Washington State Senate Democrats: Craig Pridemore

Sen. Pridemore’s enewsletter 5/7/2012

Senate Democrats — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:36:00 GMT

Sen. Pridemore's enewsletter 3/6/2012

Senate Democrats — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:27:00 GMT

49th district town hall meeting this Saturday

The next 49th legislative district town hall meeting, held with Rep. Jim Moeller and Rep. Sharon Wylie, will be held this Saturday, March 10, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., in the Public Service Center’s 6th floor hearing room at 1300 Franklin Street in Vancouver.

As always, we want to hear about what issues are most important to you, and we will also briefly share our thoughts about the legislative session. The regular legislative session will end on Thursday, March 8, but due to recent budget developments described below, it will likely go into special session.

Senate budget status

As you may have seen in the news, on Friday afternoon, Senators Jim Kastama and Rodney Tom, both Democrats, voted to allow the Republican members of the Senate to write the budget. They voted with Republicans to force a vote on a draft budget that had not gone through the committee process, forcing the Senate to vote on a bill that was not expected to move, and that no Democrats were allowed to review prior to passage.

This significantly changed the expectations and process for passing a budget this week. With the Republicans effectively taking control of the budget on Friday, I don’t expect that Senate Democrats will be allowed to participate in the budget negotiation process. I expect that the Senate Republicans will be negotiating directly with the House on the final budget.

Washington adds more jobs as recovery continues

The state gained an estimated 13,200 jobs in January, driving the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent from 8.6 percent the month before. According to the state Employment Security Department, most sectors were growing by thousands of jobs last month, including professional and business services, retail trade, and education and health services. Only government employment showed a marked decline with a loss of 1,100 jobs.

Overall, Washington gained about 53,500 jobs in 2011. Still, an 8.3 percent unemployment rate is too high. Senate Democrats have consistently worked to build a long-term economic development strategy that not only jump-starts jobs today but builds growth over the long haul.

Pridemore to host town hall meeting

Senate Democrats — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:18:00 GMT

Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, will host a town hall meeting with Rep. Jim Moeller and Rep. Sharon Wylie from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in Vancouver.

The meeting will run from 10 a.m. to noon in the Public Service Center’s 6th floor hearing room at 1300 Franklin St.

“As always, we want to hear about what issues are most important to you, and we will also briefly share our thoughts about the legislative session,” Pridemore said. “Though the regular legislative session will end on Thursday, I fear budget negotiations will drag us back for a special session. This meeting is the best opportunity for folks to share their priorities and thoughts as we make the final tough choices on which public services to preserve.”

Legislature passes Pridemore overpayments bill

Senate Democrats — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 01:01:00 GMT

Innocent recipients of overpayments by the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) could be forgiven rather than required to pay back onerous sums that were the fault of the state, under legislation passed today by the Legislature.

Senate Bill 6508 passed the Senate on a 33-16 vote and, having previously passed the House, now goes to the governor to be signed into law.

Sponsored by Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, SB 6508 was prompted by the case of a single mother in Vancouver who received nearly $3,000 more than she was due from DSHS for her two-year-old son’s child care before DSHS discovered its mistake and billed her for the overpayment. Though the mistake was not hers, the woman was suddenly faced with a $3,000 debt and little ability to repay it.

“In these difficult economic times, the last thing anyone struggling to provide for their family needs is for the state to make things even tougher,” Pridemore said. “This bill helps place responsibility for mistakes where it belongs, not on the backs of innocent recipients of limited means.”

There have been 1,354 cases of overpayment to child care subsidy recipients as of Oct. 4, 2011, according to DSHS’ Office of Financial Recovery. While much of the $2.5 million in overpaid subsidies is a result of fraud or consumer mistakes in reporting their financial information, some of the overpayments are the result of DSHS errors.

Pridemore’s bill prods DSHS to waive all efforts to collect overpayments from a client when it determines that the overpayment was not the fault of the client and the overpayment was less than $2,000. The measure also directs DSHS, in collaboration with the Department of Early Learning and the State Auditor's Office, to develop and provide the Legislature with recommendations for improving its monitoring and detection systems to prevent overpayments from occurring no later than Jan. 1, 2013.

House passes Pridemore overpayments bill

Senate Democrats — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:39:00 GMT

Senate Bill 6508, proposed by Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, had earlier passed the Senate but was amended by the House. The two chambers must reconcile the differences before it can go to the governor to be signed into law.

SB 6508 was prompted by the case of a single mother in Vancouver who received nearly $3,000 more than she was due from DSHS for her two-year-old son’s child care before DSHS discovered its mistake and billed her for the overpayment. Though the mistake was not hers, the woman was suddenly faced with a $3,000 debt and little ability to repay it.

“This is a case where a household of limited means was put in serious economic jeopardy because of a mistake on the part of the state,” Pridemore said. “The idea behind state benefits is to help people lift themselves up, not knock them down.”

The measure also directs DSHS, in collaboration with the Department of Early Learning and the State Auditor's Office, to develop and provide the Legislature with recommendations for improving its monitoring and detection systems to prevent overpayments from occurring no later than Jan. 1, 2013.

Senate passes Pridemore bill to forgive penalties

Senate Democrats — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:10:00 GMT

Innocent recipients of overpayments by the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) could be forgiven rather than penalized, under legislation passed today by the Senate.

Senate Bill 6508, proposed by Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, was prompted by the case of a single mother in Vancouver who had received nearly $3,000 more than she was due from DSHS for her two-year-old son’s child care before DSHS discovered its mistake and billed her for the overpayment. Though the mistake was not hers, the woman was suddenly faced with a $3,000 debt and no means of repaying it.

“This was an honest mistake, but it put this woman in an impossible predicament,” Pridemore said. “That’s not fair. DSHS needs to more carefully consider the impact its errors can inflict and more energetically work to avoid making those errors in the first place.”

There have been 1,354 cases of overpayment to child care subsidy recipients as of Oct. 4, 2011, according to DSHS’ Office of Financial Recovery. While much of the $2.5 million in overpaid subsidies are a result of fraud or consumer mistakes in reporting their financial information, some of the overpayments are the result of DSHS errors.

SB 6508 passed on a 31-18 vote and now goes to the House for consideration.

Senate passes Pridemore bill to sunset tax breaks

Senate Democrats — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:34:00 GMT

Bills to create or expand tax breaks in Washington would be required to define the nature of the expected benefits and include an expiration date, under legislation passed today by the Senate.

“When the Legislature passes a tax break without defining its benefits, it makes it difficult to determine whether the tax break actually provides the benefit,” said Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver. “This measure will clear up the mystery.”

Pridemore said his Senate Bill 6088 will also make it easier in the future to determine whether a tax break has failed to accomplish its intended purpose or whether its purpose has vanished over time. The bill also would attach a five-year sunset clause, or expiration date, on any new tax breaks unless a different expiration date is specifically assigned.

“Despite everyone’s best intentions, there are times when the Legislature creates a tax break that looks great on paper but for one reason or another fails to deliver,” he said. "At other times, the Legislature creates tax breaks that work for a time — even, perhaps, for a very long time — but eventually become obsolete due to changes in markets and the economy.”

When that happens, the defined benefit will enable entities like the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee and the Citizen Commission for Performance Measure of Tax Preferences to more effectively evaluate a tax break and advise the Legislature when the exemption comes up for review, Pridemore said.

In both those cases, documenting the rationale behind the tax break will enable the review committee and the citizen commission to assess the public benefits of the tax break and advise the Legislature as to whether a particular tax break has true value or is squandering valuable tax dollars.

“This approach would make sense at any time, since we should never waste money and government resources unnecessarily,” Pridemore said. “But in today’s difficult economic climate, it makes even more sense.”

SB 6088 passed on a 45-3 vote and now goes to the House of Representatives.

Pridemore bill would let state forgive penalties

Senate Democrats — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:54:00 GMT

Some overpayments to clients of the state Department of Social and Human Services (DSHS) would be more likely to be forgiven, rather than repaid, under legislation passed out of the Senate Human Services & Corrections Committee on Thursday night.

“Here you have the case of a parent struggling to make ends meet, who received assistance the state assured the mother she qualified for, only to get hit with a $3,000 bill that was not her fault and which she has no way of paying,” Pridemore said. “She’s not alone. Thousands of Washingtonians are on the edge in this economy and the last thing any of them need is for an innocent mistake by DSHS to push them over the edge.”

There have been 1,354 cases of overpayment to child care subsidy recipients as of Oct. 4, 2011, according to DSHS’ Office of Financial Recovery. While much of the $2.5 million in overpaid subsidies are a result of fraud or consumer mistakes in reporting their financial information, some of the overpayments are the result of DSHS errors.

Pridemore’s bill would prod DSHS to forego efforts to recover overpayments that are not the fault of the client. Though DSHS currently has the option to forgive overpayments, it defaults toward requiring it. Pridemore’s bill would shift the onus to the agency when the overpayment is the agency’s fault.

“We’re talking about people who need every cent they can get and who would not have spent that money if the state hadn’t told them it was theirs to spend,” Pridemore said. “It’s not healthy for the state, much less the recipients and their children, for the state to demand families repay money they do not have and cannot afford and was spent through no fault of theirs.”

Pridemore bill would require robocall identification

Senate Democrats — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:55:00 GMT

Automated phone calls generated by political organizations would be required to announce the identity of the call's sponsor, under legislation proposed by Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver.

Senate Bill 6089, which was heard today by the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee that Pridemore chairs, would require sponsors to list their name, city and state in all telephone political advertising that consists of 500 or more identical or substantially similar calls in the 12-month period prior to an election. The requirement would apply regardless of whether the call relates to a candidate or a ballot proposition.

“I find these calls as annoying as anyone else — I don’t even like them when it’s my own voice on the recording,” Pridemore said. “Voters deserve to know who’s making the pitch, whether it’s an actual candidate or proposition sponsor or some outside group acting independently.”

The bill has strong bipartisan support, with 12 Democratic sponsors and six Republican sponsors.

“This is the kind of basic transparency everyone can agree on regardless of their political leanings,” Pridemore said. “Whenever we can do something to help voters avoid being deceived, that’s a good thing.”

Town hall meeting set for Jan. 7

Senate Democrats — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:26:00 GMT

Sen. Craig Pridemore will join Rep. Jim Moeller and Rep. Sharon Wylie in a town hall meeting Saturday, Jan. 7, to discuss the 2012 legislative session. The 49th District lawmakers will solicit constituents' concerns and priorities and answer questions from 10 a.m. to noon in the sixth floor hearing room of the Clark County Public Service Center at 1300 Franklin St. in Vancouver.