The majority of the 2009 legislative session that adjourned April 26 was spent plugging the state's $9 billion budget shortfall - but we also forged new ground with policies such as our effort to restructure our education funding system that I wrote about at the end of April.
We also enacted common sense regulations on the payday lending industry, approved the deep-bore tunnel to replace the crumbling viaduct, created programs to aid those facing foreclosure, increased weekly unemployment benefits for laid-off workers and limited access to guns for those involuntarily committed with mental illness.
We also built upon achievements from previous years by expanding our domestic partnership laws, maintaining children's health care coverage, and preserving current Basic Health Plan enrollments by raising rates. In addition, I was pleased to have 19 of my bills (or their House companion bills) signed into law.
• Restoring voting rights
Our most basic democratic right is the right to vote. More than 167,000 Washingtonians are denied this basic right because of felony convictions, even if they have served their time. Only those who have paid all legal financial obligations stemming from a conviction can regain their voting rights. Such debts begin with convictions and accrue astonishing interest, making it almost impossible for low-income wage earners to ever pay them off. Under our current system, it takes nine separate steps for people leaving the criminal justice system to regain the right to vote. This system creates a de facto poll-tax by tying the right to vote to one's financial means.
House Bill 1517 (my Senate Bill 5534) restores voting rights when individuals leave Department of Corrections supervision, but their rights can be revoked if they fall behind in paying off their obligations by three monthly payments in a year.
This bill gives those who have paid their debt to society for their wrongful acts more of a chance to be a contributing member of our society.
• Cracking down on puppy mills
We've all seen the horrific visuals of puppy mill raids - of seizures of hundreds of malnourished and maltreated dogs. Until this session, Washington had no statewide laws to regulate dog breeding practices.
No dog should suffer such as these have which is why I introduced my legislation, SB 5651 (which was suggested to me by two young girls in Ballard, Theresa Edwards and Audrey Long) to prohibit an individual from possessing more than 50 non-neutered dogs older than 6 months at one time. The bill also sets basic care and condition standards like providing clean food and water and allowing dogs to leave their cages for at least an hour a day. Those who violate these requirements would be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
• Gender equity in playfields
Females have made real gains in interscholastic and intercollegiate sports since the passage of Title IX, but many continue to suffer inequities in community parks and recreation programs where they are often relegated to the worst maintained fields, least desirable practice or play times and least experienced referees. With passage of my SB 5967, public community parks and recreation sports programs are required to adopt and disseminate a policy of non-discrimination on the basis of sex.
• Other significant bills of mine that were signed into law include:
• SB 5629 authorizes state agencies to apply for sexual health education funding for medically and scientifically accurate programs and eliminates the requirement for the Department of Health to apply solely for funding for abstinence-only programs.
• SB 5850 aims to crack down on human trafficking by requiring international labor recruiters and domestic employers of foreign workers to disclose labor laws and providing health care providers information to help identify human trafficking victims.
• SB 5832 extends the statute of limitations to prosecute certain sex offenses to the victim's 28th birthday.
• SB 5916/ HB 1701 authorizes adoption and deployment of widespread high speed internet and assesses access to high speed Internet across our state.
• SB 5232/ HB 1215 updated our 20-year-old Lemon Law to provide more consumer protections.
• SB 5367 helps to create safer communities by establishing a new nightclub liquor license, placing some oversight on the industry.
While I'm gratified we had significant policy achievements, we had to make tough choices resulting in severe budget cuts in funding of our schools, colleges, social safety net and health care system. The 2009 session was by far the most difficult I have experienced in 18 years in the state Legislature. Next session, I will continue to advocate for extensive tax reform and to assuage the effects of many of this session's budget cuts.[[In-content Ad]]
