Frank Chopp, Speaker of the State House of Representatives, held the floor. He touched on the topics of Education, Health Care, and Jobs. These being complex issues, his method was to allot a few general statements to each topic and then spend the rest of the session fielding questions thereon.

As to education, he alluded to the massive effort in progress to fully fund basic education. Taxpayers have invested heavily into schools. With the financial goal reached, it must be assured that the money will be well spent. To get kids out of poverty via the Learning Assistance Program is one imperative.

Health Care is on the right track. Washington leads the nation in coverage, with, at this juncture, half of the kids being covered statewide.

Jobs. He mentioned only one avenue of employment, namely the 520 Project. This has to do with the Floating Bridge and its current development on the west side.

In the Q&A session, the subject of taxes arose. Rep. Chopp believes the head tax to be “stupid”, the income tax fully unwanted by the populace, and the B&O tax a long-standing albeit imperfect revenue source. He points to oncoming legislation in which capital gains on the wealthy may be taxed more highly and the property tax lowered.

Redistricting, he points to the fact that we are the only state that has a bipartisan Districting Commission. Thus, there is no gerrymandering or successions of redistricting as one party or the other gains a majority.

Mental Health. More revenue and resources are sought for it. The state hospital has been decertified. This poses a problem that the Governor has not moved to fix. A building to house mental patients has been approved by the House, but not as yet by the Senate.

Gun control. This is a challenging matter in that there are widely differing attitudes throughout the state. However, by working with advocates, there has been passed legislation banning bump stocks and gun possession by the mentally ill. Action is pending regarding the age for owning assault rifles as well as safe storage and safety training.

The Homeless. Public sentiment is more in favor of mental illness than the homeless. However, the two are obviously intertwined. Ergo, if people support housing for the mentally ill, they are, in fact, doing so for the homeless. Efforts are therefore to occur in that direction in the legislature.

In summary: Any one of these topics could probably take a fortnight to discuss and probably not exhaust the subject in question. It was therefore well to have covered as much as there was in the time allotted.