By Diane Jones, Elections Committee Chair
The 2020 state legislative session convenes Monday, Jan 13.
On Friday, Jan 17, the Advocacy Committee of Washington State Democrats Central Committee (or WSDCC) is holding a Lobby Day for grassroots Democratic activists.
The Washington State Labor Council is hosting the event, to be held at the Labor Council building in Olympia at 906 Columbia St. S.W. Registration is from 8:30-9 a.m., and the program starts at 9 a.m.
The morning session will include presentations from legislators about their policy goals and their bills. Individual lawmakers have their areas of expertise and tend to focus on those, be it environmental, transportation, education, or another issue. Lobby Day is an opportunity to hear from and meet lawmakers you usually would never meet.
The last couple of sessions in Olympia, with the Democrats firmly in control, allowed for passage of a lot of pent-up legislation. This coming short session will be slower and supplemental to last year. We can expect some tweaks to the budget and cleaning up some policies.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any significant work done. We may see some major work in education and early learning. Early learning is an important place where we can close the opportunity gap. There will be work on behavioral health and drug transparency.
It is also important to note that voter approval of Initiative 976 on transportation funding has cast a dark cloud over this upcoming session. One of the most critical priorities identified by the WSDCC Advocacy Committee is correcting our regressive tax structure. But that may be a tough call this year. However, if a capital gains tax came to a vote in the Senate, it would pass. The House? It's hard to predict.
There are some other tweaks to our unfair tax structure that could pass during this session. But efforts toward comprehensive tax reform will not come this year. Rep. Noel Frame and Sen. Lisa Wellman are working on that for 2021.
The Environment, Energy and Technology Committee will focus on data privacy and lower carbon fuel standards. Ferry funding is not looking good because of I-976. Sen. Rebecca Saldana is working on legislation affecting agricultural workers. Dealing with pesticides is problematic because many beekeepers are concerned that if the current pesticides are outlawed, worse pesticides will only replace them. There may be a plastic bag bill.
The state bank may come to us in increments starting with an infrastructure fund. This possibility reminds me of a bill last year that would have insulated the Public Works Trust Fund from being swept by legislators. With our regressive tax structure, legislators are left having to raid other accounts to fund pressing issues. Otherwise, the fund was used to give low interest loans for things like sewer projects.
This predicament -- along with the fact that counties before the great recession could also rely on federal grants -- has made it tough for rural counties. Oh, and let’s not forget the 1% cap. I’ve heard from one legislator not to expect a change in that, but another said it is on the table. Sen. David Frockt is working on a carbon tax or toxic control tax.
Several bills ran out of time to get passed last year. They made it through committees but never got a floor vote. One of those is the hazardous waste transportation bill.
There is bipartisan support in consolidating background checks for gun purchases. It is the gun-related bill most likely to pass. There will be a bill to outlaw foreign money in campaign donations. There is a push to rid us of the advisory votes that clog and confuse our ballots. To increase dental-care access to more people, some see raising reimbursement rates for dental care as more important than expanding the dental work that assistants are allowed to do.
Also in the healthcare arena, the 2019 state Legislature convened the Universal Health Care Work Group, https://www.hca.wa.gov/about-hca/healthier-washington/universal-health-care-work-group, to provide recommendations to the Legislature in 2021 on how to go forward with a universal healthcare system. Meanwhile, the state legislature has been protecting and will continue to protect what we have while incrementally building on a future of universal healthcare. There are hopes for a state-based Universal Health Care Act from the federal government to help with state affordability.
Increasing our majorities in Olympia can make attaining progressive goals easier. One of several opportunities is right next door to us in Legislative District 10, where we can flip two seats in 2020. Democrat Scott McMullen, https://www.scottmcmullen.org/about-scott, hopes to take out incumbent Republican Norma Smith. Democrat Helen Price Johnson, https://helenpricejohnson.org, aims to take out recently appointed Republican Ron Muzzall for the Senate seat.
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