Six 47th Legislative District candidates discuss key issues

Six candidates for the 47th Legislative District shared their stances about key issues at a Covington Chamber of Commerce forum.

The candidates spoke Oct. 3 at the Real Life Church in Covington about their backgrounds and their ideas to better serve their district in a Q&A-style event.

Bill Boyce, R-Kent, and Claudia Kauffman, D-Kent, are the State Senate candidates; incumbent Debra Entenman, D-Kent, and Kyle Lyebyedyev, R-Covington, are the State Representative Position 1 candidates; and Shukri Olow, D-Kent, and Chris Stearns, D-Auburn, are the two candidates for State Representative Position 2.

The forum was moderated by Pat Hanis of Hanis Irvine Prothero and the chamber’s Executive Director Dana Neuts. After opening statements, candidates were each given time to answer three questions that are of concern to voters in the 47th district such as transportation and taxes. The final question of the evening touched on crime, homelessness, drug addiction and mental health issues.

King County Elections mails ballots Oct. 19 for the Nov. 8 general election.

Transportation

In terms of ideas to improve the transportation systems, each candidate tackled different aspects of the topic. Boyce, a Kent City Council member, spoke of road congestion, cooperating between “both parties” and building more roads while Kauffman — who was on the Senate Transportation Committee when she served in the Senate from 2007 to 2011 — talked about infrastructure to create safer roads for pedestrians and cyclists, and referenced policies that would eliminate emissions.

Entenman, who is currently on the Senate Transportation Committee, spoke of the lack of staffing and funding for ferries and a need for fixing bridges, a sentiment that Lyebyedyev agreed with. Lyebyedyev also talked about alleviating traffic by expanding roads and freeways.

Olow’s answer on transportation was to compare the current state of public transportation to 25 years ago and the improvements made, while emphasizing that she would continue to bring transportation funding to the 47th district for better accessibility. Stearns’ focus was more on repairing roads, installing safety cameras to reduce speeding and his work to promote the sale of electric and hydrogen vehicles.

Taxes

When asked about taxes, Stearns talked about reforming the “regressive” tax system and wanting to increase taxes on the extremely wealthy but, due to his family’s small business background, not wanting to increase taxes on working people or working families. Stearns, an Auburn City Council member, left the forum early to vote on an amendment at the Oct. 3 Auburn City Council meeting.

Olow also talked about family business, specifically her mother’s small childcare business, and spoke of the current tax structure being “inaccessible” to many people, including immigrants, families and the elderly.

The forum shifted once Lyebyedyev talked about the effect COVID-19 has had on small businesses, saying he would not support any tax increases in the state, along with his plans to drop 1% of the sales tax and the gas tax altogether.

Lyebyedyev claimed a surplus of “$15 billion extra laying somewhere in Olympia” should be used to bring more business opportunities to Washington, a statement that Entenman pushed back on and Boyce added on to.

Entenman talked about supporting a capital gains tax before addressing Lyebyedyev’s surplus statement.

“We do need to think about changes to the B&O tax for some of our small businesses,” Entenman said. “But we cannot afford a tax holiday that will quickly eat up what some people believe is a surplus, but actually is money that we have to spend on things like building another mental health facility because currently we are being fined daily by the federal government for the lack of adequate care people like Western State hospital. We are all covering that bill right now.”

When it was Boyce’s turn to talk about taxes, he added an additional $2 billion (and more) to Lyebyedyev’s surplus statement, saying that he wants to put a freeze on raising taxes and giving money back to “the people and the businesses while they’re hurting.”

Kauffman’s response after Lyebyedyev and Entenman was to emphasize that she believes that if tax cuts are to happen, that social services should still be preserved. Kauffman’s take on taxes in the state also centered around providing property tax relief to working families instead of “big developers” and increasing the income threshold “for the disabled, for veterans and for seniors.”

Crime, police and homelessness

The final question proved to be where most of the candidates agreed. Each candidate noted the need to provide housing, with Lyebyedyev suggesting to look toward the private sector to provide housing while Boyce spoke about providing treatment to homeless people before moving them to homes. Olow spoke of her own experience with homelessness as a refugee in the 1990s.

The remaining candidates also spoke about police and law enforcement agencies in reference to crime. Olow mentioned being a “thought partner with law enforcement” as Entenman talked about a need for communities and officers to be safe while police are held accountable. Lyebyedyev said he believed crime would decrease if the police force was strengthened.

Boyce and Kauffman also referenced accountability, with Boyce adding that police officers are leaving the state because of the state’s new “No Pursuit Law” which only allows police to make high-speed pursuits under limited circumstances as Kauffman supported increasing pay for police officers.