"That's a big mistake," says Wilcox of Democrats' refusal to hold public hearings on six initiatives

hi I'm state representative JT Wilcox and uh this is uh close to the end of the uh fourth week of the legislative session for uh this year that means that we're not that far from being halfway done uh we have what's called a policy cut off and that means that bills that are not necessary to implement the budget had to pass uh by uh yesterday or they're dead for this year and it's good riddens to a whole bunch of them we also have a few other things going on yesterday there was a rally in support of the citizens initiatives that all got enough signatures to go to the legislature and what the rally was uh about was uh the fact that although House Republicans have offered motions that would require that these initiatives that are now bills to the legislature get a hearing um Democrats have decided that they don't want that I think that's a big mistake uh it shouldn't be a Republican or a Democrat thing it's the fact that uh about 450,000 washingtonians signed each one of these things uh over 800,000 Washington registered voters in total signed at least one of them and they deserve uh I think a a hearing that shows what's good about these things and what's bad both sides should be able to make their case but uh we have a long-term majority here in Washington that doesn't want to let that happen I think that's a huge mistake for them and it's a mistake for the state of Washington and I hope that whether you're a Republican or a Democrat uh you uh talk to your representatives and and urge them to let these things have uh an airing in public so that when all of us vote in November we're at least informed voters uh another thing that I've talked about quite a bit is uh the culture that we have in Washington and the second district in particular for fishing and hunting and uh we have a problem with uh part of our state government that's the uh Fish and Wildlife Commission it's appointed by the governor and because we have a three-term governor the same Governor is appointed every single one of them uh this was originally designed to make sure that that culture of hunting and fishing survives and it's a culture that's important to our tribes in Washington it's also a culture that's important to many non-tribal people in Washington I've offered a bill that would eliminate that and uh eliminate the commission and just turn it intoh something that operates like a normal state agency like the department of a that would empower the governor which I'm not really in favor of but it would also mean that at least one person would be responsible I don't know if I have the right answer to how to fix this but I do believe that this bill is going to get a hearing and I hope that the people that care about this will come in and talk about uh the successes and failures of the current status of the uh Fish and Wildlife Commission which I think is decided that is not about fishing and hunting it's just about uh leaving uh fish and game alone and and uh ending this culture uh and also I hope that people come in and and have some Creative Solutions about how we have better public accountability for this that's really why I dropped the bill um that's it for this week and I hope to see you next week thanks