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It has quietly been a very busy week at the Capitol.
This week is the first week in which signs of our dire budget situation have begun to cloud over the Legislature like a bad dream slowly, horrifyingly becoming a reality. Although the electeds are still introducing a small mountain of bills every single day, it has become evident that legislators are scrambling to get their bills introduced with the hope that they’ll get at least a courtesy hearing before we arrive at the session’s first major milestone: policy committee cutoff on February 21st. I know what you’re thinking – that’s a whole three weeks from today, why on earth would there already be a mad dash to the finish?
The answer came in the form of a series of bills introduced by the budget committee chairs – Sen. June Robinson and Rep. Timm Ormsby – at the request of the office of financial management (OFM). Blink and you’d have missed them; these bills were introduced, heard, and voted out of the committee almost before anyone realized what was going on. They all share the same goal: a mandate that most of the “reserve funds” in our state be scraped entirely dry and transferred into the state’s general fund, which is ostensibly the Government’s piggy bank for the operating budget. Think of these reserve funds as buckets of money that are funded by, and used specifically for, certain things like road work or police budgets when in need of a flash injection of cash. It should amount to somewhere around $2bn transferred into the general fund so that we can cut down on that pesky little $10-14bn budget deficit over the next four years. Make no mistake – this money is (probably) not going to be used to fund the grandiose progressive policies floating around in committees right now. On the contrary, we can expect that just about any bill with a fiscal note attached to it will die before hitting the Governor’s desk for a signature, and he has assured the legislature that he will happily veto any new funding that doesn’t fall under his very short list of legislative priorities.
Having said that, there were some major caucus-priority bills that saw the light of day this week. Rent control, parents’ bill of rights, a bill ominously nicknamed “environmental crimes”, and a one that establishes a separate prosecuting office to investigate police officers’ use of deadly force were some of the blockbuster bills heard this week. We can expect that trend to continue, particularly surrounding those fiscal implications mentioned above. It’s a long three months until Sine Die, and rumors of a special session are already floating in the ether. I’ll be back in your inboxes next week with a recap of week four, but if you’ve got any thoughts or questions, my cell phone’s always on!
About Casey Brown
| | As the Director of Government Relations in S360’s Olympia office, Casey offers expertise in political strategy and public policy at the state, local, and tribal level. Prior to joining S360, Casey served as Senior Policy Associate for Cascade Government Affairs, an Olympia-based lobbying firm. He advocated on behalf of a wide array of clients, participating heavily in policy discussions between the Washington
State Legislature and industry stakeholders. During his time at Cascade, he helped influence energy regulatory policy, address agricultural concerns, craft organics management policy, and participate in the future of aviation and aerospace
in Washington. Casey graduated with a degree in Economics and Environmental Studies from Western Washington University. An advocate for those living with mental illness, he is a board member of NAMI Pierce County, serving as the board’s legislative
policy director. |