One of AWC’s priorities for 2019 is securing funding for infrastructure programs. We are especially focused on ensuring that funding continues to flow into the Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF). Currently, the PWTF is supposed to receive funding from loan repayments and a portion of the state’s Real Estate Excise Tax (REET). These amounts total roughly $217 million for the biennium. The remaining portion of the state’s REET (about $80 million) and the Solid Waste Utility Tax revenue (about $90 million), that are supposed to flow into the PWTF, continue to be diverted until 2023.
While AWC advocates to keep the scheduled repayments and REET in the fund, we are also looking for opportunities to end the diversion of funds sooner than 2023. To that end, we have worked with legislators to introduce three key bills: SB 5788, HB 1680, and HB 1691. The trio of bills would end the diversions early and prioritize the funds for badly-needed infrastructure projects. The goal is to end the diversions sooner to alleviate the fiscal cliff that will come in 2023. Sooner is a better time to end the diversions because the economy is humming and revenue is up.
- SB 5788 restores the diverted REET beginning in the next fiscal year and prioritizes those funds for infrastructure projects that support housing development. It also restores the solid waste utility tax funding and prioritizes it for a ten-year period to help local jurisdictions with grants for repairing fish-blocking culverts.
- HB 1680 restores the diverted REET beginning in the next fiscal year and prioritizes those funds for infrastructure projects that support housing development.
- HB 1691 restores the solid waste tax and prioritizes it for a ten-year period to help local jurisdictions with grants for repairing fish-blocking culverts.
Please encourage your legislators, particularly if they are members of the House Capital Budget or Senate Ways & Means committees, to support these bills. We also need to remain vigilant about the need to protect the existing PWTF revenue from loan repayments and REET. The Governor’s budget proposal would again sweep $140 million from the PWTF. Please let your legislators know that such a sweep is unacceptable. The state has swept more than $1 billion out of the PWTF since the Great Recession – those are dollars that we will not get back to help with critical infrastructure needs.
Remind legislators that the state’s investment in local infrastructure helps keep it affordable for our residents, supports affordable housing, protects the environment, and supports our state’s economy.
We are so excited for the upcoming AWC City Action Days on February 13 and 14! The event has officially sold out with close to 400 city officials planning to come to Olympia. If you are coming, hopefully you have already contacted your local legislators to schedule a meeting. If you haven’t yet set up a meeting, do it now. If your legislator can’t fit you in for a meeting – ask if you can pull them out of a committee meeting for a quick hallway chat.
If you haven’t yet set up a meeting, do it now.
Just in case you can’t make it next week, plan to come to our AWC Lobby Day on March 25 for another opportunity to make your voice heard in Olympia.