Legislative Report #2, 2000

It was brought to my attention that some folks may not be calling the Legislative Hotline (1-800-562-6000), because they believe they may be asked a lot of technical questions about an issue or get into a debate with their legislator.

How it works
The hotline is just like a message center. The operator just takes the message and asks for your name and address so the Senator or Representative can follow up with a letter if they wish. It’s quick and it’s effective.

I-695 "Message from the voters" debated

The first two weeks of the legislature have focused on the "message" of I-695 with the Democrats and Republicans spinning two distinct stories. The Republicans believe I-695 was a call to slash government programs and privatize what is left. The Democrats, while granting a property tax break, cite a recent stateside poll that concludes that the voters were simply expressing frustration over car tab costs.

The Governor’s budget was the first put forward as is the tradition in this poker game. Governor Locke taps into the reserve to help in the short-run. His response to local government:

Local public health activities are funded at a minimum of 90% of their MVET revenue loss.
No city or county loses more than 10% of its budget dollars.
Local transit system receives temporary funding.

The current reserve is $1.2 billion and Initiative 601 won’t allow most of it to be spent. This budget gives $382 million to fix I-695 shortfalls and $60 million in property tax cuts. Although this helps in the short-run, it does not give any on-going funding sources for local governments.

Our push is for a share of an additional one-tenth of one-percent local sales tax as a credit against the State sales tax and some additional taxing authority. Thus far, the State hasn’t been willing to give local government a share of "their" money.

The Senate leadership has indicated that we would like their budget better than the Governor’s but few details have been given. The divided House will be the battleground and some Republicans have already indicated they may go against their leaders wishes again this year. Let’s hope so.

End game

The budget won’t be decided (if they even pass one) until the end of the session, March 9th. But you should make your feelings known now. Please call your legislators and let them know that funding local government services should be their first priority. The following list is of legislators who are members of the House and Senate Fiscal Committees who will be the first to recommend their budgets.

2000 Appropriations Committee (Representatives)
HUFF, Tom (R) Co-Chair
SOMMERS, Helen (D) Co-Chair
BARLEAN, Kelly (R) Vice Chair
DOUMIT, Mark (D) Vice Chair
SCHMIDT, Dave (R) Vice Chair
ALEXANDER, Gary (R)
BENSON, Brad (R)
BOLDT, Marc (R)
CLEMENTS, Jim (R)
CODY, Eileen (D)
CROUSE, Larry (R)
GOMBOSKY, Jeff (D)
GRANT, Bill (D)
KAGI, Ruth (D)
KEISER, Karen (D)
KENNEY, Phyllis (D)
KESSLER, Lynn (D)
LAMBERT, Kathy (R)
LINVILLE, Kelli (D)
LISK, Barbara (R)
MASTIN, Dave (R)
MCINTIRE, Jim (D)
MCMORRIS, Cathy (R)
MULLIKEN, Joyce (R)
PARLETTE, Linda (R)
REGALA, Debbie (D)
ROCKEFELLER, Phil (D)
RUDERMAN, Laura (D)
SULLIVAN, Brian (D)
SUMP, Bob (R)
TOKUDA, Kip (D)
WENSMAN, Mike (R)

2000 Ways and Means Committee
(Senators)

LOVELAND, Valoria (D) Chair
BAUER, Albert (D) Vice Chair (Chair, Capital Budget)
BROWN, Lisa (D) Vice Chair
FAIRLEY, Darlene (D)
FRASER, Karen (D)
HONEYFORD, Jim (R)
KLINE, Adam (D)
KOHL-WELLES, Jeanne (D)
LONG, Jeanine (R)
MCDONALD, Dan (R)
RASMUSSEN, Marilyn (D)
ROACH, Pam (R)
ROSSI, Dino (R)
SHELDON, Betti (D)
SNYDER, Sid (D)
SPANEL, Harriet (D)
THIBAUDEAU, Pat (D)
WEST, James (R)
WINSLEY, Shirley (R)
WOJAHN, Lorraine (D)
ZARELLI, Joseph (R)

Retirement issues
Early-out bills introduced

Yes, early retirement bills have been introduced. The most generous one being HB2679 sponsored by Cathy Wolfe (D) Olympia. The bill is targeted to county and city employees who are:

PERS I

55 years old with 5 years of service
Any age with 25 years of service
50 years old with 20 years of service

PERS II

60 years old with 5 years of service
55 years old with 15 years of service

Problems with the bill include the fact that it does not cover all local government employees. We will attempt to amend the bill if it gets a hearing.

Much has been made about early retirement this year due to I-695. However, it still remains an uphill struggle. The Governor has offered a narrowly targeted early out plan to only some state employees who are subject to layoffs under his budget proposal. We believe at the very least, local governments should be given that same authority.

More Retirement
SB 6530 and HB 2744 are omnibus retirement bills that we support. They improve PERS II by lowering the actuarial penalty from 8% to 3% per year if you are 55 years old and have 30 years of service. It also creates an optional PERS III but not for school employees. We are working to amend the bill to include them.

Governance
SB 6535 and HB 2603 are bills we support but only if they include more active employee representatives on the board. Currently, the proposed board has 4 actives and 4 retirees. There are about 300,000 active members and 100,000 retirees. All retirement bills are now before the fiscal committees listed in this report.

Bid limits (SB 5469) and
Deputy Prosecutors (SB 5152)
Both these bills are in Rules as of this report. We are pushing to pull them to the floor.

Some other efforts

We are also supporting:

HB 2647 – Flagger safety
SB 6534 (HB 2604) – School employee sick leave cash out
SB 6371 – School employee life insurance
HB 2715 Limiting probation liability
SB 5607 – Retiree health insurance