With the calendar turning to March, there is only a short time left in this year’s legislative session—but still lots of work during this final hectic stretch. Now, with less than 10 days left, the Legislature announced a new raid on local government needs.

On Saturday we received the shocking news that the House Transportation Committee Chair, Rep. Jake Fey (D-Tacoma) planned to replace the proposed export fuel tax that was projected to generate $2 billion over the 16-year package with a sweep of Public Works Assistance Account funds. This comes after loud protests from our neighboring states about the export fuel tax.

The proposed sweep would pull $100 million per year for 16 years, decimating the low-interest infrastructure loan program those monies are supposed to fund. This approach is unacceptable and undermines the good faith effort cities made to support the transportation package and goes back on the Legislature’s promise to end the diversion of those funds in 2023.

All city leaders need to contact their legislators now to oppose this sweep. Learn more in this action alert sent today.

All city leaders need to contact their legislators now to oppose this sweep.

A bill passed both chambers—now what?

This week marks the final cutoff for bills not related to the budget. March 4 is the deadline for those bills to pass the opposite house. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re final.

Bills have to pass both chambers in the same form—that means if a bill is amended in the opposite house, it has to go back to its house of origin for sign-off on those changes. That approval can happen one of two ways—via concurrence where the house of origin simply votes to agree to the changes; or, if there isn’t agreement, the bill can be sent to a conference committee where a committee of legislators work out a compromise and then ask both chambers to approve the compromise with an up or down vote. Both options can be time consuming particularly in the last days of session—with so much else going on—it can risk a bill failing. And, of course, the third option is the two chambers refuse to concur or agree on the conference committee compromise and the bill dies.

Budgetpalooza

Last week we wrote about the budget whirlwind and shared an overview of some of the highlights of the proposals and how they impact cities. AWC has also produced a cheat sheet that you can share with your legislators highlighting how the budgets impact cities and which versions we prefer. Budget negotiations between the two chambers are ongoing and they need to hear from cities about the importance of funding these city priorities.

Overall, the budgets include key city funding priorities. Cities are thankful for investments in housing, broadband, and infrastructure.

Two key budget messages to share with your legislators:

1. Thank your legislators for the following items and encourage them to tell budget leaders to keep funding for city priorities. This includes:
   • Funding for utility assistance to help our residents struggling to pay their utility bills due to the pandemic;
   • Historic level of funding for housing and homelessness assistance programs;
   • Investing in additional Criminal Justice Training Commission classes to address the high demand in the Basic Law Enforcement Academy and other crucial law enforcement training;
   • Funding for to assist cities in responding to the Blake decision, including grants for developing therapeutic courts, funding to offset the costs of vacating misdemeanor convictions and paying back LFOs, and funding for more alternative response teams;
   • Increased cannabis revenue sharing with cities and counties;
   • More funding for broadband expansion; and
   • Increased investment in water infrastructure.
2. Ask your legislators to support critical funding needs that aren’t yet included in the proposals. This includes:
   • Local transportation funding
     Ask legislators not to leave city transportation needs behind. Include additional assistance to cities for preservation and maintenance in the transportation package or budgets—along with investments into the Transportation Improvement Board.
   • Restoring Public Works Assistance Account
     Request that legislators provide additional funding for traditional infrastructure loans through the Public Works Assistance Account.
   • Fish passage (culverts)
     Encourage legislators to include additional funding to address local culvert replacement beyond the amounts approved last session.

Policy bill updates

As mentioned above, the next big cutoff is March 4. We just passed two critical opposite house cutoff deadlines on February 25 and 28. For an update on key bills that we have been tracking, review our weekly bill Hot Sheet. You can use it as a handy tool as you talk to your legislators. Some bills continue to shift around, and some have dropped off if they failed to meet a cutoff deadline.

Friday city action calls

Looking for timely updates on hot legislative topics? Join us for our last weekly city action call this 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 love to hear from you.