Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The most colorful part of Klickitat County Commissioner meetings often comes when taking reports from Zak Kennedy, the lobbyist who represents Washington cities in Olympia. Yesterday’s session was no different. He described the failure of what he called “a beautiful bill” dealing with hospital charity cases from out of state.
“Hey, we don’t want people from Oregon or Idaho, Montana, California, wherever, coming in and getting service out of our hospitals and then leaving, because we can’t go after them. Any other year, that bill would have passed, but there was a requirement in there that you had to show proof of residency — not even citizenship, just bring a utility bill in. With the current climate, they said, flat out, ‘We’re not gonna do this one. It’s too close to immigration.'”
In response to a number of troublesome bills passing this year, Kennedy said he asked of lobbyists who had been working in Olympia for a long time, a single question:
“How many bills have the counties actually run since you’ve been here?’ Thirty years back was probably about the longest-standing guy I talked to, and he said, ‘Fewer than 10, maybe closer to five.’ So, it’s time to go on the offense. They’re playing chess. We gotta start playing, too. So I’m here to help. I’m really looking forward to what you guys come up with.”
He suggested a workshop in April.
He also said he was surprised to note that King, Pierce and Snohomish counties were starting in small ways to vote more like smaller counties.
And Commissioner Todd Andrews summed up the feelings in counties east of the Cascades about the recent legislative session:
“Probably the majority of gains in county will be, and for citizens, will be lawsuits against Olympia. I think there’s gonna be a lot of them this year.”