Hirst fix remains priority for lawmakers

OLYMPIA — Washington legislators are poised to rehash last year’s fight over legislative fixes to the state Supreme Court’s Hirst decision, which has slowed or stopped new well water and building permits from being issued in counties across the state.

Republican leadership during an Associated Press Legislative Preview Thursday voiced an unwillingness to decouple Hirst from passage of the 2017-19 capital budget.

In 2017, Republicans refused to move forward with the capital budget until Democrats agreed to a fix for Hirst. The 2017 session ended with neither the budget nor the fix.

In an earlier interview with the Columbia Basin Herald, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, suggested Hirst would be easier to fix during the upcoming session than last year’s.

“Democrats know we’re serious now,” Schoesler said.

Yet Democrats don’t appear ready to cede more ground this year. Since the 2017 legislative session, Democrats have won a narrow majority in the senate previously enjoyed by Republicans.

House Majority Leader Rep. Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, said that the legislature should proceed in good faith and pass the capital budget immediately. A fix for Hirst, Sullivan said, could then be negotiated between the parties without stopping up the $4.1 billion provided for in the capital budget.

Sen. Schoesler expressed disbelief that Democrats in either chamber, particularly House Democrats, would follow through on Hirst if it wasn’t tied up with the capital budget.

“I haven’t seen Hirst hit the House floor, despite passing it through the Senate five or six times,” Schoesler said.

House Minority Leader Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, said that Hirst and the capital budget have gotten tied up for good reason.

“The capital budget uses tax dollars to build projects,” Kristiansen said. “Why are we allowing the government to build in neighborhoods where residents can’t access the same water?”

Senate Majority Leader Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, said that both parties have been working hard on Hirst, and that a legislative hearing would be held on the first week of the session to discuss ways forward. But linking Hirst and the capital budget is slowing progress on billions of dollars of investments in infrastructure such as schools, Nelson said.

Leaders in both parties agreed that the capital budget is a high-priority item, and that failure to pass it would have sweeping consequences.

Failure to pass the capital budget would create shortfalls in development that couldn’t be fixed with a supplemental budget, Schoesler said.

“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle constantly express concern about housing; we care about housing too,” Schoesler said.