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Letter: Hold Legislature accountable

By James Schaefer, VANCOUVER
Published: November 29, 2017, 6:00am

Enough is enough. It is time for the Washington Legislature to be taken to the woodshed.

Having not passed the capital budget is costing taxpayers thousands of dollars due to legislative inaction. Walla Walla had to issue bonds to pay for bills that would have been paid out of the budget, if passed. It cost that city more than $430,000. Other cities are in the same boat.

When I was employed as a teacher, I would have been fired had I not done the job I was hired to do. The Legislature should be fired, but I am sure that the Supreme Court would say that’s unconstitutional.

So, I propose that for every special session that is called by the Legislature to get its job done, that there would be no pay, reimbursement or any other monetary compensation for legislators for failing to get the job done in the original time allowed for the original session.

Note: The Legislature is being fined $100,000 per day for every day they have taken to deal with the education funding issue. That fine does not go to the courts, but more likely would simply just go back into the general fund, so what fine?

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