Legislative Update: Priority Bills, Revenue Options, and the Legislative Youth Advisory Council

Dear friends and neighbors, We’re on day 95 of this year’s 105-day session, and as you might imagine things are moving quickly. I wanted to pass along an update about some of our priority bills. Yesterday was opposite chamber cutoff, so all House bills needed to pass out of the Senate in order to continue through the process (and the same was true for Senate bills in the House). I’m happy to say that nearly all of our priority bills made it through this cutoff. Before we get into each, I want to give a quick process explanation. If the Senate didn’t make any changes to the bill, then it heads directly to the governor’s desk for signature. If there were changes, the bill comes back to the House where we can either agree on the amendments, ask the Senate to back down from the amendments they made, or request a conference where representatives from the House and Senate can negotiate a final proposal.

With that, here are some highlights:

• HB 1217, rent stabilization, was passed out of the Senate last week! They did make some changes to the bill, so it’s coming back to the House for further consideration.
• HB 1163, permit to purchase, passed out of the Senate on Monday. This one also had some changes and will come back to the House.
• HB 1353 helps fast-track the construction of accessory dwelling units by reducing red tape, and it has passed the Senate and been signed into law.
• HB 1971, which will require a 12-month refill option for prescription hormone medications, passed the Senate and is on the way to the Governor’s desk.
• HB 1296, which helps create a safe, supportive school environment and expand parental rights, passed the Senate. It was amended, so it’ll come back to the House for more consideration.
• HB 1314 will make it easier to build early learning facilities, and it’s not only been passed by the Senate, it has already been signed into law.

If there’s another bill you’re curious about, we’ve got a tracker here, and you can always search for more information at leg.wa.gov.

There are also a small number of bills each year that aren’t subject to cutoff, and those are bills “necessary to implement the budget”, or NTIB for short. This is a narrow exclusion that really only applies to bills that either bring in revenue or make changes in the law to reduce spending. The next 10 days will be largely focused on resolving changes made in the Senate, NTIB bills, and the budget.

I heard loud and clear at last month’s town hall the desire for tax reform. Washington state has one of the most regressive tax codes in the country, which means lower-income Washingtonians pay significantly more, as a percent of annual income, than our wealthiest residents.

We’ve recently made progress on this, moving from last in the nation for regressive taxes, to second last. This is good movement in the right direction, but it’s obviously not enough.

This week we’ve rolled out the revenue package that will not only help us avoid devastating cuts as we address this year’s budget deficit, but will hopefully move us further along in making our tax code more fair for everyone.

At a high level, we will be asking corporations, especially the wealthiest corporations, to pitch in a little more to support the things that make our state such a great place to do business, including a highly educated workforce. We’ll be making the Capital Gains Tax and the Estate Tax more progressive, asking the very wealthiest Washingtonians to pay more to help fund K-12 education, early learning, childcare, and higher education. We’re reforming our property tax system, including expanding the “Property Tax Exemption for Senior Citizens and People with Disabilities” program to more people and fully exempting its participants from paying the state property tax. If you want to read more about that package you can here.

I wanted to share an opportunity for our youth to get involved in the legislative process – the Legislative Youth Advisory Council (LYAC) is currently accepting applications! LYAC serves as the official nonpartisan youth advisory body to the state legislature and is open to student ages 14-18. This is an excellent way for young people to learn more about state government and to inform our work in Olympia. You can learn more about the program here, and apply here.