After a record-breaking 193 days, legislators adjourned their third special session on July 20 without passing a capital budget. AWC is disappointed that the Legislature failed to approve critical funding for numerous infrastructure programs and projects cities rely on, including the possibility that Legislature would have appropriated funds for a Public Works Trust Fund loan list for the first time in four years.

As we have been reporting, compromise agreement on the complex water issues created by the Hirst decision continued to elude legislators, and they held up the capital budget as a result. For more information, see the capital budget article.

Legislators might still come back to negotiate an agreement in the coming days, weeks or months, but it remains uncertain if or when that might happen.

We also recognize that the previous regular and special sessions included passage of legislation addressing issues such as public records, a McCleary school funding fix, and a state version of Marketplace Fairness sales taxes on internet sales.

Meanwhile, we’ve begun the process of preparing ideas for our legislative priorities for the upcoming 60-day session in 2018. The AWC Legislative Committee is meeting later this week to begin reviewing ideas for their recommendation to the AWC Board in September.

Finally, this Legislative Bulletin concludes our reporting on the 2017 regular and special sessions, unless of course if legislators come back to address a capital budget and water issues. Next month, look for our annual Final Bulletin summarizing action on legislation in the 2017 session, and an invitation to attend AWC’s Regional Meetings scheduled for October and November in ten locations around the state. We’ll continue to keep you posted about important issues in Olympia and D.C. with articles in our weekly CityVoice newsletter and in our monthly Bulletin starting after Labor Day.