Gary asked: Would you buck your party to support or oppose an issue if you believed it was in the best interest of your constituents?
Ahern: I go for the constituents first. That, at least with the Republicans, is extremely rare. They wouldn’t come up with a bill that I would definitely oppose and my constituents would be for it. But yes, if push came to shove I’d put constituents first.
Driscoll: I want to represent my constituents. Here is the order that I go in when I have to make decisions about any bill I vote for, my first filter is I vote the way I believe my district would want me to vote. My voting record is that I voted on Party line about 70% of the time which is an unusual voting pattern. Most people tend to vote more along the party platform. The party's position is the last thing I consider. So first I ask, is it good for my constituents and is it sensible and sound from a policy perspective?
Rob asked: List the two most important issues that you think you can make a difference on if elected and how would you do that.
Driscoll: What is most important this year, begins with getting our budget balanced. That is going to be our highest priority. The other big issue is jobs. They relate to each other directly. We need to get people back to work, reduce our unemployment rate in order to recover our state's revenue and stabilize the state's economy. The question then becomes: what can you do in government to stimulate job growth. I'm a strong believer that the way government can stimulate job growth is through targeted incentives for hiring. For example if you give a tax credit for new hires or if you create some incentive for employers.
Ahern: I have rang doorbells on 13,000 houses so far. I always ask the question: do you have any questions or concerns? I tell them who I am and ask for concerns. Invariably if they want to talk, in a lot of cases they do, they either roll their eyes or ask if I have half a day. It’s the economy more than anything else: the fact that the state and federal government is way over spending. We are 13 trillion dollars in debt. I think one of the key things I want to do when I get back to Olympia is give some ideas on how to get rid of this huge deficit that we keep coming up with. That is basically privatize, privatize and the third thing is privatize. Privatize as much as possible.
The first thing that will be privatized is going to be liquor. Initiatives 1100 and 1105 get the government out of the liquor business. Also need to get the government out of the ferry system just like in Vancouver, BC and Alaska and they are starting to do it in Europe. A lot of people don’t realize that Europeans countries are starting to go from left to right of center and as a result they are starting to realize that socialism just doesn’t work.
There are a couple of bills I’d like to run this next session. One, would be to get rid of statute of limitations for start up businesses in the State of Washington. We have the third highest startup rates per capita and the second highest failure rate in the nation. The problem with the State of Washington is that it is very, very anti business. The other thing I can mention too, I’ll stray a bit here, is Initiative 1098, tax . That’s the one that’s going to tax high earners. They did a survey of businesses just recently. The survey asked what they would do if Initiative 1098 passes. Two percent said they would be leaving the state, 30% said they would not be able to hire new people, they just have to keep what they got. So we have a lot to do in this state.
There are a couple of bills I’d like to run this next session. One, would be to get rid of statute of limitations for start up businesses in the State of Washington. We have the third highest startup rates per capita and the second highest failure rate in the nation. The problem with the State of Washington is that it is very, very anti business. The other thing I can mention too, I’ll stray a bit here, is Initiative 1098, tax . That’s the one that’s going to tax high earners. They did a survey of businesses just recently. The survey asked what they would do if Initiative 1098 passes. Two percent said they would be leaving the state, 30% said they would not be able to hire new people, they just have to keep what they got. So we have a lot to do in this state.
The other area I’ve been involved in is criminal justice. As you probably know, I passed the felony DUI Bill in 2006 first year of implementation the state patrol said we saved 24 lives. The other area of criminal justice I’d like to do is to get rid of the statute of limitations to prosecute adults who rape children under 18. Right now the threshold is if you are raped by an adult you’ve got to the age of 24 to file a criminal charge. That seldom ever happens. The victim usually figures they are at fault and don’t really realize who is at fault until they are in their 30’s. I had that bill a couple of years ago and I finally got the Prosecutor’s Association to go along with that, they said you have a good bill. That’s a huge one I want to get passed.
Marci asked: Who is your biggest campaign contributor?
Ahern: I would say Duane Altman, he backs me 100%, just recently $1600 and half was from his wife. And the guy who owns the Swinging Doors, he gave me $800 one time and again $800, that was Bob Materne. Those are the top so far. I’m not a rich guy. As a matter of fact if I want to get everything done, which I will, I’m going to need another $1200. So if you’d like to contribute…(we both laugh).
Driscoll: We have campaign limits at the state level so that the most any one individual or corporation can give is $800 per race, so that's $800 for the primary and $800 for the general. There are a certain amount of people who have given me that much. There is a public website http://www.pdc.wa.gov/ with all that information (discusses what is on website). We have to report every week as our campaign contributions come in so it is very current. It also lists how the money is spent and where it's coming from.
Ahern: I would say Duane Altman, he backs me 100%, just recently $1600 and half was from his wife. And the guy who owns the Swinging Doors, he gave me $800 one time and again $800, that was Bob Materne. Those are the top so far. I’m not a rich guy. As a matter of fact if I want to get everything done, which I will, I’m going to need another $1200. So if you’d like to contribute…(we both laugh).
Driscoll: We have campaign limits at the state level so that the most any one individual or corporation can give is $800 per race, so that's $800 for the primary and $800 for the general. There are a certain amount of people who have given me that much. There is a public website http://www.pdc.wa.gov/ with all that information (discusses what is on website). We have to report every week as our campaign contributions come in so it is very current. It also lists how the money is spent and where it's coming from.
Anonymous asked: What is your solution to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools?
Driscoll: I believe the dropout problem begins in Middle School. I think if you wait until the time they're in High School, intervention to reduce the dropout rate at the High School level is too late, you have probably already lost the kid. I'm a strong believer that we need to do 2 things. One, we already did, eliminate the high stakes test. That caused kids to say if they could never pass the test why stay in school. It contributed to the drop out rate so we eliminated that test. My wife was a sixth grade teacher for 25 years plus I have a graduate degree in psychology. So what I know is every human learns differently from every other human. So you need well trained teachers who understand that one kid is good at reading and bad at math. You need guidance counselors who understand this, someone who will sit down with the kid and look at what they are good at and give them some ideas of what career they could go into. That is one of the most important things that is missing. Our education systems is based on the fact that everyone will go to college. That's not true. Only 20% of Americans have a college degree, 80% don't. What are we doing to help that 80%. There are apprenticeship programs, a lot of things we can do at the high school level, job skills training. I think those would help, if we give the kids a reason to stay in school, a reason that they believe in.
Ahern: The solution is and I have talked this over with a lot of teachers while ringing doorbells, almost universally and it’s lack of parental control. In other words parents really don’t give a darn. You have a 33% dropout rate. I don’t blame the teachers, I don’t blame the administrators. Although we are top heavy with administrators. We have over 140 administrators in the Spokane area that are drawing $100,000 or more. I blame it on the legislature for all the mandates they put on schools. The number one thing is lack of parental help in the schools. I went to parochial school up to the 6th grade, my mother was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, my dad was a lawyer. After dinner, at 7:00 you’re in that room studying, no television. I did the same thing with our kids, they did their homework and they are highly successful.
The reason we have lack of parental control is that today you have so many broken families. You have drug addiction. When I was in High School in the 50’s, I lived in Maryland. I think the average divorce rate was about 5% and gradually moved higher as you moved to the West Coast, 25 % in California. Today it’s 50 to 55%, less on the East Coast but on average it’s 50%. Families are breaking up, it’s devastating for the kids, they think it’s their fault. One thing I’d like to do is get rid of No-fault Divorce that we have in the State of Washington. It’s too easy to get a divorce. If we went back to the system we had before it would require 90 days counseling or 6 months counseling and draw it out a little bit, give couples time to think things over.
Driscoll: I believe the dropout problem begins in Middle School. I think if you wait until the time they're in High School, intervention to reduce the dropout rate at the High School level is too late, you have probably already lost the kid. I'm a strong believer that we need to do 2 things. One, we already did, eliminate the high stakes test. That caused kids to say if they could never pass the test why stay in school. It contributed to the drop out rate so we eliminated that test. My wife was a sixth grade teacher for 25 years plus I have a graduate degree in psychology. So what I know is every human learns differently from every other human. So you need well trained teachers who understand that one kid is good at reading and bad at math. You need guidance counselors who understand this, someone who will sit down with the kid and look at what they are good at and give them some ideas of what career they could go into. That is one of the most important things that is missing. Our education systems is based on the fact that everyone will go to college. That's not true. Only 20% of Americans have a college degree, 80% don't. What are we doing to help that 80%. There are apprenticeship programs, a lot of things we can do at the high school level, job skills training. I think those would help, if we give the kids a reason to stay in school, a reason that they believe in.
Ahern: The solution is and I have talked this over with a lot of teachers while ringing doorbells, almost universally and it’s lack of parental control. In other words parents really don’t give a darn. You have a 33% dropout rate. I don’t blame the teachers, I don’t blame the administrators. Although we are top heavy with administrators. We have over 140 administrators in the Spokane area that are drawing $100,000 or more. I blame it on the legislature for all the mandates they put on schools. The number one thing is lack of parental help in the schools. I went to parochial school up to the 6th grade, my mother was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, my dad was a lawyer. After dinner, at 7:00 you’re in that room studying, no television. I did the same thing with our kids, they did their homework and they are highly successful.
The reason we have lack of parental control is that today you have so many broken families. You have drug addiction. When I was in High School in the 50’s, I lived in Maryland. I think the average divorce rate was about 5% and gradually moved higher as you moved to the West Coast, 25 % in California. Today it’s 50 to 55%, less on the East Coast but on average it’s 50%. Families are breaking up, it’s devastating for the kids, they think it’s their fault. One thing I’d like to do is get rid of No-fault Divorce that we have in the State of Washington. It’s too easy to get a divorce. If we went back to the system we had before it would require 90 days counseling or 6 months counseling and draw it out a little bit, give couples time to think things over.
Bob asked: How would you change the state tax structure? Would you be in favor of state income tax?
Ahern: Absolutely not! You get that state income tax here and businesses will be out of here in droves. The number one selling point for the State of Washington to draw any business into the State is we continue to advertize that we do not have an income tax. If that passes we’ve lost our big selling point. We sell two things: the quality of life in the State, it’s beautiful, that and the fact that we have no income tax. So those are draws for businesses.
Driscoll: I am absolutely opposed to any tax increases at this time. I voted against all of them so far in my two year career. First a disclaimer, that's a non legislative effort. The legislature has nothing to do with initiatives. So my views are as a private citizen. I look at the initiative on the ballot right now and think it is very unbalanced. I think we are hitting less than 2% of the population. And one of the complaints I hear about sales tax is how unbalanced that is. The low income person may pay as much as 15, 20% of their income in sales tax. So we've been trying to eliminate sales tax because it hits low income people worst. I look at this one as opposite but the same phenomenon with hitting a small segment of our population. So as far as tax reform overall I think we have a broken system. So what I would do in a revenue neutral way, meaning don't raise taxes, but I would eliminate the Business and Occupation tax completely and I would limit the sales tax severely, I don't think we can get rid of it but I think we can reduce it. Right now we have property tax, sales tax and B&O tax for our main revenue sources. I think we get rid of B&O, do something with sales tax, and we need a revenue neutral, net revenue taxation system. Will we ever get there? I don't know. What I just said has been talked about in the state of Washington since the 30's.Ahern: Absolutely not! You get that state income tax here and businesses will be out of here in droves. The number one selling point for the State of Washington to draw any business into the State is we continue to advertize that we do not have an income tax. If that passes we’ve lost our big selling point. We sell two things: the quality of life in the State, it’s beautiful, that and the fact that we have no income tax. So those are draws for businesses.
Debbie: Anything you want the voters to know that you haven't been asked yet?
Driscoll: Those were all good questions. Back to the first question. I have a six year old grandson. His name is Frankie. He is actually John Francis Driscoll VI. I have a straight line, 6 generations of first born male John F Driscolls. My grandfather and great grandfather are buried side by side here in Spokane. My father is 83, I'm 53, my son is 32, my grandson is 6. I look at that succession, we are Spokane people. I look at my grandson and he is my touch stone for all my decisions. I want to make sure he has good schools and all those job choices and opportunities. I want to do my best to create a world where my grandson gets a great education here, a good job, can afford to live here and raise his family here so we have more generations of my family making this their home.
Ahern: I think I’ve been asked everything under the sun. One thing I tell the voters is that in the eight years I was in, I had a felony DUI bill and I was instrumental in getting the Veteran’s Cemetery here in Medical Lake. So therefore, our mantra is this: experience counts. It’s right here on my card…(we laugh again as he hands me his flier).
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