We have passed the halfway point in the 105-day 2019 session. It’s also the end of the first phase of work for bills as March 13 marks the house of origin cutoff deadline, when bills (except those deemed NTIB - necessary to implement the budget) need to have passed out of their original house or they are considered dead for the session.
The process will start again as bills that made it pass the cutoff move to the other house to go through the committee process again. For a quick overview of the cutoff process and how it works, check out Logan’s video on the right sidebar of this article.
As we take stock of our progress at the halfway point, the results for cities are mixed
Many of our priorities require funding, which means that they are NTIB and we will have to wait until the proposed budgets are released to see how successful we have been in making our case. In other areas we have had some success with advancing some policy bills. However, it feels like cities are playing defense on a lot of issues with the Legislature entertaining proposals that limit authorities, preempt local decision-making, create new unfunded mandates, or all of the above.
We continue to highlight the most critical bills (those we support and those we oppose) in our weekly Hot Sheet. We have revamped the Hot Sheet to better show where bills are in the process and what legislative action is needed on each bill. Please share this information with your local legislators and ask them for their help. We need help from legislators with both advancing key bills and speaking out and voting against bills that harm cities.
Please share this information with your local legislators and ask them for their help.
Get your voice heard at AWC Lobby Day
AWC Lobby Day is another opportunity coming up. We hope you can join us in Olympia on Monday, March 25. In addition to talking about policy bills, we expect that the House will release its budget proposal either a few days before or even on March 25. So, your presence in Olympia will be perfectly timed to make your voice heard on how the budget impacts cities.
Cities’ budget priorities
Recent estimates put the state’s budget deficit at around $3.5 million. We think that the Legislature will be looking at new revenue options to fill the gap. Given that cities’ priorities hinge on funding in the budget, AWC is looking at the best way to position our requests to succeed. One of the new revenue sources that has been discussed is a graduated or tiered state REET (real estate excise tax). The current state REET rate is 1.28%. Under a graduated approach the rate would be lower for lower value properties and higher for higher value properties and remain steady for those in the middle. A few different proposals have been floated and would generate somewhere around $400-$450 million for the state, depending on how they are structured.
One of the funding sources for the Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF) is a portion of the state REET. AWC is willing to support a graduated state REET revenue proposal if the money is first used to fully fund the PWTF and end the diversion of REET dollars which would add approximately $84 million back into the PWTF. We will continue to discuss this proposal with legislators who lead on the capital budget discussions. We hope this helps position cities to succeed in restoring funding to the state’s local infrastructure investments.