As we enter week seven of the legislative session, supplemental budget proposals steal the spotlight and focus.

The budget whirlwind kicked off last week with a surprisingly strong revenue forecast featuring $1.4 billion in additional revenue for the state—bringing the total to more than $5 billion more since last spring when they adopted the current biennial budgets. The first stop on the budget extravaganza began last week with the release of a bipartisan Senate capital budget proposal.

This week we will see both the House and Senate operating budget proposals, the House capital budget proposal, and more work on the transportation package and corresponding budget. The bodies are expected to vote on their respective budget proposals by the end of the week and then the budget writers will negotiate final versions for adoption by the end of the session.

We have shared cities’ budget priorities that AWC uses to communicate with legislators and budget writers. It isn’t too late to share these priorities with your local legislators and ask them to advocate for each item’s inclusion in the supplemental budget. In particular, we continue to ask legislators to add additional funding in the transportation package/budget for local government transportation maintenance and preservation needs.

Policy bills subject to pending cutoff deadlines

While focus may shift to budget discussions, policy bills continue working their way through the legislative process in advance of some pending cutoff deadlines. The next cutoff for bills is February 25 when they have to be voted out of policy committees and then February 28 for bills to get out of fiscal committees. This is a quick turnaround for bills to be heard and advance in the opposite house.

We encourage you to browse our weekly bill Hot Sheet for a quick overview of bills important to cities and where they stand in the process. You can use this Hot Sheet as a handy tool as you talk to your legislators.

Strong city voices make an impact

We always ask city leaders to engage in the legislative process because your voice has an impact. That was especially true with HB 1782, which would have mandated additional middle housing zoning near transit and in areas currently zoned for single-family detached housing.

The bill failed to advance and is considered dead for this session. In large part that was due to the input and concerns raised by city leaders from around the state. Bill proponents continue to say that city officials only opposed the bill because of its preemption on local decision-making and the desire to protect the status quo. While opposition to preemption was a component of cities’ concerns, cities raised numerous and significant issues about the proposal including its impact on infrastructure needs, undermining existing efforts to increase housing and density, potential to increase displacement, and lack of any guaranteed positive impact on affordable housing.

Thank you for making your voice heard on this important issue!

Cities remain committed to finding real solutions to increase housing affordability and hope the bill proponents will convene a meaningful stakeholder process during the interim with cities to work on developing a proposal that will achieve our share goals.

Friday city action calls

Looking for more frequent updates on hot legislative topics? Join us for these well-attended weekly city action calls every Friday at 12:30 pm via Zoom.

As always, if you have questions about the legislative process or issues going before the Legislature, please reach out to the Government Relations team. We are always happy to hear from you.