Hirst Moving Forward Pt 1
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. When it comes the state Supreme Court's Hirst ruling that makes it prohibitively expensive to drill wells on rural land, the question is, 'where do we go from here?'
Madi Clark, with the Washington Policy Center, asks that question more than a month after a third special legislative session ended without a Hirst fix ...
MADI CLARK ... "When it ended on July 20th, the challenge was, will they wait until after the special election in November or will they actually meet and try and get a resolution to both the Capital Budget and Hirst beforehand."
Clark says it's not over, necessarily, there are still a few things that could happen ...
MADI CLARK ... "There are a couple of possibilities as we've gotten about a month out since the session ended. It's looking more and more like it's going to be after the November election because the 45th district Senate race has the potential to change the majority in the Senate. And so, that may change some of the pull over the Hirst decision, but then when it comes to the Capital Budget they also have to have 60% vote to pass the bond so there's still some leverage back and forth."
Clark says it sounds like talks are ongoing ...
MADI CLARK ... "There's some statements by Senator Warnick that says they're still meeting, but there's not really anything new to report."
Clark says bottom line, the Hirst decision is far more than just a water issue as many urban folks seem to believe. She says getting a fix in place is crucial to rural Washington.
We'll find out tomorrow what still needs to be done and what the likelihood is that a compromise can be reached.
