The candidates forum, sponsored by the Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce, didn’t produce a lot of drama but only a few subtle jabs from some candidates running for the 26th Legislative District in the House and Senate seats.

All six candidates — State Reps. Jesse Young and Larry Seaquist, State Sen. Jan Angel, along with candidates Michelle Caldier, Nathan Schlicher and Judy Arbogast — addressed some of the issues during the annual candidate’s forum Oct. 8 at the Port Orchard Pavilion.

Young and Schlicher are seeking the district’s state representative’s No. 1 seat, while Caldier is challenging Seaquist for his No. 2 position. Angel is being opposed by Arbogast, a former special education teacher.

About 30 people attended the forum.

Supporting I-1351

The Republicans — Angel, Caldier and Young, were on the opposing side of the Democrats — Seaquist, Schlicher and Arbogast — concerning Initiative 1351 which would impose a limit on public classroom size and require funding to hire 15,000 new teachers to meet the objective. The Democratic candidates support I-1351, while the Republicans oppose it.

Angel said she “strongly opposes” I-1351.

“The Legislator has already sized K-3 to smaller sizes,” Angel said. “That’s already done, because that is where it shown to be the most effective. After fourth grade on, there is very little — if any — effects.”

Angel said there’s no reason to spend $4 billion.

“What’s the benefit of that?” she said.

Angel noted the benefit would be hiring 15,000 more teachers at $1,000 a year in union dues.

“The union is the one who is going to benefit from that and not the students,” she said.

“Education already has issues with funding that we know we have to solve,” Angel said. “But right now, adding another $4 billion for no effect isn’t the way to go.”

Arbogast said she supports I-1351, but it wouldn’t be on the ballot if education was “fully funded.”

“This is a reaction to the lack of action by our Legislature,” she said.

Arbogast said the students are not a “one size fits all” and they have had many needs.

“The smaller the class size, more of the individual needs are met and the better the chance for those students becoming successful learners and successful citizens,” Arbogast said. “I am tired of the excuses for not fully funding education. The number one benefiter of fully funding is the students.”

She said Angel’s remarks about the unions benefiting from small class sizes and hiring more teachers miss the point.

“That bit about the union is crazy,” said Arbogast, a former president of the South Kitsap Education Association. “We need to serve our students and do it well. We need to let the teachers do their jobs, quit micro-managing and fully fund education.”

Her remarks drew applause from one person.

Schlicher said he supports I-1351, but struggles with the initiative because it doesn’t provide any funding mechanism.

“This the problem we have with our initiative process,” he noted. “I find it morally wrong to go to the voters and ask to spend money on things that have well intentions, but without paying for it.”

He said reducing class sizes is the “right thing to do” so that students will have an opportunity to learn.

“As we work to put kids with special needs and other challenges back into our everyday classrooms,” Schlicher said. “The idea of one teacher caring for 35 students is irrational. It’s twice as irrational when we put 8-9 special need kids back into that classroom. Those kids have a higher need.”

He said putting special need students back into the classroom is the “right thing to do,” but the state needs to find the resources to make sure all students can succeed.

Young, who doesn’t support I-1351, said he was shocked to hear his opponent — Schlicher — spend one minute talking negatively about I-1351, but supporting it anyway.

“That is the type of legislation that is hurting education,” he said.

“I can tell you the number-one message is for the Legislator to stop with the mandates. There are a lot of initiatives put in place to try and fund education, but have strings tied to them. They have been negotiated behind the scenes in the operating budget. It forces mandates on teachers that are eliminating their abilities to be flexible and respond to the needs of the local school district. We are handcuffing our teachers.”

He said I-1351 would force the Legislature into certain funding mechanisms without provisions.

Young said he supported funding the teachers’ cost of living adjustment (COLA), voted to reduce class sizes without raising taxes and stood against additional mandates regarding the principal-teacher evaluation.

Caldier said there are so many “un-met needs.”

“Why would we make promises to the public that we can’t fulfill?” she said. “That makes no sense. Before we make more promises we can’t fulfill, we need to properly fund education.”

She noted that after the Majority Coalition Caucas was formed, the state froze higher education tuition and there is more money going into the budget.

Caldier noted education kept her focus as a youngster in foster care and while a single mother attending college.

Seaquist said he was the co-sponsor of a bill that preceded I-1351.

He said more teachers in the classroom create creativity and cited Orchard Heights Elementary School as an example.

“Do we want more teachers in the classroom?” Seaquist said. “The answer is: Hell yes, and we want them right now. We want the adults in Olympia to figure out the ways through tax reform to fully pay every dime of that bill.”

Fixing the ferry system

Concerning issues involving the Washington State Ferries, Caldier said she is a ferry commuter and that state money is not being utilized as efficiently as possible.

“Before looking how to solve the problem, we need to figure out who is part of the problem,” Caldier said. “It a big and extensive problem that has been going on for many years.”

She noted that the state Legislature passed a law that made it so only one company is qualified in the state to make ferries.

“That company is a big corporation and charges two-and-a-half times more per ferry than any other company,” Caldier said. “Instead of us paying $32 million of a ferry, we’re paying $80 million.”

Caldier said the last ferry the state purchased cost $134 million with some design flaws.

“Who is part of the problem? A bigger corporation just happens to be one of my opponent’s top donors,” she said.

Caldier claims that her opponent — Seaquist — has voted 99 percent of the time with the “liberal Democrat Party,” despite his remarks about working in a “bipartisan manner.”

“He’s not representing our interest or our district,” she said.

“I have not heard that much baloney in weeks or since the last time we had a debate,” Seaquist said.

He said Caldier’s remarks about the ferry system are “hogwash.”

Seaquist said there is a “fine maritime industry in the state.”

“The problem is with the cost is not the shipbuilder. The problem is the bureaucracy in Seattle that has more than 400 executives who have anything to do with ferries,” said Seaquist.

He noted that last week he “pinned down” Gov. Jay Inslee on ferry issues. Inslee has placed a new executive director over the ferries.

Seaquist said that he helped create a West Sound Transportation Alliance for ferries, road repairs and bridge tolls.

“They are working together on an integrated transportation package so when we go into the next (Legislative) session, they got what we see needs to be fixed,” he said. “We haven’t been participating fully in the money that has been going to Spokane, Seattle or Vancouver.”

Schlicher said fixing the problems with the ferry systems will require “accountability, transparency and working together” to get it funded.

He said — while serving as state senator in 2013 — the Legislator was trying to save $6 million to keep the current ferry system and they proposed to cut ferry service in Bremerton after 9 p.m. and three runs from the Southworth ferry.

“Those were not viable for our community,” Schlicher said. “When you cut runs, you cut revenue.”

Schlicher said he met with ferry officials and went through the WSF budget and found several millions of dollars in savings.

He said if ferry rates are reduced it could help increase revenue if people see the ferries as a viable option for commuting to work.

Schlicher said that the WFS has one of the “oldest fleets in the world.”

“Our average age of our fleets is 60 years, before some recent ships were built,” he noted. “We got a lot of work to do.”

Young said there are two ways to tackle the problem — transportation as a whole and the ferry system specifically.

“One critical problem we’re facing is funding with regard to ferry services,” he said. “It’s always treated as an after-thought.”

He noted that King County “sucks most of the money” from the state’s transportation budget.

“When it comes to negotiating transportation packages, my starting point will be King County, who from here on out, will have to cover its own cost overruns for any of its failed initiatives and projects,” Young said.

He said he voted against this year’s supplemental transportation budget because “it ripped off our district.”

Young noted there were two cost overruns on King County’s 520 project which took money way from all other counties, except King County.

“The other projects were diminished in scope to pay for King County’s cost overruns,” he said. “We need to tell King County we’ll fund the projects you need, but not the cost overruns.”

Young said the transportation system needs to be overhauled and he would start with the design-and-built concept.

“The Department of Transportation needs to get out of the designing ferries,” he said. “We should have that contracted out and the contractors take the risk with the design, but they also take that the risk for the building and holding them to the contracts they signed.”

Young noted that he co-sponsored a bill with Seaquist to create maintenance and efficiency for the ferries.

“I also supported changes that would allow us to purchase ferries from outside the state,” he said.

Angel said the ferry system had been a problem for a long time.

“I hope the new directors of the ferry systems go through the department with a fine-tooth comb,” she said. “There are a lot of problems.”

Angel said the state needs to get out of the construction of ferries and have competitive bidding.

“I want to keep these jobs in Washington, but we must have competitive bidding to keep prices down,” she said.

She said there are new ferries coming, but the system needs to be revamped.

Arbogast said the state has a “fantastic” ferry system, but said the No. 1 problem with the ferry system is that it’s not included as part of the overall highway transportation fund.

“Ferry riders are expected to pay a majority of the cost of the ferry system,” she said. “When I go to Eastern Washington, I don’t pay extra for the roads to be cleared of snow. It is part of the highway system. Our ferries are part of the highway system.”

Replenishing Public Works Assistance Account

Concerning the reduction of Public Works Assistance Account (PWAA), Schlicher said there has been a “short-sided” approach toward budgeting.

“When we are taking dollars out of the capital budget, we’re basically binding us into a current obligation over a long period,” he said. “That makes no sense. We need to make sure we restore the Public Works Trust Fund so we can have local government getting critical infrastructure development that is important to our cities and citizens.”

Schlicher said funding the Public Works assistance account can be done by funding the operations budget and stop “ongoing capital sweeps out of the budget.”

He also noted that there are loopholes that need to be fixed.

“That’s what we can do if we get responsible leadership back,” Schlicher said.

Young said the state has an operational budget and a capital budget, but that education needs its own budget.

“One reason why it impacts local infrastructure spending because education is lumped into the operation budget,” said Young. “What you get is three-quarters of the time we’re down there, a majority of the representative are not involved in the leadership dealings of budget adoptions.”

He noted that Port Orchard hired a lobbyist to talk to Legislative members and “beg for money.”

“If you put education in its own budget so you can see where we are going to prioritize your spending for local infrastructure needs,” he said.

Caldier said the PWAA is a perfect example of “what has been happening over the past couple of decades with a Democratic-controlled House, Senate and governorship.”

“And that has been a slow attrition from the dollars that we pay going away for what they are designated for,” she said.

She said because of the controlling Democrats, funding was taken away from education and that caused the McCleary decision

“That caused the Supreme Court — placing my opponent in contempt — for not doing his job,” Caldier said. “He (Seaquist) likes to talk a lot about ‘hogwash’ — that is one bucket of hogwash.”

Seaquist said cities and counties go to the PWTF with projects that are evaluated by independent professional non-partisan staff and board.

“They decided which city and county projects are the most urgent,” he said. “It is a principle way in which cities and counties get their public works money. It is self-refilling, and the cities and counties repay these low-interest loans. It is an extremely valuable non-partisan program.”

He said the Legislature pretended to put money into education and took millions of dollars in construction money and put it in education.

“There are people in this election — including sitting up at this table — who like to use the phrase ‘fund education first,’ ” he said. “That is a little piece of politicians slight-of-hand that says, ‘Don’t worry, there’s plenty of money.’ Don’t buy that phrase and make sure you insist the Public Works Trust Fund is kept intact.”

Angel said she is a strong supporter of the PWAA because she knows the value of the program to a local community.

She said money was taken out of the PWAA to balance the state budget, but know the Legislature has to put the money back.

“It is what was promised,” Angel said.

She said there are no dedicated funds and Olympia doesn’t know what the word “dedicated” means.

“With the new Majority Coalition Caucus, we brought people together and the budget was passed on time with one ‘no’ vote,” Angel said.

“What we seen here today is what is wrong in Olympia,” Arbogast said. “We have people that see a choice of one way or the other. We need creative thinkers and problem solvers who will look at other options.”

Arbogast said some state systems, which rely on the most progressive taxes in the U.S., need to be reformed.

“Moving one fund to another, or having a dedicated fund doesn’t help increase the investment,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what the pot is called if you are not willing to make the strong votes and invest in the people of our community and state. We need to get creative and quit calling names. We need to work together.”

Arbogast said infrastructure in the community is important and will provide jobs.

“What people are concerned about are jobs and being able to afford to live,” she said.

Subtle jabs from candidates

During closing comments, Arbogast said she was a “person of action” and that some people might think she is a “little ADHD.”

“But it has worked well,” she said. “For 40 years, I have worked directly with people and serving the needs of our community. Working in the state Senate will be an extension of working for and with the people.”

Angel said she is not a “one-issue candidate” and that her life experiences can better help serve the district.

“Coming into a time when we have very tough mega issues, we must be very thoughtful, very strategic and we must be very focused about the decisions we make,” she said. “It’s going to be a difficult time and the experience really matters. I believe I have that experience to represent you.”

Seaquist said he was proud to have business donating to his campaign including shipbuilders.

“There are business interests in our state who are trying to hire graduates of our school system and know they can’t grow unless we grow them,” he said. “We have to spool up our education system, we have to fix our transportation system and get all that done in the next session.”

He noted the next Legislative session could be “one of the most important session in state history.”

“It’s time to put the slogans away and for the adults to go to work,” Seaquist said.

Caldier said that she never heard anyone that said Seaquist was “business friendly” — especially the Association of Washington Businesses.

“Most of my money comes from people,” Caldier said. “That is who I represent. My opponent — to date — has received about one-third of his money from people. That says a lot.”

She said she wants a leader who utilizes our tax dollars efficiently and a leader who represents us and does not vote 99 percent of the time with “liberal” King County Democrats.

Schlicher said he believes in the return of the “citizen legislator.”

“The idea that would work with your party or community and serve in Olympia,” he said. “It’s service, not a job.”

He said the difference between him and his opponent (Young) was the contact within the community.

“I work here, my wife works in Port Orchard,” Schlicher said. “We don’t work in California.”

“I find it odd that my opponent references that I work out of state, which isn’t completely true,” Young said. “Here it is the middle of the week and I’m working in this district. I’ll go back home and work from my home office.”

He said people who have “nothing else to say or no solutions” usually resort to personal attacks.

Young said he wants to make sure he gets jobs in the 21st Century for district residents.

“I see a lot of potential in our district,” he said.