to housing in Seattle. Every board member voting for this should be fired.”
Sound Transit made the decision in Resolution 2017-20 on May 25. It allows for a surplus parcel known as the “Roosevelt Station – Central Transit-Oriented Development Site” to be sold a steep discount for the purpose of affordable housing. In a letter (linked below) to Sound Transit Chief Executive Peter Rogoff, Fortunato questions the legality of the move based on stipulations in the federal grant and whether property seized through eminent domain for transportation purposes can be given away at a discount for unrelated purposes.
“This is social engineering insanity,” said Fortunato. “If Sound Transit thought people were mad about car tabs tripling before, wait until the people hear about this. This agency is absolutely tone deaf to the people they serve—or in the case of my district, the people they do not serve but just extract taxes from.”