“The level of analysis that is done when you see laws (substitute ‘budgets’) created, whether it’s the city, state or federal level, it’s much more horse-trading than analysis.”

Michael Bloomberg

The Senate budget proposal has been released. The House proposal is yet to come. The big-ticket items have been covered earlier in this TWIO. The other financial figures related to funding benefits will be finalized once the assumed differing budget proposals are reconciled. A fuller report detailing those finances will come after the final is done.  

Below are bills that appear still ‘alive’ and are either reflected in the budget or awaiting further action by the opposite house. Remember that negotiations between both houses are still to occur. Bills from the opposite house that have been amended once passed the floor will either need to be approved by their house of origin or not. Let the horse trading begin.

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Retirement Related Proposals

SHB 1007: Concerning interruptive military service credit for members of the state retirement systems.

Comment: Retirement credit can be awarded if, in any armed conflicts, the participant was awarded the respective campaign or expeditionary badge or medal…. the ‘expeditionary badge qualifier was added.

This bill passed the Senate 49/0 and will be sent to the Governor.

SHB 1056: Repealing some postretirement employment restrictions.

Comment: Changes the postretirement employment restrictions on benefits eligibility for Public Employees' Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, and School Employees Retirement System Plans 2 and 3 members that retired under the 2008 Early Retirement Factors (ERFs). • Permits 2008 ERF members to work in retirement system–covered employment for up to 867 hours per year without suspension of retirement benefits. • Adjusts benefits for individuals that chose the 3 percent per year early retirement reduction to the level of reduction in the 2008 ERFs for future benefit payments. Effective 1/1/2024.

This bill is scheduled for Executive Session on 3/28 before Senate Ways and Means.

ESSB 5294: was amended by the House Appropriations Committee. It changes the contribution rates in effect for the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) and the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) Plans 1 UAAL rates in effect from Fiscal Year 2024 until Fiscal Year 2028 by increasing them generally from 0.50 to 1.0.  This was done to address concerns that, with the original rate proposal, the unfunded liability may continue or worsen. It continues to reduce the scheduled payment of $800 million into the TRS 1 fund to $250 million. The substitute Senate bill was included in their budget.

SSB 5350: would grant a one-time, capped 3% COLA for TRS1/PERS1 plan members. It also directs the SCPP to recommend a path to regain a permanent COLA for these retirees. It was amended by the House Appropriations Committee. Delays the impact of the benefit cost on the contribution rate for benefits added to the PERS and TRS 1 after June 30, 2009, until July 1, 2027. Specifies that a supplemental contribution rate shall not be charged for the benefits granted in the bill. The original Senate bill was included in their budget. (HB 1057, a companion bill, is likely to be in the upcoming House budget.)

SSB 5121: Extending the expiration date of the joint select committee on health care oversight.

Comment: Extends the expiration date of the Joint Select Committee on Health Care Oversight from December 31, 2022, until December 31, 2026, and renames it the Joint Select Committee on Health Care and Behavioral Health Oversight.

The bill passed House 97/0 and will be sent to the Governor.

SSB 5490: Concerning health care coverage for retired or disabled employees denied coverage for failure to timely notify the authority of their intent to defer coverage.

Comment: Allows certain retired public employees who were denied retiree health care coverage by the Public Employees Benefits Board another limited opportunity to enroll. • Only retired or disabled employees who were denied coverage for failure to notify the Health Care Authority of their deferral of coverage, and appealed the denial before December 31, 2022, are provided the new opportunity to enroll.

This bill passed the House 97/0 and will be sent to the Governor.

Other Areas of Potential Fiscal Impact (and often unfunded) to Districts

SHB 1068: Concerning injured workers' rights during compelled medical examinations.

Comment: Allows an injured worker to make an audio and video recording of an independent medical examination and to have one person of the worker's choosing present during the examination.

This bill passed Executive Session 3/23 before Senate Labor and Commerce and will be sent to Rules.

SHB 1105: Requiring public agencies to provide notice for public comment that includes the last date by which such public comment must be submitted.

Comment: Mandates a public agency that is required to solicit public comment for a statutorily specified period of time and to provide notice that it is soliciting public comment to include in the notice the last day by which written public comment may be submitted. • Makes an agency that violates the requirement to include in a notice for public comment the last day by which written comment may be submitted subject to a civil penalty of $500 for the first violation and $1000 for any subsequent violation. 

Executive Session is scheduled 3/28 before Senate State Government.

ESHB 1106: Concerning qualifications for unemployment insurance when an individual voluntarily leaves work.

Comment: Expands access to unemployment insurance benefits by adding circumstances where a person may voluntarily quit for a good cause. The bill was amended and requires unemployment benefits based on the good cause quit for certain non-temporary shift changes made by the separating employer to be proportionally charged to the experience rating accounts of all of the claimant's employers from his or her base year rather than charged to the experience rating account of the separating employer only as provided in the underlying bill. Modifies certain verbs from present to past tense to conform amendatory language with current language in the applicable statute.

This bill is scheduled for Executive Session 3/27.

ESHB 1187: Concerning privileged communication between employees and the unions that represent them.

Comment: Creates a privilege from examination and disclosure for a union representative and a union employee concerning any communication between the union representative or union employee made during union representation. • Applies the privilege from examination and disclosure to the union members and organizations that represent: employees of college districts, public employees, faculty at public four-year institutions of higher education, civil service employees, ferry employees, port employees, and labor unions. It was amended and makes the privilege from testifying that is created in the bill for communications between an employee and union representative inapplicable to circumstances when a union employee discloses information to a union representative about the employee's commission of a crime or intent to engage in criminal conduct.

Executive Session scheduled before Senate Law and Justice 3/28.

SHB 1200: Requiring public employers to provide employee information to exclusive bargaining representatives.

Comment: Requires certain public employers (including school districts) to provide exclusive bargaining representatives information, such as contact information, date of hire, salary, and job site location, of employees in bargaining units if the employer has that information in its records. • Allows an exclusive bargaining representative to bring a court action if a public employer fails to comply with the requirement to provide information.

Senate Labor and Commerce has scheduled Executive Session 3/27.

EHB 1210: Concerning the recording of school board meetings.

Comment: Requires all school district board meetings to be audio recorded, subject to exceptions for executive sessions and emergencies, with recordings kept for one year. • Specifies that a public records request for recordings of meetings of a school district board of directors must include the date of the meetings requested or a range of dates. • Encourages school districts to make the content of school board of directors meetings available in formats accessible to individuals who need communication assistance and in languages other than English. It reduces the amount of time a school board must retain recordings of its meetings from five years to one year.  

This bill has been moved to Senate Rules.

E2SHB 1320: Concerning access to personnel records.

Comment: Requires an employer to furnish an employee or former employee with a complete copy of their personnel file at no cost within fourteen calendar days of a request. • Mandates an employer to furnish a former employee with a signed written statement with the effective date of discharge, whether the employer had a reason for the discharge, and if so, the reasons, within 14 calendar days of the written request. • Allows an employee or former employee to bring a private action for violations of certain rights regarding personnel files, discharge information, and redaction logs, and entitles the employee to equitable relief, graduated statutory damages up to $1,000, and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs of each violation. • • Allows for redaction of personnel files under certain circumstances.  An adopted amendment amends the requirement that employers must furnish unredacted personnel files in order to account for the exception in the underlying substitute bill requiring redaction. Specifies that, in the definition of "personnel file," the term "however designated" refers to the file in which records are maintained. Specifies that records to be furnished are those records that the employer actually included in a personnel or employment file. It was amended to change the requirement that employers must furnish unredacted personnel files in order to account for the exception in the underlying substitute bill requiring redaction. Specifies that, in the definition of "personnel file," the term "however designated" refers to the file in which records are maintained. Specifies that records to be furnished are those records that the employer actually included in a personnel or employment file. The public employer bears the burden of proving that it redacted only such information as required and is subject to liability under this section for bad faith redaction.

Moved to Senate Rules, awaiting further action.

HB 1656: Concerning unemployment insurance benefits appeal procedures.

Comment: It adds disputes of unemployment insurance (UI) determinations of allowance or denial of allowance of benefits or redeterminations, in addition to a dispute of initial determinations, as issues in appeals proceedings regardless of the grounds in the notice of appeal. • Removes provisions that in a UI appeal on a dispute of a claimant's claim for waiting period credit or UI benefits claim that all UI issues relating to the claimant's right to receive such credit or UI benefits for the period in question are deemed to be in issue regardless of the particular grounds in the notice of appeal; and the claimant's availability for work is determined apart from all other matters.

It passed the House 96/0 and has been moved to Senate Rules.

2SSB 5048: Eliminating college in the high school fees.

Comment: Requires institutions of higher education to provide enrollment and registration in College in the High School (CHS) courses at no cost to students in grades 9 through 12 at public high schools. • Requires the Legislature to appropriate funds to fund CHS courses at inflation-adjusted rates. • Directs high schools that provide a CHS course to include information in the course catalog that there is no fee for students to enroll in a CHS course.

Executive Session 3/24 has been scheduled before Senate Post-Secondary Education.

SB 5084: Creating a separate fund for the purposes of self-insured pensions and assessments.

Comment: Creates a self-insurance reserve fund for payments from self-insured employers related to workers' compensation pensions and from the overpayments reimbursement fund.

Executive Session has been scheduled 3/29 before House Labor.

ESSB 5123: Concerning the employment of individuals who lawfully consume cannabis.

Comment: Prohibits employers from discriminating against a person in an initial hiring decision based on the person's use of cannabis outside of work or based on a finding of no psychoactive cannabis metabolites in an employer-required drug screening test, subject to certain exceptions and other limitations. An adopted amendment excludes safety-sensitive positions for which impairment while working presents a substantial risk of death from the bill. Requires the positions to be identified by the employer prior to the applicant's application for employment.

Moved to House Rules, awaiting further action.

E2SSB 5174: Providing adequate and predictable student transportation.

Comment: Requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide an analysis of school district transportation costs and allocations to the Legislature by June 1, 2026. • • Creates a special passenger safety net program. It was amended to (1) Provide that transportation safety net awards may only be provided when a school district's allowable transportation expenditures exceed student transportation allocations and any excess transportation costs reimbursed by child welfare agencies. (2) Provide that a transportation safety net award may not exceed a school district's excess expenditures directly attributable to serving special passengers in the pupil transportation program.

It should be moved to House Rules.

Note: The original bill and withdrawn proposed amendment mandated employees receive same pension/health benefits paid to state employees. This language has been deleted but may well return during any floor debate. A similar bill, HB 1248, concerning pupil transportation remains in House Rules. It requires that school district contracts for pupil transportation services must include sufficient funds to provide employees of the contracting employer with health benefits and pension contributions equivalent to those of school district classified employees. • Provides one-time supplemental allocations to districts that experience higher costs because of the new contract requirements. A proposed amendment, among other changes, replaces one-time supplemental allocations of $200 per employee working more than 630 hours per month for districts that experience higher costs under the new contract requirements with a reimbursement subject to funding provided specifically for increased costs. It, too, is in House Rules.

SSB 5275: Expanding access to benefits provided by the school employees' benefits board.

Comment: Allows tribal compact schools, employee organizations representing school employees, and school board directors the option of providing health care through the School Employees Benefits Board through SEBB beginning January 1, 2024. Employers opting into coverage under SEBB may determine the terms of employee and dependent eligibility and must pay premiums set by HCA.

Passed the House and will be sent to the Governor.

SSB 5286: Modifying the premium provisions of the paid family and medical leave program.

Comment: Modifies the statutory formula for determining the premium rates for the Paid Family and Medical Leave Program.

Referred to House Appropriations.

2SSB 5593: Improving equity in the transfer of student data between K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.

Comment: Requires institutions of higher education to enter into data-sharing agreements with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to facilitate the transfer of high school student directory information for purposes of informing students about postsecondary educational opportunities. • Requires school districts to annually transmit directory information for all enrolled high school students to the OSPI and directs the OSPI to make that information available to institutions of higher education. • Directs the OSPI to identify a process for making information about a student's enrollment in an institution of higher education available to the student's school district.

Referred to House Appropriations.

Fred Yancey
The Nexus Group LLC