All it took was one election. After a Democrat won a special election for a Senate seat in King County last year, Olympia returned to one-party rule. Since 2012, a Republican-led coalition ran the Senate, blocking many bills sponsored by Democrats.
In the recently concluded 2018 legislative session, Democrats used their new control of the Legislature to pass a sweeping range of bills regarding gun control, voting rights and registration, housing, use of deadly force by police, health care, school breakfasts and equal pay. They also boosted teacher pay to comply with a court order while also providing property tax relief that Republicans said didn’t go far enough.
In some ways, Clark County fared well in the 60-day legislative session that ended on Thursday. The county received millions more in funds from the capital and transportation budgets. Members of the county’s delegation were able to pass bills that would have had a tougher time in previous sessions.
However, several bills of particular significance for Clark County fell by the wayside as lawmakers moved to swiftly pass bills pent up from the divided Legislature.
Bills that moved
Early in the session, the Legislature passed a bill intended to improve access to school breakfast programs. Referred to as “Breakfast after the Bell,” the legislation was sponsored by state Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, and moved through both chambers after having stalled in previous legislative sessions.
A bill sponsored by state Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, that makes modifications to the functions of the state superintendent of public instruction and the State Board of Education passed overwhelmingly.
State Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, said that for this most recent session, she was most proud of her work on the Senate companion of a bill that modified the state’s Equal Pay Act. The legislation bars employers from retaliating against employees for discussing the wages or salaries of their co-workers. It also makes gender discrimination illegal when providing career advancement opportunities.
With Democrats taking control of the Senate, Cleveland became chair of the chamber’s Health and Long-Term Care Committee this session.
“We worked really hard and accomplished a fair amount of work in about 60 days,” said Cleveland of her work on the committee.
She highlighted a bill restricting the controversial practice of “conversion therapy,” the practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation, for patients under 18. She also mentioned the Reproductive Parity Act, which requires most health insurers offering maternity care to also cover elective abortions.
However, a bill sponsored by Cleveland that would have created a reinsurance program that would have provided partial reimbursement to insurance companies for some high-cost medical claims didn’t make it out of committee. She also wasn’t able to advance a bill that would have created a mandate that individuals carry insurance.
Bills that didn’t move
A bill sponsored by Harris to raise the smoking age to 21 died in the Senate. Bills sponsored by state Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, intended to give property owners more say in city annexations didn’t advance. Neither did a bill she sponsored intended to give small businesses a tax break. A bill sponsored by state Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, to create a Sasquatch license plate to support the maintenance of state parks also died.
There were other bills specific to Clark County that didn’t advance.
Clark County, with its proximity to Oregon, has a particular problem with drivers who don’t register their cars in Washington after moving to the state. Republican state Sens. Ann Rivers and Lynda Wilson sponsored a bill that would have created a deferred prosecution program for people who fail to register their vehicles in hopes of getting more to follow the law. But it died in committee.
Other bills sponsored by Wilson also died, including a bill allowing community and technical colleges, such as Clark College, to establish their own police forces. She said hundreds of bills were rapidly moving through committees and some were pushed to the side.
“I was shocked,” she said. “It was hard to keep up.”
Last session, lawmakers passed a bill intended to jumpstart the process to replace the Interstate 5 bridge. The bill created a bi-state committee comprised of lawmakers from both Oregon and Washington.
Oregon has yet to appoint any members, raising concerns that it lacked a quorum to proceed. This session, Wilson introduced a bill that would define the quorum of the committee as a majority of Washington members until Oregon makes appointments. The bill stalled in committee.
“The quorum turned out to not be necessary according to our technical staff,” said state Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver.
Clark County legislators also sponsored bills that would have hastened the process of getting the replacement bridge designated as a project of statewide significance once a consensus was reached. That bill also stalled.
“The project of statewide significance is important for when we get to the point we can start to utilize some of the permitting that’s been done,” she said. “It’s more of a message bill.”
Too partisan?
Shortly after the session ended, Wilson sent out a press release decrying the “partisan decline” of the 2018 legislative session. The press release criticized the new majority for not doing enough to offset the property tax spike that was part of education-funding package passed last year.
Both she and Kraft also criticized the Democrats for not passing a bill that would lower the business and occupation tax on manufacturers.
“I’m disappointed that they didn’t work with us,” said Wilson of the Democrats. “It was a very partisan session.”
Both are grateful that legislation that would’ve taxed carbon and capital gains didn’t advance. However, Kraft said it should cause concern among citizens that these bills sprung forth so quickly after the Democrats took control of the Senate.
“It could easily turn differently if we don’t keep up the pressure to say, ‘No,'” she said.
