A look back at the legislative session
JOSEPH TURNER; The News Tribune
The Legislature set a record this past session by passing 583 bills, and Gov. Chris Gregoire already has signed hundreds of them into law.
The deadline for the governor to take action is May 19. She most likely won’t sign the 2009-11 operating, transportation and capital budget bills until that deadline because of their complexity.
Gregoire and her fellow Democratic leaders in the House and Senate decided late last week not to hold a special session to deal with a few items that remained from the 105-day session that ended April 26.
Here are some of the bills that were considered by lawmakers this year.
SB stands for Senate Bill. HB stands for House Bill. For more information, go to
leg.wa.gov/billinfoTO THE BALLOTGay civil rights: SB 5688 would give same-sex couples all the same domestic partnership civil rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples, except marriage. Opponents have filed a petition, seeking a public vote to overturn the change in law. To win a place on the Nov. 3 ballot, Referendum 71 petitions must be signed by 112,442 registered voters by July 25.
GOVERNOR SIGNED INTO LAWBigger unemployment checks: HB 1906 will raise the minimum weekly benefit check to $200 and boost other payments by $45 a week across the board. Money from Congress will boost weekly benefits by an additional $25 for the rest of the year. Higher amounts will show up in checks this week.
Nalley Valley Viaduct: HB 1978, the 2007-09 supplemental transportation budget, includes $70 million to put back on schedule construction of the eastbound portion of the viaduct for 2011-13. The governor had delayed that project until 2013-15.
State hiring freeze: HB 1694 puts a partial freeze on all state hiring, but prison workers and some other groups of employees are exempt.
Car sales fee: HB 1939 allows auto dealers to triple the maximum fee they can charge their customers for processing sales paperwork, to $150 from $50. The fee falls back to $50 in 2014.
Vancouver-Portland transit: SB 5540 allows Clark County and Vancouver to create a high capacity transit taxing district similar to Sound Transit in Puget Sound and impose a sales tax of 0.9 percent.
Tacoma Dome parking garage: SB 5045 will let Tacoma set up a special taxing district, probably downtown and in the Tacoma Dome district, to raise up to $500,000 a year for 25 years to pay for parking that will be displaced by the LeMay Car Museum. Bremerton and Auburn also have permission to get some state money, too.
U-Place Town Center: SB 5045 will let University Place set up a special taxing district to raise as much as $500,000 a year for 25 years to pay for its long-overdue city center project.
Narrows Bridge tickets: SB 5556 tells the state Department of Transportation to report to the Legislature by Dec. 1 on a possible grace period for motorists who fail to pay tolls to cross the Narrows Bridge. It also keeps judges from reducing the $12 ticket surcharge that helps pay off the bridge.
Tire fee: SB 5976 keeps in place indefinitely a $1-per-tire fee that was supposed to expire June 30, 2010, and uses the money for abandoned tire pile cleanup and highway funding.
Identity theft: SB 5380 sets a six-year statute of limitations for the crimes of identify theft and theft by deception.
Presidential elections: SB 5599 commits Washington to join a coalition of states that want the U.S. president elected by popular vote instead of by the Electoral College.
Ex-con supervision: SB 5288 will reduce supervision of offenders who get out of jail or prison to shorter periods of time, except for violent sex offenders or dangerous mentally ill.
RVs, mobile homes: HB 1227 will prohibit cities and counties from banning recreational vehicles from moving into mobile home parks if the RV is being used as a permanent residence.
Campaign lies: HB 1286 will prohibit candidates from lying about their opponents if the remarks are defamatory and if the candidate knows the remarks are false or doesn’t care whether they are true or false. That’s the same standard for proving slander or libel under the state Constitution.
Breast-feeding: HB 1596 will afford antidiscrimination protection to women who breast-feed in public.
Special elections: HB 1018 will get rid of two of four spring dates that most school and fire districts use for special elections. The March election will be eliminated right away. May elections will be eliminated after 2011. Elections still will be held in February and April, but the specific dates will be different hereafter.
Internet tobacco sales: SB 5340 will require companies that sell cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff and other tobacco products (except cigars) online to ship them only to retailers and wholesalers, not private residences of business, to deter underage online purchases and to keep everyone from avoiding state taxes.
Animal cruelty: SB 5402 allows a judge to ban a person from owning the same kind of animal for two years if that person was once convicted of abusing such an animal and a lifetime ban after a second conviction.
Assault on law officer: SB 5413 will allow judges to add one additional year to an offender’s sentence if he or she is convicted of assaulting a law officer or other law enforcement employee with what appears to be a weapon.
Transit crimes: SB 5513 creates a broader array of crimes for which people can be cited at light rail stations, bus stops and transit facilities.
Military school kids: SB 5248 will enroll Washington in an interstate compact and set uniform rules that govern how schools handle children who transfer from one state to another because their military parents have been reassigned.
Ex-con voting rights: HB 1517 will allow former prison inmates to regain their right to vote after they finish serving their sentences and no longer are under community supervision as long as they are making progress on paying off their financial obligations to victims and the courts.
Prostitution penalties: HB 1362 will allow cops to impound vehicles used in prostitution offenses by hookers, pimps or customers and make them pay an additional $500 fee to reclaim vehicles if the act of prostitution takes place in areas designated by city or county councils.
Tattoos, piercings: SB 5391 will require tattoo and body piercing artists to be licensed by the state in July 1, 2010.
BUDGET ITEMS – PENDING GOVERNOR’S ACTIONOperating budget: HB 1244 closes a $9 billion shortfall for 2009-11 largely by using $3 billion in federal stimulus funds, $2 billion in transfers from other state funds and cutting about $4 billion from the level of spending needed to keep pace with the growth of state programs. Overall state spending still is about $70 billion, about the same as was spent in the preceding two-year budget cycle.
Capital budget: HB 1216 calls for $3.27 billion in projects, which is smaller than normal because $777 million was shift to help the state out of its $9 billion shortfall on the operating side of the budget.
Transportation budget: The overall $7.5 billion two-year budget includes almost $5 billion in construction projects, the largest ever highway construction program for the state.
Savings: The Legislature tried to leave $820 million in savings in case of further downturn in state tax collections.
Tuition: University of Washington and other four-year state universities can raise tuition by as much as 14 percent in each of the next two years and the two-year colleges can go 7 percent a year.
More liquor stores: The Liquor Control Board is authorized to open five more state-run stores and 10 more contract stores.
General assistance: The governor had proposed getting rid of a program that provides medical coverage and $339 monthly payments to about 16,000 on General Assistance Unemployable and ADATSA, a medical coverage and subsistence program for drug addicts. Legislature made some cuts but kept most of the program intact.
Nursing homes: The state is lowering its payments to nursing homes from $165 a day to $155 a day per state-paid patient in 2009-10 and back up to $158 a day in 2010-11.
Hospital payments: The state is cutting its payments to hospitals by about 5 percent.
Basic Health Plan: Enrollment in the state-subsidized health program will be cut from 105,000 today to about 65,000, partly by attrition, but most likely by kicking some people off the plan.
College enrollment: An estimated 9,000 enrollment slots will be cut from today’s levels, but the final number is largely up to the colleges and universities.
Pay freeze: Cost of living adjustments (COLA) for some 250,000 state and public school workers will be suspended for two years, but workers will receive “step” increases based on how much time on the job they have.
UW Tacoma: The capital budget includes $34 million to turn the Joy Building into classrooms for the downtown Tacoma campus.
Bethel skills center: There is $10 million in the capital budget to proceed with the skills center in Spanaway that will be shared by a dozen school districts in Pierce County.
Tacoma carpool lanes: Transportation budget puts back on schedule most of the carpool lane construction on Interstate 5 between the Tacoma Mall and Fife, reversing a governor’s proposal to delay much of the work to beyond 2015, when the state will run out of construction money.
Tolls on Highway 167: Budget provides $200,000 to study the feasibility of collecting tolls to help pay for a future extension of Highway 167 from Port to the Puyallup River Bridge at Meridian.
McNeil Island prison: A study must be conducted to see which parts of the state prison systems and juvenile detention system can be closed. Some older facilities, possibly McNeil Island, are likely to close.
Voights Hatchery in Orting: There is money to repair the damage caused by storms, and although Voights would not be closed or sold, as many as six other hatcheries might be.
Murray Morgan Bridge: Tacoma tried to get the state to pony up an additional $25 million (for a total of $65 million) to replace the bridge on East 11th Street, but got only “we’ll think about it” language in the transportation budget.
PASSED LEGISLATURE; AWAIT ACTION BY GOVERNORTeachers pay raises: HB 2363 would suspend the cost of living raises that public school and some two-year college workers are automatically entitled to in 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. However, the bill also obliges the Legislature to make up for the estimated 4.2 percent raise that teachers are losing no later than the 2014-15 school year.
Fees for parks: HB 2339 would direct the state Department of Licensing on Sept. 1 to start collecting $5 from people when they register their vehicles unless owners “opt out” of that donation. If half of motorists pay up, no state parks will close. Otherwise, some are likely to be mothballed.
Alaskan Way Viaduct: SB 5768 would authorize the state to spend $2.4 billion to bore a 1.7-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle to replace the elevated structure, make Seattle property owners pay for any cost overruns beyond $2.8 billion and commission a study to see if tolls can raise $400 million of the total $4.24 billion project cost.
Toll 520 bridge: HB 2211 would allow the state to impose tolls on the Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington as early as October 2010. Tolls would vary based on time of day and must be high enough to pay off $1.2 billion in loans for the estimated $4.65 billion project.
Family leave: SB 6158 would delay until Oct. 1, 2012, payment of any benefits under a program that would give families $250 a week for up to five weeks to care for a newborn or adopted child.
Newspaper tax break: HB 2122 would lower the state business and occupation tax rate for newspaper and printing companies by 43 percent. It would cost the state about $1.2 million a year.
Electric cars: HB 1481 would give a sales tax break on the sale of electric vehicles, batteries and installation of infrastructure such as charging outlets, tell the state to start installing charging stations at rest areas and maintenance facilities, and have Pierce, King and Snohomish counties study how to set up network for plug-in outlets for vehicles.
Post graduate tuition: SB 5734 would let the University of Washington and other public colleges continue to set tuition rates and fees for out-of-state and post-graduate students through 2012-13 school year.
Lower unemployment rates: SB 5963 would cut contribution rates by employers by about 5 percent over the next five years, saving them $377 million, and limit the number of reasons one can quit a job and still collect unemployment benefits. A provision to increase benefits by an average of $14 a week late next year was removed.
Youth concussions: HB 1824 would require coaches to remove players from games and practice if they appear to have suffered concussions and not let the return until a licensed health professional certifies the athlete has recovered from the head injury.
Release old convicts: HB 2194 would let the state give early release to inmates who are chronically or terminally ill if the state can save money and the offenders are low risk to commit more crimes.
Stun guns in schools: SB 5263 would add stun guns and Tasers to the list of weapons that cannot be brought by students onto school property, buses or playgrounds, and school security must be trained before they can possess them at schools.
Narrows Bridge tolls: SB 5795 would give the state Transportation Commission the authority to make sure toll money collected from bridge commuters is spent only on project related to bridge operations.
Four-day school week: HB 1292 would let mostly rural school districts with fewer than 500 students shorten their school year to fewer than the required 180 days as long as they provide students with 1,000 hours of instruction.
Basic education: HB 2261 would broaden the definition of basic education to include all-day kindergarten and other programs, oblige the Legislature to fully fund that broader definition by 2018-19 school year and develop new standards for evaluating teachers.
Consumer protection: SB 5531 would give judges the discretion to award as much as $25,000 in damages to private parties and governments who sue and win cases based on violations of the state Consumer Protection Act.
Housing vouchers for cons: SB 5525 would let state prison officials pay for up to three months rent for inmates getting out of prison if they otherwise would be held beyond their release date for lack of a place to live.
Payday loans: HB 1709 would limit the total amount of loans to no more than 30 percent of a person’s pay and impose installment payment plans for those in default.
Liquor licenses: HB 2358 would raise liquor license fees by 10.5 percent, an increase of between $11 and $105 per year.
Local taxes: SB 5433 would give cities and counties more flexibility in how they spend their share of the sales tax, letting them use the money to avoid laying off workers instead of only hiring new ones.
Transit taxes: Transit taxes: SB 5433 also would let transit agencies such as Pierce, King County Metro and Intercity imposed a $20 annual vehicle registration fee with a public vote – Sound Transit could not – and let the King County Council (without a public vote) raise property taxes by 7.5 cent per $1,000 in property values for transit.
King County ferries: SB 5433 would reduce the amount of money King County can raise to support the foot ferries to Vashon Island and other ferry service to no more than 7.5 cents per $1,000 in property values. That’s one-tenth what it had been allowed.
Children’s health care: HB 2128 would delay until Jan. 1, 2010, implementation of a program to provide health care coverage for children in families whose household income is up to three times the federal poverty level, or $63,600 for a family of four, and allows that plan to have less coverage than plans for lower-income families.
State Commerce Department: HB 2242 would turn the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development into the “Commerce Department,” and instruct the new director to figure out by November what to do with the parts of the agency not focused on commerce.
FAILEDTax referendum: HB 2377 would have increased the state sales tax to 6.8 percent from 6.5 percent to raise $1.1 billion over the next three years to “buy back” some cuts to nursing homes, hospitals and health care programs. A portion of the money would have been given to poor families. Passed by a House Committee but never came up for a vote in the House.
income tax: SB 8205 would have imposed a 1 percent tax on single incomes over $500,000 and couple’s incomes over $1 million. It never received a public hearing. Other income tax bills were introduced or proposed by Sens. Lisa Brown and Rosa Franklin, but did not advance.
Enhanced 911 tax hike: HB 2029 would have raised the monthly telephone tax to support Enhanced 911 emergency telephone service to 95 cents from 70 cents but it failed to get a two-thirds majority needed to pass the House. A subsequent proposal would have asked voters to approve the increase at an August election, but it did not come up for a vote.
Oil tax: HB 1614 would have levied a $1.50-per-barrel tax to raise $115 million a year for prevention and clean up of pollution from storm water runoff. Passed by House. Died in Senate.
Job creation: HB 2334 would have authorized the state to borrow $3 billion to upgrade schools and other public buildings to make them more energy efficient, a plan that its sponsor said would create 90,000 jobs.
Marijuana fines: SB 5615 would have lowered the penalties for possession of less than 1.4 ounces of dope, making it a civil infraction with a $100 fine for adults instead of a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of as much as 90 days in jail and $1,000 fine.
Cigarette tax: SB 5626 would have raised the state cigarette tax by $1 per pack of 20 cigarettes to $3.02, which would have raised about $90 million a year.
Studded tire ban: SB 6066 would have banned the sale of all studded tires on Jan. 1, 2010, and banned their use by Jan. 1, 2014.
Jobs tax credit: SB 5899 would have let businesses with 10 or fewer workers subtract $2,000 to $4,000 from their state business taxes for every new job they created whose salary and benefits combined are at least 50 percent higher than the state minimum wage. Senate passed 46-0. Died in the House.
College student loans: HB 2239 would have establish the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) for students, using $10 million of state lottery money to provide low-interest loans. That bill died, but the Legislature did lay the foundation for a future state-funded student loan program in HB 2021.
Day care unions: SB 5572 and HB 1329 would have let operators and employees of child care centers form unions to bargain with the state for pay and benefits if at least one child at the center is state-subsidized. House and Senate could not reach agreement on a common bill.
Cheney Stadium: Tacoma wasn’t able to secure an additional $4.5 million from the state to fix up the Tacoma Rainiers ballpark.
Trail tax: SB 5545 would have let the Pierce County Council put a 0.1 percent sales tax increase proposal on the ballot, raising about $13 million a year to pay for a countywide trail system and park improvements.
Husky Stadium: The UW wanted authority to use some taxes in King County to pay for $150 million of a $300 million overhaul to the structure on Montlake. SB 6116 would have provided some of that, but it died.
Vote by mail: HB 1572, which was aimed squarely at Pierce County, would have required all counties to conduct elections entirely by mail-in ballot, starting later this year. Passed House. Died in Senate.
State Liquor Board: SB 6065 would have dissolved the paid three-member liquor board, turned them into volunteers and put a governor-appointed executive director in charge of state liquor stores.
Worker Privacy Act: SB 5446 would have let employees walk out of company meetings that require them to listen to anti-union lectures, pitches for charitable payroll deductions, etc. It was killed by House and Senate Democratic leaders after an e-mail from a state Labor Council officer surfaced. The e-mail suggested labor should withhold campaign contributions to legislative candidates until the bill passed. Legislative leaders said the e-mail, which was not sent to lawmakers, sounded threatening and bordered on bribery. A State Patrol investigation later said it was not.
King County Metro Transit: The County Council wanted authority to impose a 1 percent motor vehicle excise tax countywide to raise more money for transit service. No such bill was ever introduced, but transit did get some new taxing authority for a $20-per-vehicle license tab fee with voter approval and a 7.5 cents per $1,000 property tax increase, with Council approval.
KeyArena: SB 6116 would have let Seattle keep some of the car rental and hotel taxes collected inside the city to help pay for some $75 million in arena improvements so the city could try to lure another NBA team to Seattle to replace the Sonics and leverage an additional $30 million from Sonics purchaser Clay Bennett.
Felony suspects’ DNA: HB 1382 would have let authorities collect DNA samples from suspects arrested on suspicion of committing felony crimes instead of waiting until they are convicted.
Young hunters: HB 1114 would have required hunters younger than 14 years old be accompanied by an adult hunter who has a license. House passed. Senate did not.
Fish and Wildlife Commission: SB 5127 would have shrunk the commission to five members from nine, reduced their terms to three years instead of six and let the governor appoint the chair and vice chair and hire the director.
Deport immigrant inmates: SB 6183 would save the state about $9 million by deporting prison inmates who also are illegal immigrants.
Higher school levies: HB 1776 would let local school districts collect more money from property owners by raising the current limit by 4 percentage points. For instance, Tacoma would be able to collect 35 percent of its total revenues from local property owners instead of the current 31 percent limit imposed by the state.
Solar, wind power: SB 5840 is the measure that Tacoma and Vancouver lawmakers successfully opposed because they claimed it did not afford Tacoma Power and Clark County PUD the same leniency in meeting the standards in Initiative 937 that will make utilities buy more electricity from renewable resources.
Inmate sentences: SB 6160 would have given judges more latitude in the sentences they impose on offenders.
Regional transportation: SB 6064 would have allowed creation of a new board of elected officials in Pierce, King, Snohomish and Kitsap counties to made decisions on transportation projects in Puget Sound.
Porn tax: HB 2103 would have let the state impose an 18.5 percent sales tax on visual pornography.
Prove citizenship: SB 5213 would have required proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
Gay marriage: SB 5674 would have allowed same-sex couples to marry.
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436
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