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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Camden: Councilwoman left speechless at hearing about bill

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Relations between the Legislature and city governments are often touchy, and between one Spokane legislator and the Spokane City Council they are particularly so.

Not terribly surprising, considering Sen. Mike Baumgartner, R-Spokane, drafted a bill that would have undone a city ordinance requiring many businesses to offer limited family and medical leave. Baumgartner filed the bill shortly after the City Council overrode Mayor David Condon’s veto of that ordinance.

The Baumgartner bill got a quick hearing, also not terribly surprising, considering it was assigned to the Commerce and Labor Committee, of which he is chairman. But it had to share the agenda with several other controversial pieces of legislation as a deadline for all such bills was fast approaching. Baumgartner set aside a half-hour for talking about his bill along with another that involved raising the state minimum wage, and limited testimony to 90 seconds per witness.

Time ran down before everyone who wanted to speak got the chance. Among those waiting when the bell tolled was Spokane City Councilwoman Candace Mumm, who had made the trip west to stick up for the leave ordinance in particular and the cities’ rights to pass such things in general. “I felt like I was stood up on a blind date,” Mumm said later in the hallway, adding the council had to step up to the issue of family leave because the Legislature hadn’t.

The city also put out a press release in which she criticized Baumgartner for “giving priority” to lobbyists over local folks. “Cities and citizens should have an opportunity to speak at our State Capitol on issues that will affect them.”

Baumgartner said later he didn’t know Mumm was going to be in the audience, and if she had let his office know she was coming, he might have been able to accommodate her. But there were about 15 other people who wanted to speak, but didn’t, and they could all submit written testimony.

He also said there was “some irony” in criticism from a member of the council about limiting testimony, considering the council itself has come under fire for that at its meetings.

To be fair, the council’s new rule involves a once-a-month limit on speaking at the public free-for-all, er, open forum, before and after official business, not on ordinances under consideration. Legislative committees as a rule do not let witnesses pop off on any subject at any time.

The amended version of the bill, passed by the committee later in the week, grandfathered in existing laws like the Spokane leave ordinance.

Good rhetoric, bad math

House Democrats are pushing a bill that would allow college students who drop out with a semester or less to go before getting a degree to come back and finish for free. There would be limits this largesse: They’d have to have been gone from the classroom for at least three years, so no dropping out in December and having the state pick up the tab in January.

Democrats unveiled the proposal with several college presidents in tow, and the “Free to Finish” bill made it out of committee before Friday’s deadline. It faces some tough financial questions from budget counters. There was one bit of questionable math at the unveiling that involved the proposal’s value, not its cost.

“A partial degree is infinitely less valuable than a full degree,” was Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, D-Seattle, said.

It may be dangerous for a reporter — a profession notoriously bad at math — to pick a bone with Walkinshaw, who is a Fullbright scholar, but something can’t be infinitely less valuable. It can be very, significantly, extremely or, if one channels Donald Trump, hugely less valuable. But to be infinitely less, whatever value it had would have to be stripped away and taken down into the realm of negative unreal numbers.

The value of a partial college education may not be what it used to be, but somewhere there are stats that show it ain’t less than nothing.

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