Haugen bills clarify existing land use, repeal nursing home bed tax

OLYMPIA – Landowners on or near critical areas often want to do what’s right for the environment but simply don’t know how.

One of two major bills proposed this week by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, would clear up the confusion over existing properties and direct government to educate and assist landowners rather than regulate them. The other bill would eliminate the state tax on beds in nursing facilities.

Haugen’s Senate Bill 6367 would make it clear that owners of land with existing nonconforming uses are encouraged, but not required, to comply with the critical areas ordinance of the Growth Management Act (GMA).

“Most citizens, given good information, make the right choices,” Haugen said in reference to the critical areas legislation. “We want to encourage them to improve their land by offering help, not discourage them by making the process a nightmare.”

That view was echoed in testimony Tuesday before the Senate Government Operations & Elections Committee. Don Meehan, the Washington State University (WSU) extension agent for Island County, speaking on behalf of the organizations Shore Stewards, Beachwatchers, and Barnyard Habitat, said members of those groups want to be able to improve land without running afoul of the GMA. Judy Feldman, 4H coordinator for WSU, said the bill would encourage the same kind of self-regulating behavior among adults that the more than 40 4H clubs in Island County encourage among youths.

SB 6367 specifies that GMA guidelines for critical areas are mandatory for new development or changes in land use, but voluntary with regard to existing nonconforming uses. Critical areas include wetlands, aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat areas, flood plains, and geologically hazardous areas.

Haugen’s other bill, SB 6368, would eliminate the daily tax charged to nursing home patients. The tax was levied in 2003 at $6.50 per day and was later scheduled for a gradual phase-out by July 1, 2011. The tax is now $5.25 per day, and Haugen’s bill would repeal it effective July 31, 2007.

The tax adds about $150 a month to the cost of a bed and is covered by Medicaid and by Medicare. However, patients not on Medicaid or Medicare must pay the tax directly.

“Taxing these elderly, bed-ridden patients is the worst idea I’ve ever seen in all my years in the Legislature,” Haugen said. “All this tax does is punish people for being responsible and planning their estates.”

The Senate Ways & Means Committee will hear the bill at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26, in Senate Hearing Room 4 of the John A. Cherberg Building.

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