MOSES LAKE — State Representative Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, said his focuses for the 2024 state legislative session are children and fire protection. Some may be easier to establish, but he said he’s committed to working on them.

“Many of the bills that we run or ideas that we have, you know, they’re sometimes simple, easy bills that will move really fast,” Dent said. “And then the more complex ones, they’re more of a heavy lift. Those are the ones that you work on every year. They don’t pass, but you gain some knowledge; you maybe make some amendments, and begin to develop the support that you need from the stakeholders and in the legislature.” 

Dent said that he will be running for reelection so that he can continue to utilize his knowledge, tenure and connections to address his priorities and those of his constituents in his district.

Childcare

Dent said he hopes the experience he and his wife have as foster parents will be something he can leverage to support childcare availability statewide, but especially on the east side of the Cascades because of the lack of childcare impacting families and businesses.

“The majority of Eastern Washington is classified as a childcare desert, which means there just isn’t enough people here to do childcare,” Dent said. 

That issue causes multiple problems, he said. Because some parents can’t find childcare, especially affordable childcare, many of them stay home. While work-from-home situations helped during the pandemic, many of those positions have shifted back to the office, driving up the need for someone to take care of the household’s children while parents are working.

Dent said he’s putting forward a proposal, in cooperation with other legislators, to establish a pilot program that deregulates childcare to improve interest in that sector so that families can find the caretakers they need for children. Dent said he’s working with childcare centers to establish a balance between deregulation to make it easier for daycare providers to get started and operate while ensuring safety. Given the shift back to the office, he’s hopeful the bill will move forward this year. 

“(Work from home) worked for a while, (but) we’re slowly going away (from it) because we’re more efficient when they go to a job,” Dent said. 

Firefighting

On the wildfire front, Dent said he’s hopeful that a bill he’s been working on for some time will make solid progress during the 2024 session. He’s worked for some time on a bill that would establish Rural Fire Protection Associations. These RFPs would leverage local firefighter’s knowledge and regional response teams’ larger firefighting crews to more efficiently and effectively fight wildfires. 

The idea is that local firefighting teams are the first to arrive at the scene of a wildfire and begin the work of mitigating its impact on the area. The current strategy usually involves a team of state-level firefighters coming in and relieving the local team who then steps away from the fire response. 

Under the proposed legislation, the local firefighters would stay on-scene to help, he said.

“The advantage of doing this is … if you have a wildfire, the people that are going to be there first are the people that live there, right? The people that know the ground, and so they would be first on the scene to fight the fire. Well, the way it is now, that can happen, but as soon as whoever — a fire district or (the Department of Natural Resources – comes in to take control of the fire, they send (the local firefighters) home. This (bill) changes things. This lets those guys stay there,” Dent said. 

The associations would be member groups who might pay dues to the association, but the associations wouldn’t have taxing authority or necessarily raise taxes, Dent said. The state would make surplus equipment available to them and help keep them organized, but they’d work similarly to some mutual aid agreements. 

“It’s a public-private partnership,” Dent said. 

Dent said he’s been working on the bill for about six years after seeing neighboring states have success with the concept. He’s hopeful that backing from people like State Representative Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, who served as a firefighter will help move the bill through.

General legislation

Dent said he was aware of bills being put forward that could reduce or mitigate the impact of the carbon credit auctions that began earlier this year and have led to an increase in fuel prices, but he feels they aren’t likely to move forward in the 2024 session that starts January 8. Instead, he feels those will be some of the bills that take time to move forward.

Legislation that would restore some policing authority is out there but may take time, he said, because legislators need more data to see the impact of changes made during the 2023 session.

R. Hans “Rob” Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com. 

    State Representative Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake Washington's 13th Legislative District