Inslee Vetoes Small Rail Bill Pt 1
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Governor Jay Inslee has vetoed a bill that was one of the few meaningful job-creation bills that passed thru the legislature.
That's according to HB 1504 sponsor Representative Liz Pike who told the Lars Larson Show it dealt with tweaks to the Growth Management Act to allow building along short-line railroads through ag and forest lands...
LIZ PIKE ... "It only would've affected parcels that are on the rail line. And, as you know Lars, we have Chelatchie Prairie Railroad that runs diagonally from one end of the county to the next. And it's a 33-mile line and it has access to the main line which is what the manufactures want. They want to be able to build a manufacturing facility and get their goods to market."
Pike says the governor's veto means a loss of 7,300 potential jobs ...
LIZ PIKE ... "The impetus behind this bill was the fact that four companies tried to relocate here and they all had two things in common. They needed at least 100 acres and access to rail. And, under our current GMA restrictions, those parcels don't exist even though the land is there and ready to go. And, in the case of Clark County, we have willing sellers and willing buyers and, the nut of it is, that this would have affected less than half of a percent of Clark County's ag land. But, that's the reason that the governor used to veto it is because he felt that it was going to take too much ag land."
Pike says the jobs would have given much more TO ag than it would have taken FROM ag.
More on the governor's veto tomorrow.
