State Representative Hans Dunshee, in addition to “managing” the House Democrats’ supplemental budget demands (complete with tax hikes and a half-billion dollars in spending increases) as budget chair, has already taken up his position as a member of the Snohomish County Council. Given his allegiance to special interests in Olympia, Councilmember Dunshee’s first act on the council is not surprising.
Councilmember Dunshee voted Monday (by phone) to ratify a new four-year contract covering Snohomish County’s largest public sector union. The new contract applies to county employees who are members of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees.
The new agreement “gives employees a 2 percent retroactive raise for 2015 and a raise of the same amount in 2016.” Additionally, the new contract “includes a 2.5 percent pay bump in 2017 and 2018.” But that’s not all. Under the deal, the county will “cover 80 percent of future medical increases, with employees responsible for 20 percent.”
While budget negotiations proceed at a snail’s pace in Olympia, Dunshee’s vote is just more proof of where his priorities, namely taking care of the special interests that supply him, and so many other Democrats, with loads of campaign cash.
Campaign cash…another word for graft.