Washington State Senate Democrats: Mary Margaret Haugen

Sen. Haugen’s enewsletter 5/10/2012

Senate Democrats — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:39:00 GMT

Town hall meetings kick off next Tuesday

Senate Democrats — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:52:00 GMT

In addition to four town hall meetings scheduled for the last week of this month, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen has been invited to speak to the La Conner Chamber of Commerce on May 15.

The Chamber meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. at the La Conner High School library at 502 North 6th St. The event is open to anyone who is interested in attending.

The meetings provide an ideal setting to review the work of the 2012 Legislature, discuss current and future issues affecting the 19^th Legislative District, and share questions or concerns.

A second town hall meeting is set for 2-3:30 p.m. May 30 at the South Whidbey Senior Center at 14594 State Route 525 in Langley.

A third meeting takes place the same day, May 30, from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Oak Harbor Senior Center in the Multipurpose Room at 51 SE Jerome St.

The fourth meeting is the next day, May 31, from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Washington State University Extension Center in the Sakuma Auditorium at 16650 State Route 536 in Mount Vernon.

The fifth meeting is later than same day, from 6-7:30 p.m., May 31, at the Stanwood Community and Senior Center at 7430 276th St. NW in Stanwood.

Sen. Haugen’s enewsletter 5/4/2012

Senate Democrats — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:20:00 GMT

Sen. Haugen's enewsletter 4/27/2012

Senate Democrats — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:22:00 GMT

Sen. Haugen’s enewsletter 4/20/12

Senate Democrats — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:19:00 GMT

Haugen finds way to give homes access to water

Senate Democrats — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 03:19:00 GMT

Prospective homeowners in rural areas of the Skagit River Basin not served by public water systems could gain access to well water by December or sooner under funding secured by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.

Haugen, who worked for months to develop an agreement between homeowners, tribes, local and state governments and other stakeholders, originally sought to address the homeowners’ frustration by sponsoring Senate Bill 6312. That measure would have allowed new homes with on-site septic systems to withdraw 350 gallons of well water a day, but the bill died when the governor threatened to veto it and additional efforts to modify it proved unfruitful.

“We’ve made a good start, but I’m not done yet,” Haugen said. “This creates some options to show you can build in the basin without disrupting the stream. If we find out it’s not enough, I’ll take up the issue again in the next legislative session and keep pushing until these homeowners have reasonable relief.”

Haugen’s capital budget item takes the $2.225 million appropriation that would have been used in her original bill and directs Ecology to use these funds to protect in-stream flow and allow domestic water use by homeowners in the Skagit River Basin. A portion of the funds will enable Ecology to educate real estate agents and homeowners on mitigation requirements and which alternatives work best for their properties.

“I am impressed by the department’s commitment to working out a sound solution and look forward to the mitigation of the basin to ensure water is available for all who need it,” Haugen said. “I consider this a property rights issue. It’s totally unacceptable that these homeowners have been prevented from building their homes, and I will be checking on this regularly to make sure this solution works.”

The Senate is working to pass its capital budget, along with a state operating budget, by Tuesday, the final day of the special legislative session.

Haugen farm preservation bills signed into law

Senate Democrats — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:39:00 GMT

Two bills to help protect and preserve farmlands prime sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, were signed into law today by Gov. Christine Gregoire.

The first bill, Senate Bill 5343, gives operators of anaerobic digesters — energy plants that take dairy farms’ animal waste and transform it into energy — more time to find ways to reduce sulfur emissions.

“This bill gives us five years to learn how to keep our sulfur emissions under control. A manure digester is a living system, and this buys us time to fine-tune how the digesters operate and better control emissions,” said Kevin Maas, president of Farm Power Northwest. “We do want low sulfur emissions — there’s no good that comes of that — but we also want to provide renewable energy sources.”

Maas’ company operates one digester west of Mount Vernon and another west of Lynden and is in the process of building a third digester west of Enumclaw. Haugen’s bill exempts single generators that are fueled solely by biogas produced by an anaerobic digester — provided the biogas contains less than 0.1 percent sulfur, the aggregate heat input to the generator does not exceed 10 million Btu per hour, and the generator is not located in a federally designated nonattainment area for hazardous air pollutants. The exemption is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004.

“Sen. Haugen has been a friend of digesters in the state from the very beginning, for five years now,” Maas said. “Her support has been absolutely key. She and her fellow senators on the Senate Agriculture Committee have been great friends to agriculture and we really appreciate her help in helping pass this bill.”

Without Haugen’s support, Mass said, his company might have been forced to close down its digesters, which would have meant the loss of a renewable energy source and leave area farms with fewer options for handling manure. Anaerobic digesters serve the dual purpose of removing animal waste from the environment and using it to generate alternative energy in the form of biogas.

“This exemption was dearly needed for the anaerobic digesters, which are crucial to our dairy farmers on this side of the mountains,” Haugen said. “The digesters help manage the vast amounts of animal waste produced by our farms in a way that protects our water supplies and creates energy.”

Haugen’s other farm bill, Senate Bill 6082, addresses how rigorously the state Department of Ecology assesses the potential impacts of projects that could affect, or are located on land designated by local governments for long-term commercial agricultural use.

Under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), lead governmental agencies must follow a checklist to evaluate the likely impacts of proposed projects on air, water, earth, plants, animals, glare, and numerous other factors. Currently the state guidance regarding these farmlands is optional; Haugen’s legislation would make it mandatory.

Haugen’s bill directs the state Department of Ecology to assess projects for their potential impacts on farmland and to avoid or mitigate those impacts. The bill also directs Ecology to consider expanding its SEPA checklist to include questions specific to farmlands.

“We’ve been working to bring parity between the protection of our farmlands and the protection of our critical areas as mandated by the Growth Management Act,” said Allen Rozema, executive director of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland. “This legislation is one of the first major steps to help us achieve that parity.”

“I grew up on a farm on Camano Island and I’ve watched farming all but vanish from Camano. Farmers are truly an endangered species out here in western Washington,” Haugen said. “The purpose of this legislation is to recognize that as industry and development come in, we need to know what kind of impact it will have on agriculture. This bill gives agriculture the stature it deserves when the state is evaluating projects that might affect our farmlands.”

Specialty plate will benefit Meerkerk Gardens

Senate Democrats — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:40:00 GMT

A specialty license plate honoring the rhododendron as the state flower will create a stable revenue stream for the Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens on Whidbey Island and other garden associations around the state, thanks to legislation signed into law today by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, amended House Bill 2299 to establish a State Flower Account to dispense all proceeds from the sale of the specialty plates above and beyond the start-up costs for the program. Similar specialty plates sponsored by Haugen in the past raise money for lighthouses, firefighter training and other valuable causes. HB 2299 originally created a specialty license plate for 4-H clubs; Haugen’s amendment broadened it to include the rhododendron plate.

“This is extremely important, as Meerkerk Gardens is a relatively small nonprofit,” said Don Lee, president emeritus of the gardens’ board of directors. “This could very easily become the major income stream for us. It has the potential to stabilize our budget and even allow us to expand.”

Lee said a stable revenue stream is crucial to hiring staff and maintaining the gardens, which attract visitors from around the world.

“The better we make the gardens, the more visitors we can draw, which brings more people to spend money in the local community while they’re here, “said Don Meehan, a professor emeritus with more than 30 years’ experience who worked with Washington State University’s extension program.

“One of the values of this is that it’s a local program, not a state program. The money goes to local nonprofits, with 75 percent of the funds paying for employees at local gardens across the state.” Haugen said she hopes the rhododendron plate can be as successful as the lighthouse plates, which today underwrite the cost of lighthouses across the state.

“It’s appropriate that the rhododendron is the state flower,” she said. “It really makes for a beautiful plate.”

Haugen said the very first rhododendron plate will be issued to Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, who helped move the legislation through the Senate as the chamber’s floor leader.

Meerkerk Gardens is a non-profit, 10-acre garden surrounded by 43 acres of woodland preserve and more than four miles of nature trails that offer educational activities as well as sightseeing. The garden is currently funded by Friends of Meerkerk memberships, plant sales, admission and donations.

As with other state specialty plates, the new rhododendron and 4-H plates will cost $40 beyond the standard fees and taxes charged for state license plates; renewal will cost $30. Once the proceeds have covered all start-up costs, the state treasurer will deposit the subsequent proceeds for each plate into the State Flower Account and 4-H Programs Account, respectively.

Sen. Haugen's enewsletter 3/14/2012

Senate Democrats — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:40:00 GMT

Good day,

I’d hoped to tell you in this e-newsletter that we’d completed the people’s business on time and that the Legislature had balanced the budget and adjourned for the year. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. We are back for a special legislative session, as a result of some disappointing maneuvers on the Senate floor that derailed weeks and months of budget negotiations.

The short story is that three Democrats joined with all 22 Republicans to form a one-vote majority and force a budget that was minutes old — and that had been seen by none of the other senators outside of this majority — to the Senate floor and to a vote. Unlike the budget that both sides of the aisle had been working on for months, and which the public had been given ample opportunity to review and comment on, this surprise budget was written in secret and got the minimum votes to pass through a series of backroom deals. What is even worse than the way the backroom budget was railroaded through the Senate is that fact that it makes deep cuts to K-12 and higher education, which I find deplorable.

The budget passed by the House, meanwhile, fully funds education and I am hopeful those priorities will be protected as all sides negotiate a budget agreement. My top priorities are to fund education and to protect seniors, and that’s what I’ll be advocating for as negotiations continue.

PASSING A TRUE BIPARTISAN BUDGET … ON TIME

In contrast to the backroom operating budget proposal described above, the Senate Transportation Committee that I chair passed a transportation budget this session that was truly bipartisan — and passed the full legislature within the regular legislative session. Putting together a truly bipartisan budget requires real negotiation. It takes a willingness to sit down and look each other in the face, and say, “Okay, how do we get there?” I’ve done that. I’ve worked with many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this Legislature and in past legislatures, and frankly I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know from experience that you get a better budget when all parties are at the table. That’s why it’s the only way I’ve ever run the Senate Transportation Committee. My budget cabinet each year includes two members from each side of the aisle, and we meet regularly throughout session until we agree on a budget that works for everyone. Nobody’s happy with everything in the budget, but we work it out until we have a budget everyone can support. That’s true bipartisanship. That’s why we were able to pass a transportation budget on schedule during the regular legislative session. That’s what we do every legislative session on the Transportation Committee, just as we did this year, and I’m very proud of that. So don’t let anyone tell you we couldn’t have worked together to pass a truly bipartisan operating budget, too, and gotten out on time, if all parties were actually willing to work together in good faith instead of cutting deals in backrooms.

WHAT THE TRANSPORTATION BUDGET DOES

The nearly $9.8 billion, bipartisan transportation budgetmaintains current levels of service and ensures uninterrupted work on current projects for the remainder of the biennium, so that the Legislature can use the next biennium to address the structural deficiencies behind the state’s declining gas tax revenues. These funding levels are contingent on new revenue generated by updated fees in a number of areas.

Highlights include:

 $130 million to fund a second, 144-car capacity ferry. With this funding, shipyards can commence work in December 2012 with an expected in-service start of January 2015. Upon its completion, we will have built five new ferries after decades of relying on older ferries, and kept hundreds of well-paying jobs in Puget Sound shipyards, including our own Nichols Brothers Boat Builders in South Whidbey.

 $9.5 million to restore the Washington State Patrol’s auto theft program and fund an additional trooper cadet class.  $7 million to reduce DOT’s highway maintenance backlog and to meet urgent preservation needs on the state's roadways.

 $7 million for the purchase of fuel for ferry operations.

 $9 million to support transit service distributed to public transit agencies in Washington based on service hours, service miles and passenger trips provided.

In addition, more than $32.5 million in new funding will be made available over the next three years to advance design, preliminary engineering, or right-of-way acquisition for projects throughout the state.

People sometimes ask me why we don’t just shift money from the transportation budget to help balance the operating budget during hard times, but the simple fact is we can’t do that. The transportation budget is funded exclusively through transportation revenues. Transportation revenues are generated through the state gas tax and other transportation-related fees and are strictly dedicated through both the state constitution and state law to fund only transportation projects.

MAJOR PROPOSALS IN OUR DISTRICT IN THIS YEAR’S CAPITAL BUDGET

The Senate’s proposed supplemental capital budget would fund three major projects in our district. Unlike the operating budget, which uses tax revenues to fund the operation of state government, the capital budget sells bonds to fund the construction and maintenance of buildings, facilities and public lands.

The first project in our district would open to the public a 60-acre property now owned by Seattle Pacific University on Whidbey Island. This land includes a half-mile of feeder bluff waterfront on Admiralty Inlet, which benefits salmon and other fish, and attractive walking trails that are currently off limits to the public. The property is also home to a truly stunning old-growth forest that is just breathtaking. Pat Powell of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust will tell you this land offers one of the best examples of low-elevation coastal forest, of which there are only a few remaining in Washington State. Just as importantly, this project will enable the university to restore existing historical structures to draw more conferences and visitors to Camp Casey and to Whidbey Island, and to build new structures that will attract new types of visitors. All these improvements will provide a significant boost to the local economy.

The second project that would be funded by this budget is the second phase of a critical flood protection effort in downtown Mount Vernon. Past floods in this area have required more than 2,000 volunteers to help put into place more than 150,000 sandbags to protect the historic downtown each time. When this project is completed, the entire area will be protected from future flooding.

Another key project proposed to be funded by this budget is the first phase of a project to build a 2,780-foot-long boardwalk that will transform the La Conner waterfront. The boardwalk will be built over existing structures, on uplands and across new areas over the water. People in La Conner have been talking about a boardwalk for 30 years, and with good reason. The boardwalk will give residents from all over the community access to terrific waterfront activities and bring economic activity into La Conner in the form of well-paying jobs, including paychecks spent across the local community. If you talk to La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes, he has all kinds of statistics that show how boardwalks accelerate a community’s economic activity exponentially.

I can’t wait to see the results, both for the folks who will fill these jobs in the short term and for the prosperity the boardwalk will bring La Conner for generations to come.

‘TROOPER TONY’ A MODEL FOR US ALL

Several weeks ago, I was devastated by the news that Washington State Patrol Trooper Tony Radulescu had been shot and killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop. Known fondly as “Trooper Tony,” he served the Patrol and his district for more than 17 years and was so popular with students in Kitsap County schools that he was repeatedly called back to make public presentations.

We humbly and gratefully honored Trooper Tony with a memorial resolution on the Senate floor attended by many of his fellow troopers and surviving family members, including his son Erick, stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, his siblings and their families, and his girlfriend, Gina Miller.

To learn more about just how impressive Trooper Tony was and how much of an impact he made throughout his community, you can click here to read the resolutionand click here to read the floor remarksI offered in tribute to his selflessness and monumental sacrifice. His family, his colleagues, his community and our state have lost a fine, fine human being and an unforgettable example of how powerfully a single person can touch the lives of others.

LOCAL SCHOOLS RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE

I’m proud to announce that six schools in our district have earned the 2011 Washington Achievement Award, which measures how schools in Washington are performing over time according to the comprehensive Washington Achievement Index.

My congratulations to the impressive students and teachers at Bay View Elementary in Burlington, Coupeville High School, Fidalgo Elementary in Anacortes, Lincoln Hill High School in Stanwood, South Whidbey High School and Stanwood High School. They will be honored in an awards ceremony on April 25 in Everett.

The award assesses elementary, middle, high and comprehensive schools in seven different categories: overall excellence, language arts, math, science, extended graduation rate (high and comprehensive schools only), improvement and closing achievement gaps.

WE ARE HAPPY TO HELP YOU DURING THE SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION

As always, if you have a concern, I want to hear it. The best ways to reach me during the special legislative session are by e-mail or at my Olympia office at 360-786-7618 staffed by legislative assistants Nova Gattman and Gina Bull plus a familiar face from last year. Though our session intern Gavin Kremian has returned to University of Washington-Tacoma to finish his degree, Peter Ramey, who helped us out during the 2011 session, was kind enough to volunteer to work in the office with us over the next few weeks for the special legislative session.

My office receives lots of comments from folks who find these e-newsletters informative and useful. Please feel free to share my newsletter with family and friends. They can subscribe to my newsletter by clicking this link.

Until next time — Take care!

VIDEO - Haugen speaks on bipartisanship

Senate Democrats — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 23:44:00 GMT

During Senate floor debate early Saturday morning, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen questioned the process surrounding the Senate's passage of an operating budget without a public hearing or even public notice.