February 8, 2021 Hot topics View from the hill Bill grants attorney general new powers to investigate law City Actions Days and cutoff deadlines coming soon – Time enforcement to make your city voice heard In another effort to reform policing in Washington, legislators We are excited to welcome more than 300 city officials and will consider a bill that would give the attorney general staff this week to our online City Action Days. With the first bill concurrent authority and power with county prosecuting cutoff deadline coming next week, now is a perfect time to attorneys in investigating, initiating, and prosecuting crimes reach out to your legislators about bill proposals that impact involving police use of deadly force. Additionally, the bill your city. Learn more about the upcoming cutoff deadlines establishes the Independent Prosecutions Unit in the Attorney and find a link to our weekly Hot Sheet for bills you might be General’s Office (AGO) with jurisdiction over any criminal interested in. offense involving the use of deadly force by a police officer. Another GMA bill addressing the housing element up for What you need to know hearing Affordable housing: Bill to provide options for preservation of The Legislature is showing great interest in providing affordable housing. additional direction to cities and counties on how to prepare the housing element of the Growth Management Act (GMA) Broadband & telecommunications: Priority broadband bills comprehensive plan. AWC is working to harmonize the receive amendments, work session, and hearing. various proposals and secure financial support to perform the Budget & finance: Bill preempting city utility lien authority additional work. Provisions in HB 1232, may be included in scheduled for hearing. such an effort. Capital gains tax and wealth tax bills receive hearings. More Tax Increment Financing bill heads to Ways & Means with technical amendments in tow Bill proposes to lift property tax cap, tying rate to inflation and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) takes another step toward population growth. reality as it passes through the committee hearing process. COVID-19: Cities spent 98% of state Coronavirus Relief Funds. The bill picked up several technical amendments including Click here to see how they used it. a requirement to confer with an impacted school district to Emergency management & cybersecurity: State Auditor's negotiate appropriate mitigation. AWC anticipates additional Office suffers data breach, includes local government technical amendments as the bill works its way through the information. process. Environment & natural resources: Last-minute House bill Things you can do would result in recycling solution setback. Register for City Action Days – Last call! Preliminary language for fish passage rulemaking out. February 10-11 | Online Our online City Action Days starts on Wednesday! You don’t Federal: FEMA to retroactively provide reimbursement for want to miss our great legislative content and city issue COVID-19 costs. updates from legislators, our lobbyists, the Governor, and General government: Ranked choice voting could be more! Join 300 of your city colleagues and take this last chance authorized in Washington. to register. HR & labor relations: Police arbitration bill passes out of committee on bipartisan vote. Media time How are cities doing? Check out our newest infographic that answers the question. Be sure to share this information with your legislators, continued alongside your local stories. Transportation: Bill to amend fuel tax rate for border area jurisdictions. PFML expansion bill trimmed down, passes out of committee. View from the Hill Land use & planning: Bill to address City Actions Days and cutoff deadlines coming soon – backlog of land use cases due to Time to make your city voice heard COVID-19. Contact: Candice Bock Building permit legislation attempts a This week, AWC is hosting our annual City Action Days (https://wacities.org/events- “default complete” for applications. education/conferences/city-action-days) conference. It’s an online conference, but it still has the same great content that AWC always offers. Make sure to register if Open government: OPMA bills make you haven’t already. Most importantly, remember to schedule meetings with your their way through House and Senate. legislators (https://wacities.org/advocacy/legislator-directory). Pensions: New bills may impact Legislators need to hear from cities about the many bill proposals that impact retirement systems and public you. AWC’s weekly Hot Sheet (https://wacities.org/docs/default-source/legislative/ employee pensions. hotsheet1f294349b78160ed9eadff0000bbe4eb.pdf?sfvrsn=952f5e4f_77) is an easy Public safety & criminal justice: Citizen reference guide for tracking some bills that are currently of greatest interest to cities. oversight bill picks up several key Please use it when meeting with your legislators and feel free to share it with them. amendments. Legislative cutoff deadlines Police reform bills move through While we meet this week at City Action Days, legislators will be holding committee Legislature. votes on bills in advance of this session’s first cutoff deadline. Each session, the Public works: Bill to expand Energy Legislature establishes deadlines that govern the bills moving through the legislative Facility Site Evaluation Council authority process. A bill that fails to advance by one of the cutoff deadlines is typically scheduled for hearing. considered “dead” at that point. However, bills that are related to or necessary to implement the budget (NTIB) are generally exempt from the cutoff deadlines. In addition, the Legislature can always make exceptions to the deadlines if they so choose. The first deadline is Monday, February 15 (the Legislature meets on holidays during session) when bills need to be voted out of their policy committees. Following Feb. 15, the deadlines are: • February 22 – Deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal committees. (Bills with fiscal impacts typically must be heard in both a policy committee and a fiscal committee.) • March 9 – Deadline for bills to pass their house of origin. • March 26 – Deadline for bills to pass out of the policy committees in the opposite house. • April 2 – Deadline for bills to pass out of the fiscal committees in the opposite house. • April 11 – Deadline for bills (not related to the budget) to pass the opposite house. continued 2 AWC Legislative Bulletin • April 25 – Session ends. Your city voice As the Legislature approaches the deadlines, it is more important than ever to make your voice heard in the legislative process. It’s not too late to reach out to your legislator and share your city’s position on issues important to your community. If you have already met with your legislators this session, keep up the good work. Remember, it’s not always necessary to set up a meeting. Send a quick email or leave a message to share your input. Bills change quickly, so it is important to tell your legislators where you stand on bills as they are amended. We typically think of supporting or opposing bills, but often it’s the case that more nuance is involved. A single bill may contain provisions that cities support and other provisions we find problematic. Additionally, as bills are amended throughout the legislative process, they sometimes change enough to cause us to shift our position. If you track our weekly Hot Sheet, you may notice bills moving between categories for that very reason. For information to help make your case about the value of cities, check out our new infographic: How are cities doing? (https://wacities.org/data-resources/ articles/2021/02/08/how-are-cities-doing) For tips on being a strong city advocate, don’t miss our Advocacy Academy event during City Action Days where our lobbyists share their best tips and secrets. Our advocacy guide (https://wacities.org/advocacy/advocacy-tools/strong-cities- advocacy-guide) is also a great online resource. If you have any questions about the legislative process or a particular bill, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Government Relations team (https://wacities.org/about- continued AWC Legislative Bulletin 3 us/contact-us#advocacy). We are always ready and willing to help. Affordable housing Bill to provide options for preservation of affordable housing Contact: Carl Schroeder, Shannon McClelland HB 1035, sponsored by Rep. Shelley Kloba (D–Kirkland), brings back a proposal presented to the Legislature several years ago. The bill would authorize cities and counties to provide six-year property tax exemptions to preserve existing affordable housing. There are many provisions within the proposal, the core of which is that cities would be authorized to provide a tax exemption to properties that meet the following standards: • Housing units or mobile homes that are rented below market; • Multifamily dwellings that are affordable to households making at or below 50 percent of the area median income and part of a building that is at least 25 years old; and • Owner-occupied single-family structures or ADUs that are affordable to households making at or below 80 percent of the area median income. Cities would be authorized to adopt alternative income or rent thresholds where it determines that an adjustment is needed to serve renters making at or below 50 percent of the area median income in either mobile homes or multifamily units. In addition to the provisions above, properties must also comply with the following requirements throughout the entire exemption