Towards End of Session Legislative Update
As I write this mid-session report, we have less than two weeks before the end of the 2022 legislative session on March 10, 2022.
Please remember to speak up and speak out to your legislators whether it is on the critical policy issues below or the funding for health, education, and economic security of all of our state residents. Call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 to leave a message for your legislators to let them know where you stand on these and other issues. You can also contact your legislators by e-mail using this format: firstname.lastname@leg.wa.gov. If you need to look up your legislators, use the following link to find them: http://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/
Policy Legislation
The cutoff date for policy bills (other than those necessary to implement the budget) to pass out of both houses is Friday, March 4, 2022. The only policy bills that will still be alive are those that have been sent to the governor for signature or those that passed both houses but in slightly different versions. The two houses need to agree – ie concur – on the final version before it is sent to Governor Inslee for signature. For bills that do not modify or add additional statutes to the Revised Code of WA (RCW), once passed by both houses, they do not need the governor’s approval.
The following bills are still alive as I write this article. Most of these we support. There are two that we oppose and I will start off with these.
POLICY BILLS THAT NOW OPPOSES:
HB 2018 – Sales Tax Holiday. This bill authorizes a shop local and save sales and use tax holiday for Labor Day Weekend 2022 for qualified items purchased by individuals. Although our state has an unfair tax system that is heavily dependent on the sales tax this bill does not deliver economic relief to those taxpayers at the bottom of the income scale and are in need of relief from our regressive tax system. It would waste nearly $200 million dollars that could better serve our state’s economy. Although popular in other states, experience has shown that these sales tax holidays simply lead to large windfalls for retailers and the wealthy while funds are drained from resources such as our schools and social service programs.
SB 5919 – Concerning the standard for law enforcement authority to detain or pursue persons. This bill gives law enforcement more flexibility in the use of force. We believe that this bill rolls back the protections put in place in 2021 with HB 1310. In part, that bill, created a standard for the use of force by peace officers. The current law allows a peace officer to use physical force against another person when necessary to protect against criminal conduct where there is probable cause to make an arrest; effect an arrest; prevent an escape; or protect against an imminent threat of bodily injury to the peace officer, another person, or the person against whom force is being used. A peace officer may use deadly force only when necessary to protect against an imminent threat of serious physical injury or death to the officer or another person.
This bill is unnecessary and is a dangerous step backwards. This bill expands the authority to use physical force in all investigatory stops based on reasonable suspicion, the lowest standard of proof. It allows for considerable officer discretion which will increase racial profiling.
POLICY BILLS THAT NOW SUPPORTS
Memorial To Congress:
There is one policy bill still alive that we support that does not require the governor’s signature. If passed by both houses, a copy will be sent to the US Congress and President Biden asking the federal government to take action.
SJM 8006 – Concerning a national infrastructure bank. SJM 8006 is a resolution that requests the US Congress pass and the President of the United States sign the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2021. H.R. 3339, or the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2021, is a bill that creates the National Infrastructure Bank to facilitate the long-term financing of infrastructure projects. Much of our country’s and state’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. Many communities lack housing, workable transportation networks, clean, safe, and sustainable water, and food production networks. For example, in the area of transportation many low-income women and their families struggle to find reliable transportation which can affect their health – resulting in missed appointments and poor illness management, even if care is readily available, as well as access to resources for healthy food. This new infrastructure bank would also create tens of millions of high paying jobs, train our youth with skills they could use for a lifetime, and lift many of our disadvantaged persons out of poverty and despair. Additional jobs mean more tax revenue for our cities, counties and state and would improve the lives of those in our communities. A National Infrastructure Bank is a win-win for our state and local communities – providing reduced cost financial instruments for our local and state government infrastructure projects and a better quality of life for all of WA State’s residents including women and children.
Bills that Modify RCW:
The following priority bills have passed one of the houses and are currently in the Rules Committee of the opposite house where they can be scheduled for a vote to pass out of the legislature:
HB 1725 – Missing Indigenous Women and Person’s Alert. This bill requires the Washington State Patrol to establish a Missing Indigenous Women and Persons Alert designation as a part of its Endangered Missing Person Advisory plan. This system is similar the Amber Alert system.
SB 5855 – Reimbursement of campaign funds for childcare & other caregiving services. This bill authorizes the use of campaign contributions to reimburse candidates for expenses for the direct care, protection, and supervision of a child or person over whom the candidate has direct caregiving responsibility incurred directly due to campaign activities.
SB 5676 – Cost of living increase for retired public employees. This bill provides a one-time, 3 percent increase to the retirement benefits of retirees in the Public Employees' Retirement System and the Teachers' Retirement System Plan 1, up to $110 per month. For retired state employees there have only been two small cost of living allowances (COLAs) in the last decade while purchasing power has decreased by 43 percent.
HB 2075 – Customer service requirement for the Dept of Social & Health Services (DSHS). This bill establishes minimum service requirements for the DSHS. Many low-income citizens of Washington state do not have access to the technology necessary to seek services from a DSHS office that communicates with clients through telephones or computers only. DSHS needs a physical office open to the public, so it is accessible to all Washington citizens in need. It prohibits the department from imposing punitive measures against individuals when they are unable to comply with the requirements if they are unable to interact with the due to operating decisions, such as the closure of community services offices.
HB 1866 – Housing assistance for those who suffer chronic mental and physical health problems. This bill establishes a program that combines existing housing and healthcare services to first provide housing to homeless persons who suffer from chronic mental and physical health problems, and then to provide treatment solutions to these problems. An effective system of services currently exists through Apple Health and excellent public and nonprofit affordable housing providers, but they have yet to be combined in an effective way across the state. People who suffer chronic health problems have far better outcomes if they are housed.
SB 5838 – Diaper subsidy. This bill provides a monthly diaper subsidy for parents or other caregivers receiving temporary assistance for needy families effective Nov 1, 2023.
HB 2097 – First-time homebuyer. This bill modifies the definition of first-time home buyer under the Housing Trust Fund program. Under the HTF program, a first-time home buyer is an individual or their spouse or domestic partner who has not owned a home during the prior three-year period. The 2021- 23 biennial capital budget expands the definition for first-time home buyer to award homeownership projects to include an individual who meets any of the following:
a single parent who has only owned a home with a former spouse while married;
an individual who is a displaced homemaker and has only owned a home with a spouse;
an individual who has only owned a principal residence not permanently affixed to a permanent foundation; and
an individual who has only owned a property that is discerned to be uninhabitable by a licensed building inspector.
SB 5838 – Affirming WA State’s Abortion Act. This bill declares that every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy to personal reproductive decisions. This bill also updates the language related to abortion care in Washington's legal code to be gender neutral and to reflect the range of providers who are licensed to provide abortion care. These updates would ensure that the gender identities of all people who have abortions are reflected in the statute and would confirm the already established legal ability of qualified licensed providers, such as physician assistants (PAs) and advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNPs) to provide abortion care.
SB 5078 – Gun safety. This bill establishes firearm safety measures to increase public safety by prohibiting the manufacture, possession, distribution, importation, selling, offering for sale, purchasing or transfer of large capacity magazines.
The following bills have passed both houses but in slightly different versions and must reach concurrence before being sent to the governor for signature:
HB 1748 – Aged, blind, or disabled program eligibility for human trafficking victims. Makes victims of human trafficking eligible for the Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) program and the Aged, Blind, or Disabled (ABD) program.
HB 1703 – Modernizing the statewide 911 emergency communications system. This bill addresses the ongoing effort to modernize the 911 system, which is essential to public safety and is often the first call a victim or bystander makes when experiencing trauma. This bill largely clarifies and updates the existing regulations.
We were also able to hold the line and put down a few bad bills that would have
Prohibited abortions in circumstances when the fetus as diagnosed with down syndrome.
Required physicians to notify a parent or legal guardian when performing an abortion on a minor.
Required watermarks on mail-in ballots would have limited vote by mail-in ballots to only those mailed to a voter. Currently if you lose your ballot, you can reprint it, as well as the envelope and mail it and your vote will be counted. The bill also would have eliminated the ability for the Voter Student Engagement hubs from assisting college and university students from downloading their ballots in order to vote.
2021-2022 Supplemental Budget
This past week both the House and the Senate presented their versions of the Supplemental Budget for the 2021-23 biennium with both bills moving rapidly through each house. Supplemental budgets are considered and passed in the even-numbered years to make adjustment to the primary 2-year budget which is passed in odd-numbered years. Both houses start off with the Governor’s supplemental budget proposal which was originally released in December.
Your legislators need to hear from you that now is the time to invest in our communities so that our families and residents of the State of WA can survive and thrive in our world today. Although the revenue forecasts are positive due to state taxes coming in faster than originally expected and federal COVID relief funds that have yet to be allocated, our state’s residents still have extraordinary needs. COVID has resulted in the health and well-beginning of our state’s residents being highly impacted, some positively (i.e., mostly the wealthy) and negatively for many. Since March 2020, economic, racial and gender inequality have deepened. According to the WA Employment Security Department 2021 ended with 70,000 fewer jobs than when the pandemic began. According to the US Census Bureau Pulse Survey between December 20, 2021, and January 10, 2022, 450,000 Washington State households reported not having enough to eat in the previous 7 days, and over 500,000 reported little to no confidence that they would be able to pay the next month’s rent or mortgage.
The following information regarding the supplemental budget is a portion of an article written by the WA State Budget and Policy Center and is in our opinion a good summary of why we need to invest rather than siphon resources away from public needs:
“Lawmakers in Washington state should heed the wisdom of community advocates, who know from both research and personal experience that greater funding for schools, health care, childcare, early learning, and the environment will strengthen families. This greater funding will also ensure communities – especially those who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) who have been hit hardest by the economic downturn and public health crisis – have the resources needed to get through and beyond these difficult times. But to make these important investments, lawmakers must reject costly tax cuts that would unnecessarily benefit the wealthy and disadvantage BIPOC and lower-income Washingtonians by permanently draining funding from their communities. Investing in community foundations, as proposed by Governor Inslee, will set the state up to thrive in the long run.
Washington state lawmakers have the opportunity to make historic investments in their communities right now. Over the past 25 years, the state has seen significant growth in its population and economy. But relative to that growth, state funding for community needs has declined since the mid-1990s. As Figure 1 shows below, under Governor Inslee’s proposed adjustments to the 2021-23 state budget, total funding (including federal stimulus funds) would be nearly $1 billion less than what was allocated in the 1995-1997 budget (adjusted for economic growth). And total state-only funding would be nearly $10 billion less under the governor’s proposal compared to mid-1990s levels.
Only with substantial COVID-19 relief from the federal government has the state budget been able to rebound from the deep funding cuts enacted following the Great Recession. However, these funds are temporary – intended only to address the current public health and economic crises. As a result, lawmakers cannot rely on federal support to meet long-term community needs. Instead, to maintain community investments after federal relief expires at the end of 2024, state lawmakers must find new and equitable sources of funding.”[1]
For additional information and analysis of the governor’s proposed budget see https://budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/now-is-the-time-to-invest-in-community-foundations-and-the-people-they-serve/
[1] Tracy Yeung & Andy Nicolas, “Now is the time to invest in community foundations and the people they serve” – Scmudget Blog, Washington State Budget & Policy Center. February 14, 2022. https://budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/now-is-the-time-to-invest-in-community-foundations-and-the-people-they-serve/