House Ways and Means Committee Holds Hearing on Revenue Bill

WSAC and AWC are working together to move HB 2728/SB 6521 which would provide much needed revenue sustainability - in other words, new options for or changed circumstances by which revenue can be raised locally. 

Much thanks to WSAC President Paul Pearce, Thurston County Commissioner Kathy Wolfe and Longview City Manager Bob Gregory for testifying in support of the House version of the bill in the House Ways & Means Committee on February 1, along with AWC's Dave Williams. The Senate version was initially referred to the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee and has been re-referred to the Senate Ways & Means Committee. A public hearing has not been scheduled.

Several large electric load industrial customers strenuously objected to this new authority outside cities. AT&T also testified against the bill because they don't want the tax extended to their rural customers. Local government labor groups and the environmental community signed up in support of the bill.

The bills include allowing counties to charge a utility tax throughout the county, but with credit back to customers within cities up to the amount charged - now or in the future. AWC is opposed to authorizing it inside cities where they are not now charging utility taxes or at rates below current statutory maximums.  Our position is that it can't be imposed unless a city agrees. We are working on language to help resolve this issue.

We are being told be key legislators that this bill is not subject to the upcoming cut-offs and will be a part of the end-game state budget discussions, particularly as it relates to potential cuts in state-shared revenues to counties and cities.

Senate Governmental Operations Committee Held a Hearing on Cost Savings Bill

The Senate version SB 6372 was considered by the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee. It moved forward to the Rules Committee with only the public health study remaining in the bill. Thanks to Thurston County Administrator Don Krupp, Mayor Don Gerend and Dave Williams for testifying in support of this bill.

We will be working to resurrect as many parts of this bill as possible.

Legislation streamlining SEPA reviews (HB 2253 and SB 6130) continued to move along this week. The House General Government Appropriations Committee approved their version of the bill and the Senate Environment Committee did the same. SB 6130 will need to be heard in the Senate Ways & Means Committee next week or that version of the bill will drop by the wayside.

The Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee held a hearing on three of Senator Ericksen's land use bills this week (SB 6190, SB 6192, SB 6193). All three were driven by local issues relating to growth occurring in Whatcom County. After the hearing Senator Ericksen held a meeting with stakeholders to determine whether there was interest in moving any of the bills forward. There were numerous concerns from a variety of interest groups, and the Senator agreed to put all three bills down. There is the likelihood that there will be a work session in this committee during the summer on issues relating to urban growth areas, sprawl, and the way that cities and counties are accommodating growth.

The Senate did not advance Senator Hobbs' bill (SB 6154) that would have made it harder to appeal county land use decisions under the Growth Management Act. However, this issue has been kept alive in SB 6406, Senator Hargrove's bill that deals with Hydraulic Project Approvals and Forest Practices Applications.

This next week we will begin to get an indication of whether other land use bills will advance out of their house of origin. These include: HB 1094 (Providing a process for county legislative authorities to withdraw from voluntary planning under the growth management act); HB 2267 (Concerning traditional and alternative sewer systems); SB 6170 (Establishing the working waterfront redevelopment jobs act); SB 6082 (Regarding the preservation and conservation of agricultural resource lands.)

The House Capital Budget Committee heard and immediately approved HB 2329, the WSAC-proposed legislation that allows Wahkiakum, Pacific, and Skamania counties to pool replacement lands that are being purchased to replace trust lands that are encumbered by the Endangered Species Act. The bill has received unanimous approval from both the House policy and fiscal committees. Wahkiakum County Commissioner Dan Cothren testified before the Capital Budget Committee.

The Senate Agriculture, Water & Economic Development Committee advanced Senator Haugen's package of water bills (SB 6311, SB 6312, and SB 6313). The Senator agreed to include WSAC-proposed language in SB 6311 that authorizes counties to establish limited authority water banks for new domestic exempt wells in closed basins.

The House did not approve legislation that would have allowed counties to set local limits on the amount of water used by domestic permit exempt wells (HB 2311).

The Senate Energy, Natural Resources & Marine Waters Committee approved SB 6406, Senator Hargrove's bill that deals with Hydraulic Project Approvals, forest practices, SEPA and GMA appeals. This bill is being heavily negotiated and it is unclear what provisions it will continue to contain. The House will be hearing a similar version of the same bill (HB 2008) on Monday morning in the General Government Appropriations Committee.

Transportation

Both committees have introduced local funding option bills. We will be working to support both of them to ensure they meet our needs.

Senate version SB 6582

The bill includes the following local options that counties support with amendments:

• Transportation Benefit District changes:
• Increases the councilmanic vehicle fee authority from $20 to $40.
• A new revenue option for transportation benefit district boundaries, voter-approved, one-percent motor vehicle excise tax, which would be distributed through terms spelled out in interlocal agreements. We are seeking an amendment to make it countywide and councilmanic.
  • Changes the current law on a local option gas tax. Counties, and now cities, could pursue a voter-approved gas tax in increments of one, two, or three cents.

House version HB 2751

Differs from the Senate local transportation options bill. The House bill contains:

• An increase in the Transportation Benefit District vehicle fee authority from $20 to $40 upon approval of a two-thirds majority of the council.

• A countywide local-option motor vehicle excise tax of one percent imposed coucilmanically by the county. The tax could only be collected if 60 percent of the cities within the county, representing 75 percent of the total city population within the county, sign an interlocal agreement that spells out the tax revenue distribution. The bill specifies that cities would receive a maximum of $20 per vehicle within the city.

General Government, Labor and Pension

Alert: Injunctive Relief from Harassing Records Requests

SB 6351 provides much needed relief to local governments from harassing requests. SB 6351 expands the existing statute that allows for relief from inmates to relief from harassment regardless of the source. Commissioner Bouchey from Yakima and David McEachran, the Prosecuting Attorney from Whatcom County, were here last week to testify in the Senate Committee on Government Operations and Tribal Relations & Elections. Thanks to their help it was passed out of committee prior to the policy bill cutoff.

This bill is alive for now, but it is facing significant opposition and your assistance is needed. Please call your Senator(s) and ask them to support this important piece of Legislation.

Commercial Requests: SB 6146

This bill is intended have a chilling effect on the number of large commercial requests local governments receive. SB 6146 allows agencies to charge requestors when they ask for large batch data such as all of your building permit data, or all of your bond data, etc. Generally, WSAC is supportive of the concept, however the bill still needs technical clean-up. This bill, like SB 6351, is in Senate Rules and needs help if it is to move off the Senate floor.

Sunshine Committee Recommendations

SB 5049 requires counties to make public the applications of finalists applying for the highest management position in the county. WSAC is opposed to this bill; staff is concerned that this will have a chilling effect on applicants. What if an applicant has not or does not want their current employer to know they are seeking employment elsewhere? Even if that applicant were not a finalist and simply applied, that information would become public. This will cause well qualified applicants to think twice before they apply. It was passed out of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and Tribal Relations & Elections last week and is currently in Senate Rules. This bill is a hold over from last year. It did not pass the Senate during the 2011 session.

Taping of Executive Sessions

The WSAC Legislative Steering Committee (LSC) took a position to oppose SB 6109 during the January 19th meeting. SB 6109 was introduced by the Attorney General and the State Auditor. It was passed out of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and Tribal Relations & Elections last week and is currently in Senate Rules. The bill states that video and audio recordings of any portion of an executive session are exempt from public disclosure. The bill allows a legislative body to waive this exemption for any portion of a recording not made confidential by some other law if the majority of the legislative body chooses to do so.

The WSAC LSC choose to oppose this bill because it does not provide us a tool we don't already have; counties already have the authority to tape executive sessions if they so choose and recordings of executive sessions are already exempted from disclosure due to attorney-client privilege. There was also a concern that this could be used as a means to require mandatory taping of executive sessions.

Collective Bargaining for Court Interpreters

The House Ways and Means Committee is hearing HB 2711 today (Feb.6). This bill is related to a November PERC board decision that determined interpreters who work in the Medicaid Administrative Match (MAM) program as well as those who work in legal settings are part of the statewide bargaining unit.

In 2010, ESSB 6726 granted collective bargaining rights under the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA) to language access providers. "Language access providers" are defined as independent contractors who provide spoken language interpreter services for DSHS appointments or Medicaid enrollee appointments, but not owners, managers, or employees of brokers or language access agencies.

WSAC staff did not anticipate that this bill would apply to interpreters who work in local courts during dependency proceedings and certainly not as part the of the MAM program.  

HB 2711 clarifies in statute that interpreters in legal proceedings and the MAM program are excluded from the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act. WSAC supports this bill.

Tribal Retrocession: On to the House Floor

HB 2233 creates a procedure for the state's retrocession of civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indian tribes and Indian country. The House bill was exec'd out of the House Committee on State Government and Tribal Affairs last week. WSAC staff and the Yakima County Lobbyist worked very closely with the sponsor to get the bill to a place where we think it ensures local participation. At this time it appears the House Bill will be the vehicle for this legislation.   

SB 6378 seeks to further reform the state's pension system. For the past decade, most new public employees in Washington have been able to choose from two retirement plans. One option is a defined-benefit pension plan that has been offered since 1977, so called because it guarantees a specific benefit upon retirement. This is known as Plan 2. The second option, offered since 2002, splits the retirement benefit between a defined portion based on employer contributions and a portion defined by the employee's own contributions. This is known as Plan 3.

SB 6378 would close Plan 2 - meaning new hires would automatically be enrolled in the Plan 3 hybrid system. It also would eliminate the early-retirement benefit for new hires. It is estimated that together, these changes would save state and local governments $2.3 billion over 25 years (however, a fiscal note is not yet available). This would impact employees who enroll in the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS), School Employees' Retirement System (SERS), and Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS).

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