Key Issues

Each year Roger has found many ways for the government to save money, even in small amounts, because every scarce taxpayer dollar counts.
Roger has even voluntarily cut his own pay to help balance the budget, believing that everyone has to give a little in tough times. Roger serves as Chair of the Statute Law Committee, which oversees the Code Reviser’s Office and the publication of our laws.
Roger has passed many bills to reduce huge government printing costs, allowing the electronic versions of rules and regulations to be considered the official versions, and shrinking the size of the printed volumes of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW).
Roger has sponsored many bills that have saved public resources, including:

• HB 1071 (incorporated into HB 2359, Chapter 202, Laws of 2016), updating dozens of forms in the code and eliminating obsolete provisions of law.
• HB 1479 (Chapter 156, Laws of 2011), making the electronic version the official version of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC), thereby eliminating huge publishing requirements for useless hard copies.
• HB 2518 (Chapter 190, Laws of 2010), eliminating duplicative and time-consuming procedures for the swearing-in of foreign language interpreters at court proceedings.
• HB 1335 (Chapter 174, Laws of 2009, enacted as companion SB 5298), eliminating unnecessary paperwork requirements for state park rangers in issuing citations and infractions.
• HB 1257 (Chapter 135, Laws of 2009), reducing needless filing requirements for deferred prosecution cases in county courthouses.
• HB 1218 (Chapter 37, Laws of 2009), allowing for more flexible use of city and county jails in order to reduce transportation costs.
•  HB 1058 (Chapter 186, Laws of 2009), reducing obsolete notes and citations from the printed laws, thereby shrinking the size of the volumes of the RCW.
• HB 1859 (Chapter 456, Laws of 2007), making the electronic version the official version of the semi-weekly State Register of state regulations, thereby eliminating huge publishing requirements for useless hard copies.
• HB 1431 (Chapter 171, Laws of 2007), eliminating duplicate responsibilities of three different state agencies in documenting Certificates of Discharge for felony offenders. HB 1268 (Chapter 219, Laws of 2007, enacted as companion SB 5193), allowing law enforcement to donate unclaimed property to charity.

As the bottom of the economy fell out in late 2008, King County and Washington State revenue agencies considered increasing some property taxes as a means to bring in more revenue.

One proposal was the threat to charge excessive taxes on rural, horse-boarding facilities, a burden that would have put them all out of business.

In response, Roger introduced and passed HB 1733 (Chapter 255, Laws of 2009), which secured in perpetuity the favorable tax valuation for horse-boarding properties as agricultural land.

This helped to ensure the unique quality of our Eastside horse farms, an important part of our culture for many generations.

The economic crisis also put real estate brokers at risk, exposing them to extreme liability when dealing with so-called “distressed conveyances” as the housing market was crashing.

Roger sponsored and helped secure the emergency enactment of HB 1132 (Chapter 15, Laws of 2009, enacted as companion SB 5221), which shielded real estate brokers from liability as they handled the many transactions of homes that were “under water.” Roger-Goodman-Environment-2016_085

Roger has worked for many years with the Cascade Water Alliance, a unique partnership of local jurisdictions that have banded together to secure a safe water supply for the Eastside.

Roger sponsored and passed two important pieces of legislation (HB 1332, Chapter 504, Laws of 2009; and HB 1014, Chapter 97, Laws of 2011, enacted as companion SB 5241)to ensure that the Cascade Water Alliance has the proper authorities of a public utility to complete the construction and operation of the pipelines for this critical water supply.

Other important bills Roger has passed related to property rights include:

• HB 1214 (Chapter 36, Laws of 2011, enacted as companion SB 5115), prohibiting the charging of private transfer fees by out-of-state developers, who were secretly profiting from hidden fees on the resale of properties.
• HB 1078 (Chapter 168, Laws of 2011, enacted as companion SB 5035), ensuring proper documentation of rent payment transactions between mobile home tenants and mobile home park owners.
• HB 1663 (Chapter 165, Laws of 2009), requiring relocation assistance for long-term tenants of residential motels that are shut down through no fault of their own.

Children’s Hospital is our region’s flagship institution of its kind. Its pediatric oncology and pediatric residency programs are rated among the best in the nation. The demand for their children’s health care services continues to grow rapidly.

Roger sponsored and passed HB 3071 (Chapter 114, Laws of 2008), altering the rules for the dissolution of condominiums, allowing for the expansion of Children’ Hospital to a former condominium site.

Children’s Hospital has now expanded from 250 to 600 beds, providing the capacity that our area needs for top-quality children’s health care.

Roger recently passed HB 1070, which will bring in millions of dollars from new business transactions into the state’s economy.

Roger also led the Legislature to enact a major reform of Washington’s wage garnishment laws (HB 1552, Chapter 159, Laws of 2012).

After two years of tough negotiations, Roger brought together small and large businesses, collection agencies, consumer groups and the courts to achieve a win-win solution for all parties.

Businesses now avoid needless paperwork and receive moneys owed to them faster; courts have withdrawn unnecessary oversight yet have preserved essential due process in garnishment proceedings; collection agencies are able to sustain a workable business model; and low-wage workers are better able to pay back their debts without losing their housing or running short of funds for food and necessities.

This legislative effort is one of the most successful examples of Roger’s collaborative problem-solving style of leadership.

Roger sponsored and passed HB 1745 (Chapter 57, Laws of 2011, enacted as companion SB 5574), the product of further negotiations between consumer groups and collection agencies to revise methods of debt collection and ensure their fairness.

Each year Roger has been able to secure important state appropriations to help our local businesses and non-profit organizations,

including:

• Funding to complete the construction of the new boathouse for the Sammamish Rowing Association, which serves hundreds of underprivileged youth with athletic opportunities.
• Funding to help our premier local social service agencies, Friends of Youth and Hopelink, with the construction and refurbishment of their facilities for homeless families and youth.
• Major funding for the expansion of Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Woodinville, with its unique programs for youth with disabilities.
• Significant funds to help the expansion of programs at Studio East, the Eastside’s premier performing arts school for young children.
• Funds to ensure the completion of Duvall Place, a transitional, supportive housing facility operated by Hopelink for homeless families in Duvall.
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Championing Early Learning

The evidence is clear that early childhood education programs are the very best investment of our tax dollar.

Kids who are not ready for kindergarten fall behind right away and need extensive remedial education, and are more likely to drop out of school later, costing all of us to clean up the mess at the other end.

Roger has been a leader in the Legislature in enacting bills to expand access to high-quality early learning programs for all of Washington’s kids, helping to ensure that pre-school programs are available to kids at risk, helping them prepare for success in school and in life.

In 2010 Roger authored the “Ready for School Act,” HB 2731 (Chapter 231, Laws of 2010), a landmark piece of legislation establishing a new statewide program of early childhood education, to be fully phased in by the 2021 school year as an entitlement for all three- and four-year olds in the state.

That bill also preserved the existing capacity and funding for the state’s early learning program, one of the only programs that was not cut during the “Great Recession.”

Roger has been repeatedly named “Champion for Children” by the Children’s Alliance and has twice received their highest honor, the “Gold Crayon Award”.

Roger has also been named a “Champion for Education” by the League of Education Voters for his work to expand early learning in Washington.

 

Leading the Effort to Reduce Class Sizes in Public Schools

In 2014 Roger sponsored HB 2589, a measure to reduce class sizes throughout the public school system.

Knowing that “class size counts,” Roger followed the compelling research that links students’ academic achievement with class sizes in school, along with the quality of the teacher and the level of parental support for students.

After Roger championed this effort in the Legislature, the language of his bill was put on the ballot as an initiative to the people of Washington, Initiative 1351, which received a majority vote statewide and was enacted into law.

Roger has led the Legislature to enact more than a dozen bills related to education, child health and welfare and juvenile rehabilitation:

• HB 1505 (Chapter 136, Laws of 2016, incorporated in HB 2906), a significant expansion of restorative justice practices throughout the juvenile justice system.

 

• HB 1498 (Chapter 255, Laws of 2015, incorporated in HB 1625), requiring all ambulances to carry the medication needed to treat acute adrenal insufficiency in children.

 

• HB 1319 (Chapter 134, Laws of 2015), facilitating the release of certain adults who have served 20 years or more in state prison for offenses committed when they were juveniles, in response to U.S. Supreme Court rulings that sentencing juveniles to life in prison is unconstitutional.

 

• HB 1226 (Chapter 113, Laws of 2016, enacted as companion SB 5605), allowing diversion into alternative therapeutic programs for adolescents who commit violent acts in their homes.

 

• HB 1129 (Chapter 262, Laws of 2015, enacted as companion SB 5262), giving attorneys essential access to court case files to help them represent foster children.

 

• HB 1285 (Chapter 108, Laws of 2014, enacted as companion SB 6126), a landmark measure granting foster children statewide the right to their own legal representation.

 

• HB 1775 (Chapter 201, Laws of 2012), a major step forward for juvenile justice, enshrining for the first time in state law the concept of restorative justice, a victim-centered process allowing juveniles committing minor offenses to make their victims whole and be restored to the community.

 

• HB 1774 (Chapter 292, Laws of 2011), a major child welfare bill that improved adoption procedures, ensured better training for special child guardians, facilitated the reuniting of siblings and eased the restoration of parental rights.

 

• HB 2735 (Chapter 180, Laws of 2010), helping children in foster care navigate through the court system with better legal representation.

 

• HB 1782 (Chapter 477, Laws of 2009), helping parents retain their parental rights and reducing unnecessary separation and placement of children into foster care.

 

• HB 1491 (Chapter 177, Laws of 2012, enacted as companion SB 5389), altering the membership of Washington’s Early Learning Advisory Council (of which Roger has been a member), thereby securing $1.7 million from the federal government to support Washington’s early learning programs.

 

• HB 3168 (Chapter 164, Laws of 2008), setting the stage for an expansion of Washington’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), modeled after the federal Head Start program.

Pioneering Four-Year Program at Lake Washington Institute of Technology