Editor’s Note: The League of Women Voters (LWV) of Washington uploaded this legislative newsletter to their website on Mar. 26, 2023. Our mission at the Voter Interests Project is to monitor elected officials and ballot measures; we generally do not report on the activities of non-profit organizations. However, the LWV Whidbey Island chapter conducts candidate forums during most election cycles, and are therefore of particular interest to voters. The LWV of Washington’s website states, “The League is a Nonpartisan Source You Can Trust”; however, the LWV does take positions on public policy. Our observation is that their policy positions inform their management of voter forums. Therefore, we believe it to be of interest to our readers to know the positions for which the LWV advocates.

Action Alerts

Click on the links below to learn more about bills currently being reviewed in the state legislature. You can “take action” on these most pressing bills by following the links below.

Support Legislation Related to Climate Change Mitigation and Resilience

HB 1181, Improving the state’s response to climate change by updating the state’s planning framework, must pass out of the Senate Ways & Means Committee soon. Please help move it forward by asking for a vote.

Climate change is a worldwide crisis that is also creating a crisis in Washington State. Local jurisdictions have a responsibility to address it, both in terms of mitigation but especially in terms of organizing for resiliency in the face of its effects. Recent experience with floods, landslides, forest fires and more demonstrates that mitigation and resilience plans are needed. HB 1181 would add a goal of climate change and resiliency to the state Growth Management Act and direct local jurisdictions that produce comprehensive plans to include these climate change elements in their plan updates. This is the time to give such direction, because plan updates are due in 2024 for Puget Sound area jurisdictions and in 2025 for other parts of the state. After that, the next plan updates won’t be required for 10 more years.

Click here to ask the Senate Ways & Means Committee to PASS HB 1181.

Stop Punishing People Twice for the Same Crime

Current law automatically giving people longer sentences because of crimes they committed as children has meant that Black and Indigenous people often receive longer sentences due to prior juvenile convictions. And it does not reflect modern brain science showing that young people’s decision-making and impulse control are still developing.

HB 1324, Eliminating Juvenile Points, would rectify this outdated practice by retroactively eliminating the use of juvenile adjudications in adult sentencing and discontinuing the practice moving forward.

The bill has wide support, including from the Washington State Labor Council, the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, the Minority & Justice Commission, the Washington State Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the ACLU of Washington, and several Tribes across the state.

Click here to sign in PRO on HB 1324.

This Week in the Legislature

Day 77 and Counting

In the week ahead, the Legislature will undergo another transition. The House and Senate policy committees are considering bills that passed the opposite chamber. The cutoff for policy bills to pass out of committee is Wednesday, March 29. The cutoff for bills to pass out of the fiscal and transportation committees is April 4, the following week.

At the same time, the Senate has released its capital and operating budget proposals and has held public hearings on those. The House is expected to release its proposed budgets on Monday in the week ahead, with public hearings in very short order afterward. Both chambers will release their transportation budgets next week as well. These will be pushed to the floor for action very quickly.

This leads to some confusion about what to do and when to do it.

After each chamber has adopted its proposed budget, key budget leaders from both bodies will meet to negotiate their differences and come up with a final budget that both chambers will adopt. That final decision will occur near the very end of the session. Meanwhile, the adjustments they may consider will come from the public input, coalitions and others, as well as members’ own negotiations. So, your input to the Legislature on both policy and budget remains very important.

Issue Chairs will describe some of the budget issues they see as well as policy recommendations in their respective weekly updates. The joint Action Items, the ones that head this Newsletter, are the ones that the entire Team deems worthy of your action; but for specific issues you are interested in, please also check the weekly reports for those issues.

Thank you for supporting the League’s priorities!

There are several other ways you can follow the hearings and legislative process:

• Via TVW (Washington State’s public affairs TV network), and
• On the Washington State Legislature website.

Check out the weekly updates for each issue (below) for information on how to testify, and how to sign on PRO or CON to proposed legislation.

The 2023 Legislative Issues

LWVWA Legislative Issues From the 2023 Washington State Legislative Session

Click on an issue to learn more about session results on bills the League supported and “This Week’s Updates” to read the issue chair’s report on this past week.

Democracy

Elections | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Money in Politics | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Education | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Redistricting | Issue Overview | New task force underway – see updates

Environment

Climate Crisis and Energy | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Forests | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Growth Management | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Solid Waste Management | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Transportation | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Social and Economic Policy

Housing and Homelessness | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Health Care | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Behavioral Health | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Children’s Services | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Early Care and Education of Young Children | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Criminal Justice | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Revenue | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update

Gun Safety | Issue Overview | Read this week’s update