Grays Harbor bills state for Discover Pass costs

[fireweed]

http://thedailyworld.com/news/local/county-sends-state-bill-unfunded-discover-pass-mandates

Interesting angle on Discover Pass.

[bigtex]

When the pass was enacted the fine money was split up like all other offenses. The following year the legislature routed all pass fine money to the pass account.

[bigtex]

State Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, says if the state refuses to pay the bill, the county always has the right to refuse to prosecute the infractions.

“Just because the Parks Service writes a ticket doesn’t mean the Grays Harbor Prosecutor actually has to push it through,” Blake said. “Why couldn’t the prosecutor put a hold on Discover Pass violations? That would reduce the county’s cost to nothing.”

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Apparently Rep Blake does not know that prosecutors do not handle parking citations......

[dreamunelk]

Have to admit I am enjoying watching the Grays Harbor county commissioners stick up for heir citizens.   Cormier (sp?), not a hunter, has been a champion for reasonable public access to private timberland's.  Commissioner Rains, while new, has stepped up for the  hunters and fishermen of the county also.  As for the other guy?  I am in support of the "any body but him campaign!  We have one county and one state representative (Blake) sticking up for hunters in this state.  Really don't have in issue with the Discover pass so long as it stays low and we benefit but,  I really respect them for challenging the issue!

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Rep Dean Takko D of Longview admits he hates the discover pass, but he voted for it.  Now why would you do a thing like that?

On a side note, The harbor I keep my gillnet boat in up in Alaska started charging us a $25 fee to park at the harbor which of course we all have to do when we head out for an opener. This was on top of the $1200 or higher a year we pay to moor our boats.  This went on for a couple years until a city council member who is also a fisherman started looking into everything and discovered that the price of the permit and all the fines they collected didn't come close to paying for the extra officer they hired just to patrol the parking at the two harbors. The city was actually losing money to collect parking fees and fines. That put an end to that nonsense.
 

[fireweed]

 

Have to admit I am enjoying watching the Grays Harbor county commissioners stick up for heir citizens.   Cormier (sp?), not a hunter, has been a champion for reasonable public access to private timberland's.  Commissioner Rains, while new, has stepped up for the  hunters and fishermen of the county also.  As for the other guy?  I am in support of the "any body but him campaign!  We have one county and one state representative (Blake) sticking up for hunters in this state.  Really don't have in issue with the Discover pass so long as it stays low and we benefit but,  I really respect them for challenging the issue!

Wes came to Cowlitz Co. public workshop to talk about what Grays Harbor was trying to do to rebut the timberland access fee.  He is an ex-employee of the assessor and knew a lot about the tax break details...but our county didn't have the guts to join the fight.

[darren]

Rep Dean Takko D of Longview admits he hates the discover pass, but he voted for it.  Now why would you do a thing like that?

On a side note, The harbor I keep my gillnet boat in up in Alaska started charging us a $25 fee to park at the harbor which of course we all have to do when we head out for an opener. This was on top of the $1200 or higher a year we pay to moor our boats.  This went on for a couple years until a city council member who is also a fisherman started looking into everything and discovered that the price of the permit and all the fines they collected didn't come close to paying for the extra officer they hired just to patrol the parking at the two harbors. The city was actually losing money to collect parking fees and fines. That put an end to that nonsense.

Businesses are pretty good at making those types of decisions (if it's losing us money, let's not do it). Funny how when you're spending other people's money that kind of thinking tends to be hard to come by.