
March 13, 2023
*The Legislative Bulletin* is produced weekly during the legislative session.**	One click to view all Legislative Bulletin headlines and articles.
Surprise move from the Senate keeps vehicular pursuits bill alive With the House stalling on its law enforcement vehicular pursuits legislation, the Senate took decisive action to pass SB 5352 just before last Wednesday’s deadline, pulling the dormant bill to the floor for a vote. The version of the bill that passed is virtually identical to the most recent version of the House bill, including limiting the types of crimes that warrant a pursuit. The amended Senate bill adds vehicular assault and certain domestic violence offenses to the list of crimes for which police are authorized to pursue. Notably, SB 5352 does not include the 2025 sunset date seen in HB 1363. More Both major housing density bills receive an early hearing in opposite chamber The two big housing density bills of the session – one focused on middle housing on all residential lots and the other on upzoning near transit corridors – passed their respective chambers with a clear margin and will be heard in the opposite chamber this week. Although both bills continue to evolve as the session wears on, neither aligns in lockstep with the AWC Housing Solutions proposal. But, as anyone involved in contentious policy debates will tell you is necessary, compromises are being made on both sides. More A murky future for proposed Public Works Revolving Account Washington cities’ hopes for constitutional protection of a vital source of local infrastructure funding have been dashed, for now. Senate Joint Resolution 8201, which would have amended the state constitution to establish the Public Works Revolving Account, to be used strictly for the purpose of providing loans and grants to local infrastructure projects, failed to make last week’s cutoff deadline. However, the resolution’s accompanying implementation bill, SB 5303, remains alive and awaits a hearing in the House. The existing Public Works Assistance Account remains intact; AWC believes this account will likely be funded in the proposed budgets due out next week. More Sign on to NLC’s letter asking Congress to act on rail safety Following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2023. This legislation includes several proposals to prevent derailments and make the country’s rail network safer for communities and railroad workers. The National League of Cities (NLC) recently sent a letter to Congress with recommendations for improving rail safety. NLC invites city officials to sign on and to share the letter with your city colleagues. Read the letter and add your city. Then check out this blog post to learn what cities can do to promote rail safety. Attend a free webinar to learn about new climate pollution reduction funding The EPA’s new $5 billion Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) Program, established in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), will award funds to state and local governments to develop and implement climate action plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Co-hosted by the National Association of Counties (NACO), and the National League of Cities (NLC), the webinar will discuss strategies and best practices local governments can leverage to execute planning grants successfully and best position themselves to apply for the competitive implementation grants. Learn about the grant program and register now. (NACO membership not required to attend.) CityVoice Podcast—Deep dive into city infrastructure Washington’s infrastructure system is a complex network that supports daily life in our communities and cities are working hard to maintain and improve the statewide system through unique and innovative approaches. This week’s CityVoice Podcast takes a deep dive into AWC’s 2023 publication, State of the Cities: Washington’s interconnected infrastructure. We visit with the mayor of Othello and the public works directors from Pasco and Cheney—to talk about their projects and discuss the state of infrastructure in cities throughout Washington, in a landscape of shifting climate change priorities and expanded federal support. Listen now. Listen now.	Legislative bills need a little luck and a lot of work AWC wishes you a lucky week and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Some bills may need a little more luck than others now that the Legislature is hearing bills that passed out of their house of origin last week. The House passed 331 bills and the Senate passed 280 bills before the March 8 deadline. While there were a few surprises, the great news is we still have several priority and support bills on our Hot Sheet that are alive and moving through the process, and just two bills that we oppose. A host of bills still need to be amended to address issues and concerns. Having a successful session takes a little luck and a lot of hard work, so keep up your engagement with legislators. If you haven’t recently, check in and remind them of your legislative priorities. Attend AWC city action calls – Members only Fridays at 12:30 pm \| Online Join our city action calls for AWC members each Friday to hear updates directly from your team of lobbyists on the latest action on the hill and progress on bills of importance to cities. Make sure to sign up in advance each week. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing the Zoom link for that week’s call. Register now for this Friday's call. Affordable housing Several lower-profile bills advance and receive hearings. As our regular readers know, what has been termed by some as the “year of housing” has spawned dozens of bills on the topic, several of which have survived cutoff. A few other planning-related bills are also moving along. More Budget & finance Property tax cap fix stuck in House, with hopes it could become part of a budget deal. Thanks to all the city officials who asked legislators to move HB 1670, the property tax cap fix, to a floor vote by last Wednesday’s cutoff. Unfortunately, the bill did not advance and is stuck in the House. AWC has supported the bill as a modest proposal to revise the arbitrary 1% cap on property taxes. More Rural county development sales tax scheduled in Senate. The extension of the rural county sales tax (.09 sales tax) passed the House unanimously and is set for executive session in the Senate Local Government Committee. More Economic development Fixes to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program pass the House. On a vote of 80-15, HB 1527 made it out of the House unamended. The bill will bring several needed fixes to TIF, making the program more beneficial to cities. More Emergency management & cybersecurity Extreme weather grants bill passes out of the House. A bill creating a grant program to assist local governments with costs of responding to extreme weather events passed out of the House and is now scheduled for hearing in the Senate. More Energy City confidentiality protected in latest updates to clean energy siting proposal. The governor request bill has not slowed down since its introduction in January, receiving several rounds of amendments in the House. HB 1216 is scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee this Wednesday. More Federal New federal fact sheets highlight cities’ work with ARPA and BIL funds. Curious about how cities across Washington are using federal funding? Two new AWC fact sheets show what cities are doing with federal funds to support and grow their communities. More General government Bill expanding the Washington Voting Rights Act passes House, scheduled in the Senate. Though AWC strongly supports voting rights and ensuring appropriate representation in all levels of government, HB 1048 presents concerns regarding fiscal impacts on cities related to the potentially unlimited recovery of costs in cases where a group does not prevail. More Union-member privilege bill survives cutoff. HB 1187, creating a new legal privilege between unions and union members, passed out of the House last week. AWC’s position on the bill is “other,” and we are working to address concerns through amendments in the Senate. More TSWIFT consumer protection bill on ticket sales left in the House. HB 1648, the TSWIFT consumer protection act, would have imposed new protections on event ticket sales and violations for bypassing ticket sales security technology. More Police liability bills dead after mid-session cutoff. Two problematic bills, HB 1025 and HB 1445, would have greatly expanded liability for cities with police departments but failed to pass out of the House prior to the March 8 House of Origin cutoff. More HR & labor relations One bill imposing “good faith” on self-insured cities survives cutoff. A problematic bill for cities that self-insure for workers’ compensations claims, HB 1521, survived last week’s cutoff and is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate this week. More Bills requiring employers to provide employee information up for hearings in the Senate. HB 1320 changes how employers respond to requests for personnel files, and HB 1200 sets specific requirements for supplying unions with information on employees. More More HR bills on the week 10 hearing schedule. Several HR & labor relations bills of interest survived cutoff and are on this week's committee action calendar. Read a review of those bills. More Tell AWC about your city’s success stories with recruitment and retention. Nearly every city is experiencing hiring and retention challenges. But cities are creative, great places to work, and we want to hear about your challenges and how you're addressing them. More Human services Trueblood bill amended, removing costly provisions for cities. Last week, SB 5440 moved out of the Senate without provisions that were potentially very costly to cities. The bill seeks to address significant wait times for competency evaluations and restoration services. More Open government Bill exempting domestic violence survivors from the PRA passes House. HB 1533 exempts certain identifying information from the Public Records Act for state agency and K-12 employees who are survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, harassment, and stalking. More Pensions PERS 1 changes are back on the hearing schedule. Several bills addressing PERS 1, including changes to the UAAL and cost-of-living adjustments, survived cutoff and either had hearings late last week or are scheduled for hearings this week. More Public safety & criminal justice Blake fix passes Senate, needs your support in the House. The Senate passed SB 5536, which makes knowingly possessing drugs a gross misdemeanor with many off-ramps for treatment and services. The debate regarding the permanent solution rests with the House, and AWC urges cities to contact your legislators to express support for SB 5536. More A bill establishing an Office of Independent Prosecutions (OIP) in the Attorney General’s Office passes House. The OIP would have jurisdiction concurrent with county prosecuting attorneys to review investigations and conduct prosecutions of deadly use of force by law enforcement officers. More Public works & infrastructure Washington to see a statewide small works roster and greater equity in public works procurement in Senate bill now moving through the House. Consensus legislation proposed by the Capital Projects Advisory Board will be heard tomorrow morning in the House Innovation, Community & Economic Development, & Veterans Committee. More Transportation Get up to speed with these key transportation bills traveling through the Senate. Then consider testifying and contacting your legislators this week in support of SB 5452, authorizing cities to use transportation impact fees on bicycle and pedestrian facilities. More
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