Legislative Commentary

Feb. 22 is, in the language of the Legislature, the “last day to read in committee reports in house of origin” for all legislative policy committees. Translation: it’s officially the last day for the Senate and House policy committees to act on legislation originating in the Senate and House, respectively. Legislation not acted upon before the end of today will be considered “dead” for the year, although bills have been known to come back from the dead with the same text under a new number.

The legislative fiscal committees get an additional week to take action. That’s because some of the bills being moved forward from policy committees have a price tag, so fiscal committees are given more time to consider those bills.

Majority Coalition delivering on vow to encourage job creation

Since the 2013 legislative session began Majority Coalition Caucus members have put together a comprehensive collection of proposed legislation designed to help stimulate Washington’s economy and encourage the creation of private-sector jobs. It’s safe to say our jobs package probably will number two-dozen if not more bills by the time all Senate committees complete their work on Senate legislation.

Our coalition members understand that Washington’s small-business owners are looking for stability, predictability and efficiency when it comes to their interactions with state government. That’s why our reforms are aimed at areas such as taxes, rules, regulations and licenses – and agencies such as the Department of Revenue, the Department of Labor and Industries, and the state health and ecology departments, as well as local governments.

For example, in business the old saying “time is money” is particularly true – and it just isn’t efficient for a business owner to spend time visiting multiple websites and city offices to renew state and city business licenses. Why can’t there be one stop for all that, in this age of digital government? Senate Bill 5656 would give each town or city that imposes business and occupation taxes until July 2015 (which should be plenty of time) to make it so their general business licenses may be issued and renewed through a state business-licensing system.

Another example of our pro-jobs legislation is Senate Bill 5688, which would require cities to change their business and occupation (B&O) tax categories to match the state’s categories. Having a uniform tax-classification system would make it easier for employers to determine their appropriate tax rates – unlike today’s system, which may have small-business owners dealing with several different tax classifications for the same product or service depending on the jurisdiction.

House Democrats want new taxes and fees 
for transportation, including hike in gas and excise tax

New taxes and new fees – but apparently, no new reforms. That’s the upshot of the $10 billion transportation revenue package unveiled by the House Democratic majority this week. It calls for raising the state portion of the gas tax by two cents each year for five years, which would ultimately leave Washington with a whopping 47.5-cent per gallon state gas tax; increasing the commercial gross weight fee by 15 percent; raising the motor vehicle excise tax to 0.7 percent of a vehicle’s value ($140 on a $20,000 vehicle); raising the hazardous-substance tax by 0.3 percent, and a new $25 fee on sales of bicycles costing more than $500.

No one disputes that it costs money to maintain and expand our transportation infrastructure – and frankly, nothing in the House proposal comes as a big surprise. Yet, recalling the “reforms before revenue” point we repeatedly made during the 2012 session, this package ignores what would seem to be so many opportunities to stretch the transportation revenue already being collected.

This package isn’t all about greater Seattle – the proposed project list includes efforts to widen Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass and reduce Interstate 5 congestion around Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma. Still, the House proposal would do nothing about two mega-projects in trouble because of reduced tolling-revenue projections – building a new State Route 520 bridge across Lake Washington and finishing the Highway 99 tunnel project beneath Seattle, to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct.

Our Majority Coalition Caucus transportation-policy leader had this response:
 “Since our citizens overwhelmingly approved Initiative 1185 (in November 2012), I don’t see how any transportation revenue package can move forward without either the support of two-thirds of the House and Senate – which I don’t think is possible – or a public vote. Any transportation proposal will be a burden on our citizens and I believe they need to make the ultimate decision on how these projects are funded. As revenue proposals are brought forth, it is also our responsibility to look at reforms to make our transportation system more effective, efficient and less costly.”

The state has not collected a motor vehicle excise tax since 2000; that tax, also based on a vehicle’s value, was replaced by what began as $30 car license tabs (but are much more expensive in some parts of the state now).

Senate minority now wants $1 billion-plus tax on investments

This week we finally saw the preliminary price tag for another big new tax proposal that belongs on the Senate-minority list (with the $38 billion-plus in tax hikes already proposed by Senate minority senators, which were allowed public hearings on Valentine’s Day because our coalition is serious about bipartisanship).

Senate Bill 5738, introduced by the minority leader himself, would “impose a tax on every person for the privilege of selling or exchanging capital assets.” In other words, it’s a tax on capital gains, such as income from when property or other investments are sold.

The governor’s budget office has done some calculations about SB 5738, and while the numbers may change for now it’s enough to know the capital-gains tax would pull an estimated $1.2 billion out of Washington’s economy in 2013-15 and more than $4 billion across a six-year period.

The Senate minority leader would have the tax question go before voters – an acknowledgement that it wouldn’t receive support from 2/3 of legislators. However, the legislation is titled in a way that could mislead voters into thinking the tax would fund K-12 education, when only the state constitution can make such a link between revenue and spending (as it does with the state gas tax and highways).

Update on the energy-policy front

Last week’s Legislative Commentary noted how the Initiative 937 law created in 2006 is no friend to Washington consumers, who face paying higher energy rates because Washington utilities are forced to ship low-cost, clean hydropower to other states then turn around and buy more expensive power from those same states.

Washington State Wire has done a thorough job of reporting on Senate Bill 5648, a bill I’m co-sponsoring that received policy-committee approval last Wednesday and would begin to address this concern.

As filed, gun-control bill would have allowed door-to-door searches

Last week the Senate minority leader and two other liberal Democratic colleagues introduced Senate Bill 5737, which carried this blunt title: “Banning the sale of assault weapons.”

As this column in the Seattle Times disclosed a few days later, buried in the bill’s original language was a provision that would let county sheriffs go house-to-house to check on how assault weapons are being stored. Once people in the gun-rights community spotted that and made an uproar the sponsor had that sentence removed, claiming he hadn’t intended for it to be in the bill.

It’s one thing to admit that you didn’t read every word in the bill before introducing it or signing on as a co-sponsor – and another to call the sheriff-inspection provision a “mistake” in 2013 when the same provision was included in legislation in 2010 and 2005. I was never worried that SB 5737 would go anywhere in the Senate, but it does make you wonder whether someone was trying to slip one by.