February 1, 2018 |
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Tag Archives: Hirst
Common sense laws that need to be passed
Fortunato sounds alarm on new development rules
Senator Phil Fortunato cast his vote to approve a legislative fix for the flawed 2016 Hirst decision and approved a capital budget late Thursday evening. Senate Bill 6091 was approved in the Senate by a vote of 35 to 15 and in the House by 66 to 30.
“I some concerns about the bill, but our community fares well under the proposal,” said Fortunato, R-Auburn. “People will be charged a bit more to drill a well, but the solution really puts us back to the status quo, allowing rural residents to get water. It also includes an exemption for livestock. They imposed some new limits on water usage in areas without a way to actually measure it, but don’t tell anybody.”
The legislation authorizes new wells with some new conditions depending on the watershed and clarifies the permitting authority to provide greater certainty for applicants. In typical government fashion, the bill also creates local planning committees that would determine water-related projects to be funded by the Legislature and other regulations, which Fortunato opposed. In addition to a task force to examine water availability for municipal growth and pilot projects allowing for additional granting of water rights.
Fortunato offered several amendments to protect property owners and to remove a low-impact development provision that will come back to haunt the state in a few years. “People will be shocked at how LID requirements will drive up housing costs. I had a constituent who was required to put in a pervious driveway on his one-acre parcel that cost over $50,000.”
Sen. Fortunato also garnered $1.5 million for water and sewer projects in Carbonado via the Capital Budget.
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January 16, 2018 |
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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.