Fiscal gridlock over the budget in Washington state: The politics and economics of pouring exempt wells into the prior appropriations bucket

Jonathon Yoder

Western Economics Forum, 2018, vol. 16, issue 01

Abstract: Washington State has been in fiscal gridlock because a recent court case – the Hirst Decision (Hirst)--- would require counties to show legal availability of groundwater to issue permits for new rural residential wells that would be in connectivity with surface water. Many argued that this requirement would halt rural residential development in the state. This article examines the context and potential consequences of Hirst through an economic lens. For context, the characteristics of exempt wells and recent legal precursors are discussed. A qualitative assessment of the likely impacts of Hirst and the conditions that might alleviate its effects is provided, followed by potential institutional innovations that may emerge because of or in response to Hirst. These developments in Washington State illustrate some of the complexities of exempt wells common to many of the Western United States.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/273676/files/5.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:weecfo:273676

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.273676

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Western Economics Forum from Western Agricultural Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().