Warnick looks forward to continuing work on education, water, budget

MOSES LAKE - The state legislature may not be in session, but Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, is keeping busy preparing for the upcoming issues.

As caucus chair, she's working to place about 10 new members of the House into committees that will be a good fit for them. She also recently attended a conference in Pasco discussing the renewal of the Columbia River Treaty with Canada, and one in Spokane about irrigation issues.

Warnick sits on the capital budget committee. She doesn't expect the supplemental budget to be difficult to pass, especially since the state has received more revenue this year.

"I think that should be as easy as any budget is to get passed," she said. "Setting priorities is going to be the biggest challenge."

For Warnick, who sits on the educational policy committee, following up on changes to K-12 requirements and funding is a priority.

Last year's McCleary court decision required more state funding to public education. Washington is also starting to implement mandatory teacher evaluations by principals and Common Core testing standards.

Warnick, who has family members working in education, said she's heard many concerns about the Common Core.

"The jury is still out in my opinion on Common Core," she said. "I want to see how that carries out before I say 'yay' or 'nay' on that."

She said it always takes time to implement and adjust to new policies.

"What we as legislators, and a lot of folks, do is we don't give a new program enough time to work."

"I'm optimistic this might work for us. What we've been doing hasn't been working apparently, as far as educating the students to the standards we would like to see in the world and as employers," Warnick said.

She'd also like to see more technical classes available, as well as changes to the way skill centers are funded.

Skill centers' construction is paid for entirely with state funds, unlike public schools which also receive money from local property taxes. It's hard to ask people to pay for skill centers, Warnick said, when they usually service more than one district and not just local students.

In Moses Lake, the Columbia Basin Skills Center cost about $19.4 million and is projected to open in June. Students from 11 schools in Grant and Adams counties will be able to choose from courses in computer science, culinary arts, building and craft trades, medical careers, engineering and manufacturing.

Transportation is another major concern for the legislature.

"It costs the most to build a mile of road in the state of Washington, so we want to look at what reforms would help to lower their costs," she said. Warnick said the use of sales taxes needs to be examined.

A proposed gas tax increase of 11 cents per gallon would make Washington's gas tax one of the highest in the country, she said.

"We've got some tough, tough issues to look at before we pass a transportation budget," Warnick said.

While there are no new bills involving the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, she said water rights are still a major issue, and it's important to get federal funds to match what local agencies are doing. Warnick said the plan is a large undertaking that will take at least 30 years to finish.

"It's going to cost us all but the end result will be more benefit than expense," she said.

Boeing is also a major item of discussion for the legislature, which recently finished a special session discussing the company's tax breaks. But Warnick, who is a member of the agriculture committee, noted that Boeing doesn't employ as many of the state's workers as the agriculture industry does.

"They can pick up and move a line to create airplanes," she said. "They can't do that for farming. And without the water, our farmers won't be successful."

The 2014 Legislative session begins Jan. 13.

Editor's note: This is part 1 of three interviews with 13th District legislators. Pick up our holiday edition this weekend to read interviews with Sen. Janea Holmquist Newbry and Rep. Matt Manweller.