2012 Regular Legislative Session Day 43

What a great weekend. Friday night Molly threw a nice little surprise party for my birthday. It was great seeing Max and Anita Golladay, Tim Kunka and a lot of people that I work with in Olympia. I hate birthdays, but I have to admit it was a lot of fun.

On Saturday we went down to the Great Wolf Lodge with Charles family. We had a lot of fun in the wave pool and on the various slides with Lucas and Vincent. Charles’ son Lucas is a crazy madman, but a great kid. His son Vincent is really laid back and a great kid too. We had a nice dinner at the lodge Saturday night and hit the waterpark again Sunday morning.

We took the families to Fuji Japanese Steak House last night for dinner. It’s a pretty cool place where they cook everything right at the table. Our chef, Jay, was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to really enjoy watching the show.

I’m back at the Capital this morning for Family Day. We got word there’s going to be a bunch of protestors on campus today, so that should make things interesting. After lunch, Molly and Tiffany will head home and I’ll be in the State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee at 1:30. Another fun filled day in Olympia.

#Great #Wolf #Lodge #Fuji #Japanese #Steak #House #State #Government #Tribal #Affairs #Committee #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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2012 Regular Legislative Session Day 39

My day started with an Environment Committee meeting. Senate Bill 6082 is among the bills being heard this morning. The bill mandates the addition of several questions to the SEPA Checklist related to potential impacts to agricultural lands. Although many in the agricultural community like the idea, I do not. All the bill will do is create new appeal opportunities for individuals or organizations opposed to any development ... ever heard of Futurewise or Sierra Club? With all due respect to my Republican friends in the Senate supporting the bill, you do not know what you’re dealing with. This is a bad idea so we’ll have to try and amend or kill the bill.

I have a 10:00 AM State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee meeting. Rep. Sam Hunt is the chairman of the Committee and he keeps changing the dang agenda. He’s been doing this all year ... guess it’s time to jerk his chain a little bit. Hmm, this could be fun.

The rest of my day should be fairly uneventful. I have a few meetings, but nothing real serious on my calendar. It’s going to be a great day to rest and recuperate.

#State #Government #Tribal #Affairs #Environment #Committee #agenda #SB #6082 #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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2012 Regular Legislative Session Day 38

Well we’re back doing committee work this morning. I started the day with an 8:00 AM State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee hearing testimony on several Senate Bills. There really aren’t a lot of"stinkers” on the agenda this morning, but I’m confident that will change as the days progress. We also have a brief Floor Session at 10:00 AM this morning. I’ve got a couple of meetings later this afternoon and another committee meeting at 1:30 PM.

I’m really glad we’re going to have a few slower days for a couple of weeks. After the grind of House of Origin Cutoff the last few days, I could really use some sleep. Molly and Tiffany will be here Friday night and we’re going to the Great Wolf Lodge Saturday with Charles Ross’s family. It should be a nice relaxing weekend for everyone.

#Great #Wolf #Lodge #State #Government #Tribal #Affairs #House #Origin #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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2012 Regular Legislation Session Day 34

After 14 hours on the House Floor yesterday (we adjured at 11:43 PM), we’re back on the floor this morning to run more bills. The good news for the day is we were able to kill 2 bills yesterday ... yeah. The bad news for the day, the Democrat Majority passed the Tribal Retrocession bill late last night. The total hour count for the past two days is 27 hours on the House Floor and approximately 13 hours of sleep. It’s a Rockstar and Mt. Dew morning ... let’s rock and roll.

The rumor of the day is the Democrats are going to give us a 30 bill run list and we’ll get to decide how long we’re here based on how long we want to debate the issues. My response ... the hell with it, we can’t go home this weekend, so let’s keep them here as long as we can so they can’t go home. I’m tired of their damn games, so let’s make them suffer for a while.

We’re now an hour into the day and have done nothing, zero, zilch, nada. Typical day in Olympia.

#Retrocession #Tribal #HB #1313 #1755 #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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2012 Regular Legislative Session Day 10

Ok, so my email and text messages starting blowing up around 9:45 last night. It seems Conservation Northwest decided to bring their dog and pony show to Yakima to demonstrate how useful and important wolves are to the ecosystem. Folks this is a sham, nothing but a propaganda campaign designed to fool people into believing wolves aren’t dangerous. Isn’t it ironic that Conservation Northwest decided to hold their public forum in Yakima when one of the biggest critics of the State’s Wolf Management and Conservation Plan is sitting in Olympia?

For the record, Conservation Northwest used to be known as the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, a group who has filed many lawsuits against local, state and federal agencies costing the taxpayers of Washington State millions. Please do your own research, look at the information coming out of Idaho, Montana and Oregon and make your own conclusions. Also, please watch www.facebook.com/CryingWolfDoc for additional information.

Sitting in the State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee this morning, listening to a work session about the important economic benefit tribes have to Washington State. This is all in an effort to pass Tribal civil and criminal retrocession. There are many, many issues associated with tribal retrocession.

It’s still snowing here in Olympia and it sounds like we could get another 8 inches before it starts to rain. Ugh!

#tribal #retrocession #State #Government #Conservation #Northwest #Ecosystem #Alliance #wolf #management #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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2012 Regular Legislative Session Day 1

The 2012 Legislative Session officially kicks off in 20 minutes. There's a lot of pomp and circumstance on the opening day and everyone gets along ... for now. The Governor's State of the State address will be tomorrow and should be a long, boring recap of all her success. It's funny how people like to talk a long time, when they've accomplished nothing.

My first State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee meeting is today at 1:30 PM. There's not a lot of heavy lifting on the schedule today, but I expect that to change by Wednesday and Thursday's meeting. There are two very bad bills on the calendar for Thursday HB 2203 (Simplifying motor voter registration) and HB 2204 (Extending the time period for voter registration). Please call your Representatives and ask them to vote no on these bills.

Big game tonight, 'Bama vs. LSU ... Roll Tide.

#Roll #Tide #HB #2204 #2203 #State #Government #Tribal #Affairs #Olympia #Rep #David #Taylor #15 #District
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October 17, 2011

Duck season opened this weekend with a bang ... dang, I'm funny. At a little over 5 months old Ruger did better than I could have hoped. Blind retrieves, open water retrieves and open field retrieves and he sat quietly in the blind without trouble. His best retrieve came yesterday. We were packed up and sitting by the trucks with a small group of ducks landed back by the blind. We jumped them and put one down, but it landed about 150 yards away and across the canal ... YIKES! We had it marked, so we drove over and started looking for it. It was an open field next to a thick creek bottom and after about 10 minutes of not finding the duck Ruger started getting "birdy" and suddenly found the bird. What a great weekend with the pup.

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Rain, rain and more rain, not good with hat down. We finally got two fields dry enough to bale ... it's not perfect, but the cows will eat it. We'll be working on fence all week and will start hauling cows home next weekend. I still can't believe it's almost November ... where did the year go?

I attended the third Tribal Retrocession Work Group Meeting last week in Olympia. The topic, Criminal Retrocession. I still have a lot of questions and concerns about the state retroceeding criminal jurisdiction to the FBI, BIA and tribes.

I'll be speaking at Perry Tech's graduation this week and will be at the Sunnyside Republican Clubs meeting Friday morning. We've got a lot to do before the November 28th Special Session, but we'll get there.

#Ruger #ducks #rain #hay #bale #tribal #retrocession #FBI #BIA #Perry #Tech #Special #Session #15th #District #Rep #David #Taylor
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August 2, 2011

Alright, so the second cutting of hay is not going well thus far. It started out good enough, but then the replacement tines we ordered came in and were the wrong ones. Luckily we were able to borrow a rake last night, but it's not working out real well for us. We'll try and get it set correctly tonight, but we're now another day behind. Ugh!

Molly and I went to Stephanie and Ryan's wedding on Sunday at Crystal Mountain. For those who don't know, Stephanie is my Legislative Assistant. We had a great time and got to meet Ryan and Stephanie's families. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Woodard!

The Moxee Hop Festival is this weekend, which is always a good time. I'll be in the dunk tank on Saturday at 1:00 PM. Molly is selling tickets so come on out and dunk your local legislator.

We've been sending out fresh roping calves and getting a few of the bigger ones back. Everything is looking good and we have a couple of bull prospects we're considering keeping into next year.

I just got word the next meeting of the Joint Executive-Legislative Work Group on Tribal Retrocession will be on September 16th at the Yakama Legends Casino in Toppenish. Mark you calendars and plan on attending if you have any interest in tribal civil and criminal retrocession.

#tribal #retrocession #Stephanie #Ryan #Woodard #Moxee #Hop #Festival #Legends #Casino #Toppenish #hay #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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July 19, 2011

Another day of crazy weather here in the Moxee Valley ... rain, followed by wind, yuck! Last Saturday I participated in the Sort for a Cure event in Sunnyside. It was my first try at Ranch Sorting, but I had a great time and didn't take last place (actually 11th out of 18 teams). I was going to ride Chili, but she somehow got a cut on her head and it was swelled up. I ended up riding Icicle and she wasn't all that impressed with the other horses or people. She settled in and did just fine the second go though.

We put down 20 acres of hay on Friday and it was about ready to bale, until today's rain that is. The wind is helping out and we were able to get started raking it tonight. It's a little discolored, but I think it'll be alright.

So yesterday was the first meeting of the Joint Executive-Legislative Workgroup on Tribal Retrocession and I found out that I'm either the co-chair or vice-chair (I was called both). That's fairly interesting since I wasn't asked my thoughts on the agenda or schedule for the rest of the year. Oh well. The meeting was actually pretty informative and I've got all sorts of new ideas for legislation.

We're going to go to Mossy Rock this weekend to see our good friend Tim Kunka, ride horses and chase calves. I'm really looking forward to it. Tim trains horses and does a really good job with them. We took him 19 calves a couple of weeks ago, so now he's also holding some sorting events at his place too. If you need a horse trained, Tim is the guy to do it.

#Sort #for #a #Cure #hay #calves #Tribal #Retrocession #Tim #Kunka #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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June 23, 2011

After a couple of weeks of playing nonstop catch-up, we finally got caught up! Now we'll try and stay one step ahead ... ha ha ha. We'll see how that goes. Looks like we're going to work cows this weekend and get a bunch shipped to the Sunnyside pasture. We're down to one last hay field to rake and bale, so it'll be time to clean up and do some maintenance on the equipment.

I received word that I was appointed to the Joint Executive-Legislative Workgroup on Tribal Retrocession. Various tribes want the state to pass civil and criminal retrocession legislation, which we argued against last session. It should be an interesting workgroup.

Off to feed the critters, move irrigation and head to town. Have a great day all.

#Sunnyside #cattle #hay #tribal #retrocession #workgroup #15th #District #Rep #David #Taylor
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2011 Legislative Session

Day 47 - Today was a interesting day, but not a lot happened on the House Floor. Tomorrow should be much better as far as debate goes. The majority party appear rot be holding back all controversial bills for tomorrow or Sunday (assuming we work on Sunday). Unfortunately, I'm going to miss the Friends of the NRA diner tomorrow night in Yakima. That really sucks since I love going to that diner.

We have several bills moving through the process right now, but not a whole lot of Republican bills. It looks like our State Meat Inspection bill is dead again this year, but we'll see. We introduced HB 2004 earlier this week to require all Tribal vehicles be licensed by WA State ... this is all about protecting public health and safety, so we'll see how that works out. I also found out one of our wolf bills will receive a hearing on March 8th at 8:00 am. HB 1109 requires Legislative approval before finalizing the conservation and management plan. Make sure and let people know about this hearing and plan on attending if you're available. This is a huge issue for Washington State and our voices must be heard.

 #Washington  #wolves  #15th  #District  #David  #Taylor  #NRA  #tribal  #license  #plates
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