We have passed the halfway point of the 2022 session and now the focus moves to the supplemental budget proposals. Additionally, the recent legislative cutoffs bring the remaining bills into sharper focus.
This week will bring a new revenue forecast and that typically signals the imminent release of legislative budget proposals. The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will meet on February 16 and we expect to see supplemental
budget proposals shortly thereafter. AWC heard from the state’s economist, Dr. Steve Lerch last week at our Mayors Exchange where he provided a great overview of the factors that the council considers when developing the forecast.
In this Bulletin, we recently shared cities’ budget priorities that AWC uses to communicate with legislators and budget
writers. We encourage city leaders to continue sharing these priorities with your local legislators and ask them to advocate for each item’s inclusion in the supplemental budget.
Focusing on policy bills
While focus may shift to budget discussions, there are still many policy bills working their way through the legislative process, including many that are important to cities. These bills will benefit from your voice as city leaders. 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.
A few bills to highlight
SB 5510 is an AWC priority bill. It extends the current authority for renewal of the voter-approved sales and use tax for transportation
benefit districts beyond the current two ten-year term limitation. The bill passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support and is scheduled for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee on February 17.
HB 1719, HB 1735,
and HB 2037 are police reform clarification bills that address various aspects of policing and provide needed clarification supported
by cities. The bills are awaiting Senate committee action.
HB 1782 mandates additional middle housing zoning near transit and in areas currently zoned for single-family detached housing. It creates
an unnecessary step that will muddle ongoing progress on increasing density and diversity in housing by mandating cities to upzone all single-family residential neighborhoods with little ability to reflect local circumstances—while not guaranteeing
any additional affordable housing. These proposals apply to cities with a population of 10,000 or more. Cities across the state have already taken action to increase housing availability and these proposals undermine that work. Nevertheless, we continue
to hear from legislators who think cities are not doing enough when it comes to housing. AWC continues to oppose the bill as is and ask the bill sponsors to convene meaningful stakeholder meetings with cities to work on developing a proposal that
will achieve our shared goals of increasing affordable housing.
SB 5597 expands the state’s Voting Right Act originally adopted in 2018. AWC has not taken a position on the policy aspects of the
bill but has raised numerous concerns about the technical aspects of the bill and how it broadly impacts cities, creating potential additional costs and liability unrelated to actual voting violations. We continue to work with the bill sponsor and
legislators to find ways to mitigate these impacts in a way that addresses cities concerns while continuing to protect voting rights. For more on the details of the bills check out our recent article.
Please take time this week to reach out to legislators and let them know how these bills impact your community and talk to them about bills that you want to continue to advance (that is: continue on the path to become law) and which you do not. To find
out the specific status of a bill, you can look it up on the Legislature’s bill information webpage.
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.