Tag Archives: Washington legislators
Washington Legislature’s sneaky bill considers salmon the 4th branch of government
Senate Bill 5130 purports to be about raising revenue to remove state fish barriers. The bill writers maintain that this would help save the salmon, which in turn helps save the orcas. It sounds good, right? But then you go down a ways in this bill and learn that they want to raise the money by charging an excise tax on every real estate sale — thousands of dollars when you sell your home. Alright, but it’s for the good of the salmon, isn’t it? Read down a little further. It will go toward helping the salmon, right? Wrong. Here is how it will be spent: >click to read< 08:44
WA lawmakers pass on whale-watching ban aimed at helping orcas
Washington legislators came into their 2019 session brimming with proposals to help rescue Puget Sound’s imperiled orcas. But now they have dropped one of the most important — and controversial — ideas: a three-year moratorium on commercial whale watching. Lawmakers denied Gov. Jay Inslee’s attempt to force commercial whale-watching boats to keep extra distance from three pods of orcas that summer in the waters of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea between Washington and Canada. In doing so, they rejected a key recommendation supported by the majority of nearly 50 researchers, state and tribal officials and others who served on the Southern Resident Orca Task Force. >click to read<14:10
