The 2010 political season is down to the final feverish days. The mail only general election ballots must be sent by Tuesday.
The Reporter has been publishing a series of question and answers with 47th and 5th legislative districts candidates.
Each candidate answered four questions posed by the editorial staff.
This installment will have answers from 47th District senatorial candidates Sen. Claudia Kauffman, Democrat, and challenger Republican Joe Fain
Stories with Rep. Geoff Simpson, Democrat, and Republican challenger Mark Hargrove seeking State House Position No. 1 and Rep. Pat Sullivan, Democrat, and Rodrigo Yanez, Repulican, for State House Position No. 2 were posted earlier.
47th District Senate
Claudia Kauffman and Joe Fain
- Fain: First, we must stop the reckless spending that put us where we are today. Sen. Kauffman has supported every new spending bill since taking office in 2006, and she cast the tie-breaking vote to approve a budget that raised taxes over $800 million last year.
The Legislature must then identify programs where cuts would have drastic results or are just plain unwise (i.e., education, public safety, some social service programs, etc.). We must also require each state agency to identify the specific value it provides taxpayers, and then provide funding based on that information. The legislature cannot continue to merely add a percentage increase to every department’s budget each year. Additionally, we must look at zero-based budgeting in order to restructure state agencies from the bottom up.
Finally, the state legislature must also adopt new labor agreements that better equate to the private sector. For example, cost of living adjustments should be pegged to CPI (consumer price index) rather than a “bargained-for” rate, and higher contributions to employee health care plans should be considered.
Most importantly, elected leaders must recognize that government should have to do more with less, just as the rest of us have had to do during this recession.
- Kauffman: We’ve cut spending the past two years to balance the state budget, but we’ve left many tax loopholes intact. Before we make more cuts, we must take a rational look at government efficiency and the existing tax exemptions and ensure that everyone is paying their fair share. I’ve pushed to close tax loopholes that don’t return the taxpayers’s investment and don’t create jobs, and I will continue to do so. I opposed the Governor’s tax increases because I’m concerned about how any new taxes would affect small businesses and families. I will continue to oppose tax increases that would increase the burden on small businesses and families. In order balance the budget again in the coming year, we must close the tax loopholes and make the hard decisions to make the necessary cuts agency-by-agency.
- Kauffman: The short term challenge will be protecting our students and schools from drastic cuts as we balance the budget. We must make education our highest priority as we negotiate the budget next year. I successfully fought the proposed education cuts in last year’s budget, and I will continue to protect our students from the worst cuts.
As vice chair of the Senate Early Learning K-12 Education Committee I have fought to preserve funding for basic education and for early learning especially during these difficult economic times. The bipartisan Quality Education Council and the Basic Education Funding Task Force has successfully worked to identify model schools and model funding formulas through a process of steps. Their research and recommendations are still being formulated and we will address them this coming session.
- Fain: No, the legislature can do much more for education. The Washington State Constitution states that education is the paramount duty of state government. Once the legislature defines what a basic K-12 education looks like, it is its constitutional duty to fund to that level. That is why we must fund education first, before less essential programs.
Our new fiscal reality requires us to look beyond dollars and cents to find new and better ways to deliver vital state services. Our state failed to qualify for Race to the Top grant funding because my opponent’s supporters were successful in beating back important reforms. These reforms would have improved the quality of teachers in our classroom and created better accountability.
We must have more robust evaluations for our teaching professionals, and a system that allows successful and hardworking educators to be properly compensated for their successes. Sen. Kauffman and her special interest backers support the status quo, and refuse to adopt a system that evaluates and rewards excellence in the classroom.
- Fain: The month-long “special” session last April is strong evidence that Olympia is in bad shape. Democrats are fighting with Democrats; the House is fighting the Senate, and all legislators are distancing themselves from the governor in an election year. The legislators in Olympia must come together and make sensible, realistic, long-term decisions instead of worrying about re-election or keeping ravenous special interests happy. Our legislature has succeeded in the past at working across party lines and it can do it again. Olympia needs to stop mimicking the dysfunction and incompetence that takes place in the “other” Washington and pass legislation based on the public’s best interest – not political considerations.
- Kauffman: The legislative process in Olympia works fairly well. In order for a bill to successfully become a law it goes through many steps and is often amended several times before enactment. Many bills begin as an idea or recommendation from a constituent and are then taken up by their legislator and worked through the committee process. There are many opportunities to work with both parties as bills work their way through the legislature, and bipartisan collaboration happens more than you would imagine from what you read in newspapers and blogs.
There is always room for improvement, especially in the budget process. Gov. Locke began the Priorities of Government during the budget battles of his administration to help make the hard budget decisions, and the legislature needs to use this tool more often. Using these priorities as a starting point, and encouraging more collaboration between the two parties and the two chambers of the legislature would improve the process.
- Kauffman: There are several steps to help create jobs in our state. First, small business growth will be the key to our state’s rise out of this recession. Supporting, expanding, and developing small business will create the jobs and confidence in our local economy that we need in order to improve things. I worked to create the Microenterprise Development Program to provide assistance and training for our citizens to start their own small businesses. The program resulted in hundreds of small business start ups and has created hundreds of jobs. Microenterprises are an important part of the employment picture and represent 17 percent of Washington state’s employment. I’ve also worked on streamlining small business paperwork by providing additional support to access to loans and grants. As banks reduce their lending to small businesses and main street, we need to ramp up our efforts to open those doors.
Second, we need to have adequate roads and freight corridors to move people and products across this state and within the district. As a member of the Senate transportation, I have worked with local cities to identify transportation priorities for our local businesses.
Third, we need an educated work force. We have to fully fund basic education and support higher education, including skills centers and worker retraining.
- Fain: Last session, Sen. Kauffman voted for a budget that raised the B&O (business and occupation) tax on small business by millions of dollars. I have proposed, among other things, allowing businesses to deduct some payroll expenses before calculating their tax liability, as a way to encourage hiring. My opponent is mischaracterizing this proposal as a “new income tax on small business,” despite the fact that it would lower taxes on small businesses. She has been defensive on economic issues because her legislative accomplishments were designed to sound good on the campaign trail instead of helping people get back to work.
We must also invest in improving freight mobility so the many retail, warehousing, and manufacturing centers in our community can hold on to and create new jobs. Unlike Sen. Kauffman, who has frequently stated that her top transportation priority is an elevated structure in downtown Seattle, my priority is to keep our transportation money here in South King County.
My campaign has always been about jobs. This is why I am the only candidate endorsed by the Association of Washington Business, the Washington Restaurant Association, the Washington Retail Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Auburn Area Chamber, Washington REALTORS and countless other small businesses and associations.
