During this year’s election season, candidates running for office in Clark County have eagerly denounced Oregon’s plan to enact tolls, or “value pricing,” on stretches of Interstate 5 that would ensnare Southwest Washington commuters.
In a Tuesday interview with The Columbian’s Editorial Board, candidate Kathy Gillespie said she doesn’t want to use the word “threat” to describe her response to Oregon’s plans if elected to a state House of Representatives seat.
“As a legislator, I would say, ‘Tell me more’ and really try and understand where (Oregon is) coming from, and determine what hammer Washington can bring to the discussion,” said Gillespie, a Democrat and former Vancouver school board member who is making her second run for an 18th Legislative District House seat.
Gillespie said Washington needs to negotiate and that she’d try to get the “best deal” for her constituents. She said that she would consider “a few possible consequences” for Oregon, such as altering the sales-tax exemption Oregon residents get.
Larry Hoff, a retired credit union executive who is running as a Republican, pushed back on the idea, saying it would hurt small businesses.
“It becomes a discussion between two Legislatures that are blood brothers, blood sisters based on locations, that need to just figure out the right answers,” he said.
In addition to the much-fraught issue of tolls, the candidates also weighed in on other transportation issues, education funding, gun control, climate change and other topics.
Education funding
Each candidate had different takes on an expansive education funding package approved by the Legislature last year to satisfy the McCleary court mandate and what to do next.
Hoff said the multibillion-dollar funding package was vetted and analyzed by the state Supreme Court, which found that the Legislature met its requirement to fully fund basic education.
“I believe we need to let the final solution play,” said Hoff, who criticized the process of approving the package as too partisan. He added, “The plan really hasn’t taken off yet, so I believe we need to allow it to take hold and then make course corrections.”
Gillespie agreed that “the McCleary case is closed.” But she criticized the Legislature for coming to an agreement late at night, out of the public eye, during a fourth special session.
As districts have begun implementing the package, she said that she’s heard from education advocates and school funding experts that there are some areas that will need fixes. In particular, Gillespie said, school administrators have data showing that although the funding package was meant to address educational inequalities, some districts still have “bigger pots of money” over others.
“Instead of evening out the inequities, it’s exacerbating inequities,” she said.
Transportation
Candidates were asked if they favored replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge or building a third bridge. The Clark County Council, the Vancouver City Council and local ports have passed resolutions recently in support of replacing the bridge.
“I think we are in the midst of a very unifying effort to demonstrate broad consensus and acceptance of the idea that the I-5 corridor is our No. 1 corridor,” said Gillespie.
She said that the idea of a third of fourth bridge would be intriguing in the future. But she said “those conversations are counterproductive” at the moment, citing the lack of support in Oregon for the idea.
“We either need to fix it or replace it, there’s no question about that,” said Hoff. “The only problem is that it doesn’t solve a lot of congestion issues.”
Hoff said that without addressing bottlenecks in Oregon, the new bridge wouldn’t do much. He said that mass transit would help congestion “somewhat,” but that there ultimately needs to be more automobile capacity.
He said he doesn’t support light rail, questioning its financial viability, and would prefer bus rapid transit. He said that now is the time to think about a third or fourth bridge.
When asked about light rail, Gillespie said the “sweet spot” is bus rapid transit — but to be ready if light rail made sense in the future.
Gun control
When asked if he thought the county had a gun violence problem, Hoff responded, “I don’t think guns make the violence.” A hunter and gun owner, he said that there are a variety of causes for why people pull the trigger on innocent citizens.
He said he’d be in favor of “hardening” schools, adding more security measures to address shootings. When asked about arming teachers, he said he struggled with the idea but said there would need to be a significant “road map” for it to be acceptable.
Hoff called the ban on so-called bump stocks and fully automatic weapons “settled law.” But he took issue with Initiative 1639, a gun control measure that will appear on the November ballot that would essentially categorize some of the firearms he’s “owned since I was 12” as “assault rifles.”
Gillespie said the country does have a problem with gun violence while agreeing that “the gun doesn’t go off by itself.” She said there are a “lot of elements to like” in Initiative 1639 and supports it.
“From my point of view, we want to honor the rights of Washington citizens to own guns,” she said. “And we want to honor my right to come to my place of business, my house of worship, the movie theater, my school and come home in one piece at the end of that day.”
Climate change
Candidates were also asked if they believe that human activity is contributing to climate change, what they would do about it in the Legislature and if they support Initiative 1631, which would assess a fee on carbon pollution.
Gillespie said that the initiative would create an overly complicated bureaucracy and was personally not planning to vote for it. She said it was better for the Legislature to address the issue with an incremental approach.
“I think the climate is changing regularly, and I think God has a lot to do with that,” said Hoff. He added, “I would imagine there are implications from the human side” such as exhaust from cars or coal.
But he said that changes in Washington wouldn’t have an impact and the initiative would hurt taxpayers.
The winner in November will take the seat of Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, who did not seek re-election.
The 18th Legislative District covers a large portion of Clark County, including Salmon Creek and Felida, north to Amboy, and curving south to Camas.
