Candidates for the 23rd Legislative District in the Washington House of Representatives discussed their take on funding education and doing more to communicate with the public at a forum last week hosted by the League of Women Voters.
Running for office are Rep. Sherry Appleton and Scott Henden for Position 1 and Rep. Drew Hansen and James Olsen for Position 2.
Appleton and Hansen, incumbents and Democratic Party candidates, and Olsen and Henden, Republican Party candidates, discussed topics from gun control and education to communications and tax exemptions to a crowd of about 40 people at a forum Wednesday, Oct. 14.
One of the most telling questions by the audience at the forum addressed education funding:
In 2009 and 2010 legislation was passed defining basic education and identifying what should be funded each year. Some aspects of education were required to be fully funded by 2018. What are your thoughts on how to fully fund basic education by 2018?
Hansen: “You can get a couple $100 million out of loophole closures. That’s probably not enough. What I voted for in the past and what we voted for again, is maintaining some of the temporary surcharges that were in place during the recession that rolled off. Beyond that there are other structural steps you can take that have to do with the B&O tax system or the property tax system. Those first two steps get you a long ways towards the McCleary obligation that would have gotten you a billion dollars towards it, if the senate voted for the budget that Sherry and I voted for last year.”
Olsen: “Easy, it’s the first part of the pie that’s taken out. It funds education, and after that, all other agencies, and everybody else is going to have to make do, or we’re going to have to come up with some other money. But education gets funded first and the courts said that.”
Appleton: “I’m not sure that the courts said that education would be funded first. They sent us back in contempt to look at how we will fund schools. I think it’s easy to say, education first. But then who’s going to care of the vulnerable, the developmentally disabled, those people who have no help whatsoever and then the elderly? I think we can do it collaboratively, between all of us, and we’ll come up with some kind of plan that I hope will satisfy the Supreme Court.”
Henden: “Education is the only interest group with a constitutional mandate to be followed. I think we should fund schools first, and there is going to be a fire over the rest, but that’s OK. I think weighing in on the past senate is a little bit shortsighted considering that you’ve had the opportunity for years and years, eight years in the case of Rep. Appleton, to actually take motion on it.”
Another question asked the candidates how they would reach out to those who may not agree with them:
Tell us how you would use social media to interact with your constituents, especially how you would interact with those who do not agree with you.
Olsen: “In order to interact with the geographic area of 62 square miles, the number of people are 119,000 citizens in the 23rd Legislative District, clearly there has to be inroads made into contacting these people. I have done countless doors. And I tell people that I’m running for the 23rd Legislative District against the good Mr. Hansen. And they say, ‘the good Mr. Who?’ So apparently currently we’re not doing a very good job of getting the word out there. Occasionally I receive an email from Senator Rolfes, telling me what she’s up to, which is good. I would follow similar things. I’d talk to people. I’d have the biggest staff I can. I’d be as responsive as I can. I would do everything possible to meet the needs of the 23rd legislative constituents.”
Appleton: “I do have a Facebook page, and we try to put information on that for all of you. It really is a difficult thing keeping in touch with our constituents. When we’re in an election year, as we are now, we are not allowed to send out material to our constituents unless they ask. So, it’s really difficult because people think we’re trying to hide. We’re not trying to hide. We really want to communicate with our constituents. And it makes it very difficult in an election year to do that.”
Henden: “What I found over time with the school board is we’re going to have some differences. Do we base those differences on sound data or good information, or do we do it on slogans like, ‘I’ve cut the budget to the bone?’ That’s what Representative Appleton told the school district two years in a row, when in fact I’ve handed out to many of you a copy of the state budget that shows it’s gone up. If she doesn’t accept the policy to institute numbers, then I’d love to see what she does. It’s not that hard to have a public meeting with people and say, tell me what you think, what’s going on in the districts, what are your concerns. As far as social media, I think that would have some effect. I don’t think that’s the only answer. I still like a good old-fashion sit down with some people and talking to them, and say, ‘What are your concerns? If you disagree, let’s disagree honestly.’”
Hansen: “When I’m talking to constituents, I do mostly by email. We get hundreds of emails a day during the session, we continue to get it at a lower rate after the session. And we do respond. It may take us a while, but we do respond. It’s me and my legislative aide. So we do a lot of communications, often a lot of intricate back-and-forth on emails, especially on something controversial like the background checks bill. Number two, with letters or phone calls. And number three, with in-person meetings. Recently, I was down at Poulsbohemian Coffeehouse with two constituents who really wanted to talk about common core.”
