THE legislative session ended on time at midnight on March 14, but the Governor has the final say on bills becoming law. He has 20 days to decide on which bills to sign and which ones to veto. Your union worked on several pieces of legislation and we’re happy to report that the vast majority were signed into law. Victories included:

Bid limits raised (HB 2527)

THE amount of work that can be performed by city public works department employees was increased when the current limits of $50,000 (for first-class cities) and $30,000 (for second-class cities) were increased by 40% to $70,000 and $45,000 respectively. The new limits are to become effective June 14. The bill also contained a provision to increase these new limits again in 2010 to $90,000 and $60,000!

This was a long hard fought battle and we owe a special thanks to Representative Brian Sullivan (D-Mukilteo) who prime sponsored the bill. Representative Sullivan is the freshman legislator who broke the 49-49 tie to give Democrats control of the House for the first time since 1994. Other lawmakers who deserve recognition include:

Rep. Hans Dunshee (D – Snohomish)	Sen. Georgia A. Gardner (D – Bellingham)
Rep. Dave Mastin (R – Walla Walla)	Sen. Larry Sheahan (R – Rosalia)
Rep. Jeff Gombosky (D – Spokane)	Sen. Paull Shin (D – Edmonds)

Retiree health care coverage (SB 5777)

THE bill to grant access to medical coverage for local government retirees was signed into law on Tuesday, April 2. This is a significant improvement as there currently are no obligations that local government provide any access to health benefits for employees who have spent a career in public service.

This left people on their own at a time when health coverage is perhaps the most critical. Members were forced to either go without coverage or face the high premiums that the individual market offered.

Retirees may still be responsible for paying their premiums under this bill and each local government entity may design their own group plans but gaining access is the first and most important step. Sponsors of this bill included:

Sen. Margarita Prentice (D – Seattle)	Sen. Alex Deccio (R – Yakima)
Sen. Shirley Winsley (R – Fircrest)	Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen (D – Roy)
Sen. Pat Thibaudeau (D – Seattle)

Initiative Reform

GIVEN the onslaught of initiatives recently and the impact they have had on vital public services and our membership, our efforts to inform the public took a historic step forward with the passage of SB 6571.

This bill states that the voters’ pamphlet must include a summary of up to 100 words detailing the financial impacts of all initiatives. This is in addition to the pro and con statements. Voters will now have the same information that legislators have when they decide how to vote on bills.

This measure should help shed more light on the Tim Eyman led feel good tax cutting schemes we’ve all suffered. Legislators who deserve special thanks include:

Sen. Rosa Franklin (D – Tacoma)

Speaker Frank Chopp (D – Seattle)

One initiative bill that almost passed was SB 6637. This measure would have required initiative sponsors to file the same financial disclosure forms that all elected officials do. The bill passed the Senate and all House committees but unfortunately time ran out before it could come up for a floor vote.

Pensions Governance close, but no cigar

IN a major disappointment, the Pension Governance Bill came just about as close to becoming a law as it could without passing. We managed to have the measure exempted from all regular cut-off dates thanks to Representative Frank Chopp (Speaker of the House). The House then held a special meeting of the Appropriations Committee and passed the bill onto the Rules Committee who in turn shoved it onto the floor where it passed 64-32. The Senate agreed to “Catch it on the fly” which is legislative jargon for pulling a bill straight to the floor for a vote. Only a few bills each session are treated this way so it was quite a coo to even get ours on the list.

The Senate Leadership (Senator Harriet Spanel D - Bellingham) brought the bill up for consideration on the eve of the last day of the session. By all indications, we were home free.

However, in a surprising move, Senator Don Carlson (R – Vancouver) spoke against HB 3010. This is in spite of the fact that he had committed to at least a dozen people that he agreed to the bill! The other surprise came when Senator Sid Snyder the Democratic Majority Leader voted no! The show didn’t stop there. Several republicans began switching their votes from yes to no. Trying to keep track was fruitless, but the final (at least we thought it was final) vote was 25 to 23 in favor with all Democrats voting yes except Senator Snyder and all republicans voting no except Senator Shirley Winsley (Fircrest) and Senator Jeanine Long (Mountlake Terrace). Please note that the constitutional majority for passing a Senate bill is 25, so we had no vote to spare.

Once your lobbyist’s heart rate came down to a non-life-threatening level, he received dozens of congratulations from lawmakers and other lobbyists. However, the celebration was too early and short-lived. Senator Winsley moved to “reconsider” the bill shortly before they adjourned and we didn’t have the votes to stop it.

The apparent strategy was to hold our bill hostage (along with some other House bills) to force the House to pass some Senate bills they wanted. In short, our miraculous come from behind victory was the victim of end-game politics and 24 hours wasn’t enough time to fix it.

Next Move Clear

Our loss was not without some major victories, including gaining a lot of support from influential lawmakers including Speaker Frank Chopp and Representative Bill Fromhold (D - Vancouver). Representative Fromhold deserves special thanks as he jumped into the fray and went way beyond the call of duty. Representative Fromhold joins longtime allies such as Mike Cooper (D – Edmonds) and Steve Conway (D – Tacoma) in fighting to improve our pension rights. We will work in the interim to reintroduce HB 3010 next session and our efforts should be bolstered by an initiative filed by the firefighters and police to create a governance board.