Prepared by:Coyne, Jesernig, LLC / Thursday, January 26, 2017
Republican’s razor thin 25 – 24 majority in the State Senate evaporated this week when Sen. Brian Dansel abruptly resigned his 7th District Senate seat to join the Trump Administration as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of USDA. Deadlocked at an even 24 – 24, (until the precinct committee officers and County Commissioners in the 5 counties that make up the 7th District can name a successor), the slow pace of Senate Floor action essentially ground to a halt. Due to the vast geographic reach of his Senate District, and the number of people that have to agree on a successor, it is very likely that it could take 3 – 4 weeks for the 7th District to come up with a new Senator. If that occurs, a number of bills that would usually pass the Senate will simply die because there won't be enough Floor action available to pass them all over to the House.
Fortunately, neither Chamber is focused on Floor action right now. Instead, policy committees in the House and Senate are working hard to hear, and possibly vote on, some of the 1,240 bills that are in front of the legislature at this time. Bill sponsors will become increasingly more frantic as the legislature approaches the first major cut-off deadline of the 2017 session. That cut-off deadline, known as the "House of Origin – Policy Committee" cut-off deadline occurs on Friday, February 17th this year, and usually "kills" roughly 70% of the bills that have been introduced. It remains to be seen whether or not the resignation of Sen. Dansel, or the periodic absence of Sen. Doug Ericksen, (who accepted a temporary job on the EPA transition team), will cause the Senate to essentially grind to a halt, which could push that percentage even higher.
Our efforts to increase the "non-shellfish" portion of the Capital Budget, (from the $4M proposed by Gov. Inslee), received a boost this week when WACD and WSCC worked with representatives from the Dairy Federation to possibly "repurpose" the $5M dairy revolving loan fund that has failed to get off the ground. The concept that has been coming together is to "repurpose" this money into a $2M appropriation that would be used by the dairy industry to purchase some manure management equipment, and drive the remaining $3M into the Commission's non-shellfish appropriation. If this occurs, we would be able to increase the funding in the non-shellfish arena from $4M in the 2017 – 19 biennium to $7M. Preliminary indications from key budget writers have been positive, but we are a long way from ever seeing a Capital Budget, so we will need to keep working this idea well into the summer.
HB 1595, (a measure that would allow government agencies to charge the actual cost of providing copies of public records), was introduced by 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats in the House this week. That kind of strong bipartisan support will be needed if this legislation is ever going to make its way down to Gov. Inslee for his signature. The driving force behind this legislation is a 2016 report from the State Auditors Office that indicated the annual costs of complying with public record requests exceeded $60M, but that public agencies only recovered approximately $350,000 of that amount. It remains to be seen how far this legislation will be able to make it this year, but with strong bipartisan support from 23 different representatives, it is off to a good start.
Bill Tracking SummaryHigh Priority Bills / Sponsor / Position / Status
1067 / Making 2017-2019 fiscal biennium operating appropriations. / Ormsby / Monitor / H, Approps
1068 / Making 2017 supplemental operating appropriations. / Ormsby / Monitor / H, Approps
1594 / Improving public records administration. / McBride / Support / H, State Governme
1595 / Concerning costs associated with responding to public records requests. / Nealey / Support / H, State Governme
1692 / Agriculture and farming (Supplement not yet available.) / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
5047 / Making 2017 supplemental operating appropriations. / Braun / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5048 / Making 2017-2019 fiscal biennium operating appropriations. / Braun / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5086 / Concerning the capital budget. / Honeyford / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5087 / Concerning the evaluation and prioritization of capital budget projects at the public two-year and four-year institutions of higher education. / Honeyford / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5088 / Concerning the financing of local infrastructure. / Honeyford / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5089 / Concerning more efficient use of state facilities through aligning the functions of the department of enterprise services and the office of financial management, collecting additional space use data, and making technical corrections. / Honeyford / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5090 / Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts. / Honeyford / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5263 / Concerning the procurement of seeds by state agencies. / Warnick / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade&
Medium Priority Bills
1051 / Concerning financing essential public infrastructure. / DeBolt / Monitor / H, Cap Budget
1074 / Creating the community wildfire protection assessment. / Lytton / Monitor / H, Approps
1075 / Concerning the capital budget. / Tharinger / Monitor / H, Cap Budget
1080 / Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts. / Tharinger / Monitor / H, Cap Budget
1086 / Promoting the completion of environmental impact statements within two years. / Blake / Monitor / H, Environment
1275 / Including fish passage barrier removal projects that comply with the forest practices rules in the streamlined permit process provided in RCW 77.55.181. / Blake / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1404 / Conducting a workforce study of employment opportunities in the agriculture, environment, and natural resources economic sectors intended to provide educators with the information needed for informing students about employment opportunities in the studied fields. / Tarleton / Support / H, Hi Ed
1417 / Concerning the harmonization of the open public meetings act with the public records act in relation to information technology security matters. / Hudgins / Monitor / H, State Governmen
1422 / Creating the Washington rural jobs act. / Blake / Support / H, Tech & Econ D
1429 / Concerning aquatic invasive species management. / Chandler / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1453 / Promoting agriculture science education in schools. / Blake / Support / H, Education
1455 / Limiting the enforcement of policies of the department of ecology. / Holy / Monitor / H, Environment
1516 / Creating a data storage system for holding and making public records available to the public. / MacEwen / Monitor / H, State Governmen
1531 / Concerning the forest riparian easement program. / Chapman / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1552 / Concerning fostering economic growth in Washington by supporting the in-state production, processing, and distribution of food supply. / Tarleton / Monitor / H, Tech & Econ D
1562 / Continuing the work of the Washington food policy forum. / Gregerson / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1608 / Restoring resources to the capital budget beginning with the 2017-2019 biennium. / Pike / Monitor / H, Approps
1609 / Concerning small parcels of land used for agricultural or rural development purposes. / Pike / Monitor / H, Environment
1613 / Making expenditures from the budget stabilization account for 2015 wildfires. / Dent / Monitor / H, Approps
1660 / Floodplain preservation proj (Supplement not yet available.) / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1677 / Local infrastructure funding (Supplement not yet available.) / Monitor / H, Cap Budget
5033 / Concerning financing essential public infrastructure. / Keiser / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
5051 / Concerning nondefault termination provisions in state land leases for agricultural or grazing purposes. / Brown / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade
5208 / Creating the Washington rural jobs act. / Warnick / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade
5285 / Conducting a workforce study of employment opportunities in the agriculture, environment, and natural resources economic sectors intended to provide educators with the information needed for informing students about employment opportunities in the studied fields. / Wilson / Support / S, Higher Ed
5318 / Promoting agriculture science education in schools. / Hunt / Support / S, EL/K-12
5393 / Including fish passage barrier removal projects that comply with the forest practices rules in the streamlined permit process provided in RCW 77.55.181. / Warnick / Monitor / S, Natural Resourc
5466 / Concerning construction projects in state waters. / McCoy / Monitor / S, Natural Resourc
5496 / Local infrastructure funding (Supplement not yet available.) / Monitor / S, Ways & Means
Low Priority Bills
1009 / Clarifying that the authority to mitigate environmental impacts under the state environmental policy act applies only to significant adverse environmental impacts. / Shea / Monitor / H, Environment
1010 / Directing the department of ecology to submit an annual report to the legislature detailing the department's participation in interagency agreements. / Shea / Monitor / H, Environment
1132 / Concerning dispute resolution between seed buyers and dealers. / Buys / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1207 / Requiring agreements between state agencies and the federal government to be reported to the legislature. / Young / Monitor / H, Approps
1324 / Concerning the financing of local infrastructure. / Tharinger / Monitor / H, Local Govt
1348 / Concerning the priority in the state water code assigned to various beneficial uses. / Taylor / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1382 / Establishing a rebuttable presumption that permit-exempt groundwater withdrawals do not impair instream flows or base flows. / Shea / Monitor / H, Environment
1489 / Concerning private wildland fire suppression contractors. / Kretz / Monitor / H, Ag & Nat Res
1542 / Concerning dropout prevention through engaging youth in farming. / Doglio / Monitor / H, Education
1544 / Concerning small farms under the current use property tax program for farm and agricultural lands. / Doglio / Monitor / H, Finance
4200 / Amending the Constitution to allow the state to guarantee debt issued on behalf of a political subdivision for essential public infrastructure. / DeBolt / Monitor / H, Cap Budget
5002 / Requiring certain water banks to replace leased water rights provided for mitigation with water rights that will be permanently available. / Honeyford / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade&
5010 / Promoting water conservation by protecting certain water rights from relinquishment. / Warnick / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade&
5024 / Concerning groundwater supply availability in areas with ground and surface water interaction. / McCoy / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade
5066 / Concerning state budgeting through zero-based budget reviews. / Miloscia / Monitor / S, State Governme
5078 / Concerning impacts from wildlife damage. / Pearson / Monitor / S, Natural Resour
5422 / Protecting salmon and steelhead spawning beds. / Chase / Monitor / S, Natural Resourc
5431 / Concerning the protection of composting from nuisance lawsuits. / Warnick / Monitor / S, Ag/Water/Trade
Calendar Items
1/26/2017 / 1275 / Fish passage barrier removal / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 1:30 PM / HHR B
1/31/2017 / 1404 / Workforce study/ag., etc. / Higher Education / 8:00 AM / HHR D
1/31/2017 / 5263 / Seeds, agency procurement of / Agriculture, Water, Trade & Economic Development / 8:00 AM / SHR 1
1/31/2017 / 5285 / Workforce study/ag., etc. / Higher Education / 8:00 AM / SHR 3
1/31/2017 / 1417 / OPMA/IT security matters / State Government, Elections & Information Technology / 9:00 AM / HHR E
1/31/2017 / 1429 / Aquatic invasive species / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 10:00 AM / HHR B
1/31/2017 / 1531 / Forest riparian easement prg / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 10:00 AM / HHR B
1/31/2017 / 1609 / Small parcels/ag & rural dev / Environment / 1:30 PM / HHR B
1/31/2017 / 5393 / Fish passage barrier removal / Natural Resources & Parks / 1:30 PM / SHR 3
1/31/2017 / 1544 / Small farms/property tax / Finance / 3:30 PM / HHR A
2/1/2017 / 1132 / Seed buyer & dealer disputes / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 8:00 AM / HHR B
2/1/2017 / 1422 / Rural jobs / Technology & Economic Development / 8:00 AM / HHR C
2/1/2017 / 1489 / Wildland fire contractors / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 8:00 AM / HHR B
2/1/2017 / 1552 / Food supply, in-state / Technology & Economic Development / 8:00 AM / HHR C
2/1/2017 / 1417 / OPMA/IT security matters / State Government, Elections & Information Technology / 1:30 PM / HHR E
2/2/2017 / 1086 / Impact statements/two years / Environment / 8:00 AM / HHR B
2/2/2017 / 1542 / Dropout prevention/farming / Education / 8:00 AM / HHR A
2/2/2017 / 5208 / Rural jobs / Agriculture, Water, Trade & Economic Development / 8:00 AM / SHR 1
2/2/2017 / 1275 / Fish passage barrier removal / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 1:30 PM / HHR B
2/2/2017 / 1324 / Local infrastruct. financing / Local Government / 1:30 PM / HHR D
2/2/2017 / 1562 / WA food policy forum / Agriculture & Natural Resources / 1:30 PM / HHR B