The Legislature returns to Olympia on Monday for a jampacked short session. In 60 days, lawmakers are expected to get to work grappling with gas prices, drug deaths, transportation woes, and mental health needs, among many issues.
Adding pressure are November elections, and limited fundraising windows, for most of their seats but also open statewide races for governor, attorney general, insurance commissioner and lands commissioner.
And looming over the proceedings are six initiatives bankrolled by hedge-fund manager Brian Heywood that are also likely to be on the November ballot.
The stage is set for conflict but Washingtonians can ill afford unconstructive politics.
Democrats who control both legislative houses and the governor’s mansion would be well-advised to use this session to tack to the center and pass policies that meet the needs of average Washingtonians. Republicans ought to come up with their own audacious plans that tackle major challenges such as climate change and caring for the aged instead of settling for sideline carping.
The raft of conservative initiatives propose to repeal the landmark Climate Commitment Act and prohibit all future “cap and trade” carbon reduction efforts; repeal the capital gains tax for stock sales of $250,000; repeal the long-term care tax; prohibit a state income tax; loosen police pursuit policies; and change the relationship between schools, kids, and parents.
The website of Heywood’s group Let’s Go Washington describes him as “the new political power broker.”
With climate scientists expected to officially name 2023 as the warmest year on record — with temperatures rising so rapidly that humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt — the need to act is urgent. Much of this session’s attention is expected to focus on revenues from the CCA that came in higher than expected.
In his 2024 supplemental budget, Gov. Jay Inslee proposed spending $900 million in projected CCA revenue to offset rising oil prices with a $200 utility bill credit for residential electricity customers. The governor also wants more residential heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations along state highways.
All those are meritorious ideas, but the political reality is this: Unless Inslee and Democratic leaders put more broad-based tax relief in near-term spending plans, they could be putting the entire CCA at risk come November. Also, lawmakers should tweak the current law to fix problems, including broken promises to farmers about an exemption many don’t see. It’s time for some economic populism to temper the understandable passion and urgency of climate policies.
While last year’s legislative session focused on housing, 2024 is the year to bring some much-needed reforms and investment to mental health. A lot has gone wrong on Inslee’s watch.
In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stripped Washington’s Western State Hospital of federal certification for failing to comply with standards, costing the state about $53 million in federal funding per year.
Last July, a federal judge ordered the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services to pay $100 million in fines for not providing sufficient mental health services to individuals with mental disorders in Washington state jails.
What a mess.
In his budget, Inslee proposed more funding for behavioral health services, including about $141 million to operate a new mental health facility in Tukwila.
The editorial board wants to see more accountability as well as new dollars, to ensure progress is made.
Among the state’s transportation challenges, ferries have emerged as a flashpoint. Inslee and the Legislature have funded new, double-ended vehicle ferries to relieve a debilitated system, but the soonest they’ll run is 2028. Meanwhile, state lawmakers should support stopgap solutions such as emergency water taxis. That certainly would fall into Inslee’s Thursday promise to do “everything humanly possible” to solve the immediate crisis.
On education, state lawmakers need to get serious about fulfilling the constitutional obligation to fully fund education. The state’s response to the McCleary ruling did add billions to state schools, but data now show that inequity persists with the state’s funding formula. Though more money was finally put into special education last year, still more is needed for the aides, therapy, special schools and other accommodations for the 158,863 children with disabilities. The Legislature must remove the cap on the number of kids who can qualify for special-needs funding, and ensure districts across the state have the necessary resources to meet the needs of all their students.
Legislators must reverse the continued trend of low-record numbers of police officers in the state. In a December report, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs noted the per capita rate of law enforcement officers fell to 1.3 per thousand statewide — the lowest ever recorded — for the multiple year in a row. For more than a dozen years, Washington has had the fewest law enforcement officers per capita, ranking 51st in the nation. That’s exceptionally poor, so don’t let elected officials say this is part of a national trend.
To make progress on public safety, legislators need to develop strategies that focus on the whole state and not just replenishing the ranks of the Washington State Patrol.
Lawmakers ought to get serious about the health impacts of high-potency cannabis products, particularly on young people. In past years, bills that would have increased taxes or put a cap on potency have failed to get out of committee. In 2024, these measures should advance to the floor of the House and Senate, where lawmakers can either side with medical professionals and impacted families or the big-pocketed special interests of the cannabis industry.
Finally, Washingtonians should continue to be concerned about the veil of secrecy that lawmakers are loathe to relinquish.
In a troubling development last year, several legislators began invoking something called “legislative privilege” under the advice mostly emanating from the House Democratic caucus’ lawyers.
This was used to shield from public view embarrassing emails from lawmakers. At certain points, some lawmakers on an email thread were cajoled into also invoking the privilege, because if they didn’t, those seeking the shield would be outed. Then the policy became such that if a lawmaker wanted to invoke privilege, lawmakers on the thread would be assumed to concur.
While lawmakers leading this charge have had success in lower state courts, appeals are pending.
Better idea: Lawmakers should follow Gov. Jay Inslee’s lead, who at the start of his tenure 11 years ago vowed he would not invoke executive privilege. And he hasn’t.
Some have followed Inslee’s example. Some legislative leaders believe the privilege exists but it should be used rarely. This editorial board contends it does not exist and lawmakers should not be hiding the people’s business from them.
So much to do. Let’s hope for a constructive session that solves problems and reflects Washington’s common sense values.