黑料福利社

State Rep. Chris Corry is facing a challenge from an independent candidate in his bid for a fourth term in the state House of Representatives.

Corry, a Yakima Republican, is running against Chase Foster, a Zillah resident with no preferred political party.

Chris Corry

Chase Foster

The winner will represent the newly redrawn 15th Legislative District, which includes northern Yakima County, including West Valley, Moxee, Zillah, Selah and Prosser and part of Benton County.

Corry, 42, is the Eastern Washington director for the Washington Policy Center, which he described as a free-market political think tank. He was originally elected to House from the 14th District, but ran in the 15th District after redistricting.

Foster, 31, describes himself as a stay-at-home dad who is making his first run for office. He is currently a Kennewick Housing Authority commissioner and has done volunteer work with AmeriCorps and other organizations.

State campaign finance disclosure records show Foster has raised and spent no money, while Corry has raised $239,277 and spent $165,908.

The following interview has been edited for space and clarity.

In 2021, the Legislature passed a law granting farmworkers overtime pay, and the bill has since reached its full implementation this year, with workers getting overtime pay if their hours exceed 40 hours a week. There have been efforts to reduce its reach or outright repeal it. Do you believe the law is working, and if not, what changes would you recommend? And do you believe that agricultural workers should have the same overtime rules that other workers enjoy?

Corry: I actually think the overtime laws are hurting agricultural workers. It is a different industry and a different model. What we have seen is that conventional wisdom is they're going to make more money now. That's not how labor and this industry works. To supplement the loss of straight time work, laborers are going to work at other places. I understand the thought process behind it. We have heard from farmworkers asking for seasonality for where they can work straight-time hours. I have worked with farmers over here who worry about having workers working without exemption. Farmers are price takers. They don't set the price of their goods. When you raise input costs, it affects their viability. Labor costs have gone up 40%. They can't raise their prices and cover costs. Some seasonality is needed. (The law) was pushed by lawmakers on the west side who don鈥檛 understand seasonality.

Foster: I don't see any reason why farmworkers should have less overtime rules than non-farmworkers. They should have more choice working more than 40 hours a week and less strain on anyone鈥檚 life and family. We understand that agricultural jobs look different, but we require (overtime). That is a part of employment. The 40-hour work week should apply to everybody, including farmworkers. We have to give (the law) at least a little bit of time before we make any long-term decisions as to whether it has worked or not.

We just went through a drought where junior water rights users saw their allotments curtailed dramatically, with the Roza Irrigation District actually stopping deliveries for two weeks in order to provide water later in the season. And with the changing climate, droughts are likely to become more common. What steps if any do you believe the Legislature should take to address this issue, especially in light of the fact that water is a vital resource for 黑料福利社's agricultural industry?

Corry: We need to build more dams. We need to build more reservoirs. It's not as controversial a statement as it sounds. I spoke with Democratic leadership, and we need to capture as much water as can for agriculture and fish flow. We need to double or triple our water capacity. The snow average is there; it鈥檚 just melting too quickly. And it鈥檚 not only for agricultural, but for maintaining flow and for human consumption.

Foster: I happen to live in the Roza Irrigation District. I鈥檓 surrounded by orchards with 4,000 acres of orchard basically right next to my home, so this is kind of a hot topic in my neighborhood. The reality is Washington does a good job of maintaining water. I have a lot of respect for the Roza Irrigation District folks. They have to make extremely hard decisions. Ideally, we would have more water storage. Many of our water storages aren鈥檛 as full at springtime. Really, right now, the water delivery, especially in Eastern Washington, is one of the most effective forms of government we鈥檝e got right now. We need to listen to the people on the ground and keep doing what we can to give them what they need.

Affordable housing is an issue in both the state and Yakima, which can also be seen as one of the root causes of homelessness. What steps do you believe the state should take to make housing more accessible, as well as address homelessness?

Corry: I actually don't necessarily believe that affordable housing is a root cause of homelessness. I think mental health and drug use are a driving factor. We should remove the Growth Management Act. That has artificially hamstrung development, making it more expensive. Environmental regulation needs to be changed. When you start adding all these fees, it prices out builders and buyers. I can say from my own experience from building my own house that I spent tens of thousands of dollars on permits and fees. I think lowering the costs of building and incentivizing development will help. I think there are a number of factors to move the needle in that regard.

Foster: I have some experience with this working with the Kennewick Housing Authority. We have been working with federal programs, as well as the state. The most successful methodology to solve homelessness is to provide public housing or get builders to build smaller houses. We should fund a grant program to incentivize builders to build more affordable homes or shrink homes. Public housing needs to be better funded at a federal and state level.

Despite the McCleary lawsuit, Washington's education system has yet to achieve full funding and still relies on a "flat funding" model rather than a weighted system that would provide funding to districts with high percentages of students living in poverty, such as some of the districts in the 黑料福利社. Should you be elected, what would be your solution to provide a more equitable funding mechanism?

Corry: There are two things I could think of immediately. Update the prototypical school model. That hasn't been fixed. Remove the arbitrary cap on special education. We haven't been able to remove that. It artificially limits support without a lot of loopholes.

Foster: I don鈥檛 think any one legislator could force through a solution. One of the first steps is to maintain a level of funding so we can supplement areas of lower income, such as in the 黑料福利社. Right now we have initiatives that are specifically designed to cut funding to schools, and we have to make sure that does not happen. The other option is to change a ridiculously complicated system that鈥檚 designed to give schools a lot of flexibility in how they deal with their money, which is good, but obviously some of those numbers aren鈥檛 well designed to deal with the fact that many schools supplement their state income with local level taxes.

The state has a strong responsibility to raise the funds necessary to pay, as the McCleary decision made clear what the state is responsible for.

The House of Representatives, after the state Supreme Court ruled that legislators are subject to the Public Records Act, has invoked "legislative privilege" to deny records requests, even though the concept of legislative privilege was to only grant lawmakers immunity from what they said during floor debates. If you are elected, would you fully comply with the Public Records Act, and would you be willing to support legislation that would bar the application of legislative privilege to records requests from lawmakers?

Corry: My office already does fully comply. I do not use executive privilege or legislative privilege. And I would support legislation removing that.

Foster: I can easily say I'm very supportive of open and clear government. There should be very few closed doors between them. The only exception is when safety is involved. I absolutely would support legislation removing legislative privilege.