Resolution supporting Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District Funding Change

WHEREAS like many cities in the West, the city of Moses Lake, in Grant county and the 13th LD, faces future water shortages from groundwater depletion, and

WHEREAS, the Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District (MLIRD) holds a water right consisting of 50,000 acre feet of water from the lake that gives the city its name, and MLIRD’s funding source is unique in the state, and

WHEREAS the unique-in-the-state source of funding that supports MLIRD was recently ruled to be an unconstitutional tax which requires legislation to correct, and

WHEREAS HB1494 and SB5460 are proposed in the Legislature to update the funding source of MLIRD to ensure the continued operations of MLIRD, and 

WHEREAS the cutoff dates for bills in both Houses will have passed by the next time WSDCC convenes, satisfying the requirement for urgent resolutions described in §III.B of WSDCC’s Rules for Resolutions,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Washington State Democratic Central Committee urges legislators to pass HB1494 and SB5460, or similar legislation, to allow MLIRD to continue to serve the citizens of Central Washington.


  1. https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/380301_pub.pdf
  2. https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1494.pdf?q=20230125165202
  3. https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5460.pdf?q=20230125165410
  4. https://www.wa-democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/WSDCC-Rules-for-Resolutions.pdf

Submitted with 50+ SCM signatures to: WSDCC Reorganization Meeting, Olympia, January 27, 2023

Submitted by: Steve Verhey, 13th LD State Committee Member (verheys@hotmail.com, 509-899-4956), at the request of Kaj Selman, past MLIRD Board Member.

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