February 27, 2023

The Legislative Bulletin is produced weekly during the legislative session.

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Legislative Bulletin headlines and articles.

Middle housing bill passes fiscal committee, concerns remain
The famous middle housing bill, HB 1110, continues to move through the House, passing out of the Appropriations Committee last Friday. We have had hours of productive discussions with sponsor Rep. Jessica Bateman (D–Olympia); we appreciate the willingness to engage and the improvement that happened with the bill as it worked its way through the committee process. Despite that work, we are still not in alignment with key aspects of the bill. More

Act now to add your name to a letter supporting HB 1628 – The Affordable Homes Act!
If you missed the Action Alert AWC sent out on Thursday afternoon, please act now to support a critical funding tool for affordable housing. The bill provides two new real estate excise tax (REET) sources dedicated to affordable housing—one councilmanic local option, .25% REET (REET 3), and a new state REET tier for the portion of property value exceeding $5 million. The state provision is projected to raise $200 million per year for state housing programs. Curious how much REET 3 could raise for affordable housing in your city? Check out this list! Sign on to this form to add your name and city to the letter of support no later than Wednesday, March 1.

Vehicular pursuits bill passes out of House Transportation Committee
AWC is encouraged by the progress; however, the bill received a mixed vote and faces a tough road ahead. AWC urges cities to continue reaching out to your legislators to ask them to support this bill. HB 1363 needs to pass the full House before the March 8 house of origin cutoff. More

Attend AWC city action calls – Members only
Fridays at 12:30 pm | Online
Join our city action calls for AWC members each Friday to hear updates directly from your team of lobbyists on the latest action on the hill and progress on bills of importance to cities. Make sure to sign up in advance each week. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing the Zoom link for that week’s call. Register now for this Friday's call.

Register for AWC Lobby Day
March 16 | Olympia
City officials are invited to Olympia during a crucial time in the legislative session to tell legislators that strong cities are the key to a great state. Add your voice and let legislators know how they can help support and enhance strong cities.

After a major legislative cutoff date, legislators begin negotiating their differences in earnest while aiming to conclude work by April 23. Lobby Day is a key time to meet legislators face-to-face and on the floor to share the positive or negative city impacts of the difficult budget or policy decisions they face.

Register to join us for as much of the day as you can and start making appointments with your legislators now.

Check out this historic overview of the Public Works Assistance Account
As the Legislature considers a proposal to constitutionally protect the Public Works Assistance Account (PWAA), the Washington Research Council delves into the history of the PWAA in a recent blog post. While AWC is not affiliated with the Council, a research and analysis organization supporting economic vitality, we want to share its excellent summary of tax revenues received by the PWAA, appropriations to the account, and regular diversions from the fund over the years. Read the article.

It’s all about housing
AWC staff sat down with Government Relations Deputy Director Carl Schroeder to discuss the status of housing legislation and some of the complexities facing the cities of the state. We’re about halfway through the session and have just passed the first cutoff dates, so it’s a great time to hear Carl’s expertise and get updates on what’s hot (and what’s not) on the topics of zoning policy, affordable housing, regulatory reform, and infrastructure impacts. Tune in to the CityVoice Podcast to hear the latest.

City Action Days recap video

That’s a wrap! We had a blast welcoming old and new city friends to our sold-out City Action Days event this year. Check out this short recap video celebrating all your hard work advocating on behalf of 281 cities and towns. You might even spot yourself! If you missed City Action Days this year, don’t miss the opportunity to register for our AWC Lobby Day event back in Olympia on March 16.

Legislative action marches to the floor
As we head into March, the Legislature heads to the floor. What is floor action? It is when bills that have passed out of committee are up for a vote by the full House or Senate. To remain viable or alive, a bill must pass out of its original house (i.e., house of origin) by 5 pm on March 8. Typically, the number of bills that reach this point has been significantly reduced, but this year it seems like more bills than normal have managed to survive the committee process and now await floor action. For cities, this means a lot of bills, both good and bad, are still out there and need your action. Check out this week’s Bill Hot Sheet for the latest list of key bills. Be sure to communicate with your legislators about those you want to pass and those you want left behind.

Affordable housing
Companion lot-splitting bills amended and moving. Companion bills that intend to increase housing through lot splitting—allowing an existing residential lot to be split into two lots—have passed out of committee, and each is awaiting floor action in its respective chamber. The retained original provisions still seem very prescriptive for state law. More

Homeownership assistance for those affected by racially restrictive covenants. Homeownership rates in Washington vary significantly by race. White homeownership rates are almost 20% higher than those of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); specifically, Black households are homeowners at less than half the rate of white households. AWC supports a bill that intends to address this gap. More

Broadband & telecommunications
State broadband map proposal refined, expanded, passed out of committee on unanimous vote. HB 1746, directing the State Broadband Office to create a statewide broadband map, has been significantly reshaped as it moves through the House. More

Budget & finance
Property tax cap fix passes out of committee. HB 1670, revising the arbitrary property tax cap to tie it to your city’s cost drivers (inflation and population up to 3%) passed out of the House Finance Committee. We appreciate the strong showing of city support in the hearing and encourage you to ask your legislators to support the bill moving to the House floor. More

Finance bills march on to next stage in process before deadline. February 24 was the cutoff date for finance bills to pass out of fiscal committees (except for bills related to the budget), and several bills AWC is tracking moved on to the next step. More

COVID-19
Phone support returning, new rules incoming, and annual reports due soon – Here’s your ARPA update. It’s been almost two years since cities received federal COVID-19 relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), but even two years later, there are new developments headed this way. More

Energy
Energy project siting legislation governs city participation. HB 1216 intends to require and facilitate better-coordinated, faster environmental review and permitting decisions on energy projects of statewide significance. More

Environment & natural resources
Hold producers accountable for the packaging they send into our state. HB 1131, the bill that adds consumer brand owners to those responsible for funding the recycling and management of consumer packaging in our state, has passed the committee hurdles. Washington is one step closer to becoming the fifth state to pass an extended producer responsibility (EPR) law for packaging. Consumer brand companies are responsible for the packaging they send into California, Oregon, and British Columbia—let’s make sure Washington residents aren’t left out! More

General government
Problematic and expensive police liability bill advances. HB 1025, a bill that ends police qualified immunity and will significantly increase liability risk for cities, passed out of the House Appropriations Committee. AWC still needs your help to convince legislators to keep this damaging bill from passing out of the House. More

HR & labor relations
Bill banning hiring discrimination against cannabis users passes Senate. A bill that bans employers from refusing to hire a job candidate due to lawful cannabis use passed the Senate. SB 5123 now heads to the House for consideration. More

Bill on sharing personnel records with employees amended, voted out of committee. A bill to require employers to share a wide range of personnel records with current and former employees on requested was amended and passed out of the House Appropriations Committee on Friday ahead of the fiscal committee cutoff.More

Human services
Eligible cities have until April 18 to join the five new opioid settlements for a portion of $217 million. Cities that qualify to join the five new opioid settlements should have been contacted recently by the settlement administrator with instructions and settlement documents. These settlements are in addition to the distributor settlement funds eligible cities began receiving in December last year. More

This was a big week for behavioral health resources. Two bills that will promote behavioral health resources in Washington made significant progress last week. More

Land use & planning
Support the annexation funding bill to pass out of the House. A bill to reinstitute the annexation sales tax credit to provide resources to facilitate and incentivize annexations awaits being pulled to the House floor for a vote. This bill came out of the GMA Collaborative Roadmap process and was recommended unanimously. More

Public safety & criminal justice
Blake bill passes out of fiscal committee with modifications. SB 5536 continues to be the vehicle for a long-term solution to the issue of drug possession law following the State v. Blake decision in 2021. The bill makes knowing possession of a controlled or counterfeit substance a gross misdemeanor and promotes a pretrial diversion program option. More

Bill limiting use of traffic stops for non-moving violations passes out of House Transportation Committee. HB 1513 also specifies additional process requirements for traffic stops. AWC testified with concerns on this bill, as there are multiple ambiguities and questions about its impacts. More

Public works & infrastructure
Apprenticeship utilization expansion amended, improved for cities. After active stakeholder engagement that included AWC staff, we are happy to report a small win for cities in an update to legislation affecting municipal public works requirements. More

Prevailing wage proposal fails to make cutoff in one bill, makes it past deadline in another. A plan to ensure workers are paid the prevailing rate of wage in effect at the time the work is performed finds support in SB 5726 after dying in HB 1099. More

Transportation
Jaywalking bill tempered to address safety concerns, passes out of committee. SB 5383, aiming to decriminalize jaywalking and reduce pedestrian profiling, was amended last week in response to a strong set of stakeholder voices expressing reservations with the proposal. More

Autonomous vehicle proposal parked, for now. Intending to establish rules and regulations governing the operations of fully autonomous vehicles in Washington, SB 5994 took a spin around the track before heading back to the garage for repairs. More

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