Senate Passes Bill to Address Hirst Ruling Pt 2

I'm Bob Larson. A glimmer of hope for rural landowners after the Senate passed a bill that takes on building and well drilling regulations put in place by the Supreme Court's Hirst decision.

Moses Lake Senator Judy Warnick says it's a great day ...

JUDY WARNICK ... "I'm ecstatic that we got it out. We didn't get as much bipartisan support as we wanted, but we did get bipartisan support. And, now we're going to send it over to the House to hopefully get it through and maybe have some discussions about what the House would like to see done with the bill."

Zach Nutting reprised his impassioned plea at the Ways and Means Committee meeting, when he dropped to his knees before the Senate Ag Committee last week ...

ZACH NUTTING ... "I'm Zach Nutting, the guy on his hands and knees in Whatcom County. I plan to finish this meeting that way as well. I'm the father of four, soon to be five in April, got two full sized dogs that live in a two-bedroom mobile home that we sold to my mother back in August. It took a while to close and when we closed we found out that the five acres we bought, that with the money we received from the sale, we're not allowed to build on. De Facto, we're homeless."

Warnick feels good moving forward ...

JUDY WARNICK ... "I'm confident. I've heard from some of the stakeholders that some of the bills, or at least one of the bills that's in the House, has some real good talking points and real good perspective so I'm confident that we're going to be able to get there this year."

Senate Bill 5239 passed the Senate on a 28-21 vote last Tuesday.