Today's headlines:
- Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray celebrates approval of a bill that would move the country toward permanent Daylight Saving Time.
- Democrats in Washington state begin their campaign against an initiative that seeks to overturn the state’s millionaire’s tax.
- Two Washington Indian tribes sue the federal government to save habitat for endangered species.
- We talk with another candidate for Spokane County auditor. Today, Republican Dale Whitaker.
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Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray is urging Senate Republican leaders to consider a bill that would move the United States to permanent Daylight Saving Time. The House approved it yesterday.
Murray says it’s time for the country to move away from its twice-a-year time change. She and others cite research that shows the March and November switches have harmful health effects on some people.
In 2019, the Washington legislature approved a bill that would move the state permanently to Daylight Saving Time. But it can only happen if Congress approves a similar law.
Some medical leaders agree that moving away from time shifting would be a good thing. But they say the human body would be better off under year-round Standard Time. Congressional approval is not needed for that.
In 2020, Idaho’s legislature voted to allow permanent Daylight Saving Time for north Idaho, if Washington adopts it.
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A vote on what Democrats call the millionaire’s tax will probably be on your ballot in the fall – Democrats and their allies are launching a campaign to save it. KUOW’s Scott Greenstone has more.
Gov. Bob Ferguson spoke at a press conference Tuesday, saying voters should keep an income tax on the state’s wealthy … because of what it would fund.
FERGUSON: “Our K through 12 education system will see massive investments to keep our classes small and provide opportunities for young people all across our state. Nearly 500,000 families in Washington State, 500,000 families will receive a working families tax credit.”
Opponents say the tax will drive out wealth and jobs. Over half a million voters signed a petition to put a repeal of the tax on the November ballot, according to Let’s Go Washington, the group behind the repeal.
Influential unions representing state employees, teachers, health care and childcare workers, are dumping millions into the campaign to save the tax. If they fail, the state’s budget hole could force layoffs of their dues-paying members.
I'm Scott Greenstone in Seattle.
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Idaho voters will decide the fate of an abortion rights initiative in November.
Data from the Secretary of State’s office show a broad base of support across political lines for the measure. James Dawson reports.
Registered Democrats make up the majority of those who signed petitions backing the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, but not by a significant margin.
Of the more than 75,000 valid signatures, about 38% of them were Democrats.
Unaffiliated voters account for the second biggest slice of the pie at 32%, with registered Republicans accounting for the remaining 30% of signatures.
No surprise, organizers found the most support in Ada and Canyon counties, which are home to 40% of the state’s population.
Proportionally, Teton County voters backed the initiative more than any other area, with 28% of registered voters signing the petition.
Every voter in the state will weigh in on the issue Nov. 3.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio.
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Two Washington tribes sued the Trump administration yesterday to save habitats for endangered species.
The suit comes after the Interior Department issued a rule to block habitat protection under the Endangered Species Act.
That could threaten the survival of species like salmon, orcas, and spotted owls.
The Swinomish and Squaxin Island tribes filed suit Tuesday morning.
Edwards: “Without the habitat in place, how are we gonna take care of the salmon? We gotta do our part for their survival as well.”
That was Swinomish tribal chair Steve Edwards.
The Trump administration says the move will reduce permitting delays and reduce confusion for landowners and energy producers.
It remains illegal to injure or kill an endangered species.
But scientists say habitat loss is the number-one cause of species going extinct.
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Dale Whitaker is touting his financial background in his campaign for Spokane County auditor. The auditor’s office administers elections in the county, but it also oversees records, the county payroll and its bills.
Whitaker told me he’s been an accountant for nearly 20 years. He says that and other parts of his professional background have prepared him well for this job.
Dale Whitaker: I was the chief financial officer of a national precious metals firm and while I was there, I uncovered systemic fraud within a certain segment of the industry. I quit my job and I blew the whistle on that company and I've spent the last eight years recovering funds for victims of financial fraud. In that time, I've recovered over $30 million for victims.
DN: Victims all over the country?
DW: Yeah, all of the country. So all of these precious metals firms, they advertise nationally, and so if they have had this done to them, they reach out to me and then we go through a process. And we are, I'm probably 80% successful in getting them the majority of their funds back.
DN: Why did you decide, because people don't just on a whim decide to run for office, how did you make the decision to run for auditor?
DW: You know, the reality is that the Spokane County Auditor's Office, it's something that a lot of folks don't understand what they do, but it's actually very, very important.
It's a boring job. It's not exciting. You're not gonna go to work every day and you're not throwing a party and you're not arguing with your fellow council members or anything like this, but it's very, very important. We handle a billion dollars, almost a billion dollars now in countywide spending and when I looked at the candidate pool, I just felt like I was the most qualified and decided this is what I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring for. I think my qualities and my professional background really lend to this position and I think that I can really, really do a good service for the people of Spokane County.
DN: It's an office that has become known for the elections for the most part, but what you're saying is it's broader than the elections.
DW: Yeah, so the Auditor's Office oversees licensing, records, elections, and financial services. One of the misconceptions is that we deal with budget. We don't deal with the budget. We are responsible for paying the bills and that's a billion dollars. Like I said, almost a billion dollars of spending on countywide bills and payroll.
So for me, I think when I want someone doing that job, I want someone qualified. I want someone that's done the job. And I want someone that's willing to speak up when they see something that may be a little untoward.
Maybe there's things that happen. Vicky Dalton had a situation where someone in her office had stolen about, I think it was $1.4 million out from under them. So I think it's really important that we have a county auditor that fundamentally understands accounting processes and systems.
So that's why I believe I'm the best candidate for the job.
DN: So if you're elected, what sort of influence do you hope to have?
DW: Really, I think that the big thing is we need to get together with the countywide elected officials and we need to really work on our processes. I've talked to a lot of the countywide electeds and the financial systems that have been put in place aren't great. Employee morale seems to be very low. And I think that being able to go in there day one, be able to see what needs to be fixed, what needs to function properly, bring employee morale up, bring efficiency up, so we can bring our costs down, and then just use the Auditor's Office to make sure that our countywide electeds and our countywide processes are good and I think that this is a good way to do that.
DN: Are there particular areas that you think are weak?
DW: I would say records is probably the strongest, but I think even
with licensing, I wanna work with our partners to say, how do we get the customer service wait times down? What processes can we implement? Where are the bottlenecks? What processes can we implement so that folks aren't waiting 30, 40 minutes to go in and get new license plates or register a new vehicle, whatever it may be? And so I wanna work with our partners to make sure that we're streamlining those processes so that people in the county can hopefully be in and out in 10 minutes or less.
That’s Dale Whitaker, one of the two Republicans and three candidates overall in the race for Spokane County auditor. You can hear segments of our interviews with them at Spokane Public Radio dot org.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Scott Greenstone, James Dawson, John Ryan and Doug Nadvornick.
Doug Nadvornick hosts and produces the show.
