Early February is usually my favorite time of a long legislative session.
No matter how pressing the state’s problems might be on issues like educating kids, keeping the colleges running, and finding space for the mentally ill that doesn’t involve a handcuff, a gurney and an emergency room hallway, there’s always time for less weighty subjects.
Call them First World Problems, which is actually a hashtag-able topic on social media.
For example: How many tasting rooms should Washington wineries have? Current law says two, but a proposal before a Senate committee last week said that should be four, to better extol the goodness of the state’s fruit of the vine. Why four, asked Sen. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma. Well, Oregon wineries get three, he was told.
“Washington wine is better than Oregon wine. They can have three tasting rooms and we can have four,” Sen. Mike Baumgartner, R-Spokane, explained. Take that, Willamette Valley pinots.
Or a bill recognizing the fourth Saturday in July as the National Day of the Cowboy, which another Senate committee took up. The hearing revealed – maybe you knew, I sure didn’t – that cowboy is gender-neutral and refers to both male and female cowpersons. Both deserve recognition because of their legendary integrity, said supporters, who brought honorary headgear for Government Operations Committee Chairwoman Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.