A series of town hall meetings were the top entertainment Saturday in both Covington and Maple Valley with the legislators from Olympia presenting some good news and some troubling predictions.

5th District

The first town hall gathering took place at 10 a.m. in Maple Valley at Lake Wilderness Lodge.

Republican representatives Glenn Anderson and Jay Rodne from the 5th District spent an hour before a sparse crowd answering questions and painting the picture of the battle brewing in Olympia.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug was ill and could not attend.

Anderson pointed out private sector jobs are few and far between in the state while personal income has fallen.

“Washington state is getting poorer faster, but it is masked a little by King County which drives the economic engine,” Anderson said.

Anderson said 75 percent of the state taxes paid by residents in the 5th District, “go out to other areas of the state.”

Rodne said from his perspective increasing taxes is not the answer, pointing out there are not the votes in the legislature to increase taxes.

Both Rodne and Anderson said they thought a referendum to increase taxes would be on the November ballot.

Anderson said he thought the referendum in November would be to, “buy back the pain. To me that is sort of unconscionable.”

Rodne said he felt many state jobs could be moved to the private sector, including some engineering positions in the Department of Transportation.

Anderson said he felt over regulation was contributing to the loss of private sector jobs in the state.

Rodne concluded stating the state should be involved in providing “core essentials under the constitution, everything else is less important.”

Anderson said, “We tend to demonize those who don’t agree with us. But we are all Americans and we have to solve this problem as Americans.”

47th District

The town hall meeting in Covington was the real deal. The Cutter’s Point coffee shop was packed with more than 70 people spending 90 minutes listening and asking questions of the 47th District representatives, Pat Sullivan, Democrat and Mark Hargrove, Republican and state Senator Joe Fain, Republican.

Both Fain and Hargrove are first time legislators, while Sullivan has been around the block, serving his fourth term in the House, and he was elected to the majority leader position for his caucus this term.

The three fielded questions on an array of topics including education, unions, the state of the budget and health care.

Fain got the ball rolling early by letting the group know the legislators are expecting the newest economic numbers to kick another $1 billion or more hole in the budget, which is already suffering from about a $5 billion deficit.

Sullivan noted this biennial budget will be “the first time since the depression we will have a smaller budget than the previous (biennial budget.)”

A question was asked about increasing state revenues and Hargrove answered by stating, “The people spoke loudly and clearly (in the) last election. We have to have a two-thirds vote to increase taxes.”

There was considerable discussion concerning tax loopholes. Fain pointed out what many call loopholes are really at times more clearly defined  as not taxing certain services.

“I don’t want people to walk away thinking there is a panacea for loopholes,” Fain said.

Sullivan said many loopholes are tax incentives, like breaks for first-time homeowners. Sullivan also pointed out the state does not tax food, which could be considered a loophole. He said he doubted many people would want to close that loophole and begin taxing food.

A question about the state’s Basic Health program was answered by Fain who stated he thought the program saved the state and citizens money.

“To get us through the rough times there are going to be some adjustments,” Fain said. “But talk of eliminating the basic health system is bad.”

Hargorve said, “We’ve gotten used to the government taking care of so many things. But when we come out the other side we will be leaner. (When) we see our neighbor in trouble, we the people are going to have to step in and help.”

Sullivan said if the state eliminated the basic health program then people will “show up in the emergency room and we all pay for that…. It’s a puzzle we are putting together. When we put it together, people will die if we do it wrong.”

The three also discussed education funding, including early learning.

Sullivan said he felt we put “enormous amounts of money into remediation, keeping kids in school.”

He supports funding early learning, “I thing we are doing it backwards.”

Fain echoed Sullivan’s comments when he stated, “early dollars in early education pays dividends down the road.”

Hargrove is a strong supporter of innovative schools where “parents and teachers can create the schools best suited for students.”