Port Package Update Bill voted out in Executive Session 18-10-3
SB5955 passed today in the Capital Budget Committee Executive Session at 8:00AM. The vote was 18-10-3. Unlike prior committee votes (which were unanimous) this was strictly along partisan lines.
Speaking for the opposition, Peter Abbarno 20th (R) mentioned that his city of Centralia is near a rail line. He invoked a legal doctrine known as coming to the nuisance. This means that in such cases residents cannot sue for relief because essentially they knew what they were getting themselves into by moving to the nuisance. However, he felt that his district had been able to address the problem locally and that people near Sea-Tac Airport should do the same and not try to get the State to pay for it.
The bill next goes to the House Rules Committee, where it is expected to pass and go to the floor. There are no public hearings in the Rules Committee.
Action Items
Your next step? Show up for tomorrow’s Port Commission Meeting and testify!
Talking Points
Rep. Abbarno’s comments were one of the typical Catch-22’s of living next to an airport owned by an independent agency. He suggests that residents seek relief locally. But the fact is, there is no local control for residents near Sea-Tac Airport because the Port is not subject to local authority.
Note that the original funding for HB2103/SB5955 was to come from the Port itself (or rather local taxpayers) by mandating that one percent of the Port’s Tax Levy would be dedicated to Port Package Updates. And yet, the same people (including Rep. Abbarno) who insist on ‘local control’ opposed that as well!
If the State says the problem is local, but will not give us a tool to enable us to guarantee local funding it keeps us in a perpetual state of having to beg the Port of Seattle for help.
At some point, funding for mitigations like Port Package updates, must become a normal cost of doing business–something that every government expects to put in some money towards in exchange for the billions of dollars in economic benefits the entire State obtains from Sea-Tac Airport every year. And that includes Mr. Abbarno’s home city of Centralia.