WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

February 19, 2014, legislative report

What have you been up to?

As we pass the half-way mark of the legislative session, we also pass the deadline for House bills to pass the House and Senate bills to pass the Senate. So for the next couple weeks, the House and Senate will be working on bills from the opposite house. I often have people ask me, “What bills are you working on this year?” Seven of my prime-sponsored bills (a bill with my name listed as the first sponsor) have passed the House and now are in the Senate awaiting possible action. A couple are small housekeeping measures and several have a larger impact. Here is a quick summary of those bills:

House Bill 1008—Hard cider sales in growlers.

This bill would permit sales of hard cider in growlers in businesses that sell alcoholic beverages.  What is a growler?  It is usually a jug owned by the purchaser that can be taken to an establishment, filled and taken off premises.  The term growler comes from medieval times when beer and other beverages were sold in buckets for home consumption.  The buckets would have a metal cover that would allow the gas to escape and make a growling sound as the person walked along with the bucket, thus, the name growler.

House Bill 1785—De minimus use of state resources.

The Executive Ethics Board and its staff has a habit of making amazing rulings that have spawned several pieces of legislation.  A couple examples are bills that clarify that legislators can meet with state employees in state buildings.  We had been told that could not occur because lobbying might occur.  Another one states that state parks employees’ children can sell Girl Scout cookies, and a third clarified that state employees could hold in-agency raffles to support the Adopt-a-Family program.  Now comes an opinion that employees who purchase insurance policies through payroll deduction can meet in agency facilities with representatives of the carriers of their policies.  Since the employees use payroll deduction, their home addresses and phone numbers are not available to the insurers. The opinion stated that it would be an illegal gift of state resources to let these meetings happen on state property.  The bill permits these employees to meet with their insurers in their agencies.

2nd Substitute House Bill 1909—Veteran-owned businesses.

This is a bill requested by Governor Inslee. It allows businesses owned jointly by a veteran and the veteran’s spouse or domestic partner to be certified as a veteran-owned business.  The bill requires that all veteran-owned businesses are located in the state, owned by a resident of the state, or that all corporate officers are residents of the state, and encourages state agencies to award five percent of all procurement contracts to veteran-owned businesses.

Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2246—Mercury containing lights.

Hopefully, this concludes my 14-year effort to reduce and eliminate mercury in our environment.  We have taken mercury out of thermometers, vehicle light switches, medical equipment, and flashing lights in children’s shoes.  In 2002, my first mercury bill was signed into law; this year hopefully caps this effort if ESHB 2246 becomes law.  It establishes a stewardship program, financed by a small charge on florescent lights and assessments on companies that produce these bulbs, and will fund a convenient way for us to dispose of used florescent bulbs.  Yes each florescent tube or bulb contains a small amount of mercury, and sending them to the landfill allows mercury to leach into the soil. One way to avoid the charge on mercury-containing florescent bulbs is to switch to LED lights when replacing bulbs.  Yes, they are more expensive, but they have a long life and are better for the environment,

Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2374—Procurement law technical amendments.

Makes corrections to legislation passed in 2012 that set up an improved way for state government to purchase goods and services.

Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2463—Disabled parking placard accountability.

This proposal targets abusers of the disabled parking placards and license plates.  It extends the expiration date from six months to one year and requires that approvals be on waterproof paper and signed by a medical professional.  It requires that the placard’s number and expiration date be plainly visible from at least 10 feet and establishes new penalties for sale or fraudulent use of placards or license plates.

2nd Substitute House Bill 2743—Accountability in government contracting.

The bill would add transparency and accountability to contracting out legislation that became law in 2011.  It would require agencies to develop performance-based guidelines for determining if a service should be contracted out to the private sector.  It makes provisions for disbarment of contractors who have been convicted of certain serious crimes.  And it would provide that a successful bid must save the state at least ten percent compared to the current cost of the state-operated service.  With the monitoring and administration of the contract, the ten percent number seems reasonable to me.  A contract should actually save the state taxpayers money, and this bill would do that.

Bill Terminology

Here is an explanation of some of the terms used in describing bills:  (Oh goody, technical stuff!)

House Bill—each bill is assigned a number when it is introduced.

Substitute House Bill—a bill becomes a substitute if it is amended by a committee.

2nd Substitute House Bill—a bill that has been amended by two committees.

Engrossed—a bill has been amended on the House floor.

What’s next?

The revenue forecast will be released today and we expect to see 2013-15 supplemental budget proposals from the Senate and House shortly after that.

While there may be a small transportation supplemental budget, it is pretty evident that there will be no transportation revenue package this year. While the House has passed two versions of transportation revenue packages; the Senate has yet to act. In fact, the Senate Transportation Chair recently admitted that he only had 13 votes in his Republican caucus for his latest transportation proposal. So while traffic continues to backup on our state’s highways, the Senate leadership cannot seem to get its transportation act together.