Candidates for the three 5th District seats in the Legislature up for election in November had to talk over the sounds of construction as crews worked on Lake Wilderness Lodge.
David Spring, a Democrat running against Rep. Glenn Anderson, and Rep. Jay Rodne and Sen. Cheryl Pflug put out their messages during a candidates’ forum hosted Wednesday by the Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce.
Spring was the only challenger who was able to make it to the forum. Democrats Jon Viebrock (who is opposing Rodne) and Phyllis Huster (Pflug’s foe) both had urgent personal or professional issues that prevented them from making the trip, according to the forum organizers.
All three incumbents – Anderson, Rodne and Pflug – are Republicans.
Gary Habenicht, who moderated the forum, asked the candidates two questions:
• What plans they would promote in the Legislature to improve State Routes 169 and 516.
• And second what they had in mind for improving the state’s fiscal situation.
Spring, who spent 20 years teaching and has a masters in education, said he is running because he is concerned about the state’s education system. He promised to push the Legislature to stop giving tax breaks to big corporations and offer solutions on ways to better fund the state’s public schools.
He also spent a decade as a small-business owner, and he said his experiences in that would translate well to serving in Olympia.
“One of the many things I’ve learned from owning a small business is that you get what you pay for and that there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Spring said. “I believe the citizens of Maple Valley are not getting their money’s worth from the Legislature.”
Rodne and Anderson criticized the Democrats – who hold the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate and also control the governor’s mansion – for spending beyond the state’s means.
“Are our kids smarter? Is accessibility to healthcare better? Do you have more money in your pocket than you did four years ago?” Anderson said. “The answer is no. The $2.5 million deficit that’s forecast is forecast with a good economy. The actual budget deficit is about $4 billion, and that’s going to be difficult to fix. We’re going to have to make some hard choices. We have got to have the ability to say no to special interests. When the Legislature becomes a shopping bazaar, why should anybody trust them?”
Rodne said there is only so much that Republican legislators, being in the minority, can do. But, he told the audience of mostly business persons,
“We can’t sustain the current budget or the budget process we had. We have the highest minimum wage. We have one of the highest worker’s comp insurance rates. These go right to your bottom line. Not a thing has been done to ameliorate your situation as a small-business owner in this state. Let’s control spending, let’s spend within our means.”
Spring suggested that because Maple Valley is represented solely by Republicans that this area and the district as a whole doesn’t have a seat at the table.
“My good friend here wants to convince you that we’re the problem, but that’s absolutely ridiculous. We need to reign in state spending,” Rodne replied. “We need to really get to a sense of fiscal responsibility that is woefully lacking. Right now it’s just pay off your friends.”
Habenicht prefaced his question about money with statistics from Forbes magazine about how business-friendly Washington is relative to other states.
“What Forbes is really saying is that Washington is a really great place to do business if you happen to be a Fortune 500 business, but those tax breaks don’t trickle down to small-business owners,” Spring said. “As a result of those tax breaks, we have the most overcrowded schools and the most overcrowded roads in America. I want to make it clear that I’m not in favor of an income tax. I am, however, in favor of a fair tax structure.”
He also slammed his opponent, Anderson, for handing out tax breaks to companies Spring claimed Anderson previously worked for as a lobbyist and now make contributions to Anderson’s campaign.
“The challenge as a voter is how do you tell what they really mean? How much trust should I put into that? It’s a judgment call,” Anderson said. “There’s a certain amount of intuition and a certain amount of research that goes into it. We all know that with politicians, if their lips are moving then they must be lying. When we vote, words make a difference, and because you can make things up doesn’t mean you should.”
Agreed: Highways need attention
As far as transportation goes, all agreed that Maple Valley needs more dollars for work to be done on Maple Valley Highway and Kent-Kangley Road (State Routes 169 and 516).
Rodne said that as a member of a transportation committee in the Legislature, he helped get money for the Four Corners improvements that were completed last fall, as well as pushing for and getting a state highway of significance designation for SR-169 in 2006.
“The reality is that we are $30 billion to $40 billion short of funding all the regional projects that need to be funded,” Rodne said. “We’re competing with the viaduct, with the (State Route) 520 bridge, with I-90. So there is a lot of competition. The reality is that our gas tax is a diminishing funding source. We need to find new ways to fund transportation.”
Pflug also suggested that funding transportation improvements for SR-516 and SR-169 might be easier because they both go through several legislative districts.
“You don’t get anything done in Olympia unless you have some credibility and are willing to create coalitions,” Pflug said. “What needs to happen is we need to have a broader coalition of suburban districts who have projects like ours, and we need to be able to vote to fund those. If we want to get to work, we need a transportation system that doesn’t price the average guy out of driving. We need a transportation system that doesn’t say only the elite can use it.”
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Anderson said he would also like to see rapid mass transit improved.
“Almost half of all the federal (transportation) funding that comes to the state goes to the 4 percent of the people that ride transit,” Anderson said. “We need to get that transit number up. The answer is bus rapid transit. It’s got a low carbon footprint, it’s relatively easy to get going quickly. We need stable, consistent and more bus service that allows people the flexibility in their lives.”
Spring offered a different perspective on transportation.
“Maple Valley’s being short-changed on highway projects,” he said. “I think part of the problem is that Maple Valley is being represented by three Republicans, and being part of the minority party means that they don’t have a seat at the table. I will aggressively demand that state funds contributed by Maple Valley will be spent on projects in Maple Valley.”
Pflug closed the forum with some cautious optimism.
“I don’t support fear-mongering, and while it is true that we face a big budget deficit it is also true that revenues aren’t going down it’s just that revenues aren’t going up as quickly as they used to,” she said. “We face some real challenges but they are challenges we can meet.”
Staff writer Kris Hill can be reached at (425) 432-1209 (extension 5054) and khill@reporternewspapers.com
