Feb. 27, 2009 Dear friends and neighbors,  As with any work place, the unexpected can happen. When it does, sometimes we need to take some time from our work to reflect. In fact, the unexpected recently happened to one of my staff members here. Yesterday, on an icy road, he had a close call on a bridge just outside Olympia. It was one of those close calls that force you to stop and think about your life for a moment – and the lives of your family. He is okay – a little sore, but in good health. Due to the accident, that staff member is taking some much-needed time off. In his absence, I am producing this update all on my own. As a result, it might look a little different and will be a bit more abbreviated because he has provided the thorough bill research in the past. Under the circumstances, I am certain all of you will understand. I expect this staff member will be back Monday and we will have a more comprehensive look at what happens here when we send out this newsletter next week. Thank you for your patience and understanding while he recovers. Since policy committees completed their work last week, we spent most of our time considering the fiscal impacts of the bills that were advanced from these committees. Some of the fiscal committees also had bills referred directly to those committees, so there are a lot of measures being heard and passed. After passing some bills from the floor Monday, we spent most of our time in the fiscal committees. Fiscal committees review any bill which raises, saves or spends money – or which changes how money is spent or raised – before advancing the bill to the floor. The Finance Committee, on which I am the ranking minority member, reviews all legislation regarding taxes. This includes all tax policy within the state – whether it pertains to state taxes or local government taxing authority. Some of my bills were referred to fiscal committees: House Bill 1838 – Spirit Lake Fishery. This bill will allow the Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop a raffle for opportunities to fish for trout in Spirit Lake. It would raise some revenue above the amount needed to administer the fishery. The measure passed from the General Government Appropriations Committee on Thursday. House Bill 1038 – Specialized Forest Products. This bill will help those employed in the specialized forest products industry or those who use specialized forest products (like carvers, mushroom pickers, etc.) to more easily comply with state law regulating harvest and transportation of these products while still maintaining protections from theft for forestland owners. It also passed General Government Appropriations. This one took a lot of work – with Democrats, the governor’s staff and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). More work is needed, but it cleared another hurdle and was passed from committee Thursday. House Bill 1474 – Border County Higher Education Project. This bill allows anyone who lived in an Oregon county eligible to receive in-state tuition in our state institutions to continue to get in-state tuition rates upon moving to Washington. This also allows some colleges and university branch campuses to waive the non-resident tuition fees for anyone who moved from a qualifying county. If they qualified for the waiver when they lived in Oregon, certainly they should still qualify when they begin to pay taxes in Washington. It passed from Higher Education Appropriations Committee on Thursday. House Bill 1637 – Forest Riparian Easement Program. This bill upholds the intent of the Forest and Fish agreement by allowing landowners to be compensated for timber which needs to be left to protect fish habitat and for the costs associated with complying with the law. It also allows compensation in some circumstances when landowners leave some additional timber and provide even greater protection than required. Finally, it will enable the DNR to better and more quickly assess the timber left to determine the compensation which should be offered. This bill is coming out of Capital Budget Committee today. House Bill 1950 – Regarding Property Valuation Notices. This bill will eliminate a “catch 22” in our current law when it comes to challenging your property’s assessed valuation. It is rare, but there are cases in which a citizen cannot know whether their valuation will change in time to meet current deadlines for challenging their assessed valuation. For those few in that situation, this bill will solve the problem. I expect it will be passed from the Finance Committee Monday.
On Monday, we passed several bills from the House and sent them over to the Senate. Two of my bills were among those which passed: House Bill 1478 – Deployed Military Personnel License Renewals. This bill allows deployed military personnel whose vehicle license expired while they were deployed a full year to renew their license so there would be no payment for the time they couldn’t use the vehicle due to their deployment. House Bill 1475 – Agency Rulemaking Information. This bill requires all state agencies to provide a link on their home page to their rule-making activity. It further requires that they link you to the full text of any rules passed or proposed within the last 12 months. For any rules proposed, they must also tell you the time, date and location of any public hearing on the proposed rules, as well as how to provide written comment on those proposals. These are just a few of the issues I am working on to protect citizens from taxation and excessive regulation. I am also working with a number of legislators to improve job opportunities and to balance the budget with the least impact to services and the citizens who rely on those services. My priorities for the budget will be:		Rep. Ed Orcutt with Pam (left) and Abbie Younkin (center) of Camas
funding education; protecting our most vulnerable citizens; and ensuring public safety. Thank you for taking the time to keep up to date on what is happening here in Olympia. I hope this newsletter is helpful. Please feel free to ask any questions or express your thoughts on any of the issues before us here in the Legislature. Knowing what you think helps me better serve the citizens of our area. Have a great weekend! Sincerely, Ed Orcutt State Representative, 18th District