education: architect, University of Vermont MA in
environmental law & policy.
Full disclosure: Angie is a
personal friend. I know her to be intensely bright, a complete workaholic who
can’t let an issue go until she has learned all about it. She is very detail
oriented – which made her a great architect and plans checker. Also a great
County Commissioner.
Priorities: fully funding public education. Genuine land use
planning and resource preservation. Public safety – including dealing with
racial disparities in enforcement, dealing with mental illness. Transportation
– maintaining a fair share of transportation funding for the 10th
district. Jobs – “buy Washington”, tax
reform to shift burden off small businesses, vocational training. Equitable pay
– raising the wages of women to parity with men’s pay. Military – respect those
who serve while working with military reps to assure that they do not adversely
impact the communities where they are based.
There is much that her website does not say, including her
ardent support for environmental protection and renewable energy, among others.
In years past I have described her as a hummingbird. She
zooms at top speed, but then drills down to get at the smallest detail. She
would make an incredibly good state senator. She’ll be completely overworked
because she has a lot of trouble saying no when asked to take on another
project or issue. I watched her go through her Masters’ degree program. She
could have skated any number of times and gotten by. Not Angie. Instead of skating she dug deeply into each
assignment and did far more than was expected of her. That’s what I want to see
in the State Senate.
She’s endorsed by a whole lot of elected officials and a lot
of organizations, for good reason. Endorsed by Washington Conservation Voters.
Endorsed by FUSE Progressive Voters.
Barbara Bailey, is a wholly
owned subsidiary of the health care and health insurance industry. She also gets
significant contributions from the fossil fuel industry and thoughtful donations from the NRA and payday lenders . She’s a
member of ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
which brings together legislators and
corporate honchos. Together they write legislation which is subsequently
introduced in as many states as possible. Remember the “stand your ground” law
in Florida? Abortion restrictions all over the country? Those are ALEC
products. Bailey regularly introduces ALEC
written legislation. You may get the impression that I am less than fond of Barbara Bailey. This is in part because I have
personal experience with her and it has not been positive. She actually
hijacked a hearing before the Growth Management Hearings Board a few years ago.
During the break, in the bathroom, I heard the presiding officer say to another
board member that she was just getting ready to shut Bailey
down for overstepping the legal bounds when she finally quit talking.
Here are the latest campaign contribution figures (as of
10-15-16)
Wall Street banks and banking industry $18,450.00
Out-of-state drug companies $73,250.00
Payday lenders & debt collectors $107,450.00
Big tobacco $33,300.00
Health insurance industry $178,450.00
Washington Conservation Voters
lifetime score: 20%
I attended a League of Women Voters (bless them) candidates'
night with these two. Here are some of their answers to questions (with my
comments).
Q - What are your
personal priorities and how do you intend to accomplish them?
Barbara Bailey – affordable
college by lowering tuition; jobs, by protecting the economy; funding k-12
education; balance the budget; no new taxes.
Angie Homola – funding
education; expanded education; infrastructure; environment, by supporting
alternative energy; accountability, via campaign finance reform; fair wages;
help the vulnerable, especially veterans.
Q - How do you
propose to fund meeting the McCleary case mandate to fully fund education, and
how will this affect local school levies?
Barbara Bailey – we’ve
already made giant steps. Education will be fully funded by 2018. The majority
coalition has finally put money into education. Revenues are currently
exceeding forecasts. Schools are too dependent on levies. Our committee is
looking for solutions. The claim that there are not sufficient funds to meet
the McCleary mandate and that we need a tax increase is untrue. She claims that
the budget shortfalls Angie mentions have already been restored, and offers to
send Angie the information later. She says they are careful not to harm people.
She says they don’t have to raise taxes, they’ll be increasing teacher salaries
without doing so. Its better to protect the economy to keep people working.
Taxes depress the economy.
Angie Homola – There is no
choice but to meet the mandate. Start by closing the tax loopholes which are
depriving the state of necessary funds. Institute tax reform to balance the burden
away from the middle class and poor back onto the wealthy and corporations. She
disagrees that we are ‘doing well.’ The state had to cut the budget by $2
billion in 2008. The only way to repair that is with serious tax reform. The
levy situation is critical. The 2013-2015 budget cut $596 million from the
school fund and borrowed $296 million. That caused a whole lot of cuts in
services. She asks how Bailey intends to bring those back.
Q - Would you
favor or oppose a ban on assault weapons?
Angie Homola – We need to
re-institute the ban. We need universal background checks. No criminals or
mentally ill people should be allowed to own guns.
Barbara Bailey – You can’t
buy assault weapons in Washington anyway. We already have tight laws. Better to
enforce existing laws than to enact new ones. We don’t need any more laws.
Q - Would you
support background checks for gun purchasers?
Barbara Bailey – No, I do not
support background checks. We already have a background check system. Most
crimes are committed with stolen guns. Adding more process will not change that
and will result in less safety. Instead, look for opportunities to put bad
people in prison. She says she never opposed background checks, but she had
just said that she did not support them.
Angie Homola – I support
background checks. An initiative to require them passed overwhelmingly in 2014.
Barbara Bailey takes campaign contributions from the NRA, which might color her
attitude. People are dying out there because criminals and the mentally ill
have ready access to guns. She clarifies that it was not Bailey herself who
opposed background checks, but the NRA whose money she accepts.
Q - How would you
change the tax structure?
Barbara Bailey – A lot of
people have looked at that question. We have sales tax, B&O tax, and
others. As long as the economy is good and people have jobs, we’re fine. A lot
of people want a state income tax, but that would oppress the economy. The
economy is doing well now. We have what we need. There is no reason to change.
Angie Homola – No, the
economy is not working. Washington has one of the most regressive tax systems
in the country. Eyman’s I-601 limited overall revenue increases to 1% /year,
which is much less than inflation. The result is that jurisdictions are struggling
with less and less each year. This is not working. People are going to jail
when they need to be in the hospital because they can’t afford basic care.
Q - Could you be
more specific about a system of more equitable and secure taxes?
Angie – We need to institute
a capital gains tax. We need all taxes to be able to increase consistent with
inflation. We need to inform the public of how the tax structure works and how
we can fix it.
Barbara Bailey – I would not
change the tax structure but would help people be more productive. Capital
gains are very volatile and a tax on them would not work for small businesses. We
have a health care system which is in flux. We need to look at the local,
state, and federal level. I can’t address all these issues in so short a time.
Q - Angie Homola
challenges Bailey – You claim the tax
situation is improving in relation to current spending. In fact the economy is
terribly volatile. What do you intend to do when this next bubble bursts?
Barbara Bailey - disagrees. The sales tax always applies. Even
poor people go to the grocery store (she appears to be under the impression
that food is taxed). She hasn’t heard of anyone offering to dissolve other
taxes in favor of an income tax. The current system is working and she does not
understand the objections to it.
Q - How do you
propose to address homelessness and a broken criminal justice system?
Barbara Bailey – says that
we have the resources. The problem is that those who need help are not asking
for it. There is a mental illness crisis. She’s looking for ways to end
homelessness. The money is already there.
Angie Homola – this is an
enormous problem. At the county level she created a fee to support homeless
veterans. Barbara Bailey voted against a tax
exemption for the poor. She voted to exclude mental health services from
funding.
Q - Is climate
change real and how do you propose to deal with it?
Barbara Bailey – yes, its
happening. We don’t really know the cause. We just don’t have the science on
that yet. (at this point the crowd emitted a burst of snickers). We’re not
ignoring it. We’re working on carbon emissions, and regulations for clean
energy and water.
Angie Homola – absolutely. No
question. We have problems everywhere and we have to act. We need to get off
fossil fuels. We need to increase multi-modal transportation to get people out
of cars. We need to encourage and support alternative energy.
Q - And what
steps will you take if elected?
Angie Homola – dump the I-601
1% tax limit so we can meet the inflation rate; institute a fair tax structure;
provide incentives to get off fossil fuels.
Barbara Bailey – work for
more mass transit, clean high-speed rail. We’re running out of pavement. We’re
already taking steps to get off fossil fuels. This needs to be a much bigger
conversation. We don’t want to shift the burden for our clean ways to other
countries by dumping our fossil fuel castoffs on them.
10-5-16 Whidbey Record election forum
question – where should funds to make good on the McCleary
decision come from? (McCleary was a supreme court decision requiring the state
to fully fund k-12 education. The legislature has not done so and the court has
found them in contempt and is assessing a fine of $100k/day until the do it)
Angie – It’s a huge problem
and its been a long time coming. We’re being fined $100k/day. This has to be a
priority. We can raise much of the $$ by closing tax loopholes. We need tax
equity. No, we’re not “doing just fine” as Bailey
tells us. We can’t borrow from one fund to pay out for another. Bailey did exactly that, cutting necessary and
important programs to put money into basic education.
Bailey – Well, those bills were sponsored by Democrats. Those
are not sweeps of other programs but money saving measures. How to fund k-12
education? Some people are looking very hard at that question. Its not just a
matter of the funding, but the source of the funding. We have a sizable
investment already. This was a long time coming. Republicans have worked to
correct the situation. We’ve done more than was expected of us. Every bit of
the economic recovery is being funneled to k-12 education.
Angie challenged Bailey – Bailey says we
have plenty of money to implement McCleary, but the state is $8 billion in
debt. It is desperately short of funds and there have been 3 special sessions
to address the issue – without success.
This next question came from me, and you know my rap
already. I asked how the legislature would deal with sea level rise, and what
laws they would enact to counter the clash between human laws and the laws of
nature.
Angie – There’s no question
that climate change is real. We must address sea level rise. Washington will be
the new home of climate refugees and we need to prepare for them. Island County
got some good provisions in its new Shoreline Master Program, and has been
working with FEMA. We need to plan for these changes.
Bailey – UW studies say that
sea level rise is really very slow. We can expect a rise of 5 ft in 150 years.
There is disagreement on the science. Yes, there will be some sea level rise.
We should let the scientists work on how much rise, and how we should deal with
it. The kind of planning Angie talks about is
not realistic. We already have drainage issues. These are unique areas and need
to be addressed uniquely. Its not
unrealistic to think about the future, but it is not an emergency to be
addressed today. (oh, really?)
A woman with Bailey buttons all over her asked whether an
income tax would be a good way to pay for McCleary.
Bailey – agrees with Hayes
that they should “fund education first” (this is a Republican mantra which
translates to “we pay for education and everything else goes to hell). There is
a commission studying how to do that. She wants to look at school levies and
the inequity in those levies. There’s always one more exciting thing or need.
Where does it stop? You want to tax capital gains and income. What else? Its
never enough. We invested $191 million in addition to regular revenues. We need
good people in Olympia who know how to budget.
Angie – We have a struggle
with education funding. Even cutting off all other programs would not cover the
cost of education. My job is to study and to propose options. The state is
growing. There is a greater need for services. We need a long term management
plan. We need tax equity. Because of Tim Eyman’s tax increase limits the taxing
authority cannot even keep up with inflation. We have some serious expenses.
A man asked of Bailey:
Washington Conservation Voters rates you even below the climate deniers. We
don’t expect you would support I-732 (the Carbon tax initiative)
Bailey – I’m on record as not
supporting that. The science I read is different. We don’t know how much sea
level will rise. We have the cleanest air and water in the US. I don’t know how
to clean that any more with taxes. People are being responsible. Don’t penalize
them for that.
Angie – Bailey has voted against every possible action in the
legislature to deal with climate change.
Bailey responds that she has
been in the legislature for 14 years, has sponsored 3k bills this year
(really?) and that her sponsorships and bills could be misconstrued. She says Angie needs more facts and is willing to discuss
individual bills with individual people.
Dean Enell said he’d
been checking PDC filings to follow the money. He checked the top 150 donors to
each of Bailey’s and Angie’s
campaigns and found that 33 of the top 150 donors to Angie’s
campaign were businesses while 140 of the top 150 of Bailey’s
were businesses.
Angie – we definitely need
campaign finance reform. Her money comes from individuals, unions, and public
organizations. She has to earn her endorsements with hard work. Yes, money does
matter. Bailey’s primary funders are the drug industry, insurers, payday lenders,
etc. Yes, money talks, and the community needs to address this.
Bailey – asks Dean how often
he donated to Angie. He responds “3 times”. She
says no, 12 times, at $1.00 each tine. Dean says he runs her website and makes
$1.00 donations to test the system. Bailey then
claimed that half of her donations come from individuals. “Businesses support
me because I support businesses – which provide jobs. Just look at my voting
record. To insinuate that my vote is swayed by a $100.00 contribution is
insulting” (and she’s right. Her price
tag, as noted in the intro to this section, is orders of magnitude higher).
Rick Keyser, from Oak Harbor and wearing Trump paraphernalia
asks why the state requires names and signatures on publicly available
documents. He went into a diatribe about illegal aliens voting multiple times,
etc.
Bailey – said she tried
several times to prevent the ‘motor voter’ bill. No one ever asks to see
verification when people register to vote. We want people here legally and we
want them to vote legally. We need to work on these issues.
Angie – Don’t close doors on
people’s participation in the process. Yes, we have a problem with identity
theft but that is different from voter registration.
If you don’t know by now, I consider Angie a good friend and Barbara Bailey
an enemy of the people.
I will vote proudly for Angie Homola and I hope you do too.
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