On Watch

BY PETER SCHRAPPEN

Learning from a leader: Columnist PETER SCHRAPPEN breaks down the strategy and tactics behind the recently successful push to pass House Bill 1107.

As I make my way through the thousand or so pages of Grant by Ron Chernow, I am struck at how many times President Ulysses S. Grant stumbled in his life. Heck, his parents named him Hiram Ulysses Grant (which translated to the unfortunate initials H.U.G.) until his application to West Point was incorrectly filled out, and he didn’t have the gumption to correct the mistake. Grant was to later say to his wife, “You know I have an ‘S’ in my name and don’t know what it stand[s] for.” There’s his drinking, his propensity for games of chance, and the run-ins with his dad and father-in-law to name just a few literal and figurative stumbles he had along the way. During the 1850s, he even dropped out of the Army after successfully leading the U.S. in multiple battles in the Mexican-American War during the 1840s. He found himself selling cords of wood on the streets of St. Louis to provide food for his family just a decade later. And I haven’t even arrived at his unpopular presidency. Okay, all that said, what truly stands out on the flip side is how well he performed when he was in the system of order and discipline provided to him by serving in the U.S. Army. There’s a reason he is revered for his servant style of leadership as he led the Union to victory over the Confederacy. When placed in the other systems of his life (i.e. non-battle, non-military times), he’d easily be mistaken for anyone on the streets sparing for change. A bill is no different than this “context matters” frame. It’s just like fishing, too. The key in fishing is to match the hatch. Successful laws must have bait that matches the appetite of elected officials, too. Sometimes, it means making your idea so irresistible that they gobble up the lure, umm make that idea, and let it run all the way into our awaiting arms. House Bill 1107 serves as another reminder that strategy and tactics and a well-thought-out plan can catch the interest of the political players. You may remember that this bill was the measure that improved the time permitted for boats visiting Washington state. To much Zoom fanfare, Governor Inslee signed this bill into law on May 3, 2021, and it takes effect on July 25, 2021. Now, these out-of-state boaters can offer their vessels for charter when the captain is provided. Plus, these boats, with or without chartering, can now visit year after year for 180 days. It gets even better to learn that this so-called tax preference does not expire until 2031. This bill, like Grant peddling wood, could have easily flailed around like many other bills. For those keeping score, 1,077 bills were introduced and only 331 made it all the way through our legislative process. Fortunately, we served up a bill that had no controversy, no opposition that couldn’t be ameliorated, and no big fiscal hit to the state. What it had was a modest change to an already existing bill passed in 2015 that incrementally turned up the dial. To paraphrase my inner Neolithic man, “boats good. More boats more good.” This quasi-fishing strategy, the Zoom framework, and the system of legislators on the right committees set in motion a cascade effect that has Washington back in the game with just one more favorable boating law. Flying to Roche Harbor the other day to share the news with Worth Avenue Rendezvous attendees reminded me just how fantastic this system is. You can download a handy one-pager for more info on this new law at nmta.net/files/Downloads/GA/Tax.pdf; plus, read all about recently-passed House Bill 1107 at tinyurl.com/chws9483.