Hirst Moving Forward Pt 2
I'm Bob Larson. More than a month after the conclusion of three special legislative sessions in Olympia, there's still NO relief for rural landowners with regards to the state Supreme Court's Hirst decision restricting well drilling on rural property.
The Washington Policy Center's Madi Clark says people in the cities aren't getting the entire story when it comes to the Hirst ruling and its impact on rural residents ...
MADI CLARK ... "The media, a lot of them, I shouldn't say all of them, but a lot of them have dismissed Hirst as just a water issue and then they focus on how the Capital Budget has been held hostage, which, it has been held hostage, but there wasn't any other leverage available to negotiate a deal that would have provided an actual resolution to Hirst, not just kicking the can down the road which is what the House proposals were, is to kick it down the road to 2018."
Clark says Urban Washington doesn't understand that the economy in rural areas is still lagging ...
MADI CLARK ... "No they don't and they don't realize that the rural communities are already struggling. They're already behind. The rural communities haven't recovered from the great recession a few years ago. And so, it's really the agricultural community, and the home builders, and the contractors, and the bankers, that are the ones talking about what this decision could do to rural Washington, but it seems to be kind of falling on deaf ears at the moment."
Clark says she's still hopeful, but expects no decision until after the November election and we see how the balance of power shakes out in the Senate.
