The Governor has taken action on most bills that were passed by the Legislature. Among the bills signed into law were:
Engrossed Senate Bill 6229. New Employee Orientation: This measure requires all public employers to provide a minimum of 30 minutes for Union Representatives to greet newly...Read More
Nearly one hundred Council 2 members took their own time to lobby their Legislators on behalf of your Union. Armed with written material, they met with State Senators and Representatives to advocate for local government employees on the following issues:
SB 6079 – Prime Sponsor...Read More
The 2018 60 day “Short” Legislative Session began on January 8th with a 1 seat Senate Democratic Majority, the first in 5 years. Council 2’s endorsed candidate in the 45th District (Manka Dhingra) captured the seat by a whopping 10 point margin. This was by far the most expensive legislative...Read More
The first major cutoff for most bills passed on March 8th. Senate Bills were supposed to be passed by the full Senate and House Bills were supposed to be passed by the full House. There are exceptions of course and any bills deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget” (NTIB) are exempt from...Read More
Legislative Town Halls:
As we are about half way through the Legislative Session, several lawmakers are coming back home to hold Town Hall meetings with their constituents. They need to hear from Local Government Employees about funding the important work you do. As reported previously, Local...Read More
Two of our Union’s Priority Legislative issues need your help:1% Property Tax Cap & HB 1764
The bi partisan effort to scrap Tim Eyman’s arbitrary 1% cap on property tax had successful hearings but needs to be voted out of their fiscal Committees by this Friday.
Please contact the following...Read More
Nearly 100 Council 2 members took to “The Hill” to advocate for critical funding to address the needs of Local Government in our communities. Topping the list of priority bills is HB 1764 which would scrap the current arbitrary 1% cap on property tax increases in favor of a rate that would be...Read More
In yet another Special Session called on account of the House and Senate failing to reach a budget agreement in the Regular Session, a deal was finally reached on Tuesday, March 29th.
Governor Inslee vetoed a record 27 Bills in an attempt to spur lawmakers into reaching an...Read More
(Despite Strong Bi Partisan Support)
All House Bills needed to be voted out of the House and all Senate Bills need to be voted out of the Senate by 5 pm on Wednesday February 17th. The exception, and there’s always exceptions, are bills deemed to be “Necessary to Implement the...Read More
The regular session was scheduled to adjourn or “sine die” on Sunday, April 26th. But with no budget agreement in sight, lawmakers closed up shop on Friday with the Governor’s call to bring them back Wednesday, April 22 for a 30 day “Special Session”.
House Bill 2156Big Bill, Simple...Read More
Both the House and the Senate planned on passing their respective budgets on the same day, something that’s never been done before. The Democratic controlled House finished their business and produced a two year spending plan on a party line 51 – 47 vote. The Republican lead Senate started the...Read More
The Legislature is designed around various cutoff dates. At a minimum all bills face at least seven hurdles before they become law. Each hurdle has a deadline attached to it. The first major deadline was the “House of Origin” cutoff. If a bill wasn’t voted on by the cutoff, it’s supposed to be...Read More
As the fifth week of the Legislative Session comes to a close, over 2,000 Bills have been introduced. Many of these are “Message” Bills and may not even see a hearing, others are moving through the process on a very partisan vote and stand little chance of passing in the opposite chamber given...Read More