Dear Friends,

Rainy Day fund

I remember opening my first savings account. It was a “Christmas Club,” and I would deposit my allowance into it – saving up to buy Christmas presents for my family.

In the Senate on Wednesday, we took a first step at opening another kind of savings account – and a much larger one than my first – when we passed my bill (Senate Joint Resolution 8206) to let voters decided if the state should have a constitutionally mandated Rainy Day fund.

The measure would establish a Budget Stabilization Account. Each fiscal year, 1 percent of general state revenues – or about $130 million – would be deposited into the account. That money could be tapped by a majority vote of each chamber of the Legislature if:

• Forecasted state employment growth for any fiscal year is less than 1 percent; or
• The governor declares an emergency resulting from a catastrophic natural disaster that requires immediate government action to protect life or public safety.

Washington State Labor Council

On Thursday, I addressed the Washington State Labor Council at its 2007 legislative conference.

I spoke about a bill (SB 5659) I’m co-sponsoring this session that would allow for paid family and medical leave, providing for payments of $250 per week for up to 5 weeks to individuals on family and medical leave. It would also provide an assessment of premiums of 2 cents per hour worked per individual.

A recent Elway poll shows strong support for the measure, which I believe we can pass this session. (38 percent said they would definitely support it, while 23 percent said they would probably support it.)

We live in one of the few industrialized countries that penalize people who take time off to care for a loved one – be it a newborn, foster child or ailing parent.

In my mind, there is not a more family-friendly proposal that we could pass. While a similar bill found success in the Senate a couple of years ago, it failed to clear the House. I hope that’s not the case this session.

Yes, that’s me with a grizzly bear!

In the United States, grizzlies outside Alaska have been eliminated from 99 percent of their range. The lower 48 states support fewer than 1,100. In Washington, between five and 20 grizzly bears are estimated to reside in the North Cascades.

This summer I visited Washington State University’s Bear Program, started in 1986 to provide the information and understanding necessary to conserve bears around the world. The WSU Bear Program is the only facility in the world to house adult grizzlies for research. As such, university, government and zoo scientists from around the world come to study there.

Grizzly bears get a bad rap. Sure, they’re big and strong. But because of habitat loss and excessive hunting, they’re also endangered.

In the past, I have been supportive of legislation to create community outreach project grants that would provide the public with information about grizzlies. I will continue to be supportive of similar proposals in the future.

The Grizzly Bear Outreach Project is an independent, non-advocacy information and education endeavor. They aim to provide accurate information about Washington’s North Cascades bears and grizzly bear recovery by actively engaging community members. For more information, check out their Web site: www.bearinfo.org.

P.S. Believe it or not, I was not scared of the grizzly!

Sincerely,

Lisa

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