22nd District e-survey respondents get their two cents in

No, it’s not unusual for lawmakers to poll their constituents. Yes, you bet the elected folks who take the votes want to hear from real-world folks who by rights call the shots. Legislators naturally want to keep abreast of what’s eating Joe Meatball and Sally Housecoat (a shout-out there, if you will, to the Simpsons’ Mr. Burns).

But what’s a little different in this wired century is that more and more legislators are turning to the Internet and e-mail to see what folks have to say about the issues of the day. It’s significantly less expensive for the public treasury, and much more convenient for the public itself, to send out electronic questionnaires instead of mailing them, according to state Rep. Sam Hunt. These Jetsons e-surveys obviously don’t entail the production, printing and postage costs, not to mention the ink stains, that go into the Flintstones paper surveys. (Although the older technology, if nothing else of course, did manage to keep a lot of No. 2 pencil companies in business.)

Hunt recently sent out more than 17,000 electronic surveys to as many of his Thurston County neighbors as for whom he could round up e-mail addresses. So far he’s received several hundred responses to the budget and revenue questions on his survey. Some of the questions are very specific in terms of digging up detailed public opinion, such as this one: “Please tell me how you’d divide the budget.” And some of the questions are more open-ended, such as this one: “What would you like to add in your response to this survey?”

Hunt and his legislative colleagues kicked off this year’s session on Jan. 11. So now they’re just about within shouting distance of the halfway mark in the two-month 2010 meeting. And that means Olympia’s marching toward showtime in terms of the supplemental-budget debate. Input from citizens will no doubt be invaluable in deciding how best to carry out this year’s budget whittling.