Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, offered this response to remarks made today by Gov. Jay Inslee regarding the Senate’s Friday vote that effectively ousted the state secretary of transportation.

“Of course the governor is upset. Three of the biggest state agencies under his control – DSHS, DOT and DOC — have been making headlines because of huge management problems that happened under people he hand-picked – people who are now all gone for one reason or another. He can’t blame our Senate majority for the scandal involving Western State Hospital, or for the felon-release fiasco at DOC, so naturally most of his anger this morning was directed at our vote to not confirm Lynn Peterson as secretary of transportation.

“Earlier Friday we confirmed the governor’s pick to head the Department of Revenue, and made it clear before the vote that we had confidence in her. We didn’t have the same level of confidence in Lynn Peterson, who was given ample time to show that she had the right stuff to lead the Department of Transportation. Instead, the people got tolling disasters and a tunnel project that may never be finished. Last month it was the governor himself who shut down the Seattle tunnel project, not the secretary of transportation. What did that say about his level of confidence in her?

“When our Senate majority formed in 2013 one of the principles that united us was – and is – ‘setting priorities for state government and holding it accountable.’ The governor acts surprised that we are following through on that. If he would hold his agency heads accountable, no one else would need to.”

Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler today led the Senate in honoring Dave Roseleip, who will retire June 30 after 30-plus years as president of the Washington Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation.

The foundation, better known as AgForestry, administers a well-respected leadership-development program for Washington’s agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries.

Schoesler is the prime sponsor of Senate Resolution 8667, which passed unanimously this morning (see photo). It salutes the many contributions made by Roseleip, an agricultural economist by education who was in the first AgForestry leadership class in 1980 and left the farm-banking industry to take over as the foundation’s president in 1984.

“Dave Roseleip spent a career developing two generations of leaders,” said Schoesler, R-Ritzville, a member of AgForestry’s 10th leadership class.

“It is not enough to excel at managing a farm or a forest or a fishery – that alone will not keep those industries going in our state. It also takes people who have the communications and public-policy savvy to work successfully with the folks on the outside who affect what we do,” said Schoesler, a fifth-generation wheat farmer. “Over three decades Dave and AgForestry produced one crop after another of the leaders who are needed not only by the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries but also the communities that depend on those industries.

“The two years I spent in the AgForestry leadership program, and with Dave Roseleip, encouraged me to look for ways to make a difference where I live, and for the way of life I had chosen. It is no coincidence that I ran for a seat in the Legislature not long after that experience.”

The AgForestry program graduates a new class of leaders annually and is one of only a few such leadership programs to have a first-year class and second-year class going at the same time. The two-year track blends a dozen in-state seminars with study and travel at the national and international levels.

SB 8667 notes how Roseleip, who grew up in a longtime Montana farming family, has overseen the recruitment and selection of AgForestry’s seventh through 37th leadership classes, presided over the graduation of 31 of the 35 AgForestry classes, and helped the foundation grow to receive annual support from more than 750 paid members.

Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler will hold a telephone-based “town hall” with 9th Legislative District residents on the evening of Wednesday, March 11. The conversation will begin at 7 p.m. and last approximately an hour; Schoesler will participate from the state Capitol, where lawmakers are meeting for the 2015 legislative session.

Many residents will receive invitations by phone just before the meeting begins; those wishing to call in simply need to dial 1-800-756-6155.

“For a legislative district as widespread as ours, I can’t think of a more convenient and effective way to connect on a winter weekday evening,” said Schoesler, R-Ritzville, who serves part or all of six counties: Adams, Asotin, Franklin, Garfield, Spokane and Whitman.

“I’ll be in Olympia, my constituents can be in the comfort of their homes, and we’ll talk about what’s going on in our part of the state and at the Capitol. For anyone who has been part of a telephone conference call or listened to a radio call-in show, the format will be familiar.”

Schoesler noted his telephone town hall will take place just before the Senate begins considering legislation approved by the House of Representatives, and vice versa. That means he’ll have a good idea how the 2015 session is shaping up in terms of major legislation that will and won’t move ahead. Some issues before lawmakers may become the subject of instant polls during the March 11 meeting.

The 2015 legislative session will end April 26.

One of Washington’s leading agricultural organizations today presented its top honor to Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler. The second-annual “Excellence in Agriculture” award from the Spokane-based AgriBusiness Council went to Schoesler in recognition of his “significant and positive influence on the agricultural industry in the Inland Northwest” during 2014.

“Who promotes agriculture more than Senator Schoesler? He is such an advocate,” said Myrna O’Leary, longtime director of the Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Forum. “Everyone on this side of the mountains knows him – he is the farmers’ go-to guy.” Continue reading →

The Senate today launched another attempt to get state-budget negotiations with the House of Representatives going a month sooner than usual. Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler was among those voting to have the first state-government revenue forecast of each year delivered on Feb. 20, rather than March 20. Legislative budget-writers use the forecast to put the finishing touches on their proposals.

“Three weeks into this year’s session, I’m still optimistic that we will get our work wrapped up on schedule – but bringing the revenue forecast forward by a month sure would help our chances,” said Schoesler, R-Ritzville. “The sooner those revenue numbers are in hand, the sooner we can have budget debates and budget votes. The more time the Senate and House have to negotiate their differences and reach agreement, the more likely we are to avoid an overtime session.

“This change is right in line with our majority’s emphasis on making government more efficient. If the House leaders care as much as our Senate majority about adjourning on April 26, and being able to go home with our work complete, bringing this bill to a vote this coming week is one of the best moves they could make.” Continue reading →