Bill would shut down Fish & Wildlife, Parks and fold them into DNR (updated)

A bill introduced by Sens. Rodney Tom, Phil Rockefeller and Paull Shin would close the Department of Fish and Wildlife and state Parks Department and fold them into the Department of Natural Resources.

I just talked to Sen. Tom about the bill. “This is at least $10 million worth of savings a year,” he said. The savings is from a combination of personnel and operations — ending leases on the duplicate buildings.

Tom said they decided on the plan — which is stronger than reforms proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire — after using a computer program to map out all the office locations for the three agencies. He said they realized there was an awful lot of overlap, particularly with land management.

He said the same functions of the three agencies will be retained, but they’d be doing the work in fewer buildings and with fewer people. “A prime example is Mt. Si. Half the people think it’s a park,” he said. “We need to start looking at things from the standpoint of citizens,” he said — they want to see real reform, not “rearranging chairs.”

“Government can’t be this self-perpetuating machine,” he said.

He reiterated something he told me last week — that closing boards and commissions to save 3,000 is .00001 percent of a solution to the $2.8 billion budget. “I need 9,000 of those.”

I just heard a response from Sen. Joe Zarelli on the issue. Here’s what he said in an e-mail: “I am all for structural savings, I think the problem we have with DFW is that they deal with highly contentious issues regarding the division of the fishing industry between commercial and sport fishers that could become more difficult under a state wide elected official who might be more inclined to direct decisions around politics, which has been the historical problem. The commission has all but worked through that issue and would hate to see a reversion.”

Tom also talked about privatizing liquor sales.

“That’s my bill — the California model, where you privatize retail and distribution,” he said. He said studies have shown that Washington’s distribution center is one-third as efficient as other states.

Can that be done in the next three weeks? “We can at least start the process. People say it’s not going to save any money this year,” he said — a logic he rejects. “It could be in the hundreds of millions a year (in the future). We need to show the people that we’re making a difference.”

I asked him for an update on our conversation last week, when he told me there were two different schools of thought on taxes. One group wants one substantial tax, the other wants “targeted” tax increases and exemption rollbacks. He said he’s still in favor of the “targeted” plan but there is no decision among the caucus, he said.

The budget is coming out next week, he said. “We still have a lot of unanswered questions.” Once the budget comes out, he said he’ll “watch people implode.”

Tags: DFW, DNR, liquor privatization, taxes