Mid Session Legislative Update
Policy Legislation
As I write this mid-session report, we are almost two-thirds of the way through the 2021 legislative session. The cutoff date for bills to pass the policy bills out of their house origin was March 9, 2021
Friday, March 26, 2021 was the policy committee cut-off for bills that were referred to the opposite house of the State Legislature! This means bills that were introduced and passed in the House or Senate had to pass out of their assigned policy committee in the opposite in order to move forward in the process. Some bills moved on to a fiscal committee to consider the cost of the bills. Others were sent to the Rules Committee and will need to be “pulled to the floor” for further voting.
SB 5096 (Capital Gains Tax) was passed out of the Senate on March 6 for the first time ever. This is a huge win for Washington State. If passed by the House and signed by Governor Inslee this would be the most equitable change in approximately 90 years. It would affect only 0.2% of Washington’s wealthiest taxpayers but raise more than $500 million annually to invest in childcare and tax fairness.
This bill, along with three other revenue related bills, would help address our State’s upside down tax system. Washington has the most regressive tax system in the US with those who make the least amount of money paying the highest percentage of their income in taxes. Whereas the very wealthy paying a very small share of their income in taxes. The other three revenue bills are:
HB 1111 (B&O Tax Fairness) restores fairness to our state’s revenue by including the investment revenue of wealthy companies and nonprofits in the state’s tax base. removes the investment return tax deduction from the Business and Occupation (B&O) tax for companies and nonprofits outside the finance sector. “Under current law, nonfinancial companies and nonprofits deduct investment returns from their revenues prior to calculating their B&O tax on gross receipts. HB 1111 removes this deduction for companies and nonprofits while retaining it for individuals.” Businesses would have a greater incentive to use their funds to expand activities associated with investing in their employees, equipment and research rather than using their monies to generate returns passively. It would also encourage nonprofits to put funds into services rather than the finance market.
HB 1406 and SB 5426 (Wealth Tax) would establish a 1 percent wealth tax on intangible financial assets of more than $1 billion. Only approximately 100 people in Washington State would be affected.
HB 1465 (Estate Tax) revamps the estate tax to make it more progressive by exempting small estates, reducing estate taxes on medium estates and increasing the estate tax on larger estates. The exclusion amount is increased to $2.5 million with an annual adjustment to reflect the change in the Consumer Price Index for the Seattle Metropolitan area.
In order and be able to serve our states residents especially those that are marginalized and disenfranchised in our state we need you to deliver a message to your representatives in regard to our state’s budget and revenue that WA State needs a new progressive revenue stream and not budget cuts. Comprehensive tax reform is also needed to ease the disproportionately high tax burden on our poorest communities.
Additionally, the following priority bills have moved forward in the process as well as others:
HB 1078 – Voter eligibility. This bill changes the voting rights law to automatically restore a felon’s voting rights as long as the defendant is not in total confinement with the department of corrections. It states that a person serving a term of community custody is not considered to be in total confinement of the department of corrections and does not include confinement imposed as a sanction for a community custody violation. A person who has had their voting rights restored must reregister to vote before voting.
SB 5066 – Concerning a peace officer’s duty to intervene. This bill requires a peace officer to intervene when the officer observes wrongdoing by a fellow officer and requires that the wrongdoing be reported to the officer’s supervisor.
HB 1070 – Housing for low-income individuals and households – This bill allows county and city governments to submit an authorizing proposition to the voters at a special or general election that would modify the allowed uses of tax revenue for affordable housing and related services, including acquisition and construction of affordable housing and facilities.
HB 1151 – Bolstering economic recovery. This bill establishes a consolidated emergency assistance program (CEAP) for families with children. Benefits can be provided to alleviate emergent conditions resulting from insufficient income. These benefits may be used to provide for: food, shelter, clothing, medical care, or other necessary items. They may also be used for family reconciliation services, family preservation services, home-based services, short-term substitute care in a licensed agency, crisis nurseries, therapeutic childcare, or other necessary services.
SB 5214 – Economic assistance programs. This bill amends the current law that limits the amount of time an adult can receive economic assistance from the state. It states that the current 60-month limit may be extended if, in addition to the current exceptions, the recipient is participating satisfactorily in the program, is temporarily prevented from working or looking for a job, and/or is in need of mental health or substance use disorder treatment.
HB 1815 – Working families tax exemption (WFTE). The WFTE is updated and simplified. This bill also expands the tax exemption to include those with individual taxpayer identification numbers or an individual who has a spouse or dependent without a social security number who would otherwise be eligible. Remittance calculations are restructured. The department of revenue is to design and implement a public information campaign to inform potentially eligible persons of the WFTE.
SB 5025 – Consumer Protection Act. This bill involves legislation requested by the Washington State Attorney General and provides an update to the civil penalties allowed in the Consumer Protection Act. Maximum civil penalties for violation of the CPA are increased as follows:
violation of any injunction issued under the CPA—$215,000
any contract, trust, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce or monopolization or attempt to monopolize any part of trade or commerce—$260,000 for an individual or $1,300,000 for a corporation; and
unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce - $13,350 for each violation.
The bill also includes an enhanced penalty of $10,000 to apply to unlawful acts or practices targeting specific individuals or communities based on demographic characteristics, including age; race; national origin; citizenship or immigration status; sex; sexual orientation; presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability; religion; veteran status; or status as a member of the armed forces.
SB 5408 – Homestead exemption. This bill raises the homestead exemption from $125,000 to the median value per county of a single-family home. With the Covid pandemic more and more women especially single mothers and the elderly and those in marginalized communities are facing homelessness when they can no longer afford paying their bills and are forced into bankruptcy or defaulting on a mortgage and/or asking for mortgage deferments on what in most cases is the only asset they may own. WA State's current homestead exemption is one of the lowest in the US and as a result even with the current homestead exemption of $125,000 families are still forced out of their home and cannot find other housing options thus increasing the level of homelessness.
SB 5068 – Expanding Medicaid coverage during the postpartum period. This bill extends Medicaid coverage to new birth parents from 60 days post-birth to 365 days post-birth.
SB 5140 – Protecting pregnancy and miscarriage-related patient care. Health care entities are prohibited from stopping health care providers from providing health care services related to miscarriage management and treatment for ectopic pregnancies.
SB 5399 – Universal health care. A universal health care commission is established for the purposes of developing a plan to create a health care system in Washington that provides coverage and access through a universal financing system including, but not limited to, a single-payer financing system, for all Washingtonians. By November 1, 2024, the commission must report its findings to the legislature, along with recommendations on implementing a universal health care system in Washington to be implemented by 2026.
SB 5313 – Trans healthcare insurance discrimination. This bill reduces discrimination by health carriers for enrollees seeking gender affirming treatment. Specifically, it amends the current state law to make it an unfair practice for health plans issued or renewed on January 1, 2022, to deny, exclude, reduce or terminate benefits when a participant seeks provider prescribed gender affirming treatment. Also, if the health carrier does not have an adequate network of providers with experience with gender affirming treatment, the health carrier must ensure the delivery of timely and geographically accessible medically necessary gender affirming treatment at no greater expense than if the health carrier had an in-network, geographically accessible provider available.
HB 1320 – Civil protection orders. This bill consolidates the six types of civil protection orders into a single chapter of the RCW. The six types of civil protection orders are (a) Domestic violence protection orders; (b) vulnerable adult protection orders; (c) antiharassment protection orders; (d) sexual assault protection orders; (e) stalking protection orders; and (f) extreme risk protection orders. It also creates a pathway to consolidate jurisdictional divisions to a more consistent approach with protection orders. The consolidation will come from recommendations from the Washington State Women’s Commission in consultation with the administrative office, the Gender and Justice Commission, and representatives of the courts, and is due 12/1/2021.
SB 5183 – Victims of nonfatal strangulation. SB 5183 directs the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy (OCVA) to develop practices for local communities to increase access to forensic nurse examiner services in nonfatal strangulation assaults, and to publish those best practices to its website by 1, 2022. It also directs OCVA to develop strategies to make forensic nurse examiner training available throughout the state without causing unreasonable travel or expenses for nurses and report those strategies to the Governor and Legislature by October 1, 2022. The Crime Victims Compensation Program is authorized to pay for forensic examination of domestic violence victims of nonfatal strangulation and prohibits charging the victim for the examination.
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.
The remainder of the legislative calendar for this year is:
Friday – April 2: Cutoff Date for Opposite House Bills to Pass Out of Fiscal Committees
Sunday – April 11: Last Day to Pass Opposite House Bills (except initiatives and alternatives to initiatives, budgets and matters necessary to implement budgets, differences between the houses, and matters incident to the interim and closing of the session).
Sunday – April 25: Last Day for the Regular Session
Please remember to speak up and speak out to your legislators whether it is on the critical policy issues above or the funding. Call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 to leave a message 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/