Water banking, building upgrades, services for senior citizens and the Economic Alliance of Lewis County’s “Dig Once” plan to combine various public works projects: What do these things have in common?
They’re all costly. And they’re all focuses of the Lewis County Board of Commissioners, which met with their state legislators on Wednesday to outline issues they’d like to have represented during the upcoming 2023 legislative session, which begins on Jan. 9.
Lewis County is split in two legislative districts, the 19th and 20th, and all state lawmakers from those districts were present Wednesday: Sens. John Braun, R-Centralia, and Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, and Reps. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet, and Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen. The dividing line between the districts mostly follows Interstate 5.
Wednesday’s meeting was essentially a haggling session, dressed up in business attire and filtered through some layers of bureaucracy. Rather than flea market antiques, the elected officials were discussing problems affecting their region. The county would propose a concept and desired action or dollar figure from the Legislature, then, the senators and representatives countered by asking if the county was connected with alternative groups or funding sources.
The county’s first request was $2.75 million for building updates. The money would go toward transforming the public services building into a night-by-night homeless shelter and updating the Lewis County Jail’s roof and HVAC system.
Next, the commissioners asked the Republican lawmakers consider a credit on sales tax to fund programs for senior citizens. This would not increase any taxes, but ensure some of what is collected would be redistributed for seniors.
“This is a concept idea right now,” said Lewis County Manager Erik Martin. “Not a specific dollar amount.”
Also on that topic, the county requested $2 million for the senior centers, mostly in the way of building updates, which Martin said could ensure their sustainability.
On water banking, the request was for the lawmakers to push the Department of Ecology along in the process of issuing new water rights along the Cowlitz River with the hopes of helping landowners and aid the county’s quest for a water bank — a concept in state law that signifies a collection of water rights. Martin said while some water rights on the Cowlitz are technically available, he is aware of people who “literally died waiting” for their requests to be processed by Ecology.
As for the Alliance’s program, which largely aims to combine road projects and culvert replacements for fish habitat to save costs and labor, the organization’s Executive Director Richard DeBolt was seeking money.
The state legislators present felt these goals were noble, yet warned they could be unattainable.
“I add these up, it’s just under $15 million you’re asking for. Plus, the money for … Ecology for water banking, that’s a big amount,” Braun said. “Put that on top of the other $73 million that was asked for (by) the Office of the Chehalis Basin, you’re approaching $90 million.”
While the Chehalis River Basin is not entirely in Lewis County, he said, the request for funds from and for Lewis County, all totaled, is likely to be higher than most other counties in the state.
Braun, and all the state lawmakers present, expressed each of the issues raised were important and worthy. While he was willing to fight for those funds, he felt the county should temper its expectations by seeking other funding sources.
