Interview with Representative Joe Schmick

COLFAX — In an interview with 9th Legislative District Representative Joe Schmick (R), he spoke on several different topics that the state legislature would be addressing in the next session.

In terms of Gov. Jay Inslee’s mandates Schmick stated that it was an overstep on the Governor’s part, stating that when he voted for emergency powers he had never thought about a virus, “We thought earthquake, tsunami, fire, flood, that type of thing,” he said. He further stated that it needs to be changed, “we need to put the legislature back involved with the process,” he added.

Concerning tax reduction, Schmick stated that there was the prime opportunity last year to give tax relief, but the legislature chose not to, “we had proposals, we, meaning the republicans,” he said, adding that the democrats did not want to have anything to do with the proposals.

Schmick explained that there is going to be about only four billion dollars in the capital budget, which Senator Schoesler is directly involved in preparing on the Senate side. “That’s quite a bit smaller than what we’ve been used to in the past,” he said.

Concerning the budget Schmick says there are some definite needs in Whitman County that they’ll be fighting for, which includes a transportation proposal they have in the budget right now. One such example he mentioned was the wooden bridge where the road crosses down here in Colfax.

“It was a situation when that was put in,” he said, noting that even the Department of Transportation said that there needed to be an agreement way back when, which was never made. “Now the wooden beams under their supporting road are rotting, and it needs to be fixed.”

He also added that the passing lanes that are currently in process need to be finished up, adding that the three in legislature also believe there needs to be more money in preservation and maintenance of highways.

Schmick also stated that he believes that the Blake Decision, the legalization of small amounts of illegal substances, needs to be changed. “I think it’s very detrimental to our communities,” he said, “Crime goes up,” he added, noting that those with addictions need to feed the addiction, and so this can result in them stealing as well as other problems in the communities. “Our communities are not safe,” he added.

One of the biggest issues that Schmick wants to address is getting tools to the law enforcement, one which is the ability for police to pursue criminals. “That was not something that we were able to even start fixing in the last session, and we need to start fixing that,” he said.

Schmick explained that the current legislature states that if law enforcement does not see the crime they are not able to pursue. As an example he mentioned that if there was a report at the grocery store and the police saw a car drive off really fast and thought that maybe they should talk to that person, since they didn’t see the crime they’d have to investigate. By this time the car would be long gone.

Concerning poverty rates in smaller rural towns, Schmick mentioned the Republicans funded the Family Tax Credit, which had been on the books for ten years. “The Democrats who had been in charge never even funded it,” he said, noting that he believes the biggest way to help those in need would be job creation.

Schmick believes that the creation of jobs is extremely important. “It should be in the rural areas, looking for opportunities to provide jobs in our local communities,” he said, adding that small businesses are struggling.

In regards to small business creation in smaller towns, Schmick stated that the government makes it hard for small businesses to be successful. “Not only do we need to be looking for opportunities, we need to be looking for opportunities to allow these businesses to operate without the finger of the government on them.” Schmick added that these businesses are spending their time doing paperwork for the state, and all the regulations on small businesses make it more difficult to do business. “It’s cheaper to do business in Idaho,” he said, noting that’s why so many businesses are migrating to Idaho.

Two other issues that Schmick spoke on included natural gas, and breaching of the Snake River dams.

“We need natural gas,” he said. “If everybody switches to electricity what do you think their electricity rates are going to do,” he asked, answering that they’re going to skyrocket. He noted that if the governor goes through with all his plans there is going to be about a 60 percent increase in base load constant electricity load.

In regards to dam breaching on the Snake River, Schmick stated that he believes it absolutely cannot be done, “We have to have them,” he said, “we have to have the electricity, transportation, the flood control,” he added.

“I think we need to work on getting more fish here,” he said, noting that the tribes want fish up here, “I think we can have both. We can have power, we can have the dams, and we can also have fish.” Schmick noted the assumption that you just take the dams out, and fish will come back is not necessarily true. “It has not been the case elsewhere.”