Getting Results for You in Olympia (2003-2004)

Toby Nixon works hard on the issues that are most important to you. Here are just some of the important results achieved and issues he worked on during the 2003 and 2004 legislative sessions as our state representative.

Click here for information on results achieved in the 2002 legislative session.

• Passed a state general fund budget without a tax increase
• Protected jobs in Washington by renewing the tax credits and exemptions for research and development activities
• Protected our homes by preserving the supermajority vote required to increase property taxes beyond the constitutional limit
• Increased the income level to qualify for the property tax relief program for senior citizens and people with disabilities
• Sponsored legislation to eliminate the state death tax
• Supported reducing the onerous license fees on small utility trailers
• Supported restoring and strengthening the state expenditure limit originally passed by the people in Initiative 601
• Requested the U.S. Congress to allow sales taxes to be deducted from federal income tax in states without a personal income tax and sponsored legislation requesting that Congress repeal the alternative minimum tax
• Opposed special tax favors for aluminum smelters, meat packers, and Boeing
• Sponsored legislation to increase the small business B&O tax exemption from $35 to $50
• Sponsored legislation to exempt rounds of golf donated by golf courses to high school golf teams from taxes
• Allowed facilities owned by non-profit organizations (such as the Kirkland Performance Center) to keep their property tax exemption even if they are rented on a limited basis to for-profit groups
• Sponsored legislation to allow non-profit organizations to join together in self-insurance risk pools to save money

Improving our Election System and Insuring the Integrity of Elections

• Sponsored legislation to require persons registering to vote to prove that they are citizens of the United States
• Sponsored legislation to enhance the integrity of electronic voting systems by requiring a voter-verified paper ballot which becomes the official record in the case of recounts, and requiring machines to be audited against the paper record
• Ensured that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to cast a secret ballot in all elections
• Sponsored legislation to require write-in votes to be counted even if the bubble next to the name is not filled in
• Supported creation of a program to educate young people in how to vote and the importance of voting
• Sponsored legislation to eliminate the presidential preference primary in 2004 in order to save the state $6 million, since neither political party intended to use the primary results in allocation of national convention delegates
• Sponsored legislation to streamline the initiative and referendum process by allowing petition forms to be printed on standard letter-size paper and allowing downloading of PDF images of blank petition forms from the Secretary of State's web site
• Sponsored legislation to improve the election system by allowing voters to rank their votes in the general election, eliminating the primary election entirely in both local and state elections

Making State Government More Efficient and Accountable

• Sponsored legislation to require comprehensive, independent performance audits of all state agencies to be performed under the direction of the state auditor
• Sponsored legislation to promote greater fiscal responsibility in state budgeting through zero-based budgeting
• Supported allowing services currently performed by state workers to be contracted out if it is economically feasible to do so
• Sponsored legislation to privatize state liquor stores
• Sponsored legislation to demonstrate the viability of private operation of highway rest areas
• Sponsored legislation to save costs by requiring agency reports to the legislature to be submitted in electronic form rather than paper
• Sponsored legislation to require King County to obey the same siting rules for the Brightwater sewage treatment plant as other facilities being placed in Snohomish County, and to create a task force to propose fair siting rules for all essential public facilities
• Sponsored legislation to require healthcare savings accounts to be available to state employees
• Improved the transfer of credits from community and technical colleges to four-year colleges and universities to avoid the need to retake courses, thereby saving costs

Relieving Traffic Congestion

• Insured that funding for widening of Redmond-Fall City Road from Sahalee Way to Highway 520 remained in the transportation budget
• Sponsored a package of legislation to link increased transportation funding to improved efficiency of permitting of transportation projects, improving contracting out of transportation-related work, reforming prevailing wage laws, abolishing the Transportation Commission and creating greater political accountability by having the Secretary of Transportation appointed by the Governor, privatizing passenger-only ferry service, and requiring performance audits of the Department of Transportation
• Sponsored legislation to allow drivers with an intermediate license to carry an unrelated passenger in order to promote carpooling to school

Keeping our Families and Communities Safe

• In response to the Carnation fire, sponsored legislation to allow homeowners in fire danger areas to remove trees close to their homes and to use fire-resistant roofing materials even if neighborhood covenants require cedar shakes
• Sponsored legislation to allow judges to grant temporary financial assistance for victims of domestic violence when they are financially dependent on the alleged abuser
• Sponsored legislation to crack down on juvenile car thieves by suspending their driver licenses and increasing penalties for taking a vehicle without permission
• Enhanced penalties for taking photographs or videos up women's skirts and sponsored legislation to criminalize distribution of such materials
• Required all law enforcement agengies to establish policies regarding domestic violence involving officers
• Sponsored legislation to require juvenile sex offenders attending public school to inform the sheriff and for the sheriff to inform the principal
• Sponsored legislation to expand the distance between housing for violent sex predators and campgrounds, youth camps, and private homes and to require advance notice to police agencies of plans to transport violent sex predators
• Tightened rules regarding investigation of sexual misconduct by school employees
• Required a full investigation of the death of any child who dies while in the custody of the state child welfare system
• Sponsored legislation to prevent drivers licenses from being issued to persons who can't provide documentation to prove their identity or who are not lawfully in the United States, and opposed legislation that would allow the Mexican consular matricula card to be used as legal identification
• Recognize concealed pistol licenses from states that recognize Washington's concealed pistol license and have similar requirements for issuance
• Sponsored legislation to allow law enforcement agencies to issue temporary emergency concealed pistol licenses to victims of domestic violence who receive no-contact orders
• Sponsored legislation to automatically extend the concealed pistol license of active duty military whose licenses expire while they are on overseas deployment, and waive penalties on late renewal of all other types of licenses under the same circumstances
• Sponsored legislation that traffic accidents may be recorded on the driving records of law enforcement officers found to be at fault in such accidents
• Increased penalties for driving while intoxicated with children in the vehicle
• Sponsored legislation to eliminate intoxication as a criminal defense
• Sponsored legislation to require all drivers involved in fatality collisions, including law enforcement officers, to have their blood alcohol level tested
• Sponsored legislation to require the availability of filtering software on Internet terminals in libraries
• Sponsored legislation to regulate fraudulent sweepstakes offers that prey on our elderly citizens
• Sponsored legislation to protect our car windshields by requiring dump trucks full of gravel to cover their loads
• Established a system for tracking cows, and prohibited trading in downer cows that might be infected with mad cow disease
• Made it illegal to impersonate a veteran

Supporting Our Kids and Families

• Sponsored legislation clarifying that teacher strikes are illegal and requiring the attorney general to seek an injuction against any teacher strike, to require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to make all teacher contracts available on the OSPI web site for comparison, and to open teacher contract negotiations to the public for observation
• Protected voter-approved school funding by changing the formula for calculating school district levies when state or federal funding does not reach projected levels, allowing districts to collect the amount actually authorized by the voters
• Sponsored legislation to require a study of reform of the state's system for financing public education
• Reduced hunger in Washington by requiring that schools with at least 25 percent of the population qualifying for free or reduced price lunch have a school lunch program so long as federal funding is available, and requiring DSHS to provide transitional food stamp assistance for five months following termination of TANF benefits
• Sponsored legislation to require revenue from the leasing of excess property and sale of timber at the state's residential habilitation centers for individuals with developmental disabilities to be placed in a trust fund for community-based services for the individuals with developmental disabilities
• Sponsored legislation to allow individuals receiving unemployment insurance to instead pursue self-employment and continue temporarily receiving benefits while establishing their business
• Increased funding for the Washington Council for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect by allowing the Council to set the price for “heirloom” birth certificates
• Sponsored legislation to increase land available for sports fields by allowing idle agricultural land to be used for active sports so long as no permanent or underground modifications are made to the land
• Sponsored legislation to require all public school students to be taught the fundamental principles in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution
• Increased stability in the lives of foster children by establishing state policy to keep them in the schools they were attending before entering foster care and to place them in the homes of relatives whenever possible
• Made more affordable housing available by preventing cities from forcing the closure of manufacturered housing communities, and preventing discrimination against new manufacturered housing that meets all building codes and design requirements for new construction
• Passed “Good Samaritan” protections for licensed contractors who help perform emergency home repairs without compensation
• Eliminated the requirement that the value of unused gift certificates and gift cards be turned over to the state as unclaimed property, and eliminated expiration dates on purchased gift certificates and gift cards
• Sponsored legislation to make minor fishing offenses a civil infraction instead of a criminal misdemeanor, and to require sellers of fishing licenses to provide a copy of fishing rules to customers

Protecting Jobs by Improving the Business Climate

• Secured funding for the Duvall sewage treatment plant expansion in the capital budget.
• Sponsored legislation to reform Washington’s civil (tort) liability system, including joint and several liability reform, caps on non-economic damages, reduction in post-judgment interest rates, prohibit of obesity lawsuits, immunity for good faith job references, construction liability reform, allowing failure to wear a seatbelt to be introduced as evidence of contributory negligence, and many other provisions
• Sponsored a package of legislation to reform the rulemaking authority of state agencies, including placing the burden of proof that a rule is authorized by the legislature to be on the agency making the rule, that rules may be challenged in any county (not just Thurston County), providing the legislature an opportunity to review significant rules before they go into effect, requiring public notice of all new or revised rules, requiring a specific grant of legislative authority rather than just general statements, prohibiting agencies from adopting rules exceeding federal standards without legislative authority, and requiring cost-benefit analysis early in the rulemaking process.
• Improved access to health insurance for employees of small businesses, and opposed adding new mandates that would drive up the cost of health insurance
• Allow non-agricultural uses on agricultural land that support the agricultural business, such as a wine tasting room at a vineyard or apple cider sales at an orchard
• Opposed new professional regulation of land surveyors, interior designers, and cosmetologists
• Sponsored legislation to prevent companies using low-cost prison labor from unfairly competing against non-prison-based private industries
• Sponsored legislation to ban lawsuits against the firearm industry related to criminal use of firearms that do not involve any product defects

Protecting our Environment and Quality of Life

• Protected our children from further mercury pollution and restored funding for monitoring of persistent bioaccumulative toxins
• Supported reduction in air pollution and dependence on foreign oil by sponsoring legislation to permit the use of zero-emission neighborhood electric vehicles, to provide tax incentives for purchase of high-mileage low-emission hybrid vehicles, to allow low- and zero-emission vehicles to use HOV lanes, and to require state purchases of hybrid vehicles
• Promoted environmental, natural science, wildlife, forestry, and agricultural education through a grant program at no cost to taxpayers
• Promoted reduction in dependence on foreign oil by sponsoring legislation to promote electricity production using renewable and alternative energy sources, and to provide tax incentives for installing solar energy systems, installing fuel cells, wood biomass fuel investments, and using biodiesel fuel
• Sponsored legislation to enhance and stabilize revenue from state-owned forests by establishing practices that would allow timber to be marketed as “green certified”

Protecting our Privacy and Stopping High-Tech Criminals

• Prohibited unsolicited commercial text messages (“spam”) from being sent to cellphones and pagers, and sponsored legislation to place further restrictions on unsolicited commercial email
• Sponsored legislation to require that cancer patients be informed that personal information about their condition is placed in the state cancer registry database
• Prohibited “cyberstalking”, which is harrassment by email, web, or other electronics means directed either at the victim or others who know the victim
• Sponsored legislation, which passed the House, to protect the privacy of users of electronic toll payment systems on bridges, ferries, and express lanes
• Allowed voluntary submission of fingerprint scans to help prevent identity theft when renewing or applying for a replacement driver license
• Sponsored legislation to prohibit employers from requesting social security numbers from job applicants as a way to reduce the instance of identity theft through false employment scams, and to require social security numbers on death certificates to be confidential
• Sponsored legislation to protect personal information of judicial, law enforcement, and corrections officers from public disclosure in order to protect their families from danger or harrassment