The Legislature’s House of Origin cutoff came and went on day 38 of the 60-day legislative session. By 5 pm on Wednesday, February 26, all bills that are not necessary to implement the budget must have been voted on by the full House or Senate to remain alive and moving through the rest of the process. Having been introduced, heard in one or more committees, and making it through the Rules Committee, they now get to start all over again with hearings in the opposite house, this time with less competition but also significantly less time.
In Olympia, we cannot ever be as certain as the coroner in the Wizard of Oz that bills are “not only merely dead, [they’re] really most sincerely dead.” Dead bills can be reborn as amendments to alive bills, or they can be referenced in budget drafts and resurrected. And, sometimes, a bill surprises you by moving when you thought it was still. But, even with those caveats, WSAC’s bill tracking list decreased significantly last week. The result is a mixture of highs and lows for counties’ financial health.
Two house bills left over from last year would have helped county fiscal sustainability. Both should be considered “sincerely dead:”
- HB 1718 would have provided some flexibility within existing resources, but it died on the House floor calendar.
- HB 2145 would have increased the 1% property tax growth limit, but it died this year without a hearing for the second time.
Similarly, WSAC’s bills to require the state pay for trial court public defense services – HB 1086/SB 5098 (requiring the state to increase funding) and HB 2420 (requiring the state office of public defense to take over) – both died without receiving hearings this year.
On the bright side, HB 2526, which would have cost counties over $20 million per year by eliminating penalties on delinquent property tax payments, died along with its companion in the Senate. However, SB 6314 was amended in a way that would have been a good compromise – allowing, rather than mandating, the county legislative authority to reduce or eliminate the penalties at its discretion.
Unfortunately, HB 1390/SB 5400, which provides a 3% benefit increase to PERS 1 retirees and others, passed both houses unanimously. The increase will make the plan more costly on top of the unfunded liability local governments are already paying for.
However, a handful of bills that will be fiscally helpful to counties are still moving:
- HB 1293 would, finally, share Discover Pass penalties with the counties that process the infractions.
- HB 2228 permits the early deployment of state fire service resources.
- HB 2421 would have the state pay their fair share of even-year elections costs. While troubling language regarding unfunded mandates was added to the bill at the last minute, WSAC supports the bill but will seek to have that language removed or amended.
- HB 2797 corrects technical problems with last year’s HB 1406 that allowed a credit against state sales and use tax for affordable housing.
- HB 2919 raises the administrative fee counties are allowed to charge the state for the collection of the state’s Real Estate Excise Tax from 1.3% to 1.48% for counties with a population less than 300,000.
