Awards for Representative Taylor
I'm Bob Larson. Not looking for recognition, and hoping to deflect credit to the families he represents, Representative David Taylor is being recognized for his tireless work in helping to defeat the state Supreme Court's Hirst decision.The Moxee Republican was named a Legislative Champion by the Association of Washington Cities and Legislator of the Year by the Association of Washington Business.
Taylor says the Hirst decision was flawed in so many ways ...
TAYLOR ... "Not only did I disagree with that decision, I'm here to tell you that that decision ignored roughly 100 years of water law in Washington state and literally hundreds of years common law and wester water law prior appropriation doctrine."
Taylor says the court's decision was mind boggling ...
TAYLOR ... "In order to reach the decision, the court reached, they had to ignore not only previous decisions, but they had to reinterpret water law. That's the only way you can reach that decision."
Taylor says it was simple to see ...
TAYLOR ... "Let's just say that Lance is finally going to retire and has decided that he and his lovely wife are going to build on a piece of property that's five miles out of town, they're going to put a well in, and they're going to retire happily. They've already bought the land, they've invested half of their savings to do so, their retirement to do so, and now they can't put the well in. They own the land. They paid however much money they paid for it. And now when it's time to actually build the house, they can't drill the well."
Speaker Frank Chopp also appointed Taylor to the newly created Joint Legislative Task Force on Water Supply.