OLYMPIA — State Sen. Jim Hargrove continues trying to jimmy open a source of funds for basic education.
Already sponsor of a bill to hike the state’s capital gains tax by one-tenth of 1 percent, Hargrove, a Hoquiam Democrat, last week cosponsored a Carbon Pollution Accountability Act he says would send $500 million into K-12 classrooms.
It also would pay premiums to Washington forest owners who sell their logs to Washington mills.
Clallam County Republican Party Chairman Dick Pilling called it “merely a tax increase in disguise.”
Carbon pollution reduction legislation has been a priority of Gov. Jay Inslee but has been overshadowed by efforts to fund education and meet a state Supreme Court order to show progress toward that goal or face sanctions for contempt.
Hargrove says his bill — mirrored in a House proposal introduced by Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland — would meet both Inslee’s and the justices’ wishes.
Hargrove and state Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, Democrats from Sequim, represent the 24th Legislative District that encompasses Clallam, Jefferson and Grays Harbor counties except for Aberdeen.
Hargrove’s Senate Bill 6121 would cap carbon emissions at 1990 levels by 2020 and 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035, and auction off carbon pollution allowances. The auction, he says, would raise:
■ $500 million to invest in K-12 education.
■ $333 million in rebates to limit increases in prices in fuel produced for Washington.
■ $53 million in rebates for energy intense and trade-vulnerable businesses that include the paper, wood products, chemical, computer, food and some mineral and metal industries.
■ $108 million for the Working Families Tax Rebate and $15 million for the Washington Housing Trust Fund.
■ $193 million to create a Working Forests and Local Mills program to pay forest owners 4.5 cents per board foot for Washington timber sent to Washington mills.
■ $67.5 million to enhance forests, protect habitat, and capture, compress and dispose of industrial carbon emissions; $21.5 million for added wildfire control.
Reacting to Hargrove’s proposal, Pilling said corporations that paid the taxes would pass them on to consumers.
“So, whether we call it a tax or a fee or just an increase in consumer prices, Hargrove’s bill will take money out of the pockets of our citizens,” Pilling said.
But Hargrove called his bill “a carbon fee on polluters in the state. The main people who will be paying it are large industries, especially oil refineries,” and oil- and coal-fired power plants.
Taxpayers’ direct cost would equate to about 3 cents per gallon of gas, Hargrove said, noting that GOP senators earlier passed an 11.7-cent gas tax hike he said would be spent “for concrete in Puget Sound.”
Hargrove said an initiative that’s currently collecting signatures to put a carbon-capping law on the ballot contains nothing to promote the forestry and timber industries.
His proposal, however, encourages forest owners to harvest trees, sell logs locally and reforest the land.
“Trees eat carbon and, if you manage fast-growing forests, you sink much more carbon and put more little carbon-sinking machines into the ground behind them,” he told Peninsula Daily News.
He said the $45,000 per 1,000 board feet premium was “a real significant incentive to take wood to the mills instead of exporting it. We also will have the knowledge that it is going to lumber that is going to be used in construction.”
Meanwhile, Legislators have moved up to today a forecast of state tax revenues that originally was due next month.
“I expect it will contribute some additional money to solve the problem,” Hargrove said, “maybe $70 million to $100 million.”
That may help break the stalemate between the Republican-led Senate and the Democrat-dominated House over funding education and the state’s capital improvements, operating and transportation budgets.
“I expect us to get down in earnest after this forecast on Monday,” Hargrove told the PDN on Saturday.
“It still isn’t going to be easy. I don’t want to say it’s going to be a snap now.”
_______
Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.