Watching our Liberties Exit Stage Left

Introduction

I am concerned over video justice whether it is red-light cameras, speed enforcement cameras, or video taping public areas for viewing by law enforcement. The idea of using technology to keep an ever watchful eye on American citizens wrong. Don't misunderstand my intentions, I am not against using technology to help a law enforcement officer do his duty, I am against technology in place of law enforcement officers. I am all for getting a warrant to legally do surveillance of a criminal suspect. I am all for police officers having video camera's in their police cars. I am against the continuous recording of public places on the off-chance it might catch a citizen doing something illegal.

I wrote two columns for the Daily News. Both columns are limited in the number of words allowed. I am posting both columns here in their original unabridged format. As it turns out both columns were written in March. The first in 2009 and the second in 2011.

In my second column I included several quotations from the OPC Guidelines for the Use of Video Surveillance of Public Places by Police and Law Enforcement Authorities. I like a lot of what it says.
Other links:
Washington State Constitution
Protests Against Surveillance Cameras
Ineffectiveness of Surveillance Cameras
Photo Radar Scam

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Column #1: Daily News, March 2009.

In October of 2008 the Daily News reported about placing video surveillance cameras in several locations around Pullman. If the cameras are installed we will watch our civil liberties exit stage left.

The proposal seems benign; however, it is anything but. We are told the video would only be recorded and saved for three to four days. The cameras, we are told, would not be monitored. This proposal brings to mind a quotation from Fakediploma.com in an article titled “Washington State Citizens Against National ID”.

Under the guise of safety and security you are asked to give up your most personal information to the government’s safekeeping. Using the governments favorite phrase ‘…the need to know’, we don’t feel the government has - the need to know - such personal information. The fundamental right to privacy is asked to give way in order to achieve the illusion of security.

Don’t mistake this proposal to be on the same level as video cameras in banks, convenience stores, and various other private businesses. The difference between the cameras the city wants to install and those in the above locations are great. The cameras would be on public streets. They would be controlled by the government.

I should be able to drive down the road, in a free country, without being monitored by my government. Our government was set up with the consent of those governed not the other way around.

Many people I have talked to believe that there is nothing wrong with putting surveillance cameras on Greek Row. But that is just the start. Mayor Johnson was even quoted as saying “this would just be the start”. As more funds are available more cameras can be installed. Soon they will be put into my neighborhood and your neighborhood.

Can we really believe that once the cameras are installed that they will never be monitored? According to an article in the Daily Evergreen, Mayor Johnson said the cameras would not be monitored, but only reviewed when a crime happened to try to identify those who committed the crime. But in the Daily News article it was pointed out the cameras could be viewed live the police in their patrol cars.

How long before the city decided that on major weekends the cameras should have someone watching them and dispatching police to suspicious activities? It probably would not be very long after that point of time that we have someone to monitor the cameras on all weekends. At some point, no doubt, there would be a call to expand the coverage of live monitoring of the cameras to include the whole week. We would need to hire some people to watch the cameras to report suspicious activities to the police. Your privacy would soon be in question.

The big issue with the government monitoring the cameras and possessing the cameras and recordings is that, unlike a convenience store, the government has the ability to impose sanctions on people. Those sanctions can be anything ranging from fines to jail time.

What happens when someone uses the freedom of information act to request copies of recordings? What if those recordings show something that you did, which was not criminal in nature, but one that was personal and embarrassing in nature? Could that cause damage to ones reputation?

During the arson fire it was pointed out we might have seen a car pass through the cameras and we could have had a possible suspect. What if you were the suspect? You will have to prove yourself innocent or risk being arrested. No alibi? That’s a problem. The police grill you as to why you were driving at three o’clock in the morning? This is a free country and you should be able to move around as you wish, no suspicion raised and no alibi’s needed.

The loss of personal liberties in the name of safety is not a fair trade off.

Scott McDonald, in the article “Uncle Sam Has All your Numbers“ poses a great point. The focus of the debate must be on liberty and freedom. The question must be: Does the government have any right, whatsoever, to maintain cameras focused on free citizens? The answer is “NO!”

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Column #2: Daily News, March 2011.
Imagine, if you will, this utopia. It is a place where there are no guns. Everyone has free food, health care, and a place to live. No one is forced to hold down a job. Everyone is safe from crime and there are cameras to watch every move that someone makes. Those cameras are monitored 24/7. Want to live there? We have such a place right here in Whitman County. It is called jail. Sure you are secure, but you surely don’t have any personal liberties.

Unfortunately, the idea of placing government-run video cameras around the city of Pullman has resurfaced. Mayor Glenn Johnson and Police Chief Jenkins both support this issue. I disagree with the government running broad reaching video surveillance against its free citizens.

A number of people who don't see a problem with video cameras bring up two points over and over. One point being that stores and banks use video how is this any different. I argue the difference between the bank and the government is the government has a direct ability to abridge freedom. Point number two revolves around the idea that if you are not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to hide.

Government monitoring its citizens via video cameras is not about hiding things; it is about our rights explicitly spelled out in the state Constitution. Article 1 Section 7 says in part "No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs... without authority of law". Just because someone enters a public space doesn't mean he forfeits his expectation of privacy. One cannot be searched just because he is in public.

An article discussing guidelines for the use of video surveillance by law enforcement in public places exists on the Website for the Office of Privacy Commissioner (OPC) of Canada.

"Video surveillance of public places subjects everyone to scrutiny, regardless of whether they have done anything to arouse suspicion. At the very least it circumscribes, if it does not eradicate outright, the expectation of privacy and anonymity that we have as we go about our daily business.

The medium’s very nature allows law enforcement to observe and monitor the movements of a large number of persons, the vast number of whom are law-abiding citizens, where there are no reasonable grounds to be capturing a record of their activities."

Human's change their behavior when they are being watched. Whether it is seeing a police car and letting off the accelerator when driving down the street or stifling one's own speech when someone approaches. These changes, as noted by the Website, started a business where people can buy faux cameras to make people change their behavior. The OPC's Website continues "For these reasons, there is good reason to believe that video surveillance of public places by the police or other law enforcement authorities has a chilling effect on behaviour—and by extension on rights and freedoms."

My last column came out in March of 2009. In those two years Pullman has neither become more dangerous nor crime ridden. Pullman still has issues with crime, as does every city, but we are not anywhere to the point where the movements of the citizens should be captured on video. "The problem to be addressed by video surveillance must be pressing and substantial, of sufficient importance to warrant overriding the right of innocent individuals to be free from surveillance in a public place." (OPA Website)

One person posed a question to me asking how it is different when a police officer is in public watching people and a video camera is in a public place watching people. The police officer is looking for a criminal activity taking place when he sees none he moves along. At some point in the future he will check back upon the area. A video camera on the other hand is constantly recording all citizens no matter what they are doing.

I would like to close with a final concept as written by the OPC. "Video surveillance of public places nonetheless presents a challenge to privacy, to freedom of movement and freedom of association, all rights we take for granted in Canada [and America]. This is especially true when the surveillance is conducted by police or other law enforcement authorities."

Please stop by http://palousitics.blogspot.com/ where you can read my previous column and this column both unabridged due to the limitation of space.

Pest-o-crats Reduced To Fighting Plastic Bags

So now we need a tax on plastic grocery bags? Fresh from having had their fannies handed to them in the Wal-Mart wars, Pullman’s cadre of professional pests have chosen their next futile crusade. They now argue that the town they desire to tyrannize would find itself improved by a new tax. These Pest-o-crats are following their masters in Seattle and San Francisco as they seek to enact a tax on shopping bags. I am not kidding.


The problem, as the Pest-o-crats see it, is that disposable plastic shopping bags are so inexpensive that consumers dispose of them. Once consumers come home with their purchases, they either discard that bag or save it to line their restroom garbage cans. And that is a market condition that Pest-o-crats would like to alter. If consumers were forced to pay 20 cents for each bag, then the great unwashed would choose to lug around those reusable fabric shopping bags. I have no doubt that National Public Radio looks forward to the day when they can reward contributors with NPR embossed reusable grocery bags.

Where would Pullman’s self-anointed elite get such an idea? If you think that it’s original, then you don’t know Pullman’s Pest-o-crats. The inspiration for all such thoughts arise from the most enlightened cities on Earth, Seattle and San Francisco. The Pest-o-crats are simply drones of the great collectives. Because Seattle and San Francisco are the centers of the cultural universe that has given us so much in the past, like grunge rock, drugs, AIDS, Nancy Pelosi and Patty Murray, it makes sense to the Pest-o-crats that the rest of us should bow before the great wisdom that animates these cities. We rubes, who inhabit the east side of the state, have demonstrated that we lack the sophistication needed to make the proper decisions and so we require west side wisdom.

Okay, I will allow that Seattle’s attempts to exert hegemony over Pullman is slightly less crude than Russia’s interference in the Georgian Republic, but the west side’s desire to extinguish cultural diversity throughout Washington is no less determined than Vladimir Putin’s. Seattle already selected our governor and elects our US senators. Seattle raises taxes on the entire state and decides how little of that is permitted to trickle over the Cascades to the east side. For that matter, west of the Cascades, east side is defined as the strip of land that lies between Lake Washington and the Cascades. I’m really not sure what term Seatllistas use to describe the fur-wearing barbarians who inhabit this side of the state.

Like all great imperial powers, Seattle benefits from the advantage of fifth columnists, or native traitors. In Pullman, the fifth columnists are composed of a cadre of moon barking professional pests who move from cause to cause in their quest to impose their vision upon those of us who simply wish the freedom to live our lives as we see fit. And now that they failed to dictate their retail shopping preferences, they’ve moved on to plastic bags.

Chuck Pezeshki, the philosophical guiding light of the Pest-o-crats, demonizes disposable plastic bags as “wind borne litter” and “hazards to wildlife.”

Judging by the waistlines of Pullman’s Pest-o-crats, it is quite probable that I spend a great deal more time out of doors than any of the Pest-o-crats and I’ve never seen a wild animal harmed by a plastic bag. As a volunteer who picks up trash along highway 195 as part the Adopt-a-Highway program, I don’t really encounter as many bags as Pezeshki’s logic suggests should be found out there. Beer cans outnumber plastic bags by a couple of orders of magnitude. The complaints against plastic bags are like global warming, all theory without data.

It’s worth noting that Pezeshki identifies his anti-bag crusaders as consisting “mostly of members of the WSU community.” In my own experience, such is the composition of most such movements because tenured university faculty are free from the burdens of productivity that hobble the rest of the world and that leaves them plenty of free time that they can devote to telling the rest of us how to live.

If we let them get away with this, the Pest-o-crats certainly have other Seattle ideas waiting for us. For example the Emerald City’s mayor would now like to close off much of downtown to automobile traffic on Sundays. This would make room for artists to decorate the streets with chalk drawings. Really!

Volunteers Needed for Petition Drive

Pullman Consumers for Choice is looking for volunteers to gather petition signatures opposing the proposed 20 cent plastic bag tax. The petition drive will be conducted at various locations around Pullman. The group is also looking for Pullman businesses willing to host copies of the petition within their stores. The petition will be presented to the Pullman City Council at the August 26 meeting. To respond by e-mail, click here.

In the meantime, you can also help oppose the new tax by sending an e-mail to Mayor Johnson the Pullman City Council by clicking here.

Some possible talking points are listed below:

20 cents is too little to make much of a difference to most shoppers, so most will go ahead and pay for plastic bags versus the inconvenience of purchasing and carrying reusable bags. Therefore, at a time of record-high food and energy costs, working families could end up paying about $400 extra annually, according to Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council, a group formed to promote the responsible use and recycling of plastic bags. And Pullman, as a community, will have little to show for it. Wealthy and middle-class won't residents be much affected, but it would be be an unfair burden on Pullman's less affluent citizens such as seniors and college students on a budget. With Americans now facing the steepest increases in food prices in nearly two decades, this is not the time to institute a new tax on groceries.

Senior citizens and less affluent residents will not be able to afford reusable cloth bags for shopping trips.

The 20 cent tax on plastic bags will hurt local Pullman businesses. Winco, Roasuers, Safeway and Wal-Mart, just 8 miles away in Moscow, will not charge for plastic bags. Pullman already suffers nearly $100 million a year in sales tax leakage to neighboring communities. Do we need one more reason to export dollars that could used for our parks, bike paths, and streets to another city?

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the new plastic bag tax in Seattle will cost $500,000 a year to administer. While this figure would be much smaller for Pullman, where in Pullman's cash-strapped budget would the additional money for a new government bureaucracy come from? Proponents of the new tax say the proceeeds will go to organizations such as area food banks.

Plastic bags don't litter, people litter. If this is such a big problem, why not just up the fines for littering or enforce existing littering regulations?

Article I of the Washington State Constitution reads: “All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.” Forcing individuals into making "correct" choices, therefore, is not the business of government. The number of Pullman residents possessing college and graduate degrees are, per capita, among the highest of any city in the country. Pullman residents are more than capable of making environmentally-conscious decisions on their own without intrusive (and costly) government mandates.

Eliminating plastic grocery bags will have major unintended environmental consequences. Taxing plastic bags will be a de facto paper bag mandate. Increased use of paper bags means an increase in environmental ills including air and water pollution, greater energy and water use and higher greenhouse gas emissions.

It is a complete myth that plastic bags are like "an oil slick on the land" and increase our dependence on foreign oil. Plastic bags are made from ethylene, a byproduct of natural gas. Unlike oil, which the United States currently imports an estimated 70% of, we produce 82% of our own natural gas. The remaining 18% is imported from Canada and Mexico. Manufacturing 100 million paper bags is equivalent to approximately 15,100 barrels of oil plus additional inputs from other energy sources.

Paper bags take at least a gallon of water to produce that bag, more than 20 times the amount used to make a plastic bag.

Most people choose whichever bag they are most likely to reuse, be it paper of plastic. The vast majority of people reuse plastic bags for household tasks like bagging garbage, picking up animal waste, and cleaning up messes. When denied these free plastic bags, consumers simply find them elsewhere. In Ireland, where plastic bags are taxed, sales of heavier plastic bags have gone up 400 percent and the overall amount of plastic resin used in Ireland has actually increased 10 percent.

In a landfill, paper bags, petroleum-based plastic bags and even biodegradable plastic bags share roughly the same fate. Modern landfills are managed for stability, not decomposition. Plastic bags can be better in a landfill because their compact size takes up the least space and, as opposed to biodegradable paper bags, they release zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Wal-Mart: What's Next? Part One

This is Part One of a series of articles that will explore what happens when a Wal-Mart Supercenter comes to town.

One of the first things that we can expect as construction nears an end is the opening of a Wal-Mart hiring center to process job applicants.

In Avon Park, FL, population 9,056, a new Supercenter is nearing completion. Highlands Today printed this story on June 25:

The temporary Wal-Mart Hiring Center had more than 2,000 jobseekers hoping to fill its 350 open positions in time for the new Supercenter's opening in August, according to one of the new Supercenter's co-managers.

Sherri Smith, who manned five other hiring centers in the Tampa Bay area, said she was "shocked" by the number of jobseekers that applied at the hiring center the past four weeks since it opened.
"It's a lot of paperwork," she said. "For being such a small town, I'm astounded in how many we're getting."

As Jason Furman, a strong supporter of Wal-Mart and Barack Obama's economic advisor wrote, a Harvard applicant has a higher chance of being accepted than a person applying for a job at that Wal-Mart.

So much for Wal-Mart being such a bad place to work.

Tomorrow: Wal-Mart and Neighborhood Businesses

Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

"Developer: PARD decision lets city 'move forward'; End of legal fight against Wal-Mart expected to hasten other development projects in Pullman"

In answer to the question, "Tom, why did you, April and the others fight so hard to see Wal-Mart come to Pullman?", native son and Pullman's biggest and most successful developer Duane Brelsford, Jr., says it all:

I'm not a pro-Wal-Mart person and I'm not an anti-Wal-Mart person. What I am for is what Wal-Mart will bring, and it's other national tenants, and that's what Pullman needs.

Kudos to Hillary Hamm for bring out the truth about the real "Wal-Mart effect" in Pullman. It's not "urban blight" and loss of business as PARD falsely claimed. It's new jobs, new tax revenue, and new opportunities. Her article details many of the exciting new things we can expect to see soon on Bishop Boulevard. What an exciting time for this city.

Stay turned next week for a series of reports on what we can expect to happen after Wal-Mart comes to town.

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Development projects that were on hold pending the outcome of a legal case against a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pullman now are on the fast track for completion.

Corporate Point Developers President Duane Brelsford said he's pushing to begin construction as early as this year on three projects around Bishop Boulevard, where the super center is expected to be built.

The Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development announced Wednesday it will not appeal a Washington Division III Court of Appeals ruling that clears the way for construction of the super center. The decision effectively ends the group's four-year legal fight against Wal-Mart.

A Wal-Mart representative said the company is designing the Pullman super center, with plans to open on Bishop Boulevard in late 2009 or early 2010.

Brelsford said he can start the projects that were dependent on the super-center being built.

"Most of our tenants were pending Wal-Mart's location," he said. "Now Pullman can move forward. And that's what I'm excited about."

Brelsford said it's about time projects can get started.

"I'm not a pro-Wal-Mart person and I'm not an anti-Wal-Mart person," he said. "What I am for is what Wal-Mart will bring, and it's other national tenants, and that's what Pullman needs."

Brelsford said pending projects include a 600-square-foot facility for a "national coffee chain" to be located adjacent to the Wal-Mart store and the development of 10 acres on South Grand Avenue for future retail, and possibly hospitality tenants.

Development of Pullman Building Supply also can get under way on a 15-acre plot near the Wal-Mart site. The new Pullman Building Supply store will replace its smaller store on North Grand Avenue. Pat Garrett, owner of both the Pullman and Moscow Building Supply stores, did not return calls for comment.

Brelsford said he's also aware of a California man who purchased land near the Bishop Boulevard Jiffy Lube for development pending Wal-Mart's construction.

City Supervisor John Sherman said Wal-Mart's construction is likely to spark further development. He added that the Pullman-Moscow area's population is expected to exceed the 50,000 mark in the 2010 Census and that Washington State University anticipates its highest freshmen enrollment ever in the fall. Those all are good signs for more development, as are the success of high-tech businesses like Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and Pullman Regional Hospital, he said.

"I think Pullman is just very, very well-positioned to attract more people here. And when you do that, it opens opportunities in the retail sector, too," he said. "All in all, I think the fact that Wal-Mart is coming in is going to be a major plus as far as providing more shopping for citizens and expanding our tax base."

Sherman said the Wal-Mart Supercenter - which will provide groceries and retail items - may help draw shoppers into Pullman rather than Moscow.

"The Palouse Mall has had a decades-long effect on Pullman," he said, noting that the number of stores in Moscow draws business away from Pullman.

Sherman said he doesn't expect Pullman to become a shopping metropolis, "but we can start to become a community that is more balanced in its economy."

"I think the future for Pullman is very bright," he added. "If Wal-Mart chooses to come to your community, it's pretty much a check-off point for other businesses. That's a good sign."

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It's Over. Time to look Forward

PARD has decided to stop holding Pullman hostage! I wish we could say we have heard the last from PARD. I always believe and stated on my radio show that they were an anti-WalMart group pretending to be something they were not.

They said they were more than just an anti-WalMart group. I have to believe, at least for a while, they will make some noise around town. But without WalMart to fight I believe their membership will drop to nearly nothing.

Pullman: 2008 Gubernatorial Election as Tipping Point

It is indisuptable that the renaissance in growth and development that Pullman has experienced in the last ten years is attributable in large part to Schweitzer Engineering Labs, Pullman's largest private employer and one of the most successful and fastest growing companies in America.

It is equally indisputable that policies implemented by the Gregoire administration, such as the reinstituting of the death tax and the new Department of Ecology stormwater regulations have hit Schweitzer hard, as well as the plethora of business-unfriendly regulations left in place by previous Democratic administrations such as the B&O tax, stringent unemployment and health insurance requirments, et. al.

The 2008 gubernatorial election for Pullman is not about how Gregoire has botched transportation problems on the west side of the state, or even so much the unaccounted for sex offenders, problems with the WASL or the $2.5 billion spending deficit Gregoire has run up, although those are important issues to be sure. No, our real issue is whether SEL continues to grow in Pullman and therefore whether the city of Pullman continues to grow and whether we continue to improve our quality of life, our schools, our parks, our streets, etc.

WSU will not be our savior. President Elson Floyd has already announced a hiring freeze and a 20% cutback in courses offered. And branch campuses in Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Spokane continue to grow at the Pullman campus' expense.

We tried to get rid of the death tax through I-920 (SEL is a privately held, employee-owned company; the death tax could be ruinous) but the teachers union and other left-wing groups spent millions on lies and fear tactics designed to shoot the measure down. We tried to stop Ecology from implementing the costly stormwater regulations, but they wouldn't listen.

The choice is clear. After 20 plus years of business-unfriendly policies in Olympia, it's time for change. It's time for Dino Rossi.

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Schweitzer Engineering Labs hitting hiring goals; Company officials say rising costs may push future growth out of state

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories is on track to meet its new hiring goals for 2008, but company officials say they're still trying to determine how much of the company's future expansion will happen in Pullman.

SEL Director of Public Affairs Susan Fagan said 249 people have been hired so far to fill positions ranging from engineers, manufacturers, pilots and administrators.

"Typically, we add new positions every week. I can give you a number (of open positions) now, but it will change by next week," she said, adding that many of the new employees are found locally. "We hire the most qualified people we can find, and we find a lot of those people right here."

She said "a majority" of this year's new hires now work in the Pullman headquarters, with others located at plants and offices throughout the world.

In February, the company reported that more than 300 new jobs would be available in 2008, most of which would be needed in Pullman. The news followed a fall announcement that a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility was to be constructed in San Luis Potiso, Mexico, primarily to make and assemble electronic relay panels and control houses. The expansion in Mexico also was expected to fuel growth on the Pullman SEL campus, as the high-tech components for the panels are designed, created and tested by workers in the company's Pullman headquarters.

Fagan said the company has grown continuously since its first product was sold in 1984, and SEL President Ed Schweitzer has indicated that employee numbers will double in the next five years.

But growth won't be confined to Pullman, as the cost of business is high in the state of Washington, especially in the areas of health care, unemployment insurance and business and occupation tax.

"The growth is going to happen here, but to what extent, we don't know," Fagan said, adding that the company has sent out other letters of interest to about 10 other states - including Idaho - inquiring as to whether they would support SEL growth through manufacturing plants or offices.

With roots in manufacturing parts used in generating electric power, the company has created products used in oil refineries, wind farms and high-voltage substations. Its products include clocks that are accurate to the microsecond, encryption equipment used to protect secure equipment and systems for the U.S. Navy that allow ships to run on electrical power rather than steam power.

SEL employs nearly 2,000 employees at more than 60 locations worldwide, and its products are used in 119 countries across the globe.

SEL Director of Corporate Marketing Mark Zeller said the company's Pullman presence will continue to grow. As demand for the company's products increase, the necessity to produce more parts will result in more new positions.

"There's no sense sending something out to China to be made if we can make it here," he said. "There's company growth all over the world, and we'll continue to pursue that, but Pullman is home."

Fagan said SEL is proud to be a Pullman-grown business, but Washington state mandates and requirements are providing hurdles. The company spends millions of dollars annually to provide health insurance to the company's more than 1,000 Pullman employees.

Fagan said the state of Washington mandates companies include a lengthy list of benefits within the insurance policies companies provide employees. That continually bumps up the cost of coverage even if those benefits are not needed by employees.

Fagan said unemployment insurance is also on the rise and the state's "death tax," reinstated by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is daunting. The impending citywide stormwater utility, which could cost SEL $20,000 a year for its roughly 800,000 square feet of impervious surface on its campus located off Terre View Drive, also is a point of contention.

"It's starting to look kind of burdensome, isn't it?" Fagan said. "We're looking at what the best move is for the company to grow. We're growing with great thought."

Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson said he does his best to stand up for local business to state leaders in Olympia. Johnson, who is secretary of the Association of Washington Cities - and slated to move up to the role of vice president later today - said he's vocal to Legislators about mandates such as municipal stormwater permits and taxes that "are burdens the state imposes that makes it difficult to recruit" and retain businesses. He added that the mandates are especially troubling to Pullman as a border community, since to save money, businesses could just locate in Idaho.

"We're trying to make that point very clear to our Legislators," he said. "I guarantee that they're all concerns. We hear them and we bring them to our Legislators."

Want Pullman to Get Hannitized?

Leo Udy, director of Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum, is seeking input on whether people would be interested in hearing conservative TV and radio talker Sean Hannity speak in the fall. Tickets would be in the $30s.

I think Sean needs to see John Streamas and David Leonard for himself.

Email Leo here and let him know.

Send PARD The Bill

It’s time to drive the victory home. With the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development still threatening to obstruct the construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter, both Wal-Mart and Pullman should step on their opponents’ throat and put an end to PARD and its meddling. In its effort to prevent the construction of a Wal-Mart in Pullman, PARD has lost city council elections and every legal appeal it has filed and has just about reached the end of the legal road. It’s time they paid the toll.

Just over a week ago, the State of Washington Division III Court of Appeals denied PARD’s latest effort to prevent the construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. In its decision the court wrote: “There is no evidence in the record that the proposed Wal-Mart is likely to have a significant adverse impact on the physical environment in downtown Pullman. The fact that some identified local businesses will compete with Wal-Mart does not support a conclusion of economic blight.”
If the court ruled on PARD’s complaint that building a Wal-Mart would attract “undesirable social elements” to Pullman, I did not read about it in any news reports. From my standpoint, Washington State University attracts enough undesirable social elements in the form of far left leaning faculty, such as those who formed PARD, but I wouldn’t oppose WSU’s expansion on those grounds.
The only legal option still left open to PARD is an appeal to the Washington State Supreme Court. The clock is ticking as PARD only has 30 days to file their appeal. Wal-Mart expressed confidence that the Court of Appeals ruling left no room for an appeal, but Wal-Mart and Pullman could preempt the possibility of yet another frivolous appeal without having to wait 30 days, by pursuing recovery of legal fees from PARD.
According to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jennifer Holder, the company is entitled to recover legal fees incurred during its nearly 4-year battle with PARD. If that’s true, then it makes sense to this legal layman that the City of Pullman could do so as well. At the last accounting I am aware of, back in 2006, Pullman had spent $20,000 fighting PARD’s appeals. That number has certainly gone far higher. And I would imagine that Wal-Mart has spent considerably more than Pullman. Presenting PARD with the bill would probably go a long way toward discouraging any further gratuitous trouble-making.
Considering that PARD’s members have so far managed to have their fun with little cost to themselves, taking a generous slice out of PARD’s hide would probably cool their enthusiasm for any further obstructionism. Wal-Mart is a savvy corporation that knows how the media would portray such a strategy. I can see it now: Here’s Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer turning its limitless resources against a small group of idealists who were only trying to protect their town’s identity. But, if the City of Pullman led the way, then Wal-Mart could simply piggyback its claims against PARD with Pullman’s. In fact, a strong case could be made that failing to recover its costs from PARD would constitute fiscal negligence on the city’s part.
PARD has not only forced Pullman and Wal-Mart to incur legal expenses, but its nearly 4 years of obstruction has cost Pullman a fortune in revenues that would have started pouring into the city’s coffers more than 2 years ago. In addition, the city has lost a considerable amount of indirect revenue that the increased indirect economic activity would have generated.
Pullman has suffered economically in another way as well. Unlike the sanctimonious snobs who stand in the way of Wal-Mart, most Americans, including those in Pullman care, about the prices they pay. As Mark Twain tried to explain in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” lowering prices is the same as putting more money in people’s pocket. Having a Wal-Mart come to town essentially gives everyone a raise by stretching their dollars.
PARD insists that it is not quitting just yet. And while PARD is still pondering whether or not to waste more taxpayer money on another appeal, PARD chairman T.V. Reed darkly hinted at, “other things, besides legal options.”
What does he have in mind – emulating Rachel Corrie by standing in front of a tractor? Earth First-like eco-sabotage?
Whatever nefarious schemes might be swirling around in the minds of the PARDners, I have little doubt that they would be calmed considerably were they presented with a six figure legal bill.

"Dino Rossi visits Pullman for breakfast; The Republican gubernatorial candidate spoke about what he believes the state needs"

Credit where credit is due. Christina Watts has one of the best write-ups of Dino's Pullman visit in today's Summer Evergreen. I'm glad she noted the presence of Rep. Joe Schmick at the event. We need Joe and a lot more Republicans like him in the state legislature if Dino is going to reform Olympia.

Dino Rossi wants to bring customer service to the state government. He told a group of approximately 50 supporters it was time to start treating state citizens like "customers, not nuisances."

The Republican nominee for governor met with Pullman residents Tuesday morning at the Schweitzer Event Center to give an update on his campaign and to share his goals for the state, if elected. Ed Schweitzer, founder and president of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, hosted the event. He said it was a pleasure to contribute to part of the political process.

"I got to know (Rossi) when he decided to run for governor four years ago and I really respect him," Schweitzer said. "I wanted to hold this breakfast so a lot of people in our community could get to know him."

Schweitzer said he supports Rossi for governor because he's fiscally conservative and politically moderate.

In addition to making the state more customer service oriented, Rossi said he wants to turn Washington into an entrepreneurial state.

"I want Washington state to be the worst place in America to be a criminal, and the best place to start a business," he said.

Rossi also spoke about revamping the state budget. He said Gov. Chris Gregoire turned a surplus in the budget into a deficit, calling her policies, "fiscal insanity."

"You can be fiscally conservative and still have a social conscience," Rossi said. "They are not mutually exclusive."

Though the election is several months away, Rossi said his campaign has already surpassed last year's numbers for volunteers and contributions. He hopes to run a campaign where he'll compare and contrast what incumbent Gregoire has done with what he wants to do.

He said he has proposed nine major projects, including an "ambitious" road congestion plan, and has been endorsed by five labor organizations, including the King County Police Guild, for his positions on public safety.

Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, attended the morning meeting with Rossi. He said he is supporting Rossi in the upcoming election because the state needs fiscal responsibility.

"It's always exciting," Schmick said. "I'm very glad that (Rossi) sees the importance of Eastern Washington."

Rossi ended the event by telling those gathered that they will have a tangible choice for their next governor.

Rossi told those present to encourage everyone they knew to vote. He said the myth that King County decides the election is untrue, and that Eastern Washington votes matter.

"Rarely in life do we ever get a second chance at things that are truly important," he said. "With the race for governor, Washington state gets a second chance."

"Rossi has high expectations for his second try; Republican who narrowly lost 2004 governor's race visits Whitman County"

The latest SurveyUSA poll has Dino up 10 points in Eastern Washington and down by that same margin in the metro(natural) Seattle area.

From today's Lewiston Tribune:

PULLMAN - If a snowball has a chance in June, then Republican Dino Rossi said Tuesday he as an even better second chance in November's Washington state gubernatorial election.

"Definitely better than that," said Rossi while making a campaign swing through Whitman County amid a freak mid-June snowfall. "It's remarkable where we are."

Rossi, who lost to Democrat Chris Gregoire in 2004 by 129 votes, said prior to a noon Pullman Chamber of Commerce luncheon that he and the incumbent are in a "statistical dead" heat.

"Last time I started with a 12 percent name identity statewide. Most everybody thought Dino Rossi was some kind of wine at that point. A cheap wine at that," Rossi said, using what has become a routine campaign line.

Today, Rossi said, he again enjoys strong backing on the east side of the state and what he called an "amazing" surge on the west side.

"It's not just Republicans," Rossi said. "Last time we had tens of thousands of Democrats who crossed party lines and we called them Dinocrats." Those same crossover voters are back, Rossi insisted, and they're bringing friends to the polls.

"We're in a position to win."

Rossi dismissed the notion Gregoire might benefit from more Democrats voting because Barack Obama has energized the party on a national level.

"I don't know if she (Gregoire) actually thought it through when she endorsed Barack Obama and brought the change message to Washington State," Rossi said, adding Democrats have been in charge since he was in grammar school. "It's been 28 years since we elected a Republican."

Politics in Olympia almost changed in 2004 when Rossi, a state senator from Sammamish, resigned his seat, ran against Gregoire and was initially declared the winner by 261 votes. A mandatory recount showed he still won, but only by 42 votes. After a third count, done by hand, Gregoire was declared the winner by 129 votes.

"Sixty-five percent of the people who are new to the campaign this time are people who wanted me to win, but didn't vote," Rossi said. "They've been kicking themselves ever since."

Republican leaders in Washington sued over the 2004 election results, but a judge upheld the Gregoire victory. Rossi decided to not appeal to the state Supreme Court and instead announced last October his intention to challenge Gregoire again in 2008.

"Fiscal responsibility is going to be a very big issue," Rossi said, adding he plans to challenge Gregoire's handling of the purse strings in the arenas of spending and tax increases. "People understand exactly what I'm trying to do."

He said his experience as a state senator in 2003 helping erase a budget shortfall without raising taxes puts him in good stead with where he wants to lead the state as governor.

"I want Washington state to be the worst place in America to be a criminal and the best place in America to start a business," Rossi said. He said he plans to gear his administration around encouraging entrepreneurs to invest in a business-friendly state where tax revenues can increase without tax increases.

"Anyone who thinks you aren't sending enough money to Olympia, don't feel guilty because you are sending enough money," he said, accusing his opponent of allowing reckless spending.

Rossi was introduced at the noon luncheon, but did not speak. He made a number of stops earlier in the morning and was scheduled to tour the new Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory building here, sit down informally with Whitman County officials and otherwise spread his message.

"Rossi says he'd be tough on crime, easy on business"

More on Dino Rossi's visit to SEL from KLEW TV below. Click here to find a link to a video report on Dino's visit.

PULLMAN - He lost by just 129 votes the last time around. Now, Dino Rossi is geared up and ready to try once again to become Washington's governor.

Tuesday, the Republican candidate visited Pullman, talking to locals and visiting the city's industrial park. Rossi said his family has lived in Washington for over 100 years, and now he has big plans for his home state.

"I want to turn Washington state into an entrepreneurial state," he said. "So, if people have a product or service that someone else wants, they want to risk their family's entire financial future, I want them to think of Washington state as the place to go."

Rossi toured the manufacturing building at Schweitzer Tuesday. He said so far, he has met with great success in his campaign.

"We are so far ahead of where we thought we would be at this point in time," Rossi said. "Last time, we had maybe eight people volunteer in the first week of the campaign in '04. This time, we had a thousand people over the website. We've almost caught up to the incumbent with cash on hand and we did that in six and a half months, what took her three and a half years to do. I haven't called a single lobbyist, it's all real people."

Rossi said he won't forget about the eastern side of the state if elected and that east-siders have the power to sway an election.

"Seattle is only nine percent of the state’s population," he said. "Eastern Washington is about 22 percent of the state's population. Twice as big. You've got the tail wagging the dog first off, but here's the problem - 84 percent of the people who were registered to vote in Seattle showed up and voted. In central and eastern Washington, it was 80 percent. That four percent doesn't sound like much, but that's another 23,000 more votes that could come from central and eastern Washington. And, you folks over here could control every single election if you want to."

Rossi said he has an easy to remember phrase about his run for governor.

"I want to make Washington state the worst place in America to be a criminal and the best place in America to start a business," he said. "How about that?

"Rossi says E. Washington voters can sway election; Republican hoping to unseat Gregoire pays visit to Pullman"

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi said eastern Washington voters have the power to trump the "Seattle ship" [Dino actually said "Seattle chip," as in getting it off our shoulders - tf] and decide the outcome of the state's general election in November.

Rossi told business and community leaders at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman this morning that the key is increasing turnout.

The numbers are simple: Seattle has 9 percent of the state's population, while eastern Washington accounts for 22 percent. In Seattle, 84 percent of registered voters participated in the 2004 governor's race, compared to 80 percent in eastern Washington. Rossi said that 4 percent difference could have swayed the election that he lost by less than 1 percent.

"You folks can control every single election if you want to," Rossi said. "Don't let anyone tell you your vote doesn't count."

If elected, Rossi said his priorities will include changing the culture and direction of the government.

Rossi said he would like to see the government treat Washington residents like valued "customers," rather than "nuisances."

He criticized Gov. Chris Gregoire for irresponsible and unchecked spending that has amounted to a 34 percent increase in the state's budget since taking office. Rossi added the state's spending growth rate is 2.5 times that of its revenue growth rate.

That spending has meant $500 million in new taxes, Rossi said. He also suspects Gregoire will push for a state income tax.

"She's going to raise taxes again and it doesn't matter what she says," he said.

Rossi said being fiscally responsible doesn't mean social services like those for the elderly and disabled will be neglected.

"It's possible to be fiscally conservative and still have a social conscious," [sic] Rossi said.

The economy also is a looming issue. Rossi said "there's more to the business climate than Microsoft and Boeing."

He would like to see the state become a destination choice for entrepreneurs and their new businesses. However, Washington currently has one of highest small business failure rates in the nation. That, coupled with high workers compensation and unemployment rates, prevents many businesses from locating in the state.

"All of these things are killing the next Bill Gates and Boeing. It doesn't have to be that way," Rossi said. "I want to turn Washington state into an entrepreneurial state."

Rossi said Olympia politics too often are driven by "squabbling adults" [i.e. the teachers union - tf] rather than common sense and what is right for the state's residents. He cited a $13 million education grant the state lost because officials couldn't agree how to spend the money.

"We are not doing what is in the best interest of the children," he said.

The general election will give Washington voters a chance to change the state's course that was set in 2004.

"Rarely in life do we ever get a second change at something that is really important, but with this race Washington state gets a second chance," Rossi said.

Washington's primary elections are Aug. 19, and the general election is Nov. 4.

Video of the Fire This Morning at Clarke Terrace Apartments

Pictures of the Fire This Morning at Clarke Terrace Apartments

One of my co-workers and his girlfriend had to jump from the second-story. My prayers go out to them both and all the other people made homeless by this fire. My family used to live in that apartment complex a few years ago.

UPDATE: Another SEL employee and their family was made homeless by this fire. Ed Schweitzer has made arrangements for temporary housing for both SEL employees and we are collecting donations within the company for clothes and other items they lost in the fire.

My co-workers's girlfriend is in a Spokane hospital with broken bones.

BREAKING NEWS: Fire at Clark Terrace Apartments in Pullman

As I drove to the Dino Rossi event this morning, I noticed a huge structure fire at Clarke Terrace Apartments on NW Terre View Drive in the north end of Pullman. The building is completely engulfed.

I pray there are no injuries. More later, including pictures.

"Paying a 'hidden cost'; Pullman residents lead effort to charge 20 cents per plastic bag"

Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki stated in a recent comment on Dnews.com that Pullman was the most "anti-intellectual" town he had ever seen.

Is Pullman sui generis? Or is the antipathy he observes the result of the meddling efforts by Chuck and his liberal academic chums to introduce envirofascist Nanny Statism into Pullman, such as a tax on plastic bags modeled after what Mayor Greg "Hugo Chavez" Nickels has attempted in Seattle?

I'll have much more on this later as I contemplate mounting a counter-effort to shoot this absurd proposal down.

From Friday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Liz Siler counted 22 discarded plastic shopping bags during a recent drive through College Hill in Pullman.

Some bags were caught in trees, while others were lying on lawns or blowing in the street.

"None of those bags were obtained with the idea that it was going to end up on the side of the road, but that's where they end up," Siler said.

Siler is among a group of Pullman residents who want to cut back on the use and distribution of plastic bags. Nearly 80 community members have endorsed a proposal that stores be required to charge 20 cents for each plastic bag dispensed inside city limits.

Plastic bags used for unpackaged items, such as produce, would be exempt from the fee.

The group recently submitted the proposal to the Pullman City Council for consideration, with the goal of having an ordinance go into effect Jan. 1.

Siler said in place of plastic bags, shoppers could get into the habit of keeping reusable bags tucked in their car.

"We're not trying to make things harder for people," she said. "We're trying to make things easier."

The proposal shouldn't be viewed as elitist, said Pullman resident Chuck Pezeshki. It will encourage change and show that residents respect and care for their community.

Though the commonly used bags are compact and currently free, Pezeshki said "there's a hidden cost for society" because many recycling facilities - such as WSU Recycling and Pullman Disposal Inc. - no longer accept the bags.

"If we can't recycle, we've got to reduce and reuse," he said, adding that lightweight bags can travel quickly through the wind or waterways.

The bags are made from petroleum and do not biodegrade, Pezeshki said. In fact, the plastic bags "photodegrade" in the presence of light, meaning they break into tiny pieces and can be eaten by animals. The bags also pose risks to animals that can become entangled in them.

"It's basically spreading petroleum all over the landscape," he said. "When you use a plastic bag, it's like an oil slick all over the land."

Siler said the idea to limit plastic bag use isn't new. She points to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' recent proposal to charge a "green tax" on disposable shopping bags, and added that San Francisco and communities throughout Alaska have banned the bags entirely. Ireland and China recently took similar action.

The Pullman group points to statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency to justify its cause - 4,630 tons of plastic bags, wraps and sacks were generated in the United States in 2006, of which only 8 percent were reused. The EPA also reports that a family of four uses about 1,500 bags per year.

Siler said the group has met some opposition from a few community members who are concerned they would have no way to pick up their pet waste or line garbage cans without plastic bags.

"No one's saying you can't have plastic bags," Siler said. "You're just going to have to pay for it."

Trev McCuaig, manager of Dissmore's IGA in Pullman, said the store is making strides to reduce plastic waste. Customers who want plastic bags get them, but there are other options. Inexpensive cloth bags are sold at the register, and many customers are eager to pick one up.

"Since we brought those in ... I think we've sold 700 to 800," he said. "I think there are a lot more people that are conscientious."

The store also uses recycled bags when they're offered by the supplier, and all plastic waste generated at the store is baled and sent to a recycling company in Spokane. McCuaig said the store also plans to set up a plastic bag recycling bin.

"There are things that we do at store-level to try to help out," he said.

Siler said the profits from bag fees could go to the Pullman Food Bank, which relies on the bags to package foods for area families. She suggests the money could fund an alternative method for the food bank to distribute food, or go to community beautification efforts.

City Supervisor John Sherman said the city frequently gets proposals and suggestions for change. They are forwarded to the City Council which ultimately decides whether the issue is discussed further.

Sherman said Councilman Bill Paul recently expressed interest in discussing the plastic bag fee proposal publicly, and the topic is scheduled for the council's Aug. 26 meeting. The delay is intended to allow interested residents who may be out of town for the summer to participate in the conversation.

Hometown Hero

Michael Baumgartner just ended a 13-month tour in Iraq as the deputy director of economics in the Office of Joint Strategic Planning and Assessment under U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Michael's parents are Dee Baumgartner, a long time kindergarten teacher at Franklin Elementary, and Dave Baumgartner, a WSU Extension Service forester.

He visits a couple of times a year, especially to see the WSU Cougars play basketball.

There is a great column in the Boston Globe about Michael. This is my favorite quote from him:

Refighting the 2003 political battles does little to address the essential questions surrounding how we now get Iraq far enough down the path to stability so that we can withdraw. The 2003 issues are largely a distraction and have little to do with what our all-volunteer military and civilian force is doing to try and bring the Iraqi people peace.

Amen. Thanks for your service, Michael, and the truth.

Eco-Terror Strikes Pullman

Take impressionable young minds. Add extremist rhetoric from left-wing professors. Shake well.

Graffiti today, arson tomorrow.

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Vehicles spray-painted with graffiti in Pullman

Graffiti was found on nine large vehicles in Pullman early Saturday morning, linking them to global warming.

Pullman Police Sgt. Dan Dornes said SUVs, trucks and vans in the parking lots of Campus Commons South, Boulder Creek and Cedar Ridge apartment complexes were spray-painted with the words "gas hog." A vehicle owner reported the first incident at 6:19 a.m. Eight other vehicles were found shortly thereafter.

Dornes said fliers about global warming also were affixed to the vehicles.

Anyone with information about the incidents is encouraged to call police at (509) 334-0802.

Red Stormwater Rising

Well, I hope the envirocrats at the Department of Ecology are happy. Their inane stormwater permitting is going to hurt Pullman's two most successful private businesses: Duane Brelsford, Jr.'s Corporate Pointe Developers and SEL. In fact, SEL now says it is reconsidering any further expansion in Pullman. Pullman immune from the national economic slowdown? Not for much longer....

The next time Dino Rossi is in Whitman County, we will have to plead our case to him and hope that he will provide some relief when he is (re)elected governor. It's for sure the Queen will never help us.

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

PULLMAN: Stormwater costs discourage businesses

Corporate Pointe Developers, SEL among those who will have to pay the most

Duane Brelsford doesn't have much to say about Pullman's proposed stormwater utility ordinance.

The Corporate Pointe Developers president may be one of those hardest hit by the ordinance, which will charge stormwater fees to businesses and home owners within city limits.

"What can I say? We actually don't have a say," he said. "The state imposes it on the city and the city imposes it on people with impervious surfaces. No one has the money to handle this."

The fees are expected to be based on outdoor impervious surfaces, which means that Brelsford's more than 5 million square feet of property - which includes about 1,600 living units and retail spaces such as the Pullman Athletic Club and Fireside Grille - could cost him as much as $100,000 a year in fees.

Pullman leaders are drafting the ordinance that likely will be implemented by Oct. 1. Stormwater Services Manager Rob Buchert said the new utility is the city's most realistic option to recover the costs associated with the Washington State Department of Ecology-issued municipal stormwater permit. The permits were issued to municipalities throughout the state in 2007 and are designed to manage the quality and quantity of runoff from development and to control stormwater discharge into area waterways.

Buchert said the city needs to bring in about $800,000 per year to pay for costs associated with the five-year permit, estimated at about $4.4 million. The utility fees will help create a new arm of the city maintenance department to oversee the nearly 1,000 stormdrains and roughly 80 pipes that discharge stormwater into area waterways and will help create a savings account to pay for costs associated with the second permit cycle, which is to begin in 2012.

Consultants aiding the city in drafting the ordinance have taken aerial photographs to calculate an estimated fee structure. They have estimated that single-family homes in Pullman have about 3,500 square feet of impervious surfaces on average, and that figure has been determined to be one equivalent billing unit at a cost of a proposed $7 per month.

For developed nonresidential property, the square footage of impervious surface would be divided by 3,500 to determine the number of billing units. Impervious surfaces include the asphalt in parking lots and roofs on structures, which do not allow water to penetrate, causing untreated runoff to stream into area waterways.

Susan Fagan, director of public affairs for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, finds the proposed ordinance discouraging, considering the company takes measures to prevent stormwater pollution and employs the best management practices for every construction project on its Pullman campus.

"We have done a lot of stormwater pollution prevention. We care about the environment in which we operate and we care about the environment in which we live ... but this seems like overkill," she said.

Fagan said SEL owns 800,000 square feet of impervious surface, and the company could have to pay an annual stormwater utility fee of about $20,000. That additional cost could mean the company may rethink ideas to build further facilities on the campus. SEL's most recent plans included construction of a hotel to complement the SEL Event Center built in 2006.

The proposed ordinance "certainly causes us to pause and question whether we would expand in Pullman," she said. "Expansion means growth and jobs and investment in our community. And when it becomes unreasonable ... responsible businesses are going to give a lot of thought to whether or not they should expand. Every square foot you pave or put a building on, or create some impervious surface, you'll be punished."

Fagan said the costs likely will be passed on to consumers of the company's high-tech products.

"How does any company recover its costs? Either you suck it up and absorb it, or you pass it on to your customers. And anytime there's added expense, it's obviously going to impact our customers," she said.

Brelsford agreed. He said rental rates on his dwelling units likely will go up, and he'll also have to charge more to his retail renters, which will likely result in increased costs to their customers.

"All the costs will be passed on. It'll increase the cost of living in Pullman, which is already high," he said. "Will the market support that added debt? That's the challenge."

Living Faith Fellowship Administrator Tom Weaver said the church doesn't have the convenience of passing the cost onto customers. He estimates the church may be required to pay roughly $6,500 per year in stormwater utility fees for its worship facility and private Pullman Christian School.

"We're a nonprofit," he said. "It would be a tremendous burden. We're all for clean water and all for being responsible citizens ... but the fees and taxes will be a huge burden that we didn't plan for."

Weaver said the congregation has been financially supportive of the church, but asking more of them would be tough. Raising tuition at Pullman Christian School is a last resort.

"We have to face it when it comes," he said.

Buchert said credits on stormwater fees likely will be available, though they're limited for now. The draft ordinance allows a 20-percent credit to entities that have a National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System, which is a permitting system under the federal 1972 Clean Water Act. Only four entities qualify for the credit - the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, UPS and the city transit and sewer treatment plant. Washington State University, which was issued a municipal stormwater permit as a secondary permittee, also will receive a 20-percent credit.

Credits of as much as 20 percent will be granted to commercial or industrial businesses that harvest rainwater, most commonly used for landscape irrigation. The credit will only apply to impervious surfaces the water is harvested from, such as rooftops, and does not apply to home owners at this time.

Buchert said schools throughout Pullman - both private and public - will be eligible for credits of as much as 20 percent for participating in stormwater or surface water education.

"To get there, we have to justify to the other ratepayers and pretty much the state auditor that the schools are providing services that are equal or greater than the fees," he said.

Buchert added that not only home and business owners in Pullman will be responsible for utility fees. The city itself will also fork over money for its impervious surfaces, though streets are exempt since they'll be considered part of the stormwater facility.

"It's very important that everyone pays, even the city," he said. "We're asking every community member large and small to help us participate in this and participate in being in compliance."