By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@soundpublishing.com
POULSBO – Voters have a choice between two very different candidates for state representative from the 23rd District.
Sherry Appleton, a Democrat seeking a seventh term in the state House of Representatives, is a former Republican who served on the Poulsbo City Council in the 1990s.
Loretta Byrnes, a former Democrat, is a Republican and former agricultural programs manager overseas who reluctantly admitted she is supporting her party’s nominee for president (but she preferred Ohio Gov. John Kasich).
Education reform, government accountability, and coming up with revenue to meet court mandates were the leading topics in the candidates’ recent meeting with Sound Publishing editors and community advisory board members. And each had different approaches to those issues.
On state funding to meet court mandates on education and mental health: Appleton said she supports establishing a state income tax, lowering other taxes concomitantly, to make the state less dependent upon sales tax revenue, which she sees as volatile. But she doesn’t expect an income tax will ever happen.
Appleton supports closing tax exemptions, establishing a capital gains tax and eliminating the business and occupations tax so businesses can invest more money in growing, the thought being more business means more revenue.
“We’re not going to be able to meet the court’s decisions without extra revenue. In a sales tax-based economy, it’s just not going to happen,” she said.
Byrnes said the economy is getting better, so the revenue is there, pointing out that the state budget grew from $34 billion to $39 billion during the last legislative session.
“We need more efficient management and to stop wasting money on transportation projects that are not well managed,” she said at an earlier candidates’ forum. She said there needs to be better hiring of department heads, better human-resource management in state government and more fiscal responsibility.
On meeting the needs of people with mental health issues: The court penalized the state for not providing timely evaluation of and adequate care for people with mental illness; in many cases, people with mental illness ended up in jails. Appleton said reopening two wings of Western State Hospital made care available for 240 people, “but before we could do it, the state found us in contempt.”
Among the issues being addressed, according to Appleton: Western State is no longer accredited and there’s a lack of staff, she said. Some patients can get violent and staff members have to know how to deescalate situations.
The Medicaid Institutions for Mental Diseases prohibits the use of federal Medicaid financing for care provided to most patients in mental health and substance use disorder residential treatment facilities larger than 16 beds. Appleton wants that changed.
“That is silly, when you think of how many people in this state and country need help,” she said.
Regarding Western State, Byrnes said, “We need to look at management and make sure people are being held accountable for doing their jobs at all levels … and really understand what’s not working and make sure that it’s properly funded.”
Locally, “If [someone] is arrested for mental health issues, we need to make sure those services are available,” Byrnes said. “I’m not sure how much more money that’s going to take, but we need to look at why it’s not working now, and whether we’re using the resources that we have well enough, and make sure that we are and then increase funding.”
On education and education funding: Byrnes said she’s been concerned about the quality of education for a long time, but doesn’t believe the solution is more money. Education funding comprises 48 percent of the state budget, and funding is going up “dramatically” while growth in student population is not. She supports better salaries for teachers, but doesn’t support expanding education funding to include pre-kindergarten; the focus should be on K-12, she said.
“Last year was the first year that we provided all-day kindergarten for children in this state. We need to make sure that’s going well,” she said.
While research shows pre-K is useful in preparing children for elementary school, she said, she doesn’t think pre-K should be a required part of the educational system.
Byrnes also said students who are not performing well are being graduated to meet the state’s “obsession with a 100 percent graduation rate.”
Appleton said education spending has increased because of inflation, as well as teachers’ salaries and meeting the basic-education funding requirements of the McCleary decision.
She supports increased funding for pre-K and community colleges.
“Quite a few studies show that children are going into first grade not ready to learn,” she said. “A lot of this [preparation] is done in pre-K … We want to make sure every kid has an opportunity to advance. Preschool and community college are part of the whole spectrum. Kids need this.”
Not every child will go to college, but they should be able to go to a vocational school where they can learn a trade, she said.
“In the trades, they can make very good money. They still get an education, but it’s just [presented] to them differently.”
She added, “Running Start helps kids pay for college. It takes out those first two years. If they can graduate [from high school] with an AA, I see that as a good thing.”
On raising the minimum wage: Appleton supports an initiative that would raise the minimum wage to $13 an hour. She said she prefers a minimum wage of $16 an hour because that’s more of “a living wage.”
Byrnes doesn’t support raising the minimum wage by initiative, but does support a provision requiring paid sick leave.
“If we force a minimum wage increase, we’re going to require [businesses] to pay more when they are already having trouble hiring.”
On why they are running for state representative: Appleton said she’s running for another term “because I have the experience. I’ve been there for 12 years, and eight of those 12 years were really difficult because of the Great Recession. We had to cut a lot of programs and a lot of people were hurt. I want to go back and help to put us on the right path.”
In the next session, one of her priorities is universal health care. The Affordable Care Act doesn’t work for everybody, she said. But, “If you charge everyone $75 a month, you can afford health care,” she said. “If we have a healthy country, we can do just about anything.”
Byrnes said, “I’m running for office because legislators make policy that turns into government agencies and programs, and I want to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do. We have to hold government accountable and make sure our money is well spent. That’s not happening enough. I have the economic background and education. I’ve worked for state government — I know how it works. We need someone with a different perspective and more holistic solutions, especially with respect to education.”
CANDIDATES AT A GLANCE
The general election is Nov. 8. Members of the state House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms and receive $45,474 a year and $120 per diem.
Appleton was first elected to the state House in 2004. In the latest legislative session, she served as chairwoman of the Community Development, Housing and Tribal Affairs Committee, and member of the Public Safety and State Government committees.
Among the bills she sponsored this year: integration of treatment systems for mental health and chemical dependency; providing increased in-school guidance supports, housing stability, and identification services for students who are homeless; creating more protections for victims of sex crimes; providing court-based and school-based intervention and prevention efforts to promote attendance and reduce truancy; providing procedures for responding to reports of threatened or attempted suicide; developing a model policy on school infrastructure recovery after a natural disaster; providing for less restrictive involuntary treatment orders; and making the period of time that students are provided access to morning foods part of instructional hours if students are provided the opportunity to engage in educational activity while they eat.
Appleton sponsored the legislation that established Silver Alert in Washington, a public notification system in the United States to broadcast information about missing persons — especially senior citizens with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other mental disabilities — in order to aid in their being found.
“Sixty percent of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia wander,” Appleton said at a candidate forum in July. “We have been very successful in rescuing these people.”
Byrnes initially announced her candidacy for the position 2 seat from the 23rd District, but later chose to challenge Appleton. She is a former agriculture program officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and former program coordinator for CARE. She also worked as an economic analyst for the state. She chaired the Kitsap County Surface and Stormwater Advisory Board and ran for North Kitsap School Board in 2015.
