This week the focus shifts from committee meetings to sustained floor action as both chambers work to vote on a long list of bills. The House and Senate have until March 13 to vote on bills before the house of origin cutoff deadline. Legislators will likely work long hours this week and next through the deadline. During this time, there are only a few committee meetings on a handful of bills.

Many bills didn’t survive the previous committee cutoff deadlines. There are a variety of bills that AWC continues to work through floor action. We continue to highlight the most critical bills (those we support and those we oppose) in our weekly Hot Sheet.

Watch this video where Candice Bock delivers a brief update on our priority bills after cutoff.

This is a key time to get messages to your legislators before they vote. It can be challenging to connect with them during floor action – your best bet is to send an email or text message. It is also helpful to work with their Legislative Assistant and ask them to help you get a message delivered quickly.

Despite the focus on floor action, the budget challenges continue to loom over the decisions that they are making about which bills to move. Several AWC priority bills have been deemed NTIB (necessary to implement the budget) which means that they aren’t necessarily moving right now while the budget writers consider what they can and can’t afford. Last week we shared our budget priorities and a letter that we sent to the legislative budget leaders.

A recent development in AWC’s budget priorities is action by the AWC Board Legislative Steering Committee to support a graduated state Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) revenue proposal if the money is first used to fully fund the Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF) and end the diversion of REET dollars which would add approximately $84 million back into the PWTF. We will provide more information on this approach in next week’s Bulletin.

Thank you for all of your help with responding to our calls to reach out to your legislators and provide feedback on bills. It takes all of us to make cities’ voices heard.

Don’t forget about the upcoming AWC Lobby Day, we hope you can join us in Olympia on March 25.