Dino Rossi makes sense!

Dino Rossi: A Common Sense Voice for the 5th District
Having doorbelled over 13,000 homes in the 5th District, I understand the issues which concern you and will work to see these issues brought to the table in Olympia once I am elected...

Education
This is the number one concern in our district. I want to increase funding for education, not by raising taxes but by seeing that more education money is spent in the classroom. Currently, too many taxpayer dollars are getting caught up in the bureaucratic red tape in Olympia and too little is actually getting to the children.
I support rescuing our schools from centralized school control in Olympia by supporting legislation that will give local school districts, teachers and parents more control over their curriculum. I also support the concept of giving parents as many choices as possible in where their children are educated. Most importantly, rewarding our state's good teachers is a must.

Taxes
My opponent sat on the four-person committee that gave us the second-largest tax increase in Washington State history. This isn't what the voters had in mind when they voted for the "pro-business moderate". As the Journal American newspaper pointed out, she was the "New Democrat Who Wasn't".
The two taxes that are really hurting people are the increased property and B&O taxes. I've spoken to many small business owners who say that it just isn't profitable to do business in this state due to the overwhelming regulations and overbearing taxes.
Small businesses are the true creators of job opportunityand the government is making them clean up after Olympia's mess. I would like to see an across-the-board B&O tax cut to pre-1993, pre-Kathleen Drew levels. Drew voted to override Governor Lowry's veto of the B&O tax reduction in 1996 but this was a mere fraction of the increase three years earlier.
With the quarter-billion dollar surplus expected in next year's state budget, there's no reason why this state's small business owners, who suffer from undercapitalization to begin with, should continue to bear the brunt of the government's move toward a "responsible budget".

Crime
As an active supporter in the Three-Strikes-You're-Out initiative, I support the similar Two-Strikes law for sex offenders -- the current registration process does not work and makes the citizens feel uneasy when a registered sex offender is living on their street. If they are still a danger to society, they have no place in it.
Juvenile crime is another problem. The Democrat-controlled Senate last year watered down a bill (so much that it became unacceptable) that would have treated juveniles the same as adults for violent crimes. I support strong legislation containing such language. The victim didn't care what the age of the attacker was -- why should justice?

Regulatory Reform
I believe all rules should be reviewed regularly, and no agencies should be exempt. I strongly support Republican efforts to strengthen the Joint Administrative Rules Review Committee and support "rebuttable" presumption legislation shifting the burden of proof for defending rules from citizens to agencies once the JARRC has determined a rule to be invalid.
I support efforts to stop agencies from using broad grants of authority to burden the citizens of the 5th District with needless government regulations. I believe all agencies should be required to review their rules and justify them based on specific mandates from the people's representative. Moreover, I think agencies need to continuously re-evaluate their regulations to ensure that they are still needed and wanted by the people of this state, otherwise they should be "sunset" out of existence.

Privatization
I plan to make privatization a major part of my legislative agenda. Our goal should be to provide the best possible service to citizens at the lowest possible cost. In many cases, private firms know how to perform services better, and less expensively, than bureaucrats in Olympia. While there are certain services performed better by government that could not profit privately, government should not compete with private business when it's being run effectively in that sector.

Welfare Reform
In the U.S., over 90% of families on welfare will spend more than two years on the program and 77% will spend more than five years. In Washington State, a single parent with two small children will collect $18,730 per year in benefits. That's the equivalent of earning $9.95 per hour in a real job. Welfare was designed as a temporary program to help people grow beyond hard times and into a stable job -- to become productive citizens. The current system encourages people to make welfare a way of life and enslaves them into a cycle of dependency.
The changes at the federal level make it even more imperative that actions be taken here in Washington State which will ensure that a safety net is in place for the truly needy.

The Environment and Private Property
I believe Washington's natural beauty makes this state one of the best places in the nation to live. I have three children and I want them to enjoy the same beautiful trees and streams that I have enjoyed. I also want my kids to live in a nation where freedom reigns supreme. Occasionally, the government must act to protect all of us. When it does, however, it needs to be mindful of the burdens and costs it places on others. Both of these positions must be given attention, instead of one getting eschewed by ultra-partisan elected officials.
Some people in Olympia think they can prevent property owners from using land freely purchased without compensating them. Occasionally, government needs to step in and pass regulations to protect the common good. When it does this, it has a duty to ensure that law-abiding, tax-paying citizens do not suffer financially. Our Founding Fathers understood this when they enshrined private property protection into our Constitution. I support legislation requiring agencies to carefully consider how the regulations they pass burden private citizens, and compensate them when they lower the value of the property.
The debate the past four years has resulted in closed doors and closed minds. I look forward to working with private property owners as well as people seeking to protect the beauty of the outdoors and the abundance of our natural resources.

Giving Back
This community has been good to me and to my family. Now, I believe it's time to give something back. I believe I can make a difference in the way things are done in Olympia. And I believe that my viewpoint -- as a father concerned about quality education, a homeowner with a mortgage, a small businessman -- is a perspective that needs to be heard in Olympia.
I hope to earn your vote. If you have any questions, please give me a call. My phone number is 392-0809.-- Dino Rossi

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