Washington State Emergency Management Association
Legislative Committee Meeting Agenda
Thursday, September 19, 2013, 7:00 a.m.
PRESENT: Dylan Doty (Lobbyist), Cheryl Bledsoe (2012-2013 Chair), Tamie Cody, Amy Gillespie, Marty Grisham, Beau Renfro, Darrell Ruby, Jim Hall, Butch Aiken, Chandra Fox, Joann Boggs, Mike Dingle, Barb Graff, Brittany Ginn, Jay Wiese, Dominic Marzano, Rick Anderson, Bret Heath, Shari Badger, Denise Rowlett
WSEMA Legislative Overview
Dylan Doty provided an excellent overview of issues in the State Legislature in Olympia. Some of the key points included:
· WA State Legislature works on 2-year cycle. Odd # years are long years and Even # years are short years. During a short year, legislation that was not acted on in the long year gets reviewed. At the end of the short year, all proposed legislation gets thrown own and starts from scratch again.
· 2013-2014 = short year of the legislature which is only a 60-day session.
· Short years always precede elections. All members of the House will be up for election and ½ of the Senate will be up for election.
· Revenue is slowly beginning to increase, but fiscal note legislation will face significant hurdles in the coming short session.
· Legislature is fractured currently. Senate leans R, House leans D and Governor is in his 1st year of learning. Partisanship is evident.
· There were fewer bills this past year proposed than usual.
2012-2013 WSEMA Legislative Activities
· In 2012-2013, the Legislative Committee made great progress on relationships by presenting to the joint committee of the Senate & House with several new “friends” who might be willing to sponsor the legislation.
· Legislative Committee monitored about 30 bills relating to flood control zones, declarations of emergencies, HB1971 which affected E911 and 2-1-1 funding, public records requests and all-risk mobilization
· Brief discussion about the all-risk mobilization. Legislature fixed budget proviso, but it still needs accompanying legislation. Current mobilization fund is $8 million. Concern still exists that all-risk will result in overuse of fund.
o Dominic asked about options for moving all-risk mobilization out from under fire and placing it within the EM Community. While agreed that this is an issue, Barb recommended that this issue be tackled after sustainable funding.
Issues Moving Forward into 2013-2014
Sustainable Funding for EM
· Dylan shared that there is interest in legislature to look at the larger issue of funding government services and visiting the 1% growth limit (instead of dealing with funding needs on a 1:1 basis). Discussion is underway on stepping back & looking holistically at ways to address local govt funding.
· WSAC and AWC are looking at 1% growth limit, CPI or more levying capabilities as possible options.
Action Items Identified for Future Legislative Committee
· Current legislative presumes insurance premiums
o Need to explore the Florida model further…
§ How much does their legislation raise?
§ How are funds applied?
§ What capabilities does it buy them as a state?
o Need further relationship development with Fire & Insurance lobbies to support this mechanism.
o May need to look/explore at alternate fiscal mechanisms should insurance premiums not be an option
· Need to evaluate how to quantify the need across the state for EM.
o What is the amount that would be raised by the proposal?
o What capability gap would that fill?
o Is the proposed legislation a solution or just a stop-gap measure?
· Quantify the “value provided.” For example,
o How quickly businesses come back online?
o How quickly could we bring individual assistance into the community?
o Need a clear picture (like the seatbelt campaigns provided about how many lives saved?) Consider developing a clear brochure to define value.
· Peter Antolin encouraged committee to explore partnerships with the business community and frame this as an economic vitality issue.
o Develop potential partner list which includes NFIB, Association of Solid Waste, AGC, AWB, Retailers Association…and many other acronym organizations that Dylan wrote down during the course of the meeting.
· Dylan recommended
o Determine which legislation will be the “right proposal”
o If we have an agreeable proposal, update the legislation,
o Shop the updated legislation to the various other lobbying groups and ask the industries “if not this proposal, what other ideas should be considered?”
NEXT MEETING: To Be Determined by Incoming Legislative Chair