Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco is among the Republicans co-sponsoring my bills to criminalize the injury of children by fentanyl exposure and create a “One Pill Kills” anti-opioid campaign.

Hello Friends and Neighbors,

Most of the action in the Senate this week was again at the committee level, although we also took an afternoon to move a dozen pieces of legislation on through to the House of Representatives. Those measures were carried over from the 2023 session for one reason or another, and a majority won unanimous approval.

Meanwhile, citizen initiatives are continuing to receive the final certification needed from the secretary of state so they can be delivered to us as legislation. Three have passed the signature-verification check, and I have every expectation the remaining three will also in the coming weeks.

Although Monday was a day off for the executive and judicial branches, the legislative branch worked on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We always do because the time allotted in Washington’s constitution for regular legislative sessions does not account for the state holidays in January and February. It’s tradition to observe MLK Jr. Day with a resolution and remarks by senators in the Senate chamber.

On Tuesday I joined Senate Republican Leader John Braun and the top House Republican leaders for questions from the news media covering the 2024 session. To view it click here; topics included the citizen initiatives, artificial intelligence, firearms and public safety. The latter question allowed me to cover Republican efforts to help communities rebuild their law-enforcement and criminal-justice infrastructures; those include my SB 6235.

We made sure to alert the reporters about the majority Democrats’ move to lift the lid on the growth of property-tax rates. Also, there was a question about the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to not review the challenge to Washington’s tax on capital-gains income. The public statement I issued about the SCOTUS decision (or non-decision) is available here.

After the votes in the Senate chamber Wednesday afternoon it was back to committee work Thursday and yesterday. The final day this session for the 12 Senate policy committees to act on Senate bills is Jan. 31.

Will majority finally consider my emergency-powers bill?

Until the pandemic hit, no one realized our state’s emergency-powers law (which dates to 1969) has a huge flaw. If the governor uses his power under a declared state of emergency to issue an order suspending a law (about filing an unemployment claim, for instance), legislators may review it and either limit the order to 30 days or extend it another 30. Our oversight authority does not apply, however, to emergency orders prohibiting activities – like leaving your house. These orders may last indefinitely, and the governor has full control.

I filed legislation in 2021, 2022 and this past year to bring balance to the law. SB 5063 would ensure legislators have influence over the duration of all emergency orders and the ability to end a state of emergency, instead of also leaving that entirely to the governor. Called the BALANCE Act, it would assert the legislative branch’s standing as a) a co-equal branch of state government and b) the branch of government closest to the people.

While the Senate majority passed its own do-nothing bill over to the House in 2022, leading to an epic late-night meltdown (and no vote) in the House chamber, the chair of the Senate state-government committee has repeatedly refused to bring my bill up for so much as a public hearing.

Having developed a good working relationship with the Senate majority budget leader, I worked around the obstacles in 2023 by including money for an emergency-powers work group in the 2023-25 operating budget adopted by the Senate. At least that would force a long-overdue discussion, I figured – but the work group got dropped in the subsequent budget negotiations between the Senate and House. However, Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig assured me that we would take up the issue in 2024. I made a point of mentioning that in my speech to the Senate when the new, negotiated budget proposal came before us on the final day of the 2023 session.

This is a long way of telling you my emergency-powers bill is still in play, and with the policy-committee deadline less than two weeks away I am working on the majority to honor its commitment. The law still needs to be reformed, because who knows when the next state of emergency will be declared?

Democrats try to sell massive property-tax increase as ‘democracy’

My previous report included an alert about the Senate majority’s renewed effort to take a lot more money from taxpayers through SB 5770. This would replace the 1% cap on the allowable growth rate of property taxes with a 3% cap and was set for a hearing from the Senate Ways and Means Committee this past Thursday.

Ahead of the hearing I also published a new edition of my “Rational Steps” policy paper, offering a detailed analysis and criticism of the tax proposal. It’s posted here; a video summary of the bill and why it’s such a bad idea is here.

In recent years the Legislature has made it so people may go online to express their support or opposition to a bill once it’s scheduled for a public hearing. Not surprisingly, SB 5770 attracted a record level of opposition for this point in the session: 7,500-plus signed in as “con” ahead of the hearing, which was 10 times the number signing in as “pro” and “other.”

The 1% cap on the property-tax growth rate dates to 2001 as a voter-approved measure (Initiative 747) and to 2007 as a law (after the state Supreme Court invalidated I-747). If a city or county wants to exceed the 1% cap, it can – if enough voters agree. Voter approval isn’t required for a 1% increase.

Both versions of SB 5770 refer to the 1% lid as “arbitrary” when it was in fact the result of highly bipartisan votes. Don’t the sponsors know Democrats controlled the Legislature and the governor’s mansion when the limit was reinstated in 2007?

At Thursday’s hearing the Seattle Democrat who is prime sponsor of SB 5770 attempted to sell the proposed tax increase as being about “democracy.” Nonsense. There’s nothing democratic about making it easier for government to increase a tax rate without voter consent.

The Senate budget committees have until Feb. 5 to act on Senate bills, meaning we will know by then if this big-government, anti-taxpayer legislation could be headed for a vote by the full Senate.

In the meantime, our Senate Republican budget team – that would be me and Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup – is meeting with our majority counterparts regularly to discuss the upcoming supplemental operating budget. As I’ve mentioned previously, my priority is on keeping the mid-cycle budget adjustments to a minimum, with an exception for emergency situations like the fentanyl crisis.

‘One Pill Kills’ proposal among Wilson bills on committee calendars

Speaking of fentanyl, my measure (SB 5906) to support an awareness campaign aimed at preventing overdoses in the first place is set for a hearing before Ways and Means on Jan. 29. To me, more priority should go toward prevention and awareness; handing out naloxone should not be the core approach.

SB 6234, my legislation to support screening of newborns for “branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase deficiency,” is to have a hearing before the Senate health-care committee next Thursday. Research posted on the National Institutes of Health website describes BCKDK deficiency as a treatable neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by autism, intellectual disability and microcephaly.

Ahead of that, the budget committee plans a hearing on my SB 6263 on Tuesday. It would double the benefit toward funeral expenses for an active or retired firefighter. If I’m reading state law correctly, the benefit has remained at $500 since 1961!

Three other bills (SB 5010/fentanyl, SB 5590/Mount St. Helens license plate and SB 5835/“plain language” in government) were moved this week to the Senate voting calendar.

A bill I didn’t mention previously that is high on my priority list is SB 6091, to support the annual firearms certification process authorized under the federal Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act. My approach with the LEOSA bill is not unlike the establishment of regional training centers for law-enforcement hires like the one that just opened in Clark County; it would provide for local recertification opportunities around the state and be more considerate travel-wise of former officers who want to maintain their skills.

Add cap-and-trade, parental-rights initiatives to certified list

Initiative 2113, which would allow reasonable police pursuits, was delivered to the Legislature a week ago by the secretary of state. It was joined by another two this week: Initiative 2117, which would basically repeal the cap-and-trade law that has made gas in Washington far more expensive than in Oregon, and Initative 2081, which would essentially create a bill of rights for parents who want more information about what their children are learning in school.

Proposed initiatives targeting the capital-gains income tax and the long-term care payroll tax are still going through the signature check, as is one to prohibit the state or local governments from imposing an income tax.

Any of the initiatives that are delivered to but not enacted by the Legislature while we’re in session this year automatically go to the November general-election ballot. I would support the certified initiatives if we are in a position to vote on them, but that is up to the majority and whether it follows our state constitution… which clearly states initiatives are to take precedence over all other legislation except budget-related measures.

Students, consider applying to serve as Senate pages

I’m allowed to sponsor up to six teens as Senate pages during the upcoming session, and three slots are still available – so if you know some good candidates, encourage them to apply!

To be a page, students or homeschooled students need to be at least 14 years old and have not reached their 17th birthday. Students and parents interested in the Senate Page Program may phone my office at 360-786-7632 or visit the program’s webpage.

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I hope you will reach out whenever you have a comment or question about your state government.

Yours in service,

 

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To read this e-newsletter in other languages, click here to visit my Senate news page, look for the American flag midway down the right side, then click on the symbol right of the “EN” for a drop-down menu!