So many bills, so little time: What to watch in the WA Legislature’s 2024 short session

OLYMPIA — With just days to go before they meet, state lawmakers had filed more than 500 bills on topics ranging from raising recycling rates to equipping more high schools with medication to reverse opioid overdoses.

But only a share of their proposals will survive the 60-day legislative session, which begins Monday.

House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, compares the short session to a bull ride at a rodeo — you only have to stay on for eight seconds, but what happens in those eight seconds is anyone’s guess.

“When you’re riding a bull, you never know if you’re really getting a bucker or one that’s a little bit more easygoing,” Jinkins said in an interview. “I’m not really sure what we’re getting this session.”

Last year’s session ended in acrimony when lawmakers couldn’t agree on how much to punish drug possession, and they had to come back to Olympia for a special meeting to pass the bill.

Washington operates on a two-year budget, and the clock starts on the new fiscal cycle July 1 of odd years. The short even-year session is when lawmakers meet to update the budget.

In the two months ahead, legislators are expected to continue to chip away at thorny issues that plague Washington, including homelessness and the fentanyl epidemic. Leaders also want to make available more housing, child-care options and treatment for addiction and mental health.

The state is flush with money from the new capital gains tax and carbon auctions. But there will still be choices to make, as the cost of doing business — including building roads and bridges — grows and as Washingtonians continue to experience behavioral health challenges, substance use disorder and homelessness. And there’s some uncertainty in the air as petitioners aim to repeal or change big pieces of recent legislation like the carbon market, capital gains tax, a payroll tax for long-term care and limits on when police can chase suspects.

Heading into what promises to be an active election year, Democrats are framing the session as a chance to continue the work they’ve done on major policy issues after six years of holding the majority in both chambers. Republicans are sounding the alarm about the growth of state spending and the direction of state policy on issues like public safety and affordability.

“I’m afraid we have kind of two realities going on right now,” Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, budget lead for Republicans in the House, told reporters Thursday. “We have a proposed budget that has grown and is projected to grow again. Revenues are up. But the budgets we’re seeing in our families’ homes across the state are going down.”

Here are some key issues to watch:

Beating the drum on housing

Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, who leads Democrats in the Senate, said housing is “one of the top concerns that we hear from constituents.”

Last year, legislators worked to ease zoning to allow more multifamily housing and speed up permitting. Lawmakers are expected to consider more proposals to promote housing construction and to try to ease the burden on renters, who face high housing costs.

Although measures to stop rent prices from increasing so rapidly have proved divisive in Olympia, Democrats are expected to make another push on that this year.

Gov. Jay Inslee has urged more money to a state program to clear people from camping on state roads and rights-of-way and move them into stable housing. Lawmakers are expected to consider policies to ease converting commercial buildings into residential properties, splitting residential lots to allow more housing and promoting housing development near public transit.

Transportation costs snowballing

The cost of state transportation projects is growing rapidly, leaving lawmakers with a difficult calculus as they try to fight a record high number of traffic fatalities and complete road and bridge work.

A big factor is the cost of replacing culverts to ensure safe passage for salmon, now estimated to be $3.5 to $4 billion more than expected. And then there’s the state ferry system, beleaguered by delays, and where normal service won’t resume for four or five years.

Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, chair of the Senate’s transportation committee, said he doesn’t support canceling any projects, and lawmakers should look at increasing tolls and should scrutinize costs.

“I do think we have to ask some tough questions about how and when we get projects done,” Liias said, “And we’re clearly looking at every single project to find opportunities to deliver the same improvements at lower costs and find opportunities to bring more resources to bear.”

Fentanyl and the care gap

There is great need for mental health care and substance use treatment, not enough services for people who need them and not enough people to do the work of providing that care. Lawmakers say that each are top priorities in 2024.

Fentanyl is killing Washingtonians in record numbers. King County saw its highest-ever death toll from overdoses in 2023, largely driven by the potent opioid. But methadone, one of the most effective treatments for opioid use disorder, is only available in 14 of Washington’s 39 counties.

Lawmakers agreed last year to raise the penalty for drug possession to a gross misdemeanor after a two-year experiment with lower penalties. Now that lawmakers have agreed on how much to punish drug possession, they are expected this year to try to put more money toward treatment, including making medications to treat opioid use disorder more widely available in rural and tribal areas and in jails.

Running for office

It’s an election year, and a busy one at that: There’s a presidential election and regular elections for Congress and the Legislature. The governor’s seat will be up for grabs for the first time in a dozen years, creating a cascade effect in other state offices as state Attorney General Bob Ferguson runs for governor and Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz seeks to replace outgoing Rep. Derek Kilmer in Washington’s 6th Congressional District.

Seven sitting lawmakers have mounted bids for higher office:

• Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, is running for state attorney general.
• Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, is running for insurance commissioner.
• Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Shelton, is running for Congress in the 6th District.
• Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, is running for governor.
• Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, is running Congress in the 6th District.
• Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, is running for public lands commissioner.
• Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Port Angeles, is running for public lands commissioner.

There is an official ban on fundraising during the legislative session, but lawmakers want to be able to point to their accomplishments in the statehouse during campaigns.

Could Democrats face a referendum?

Democrats have held a “trifecta” — both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion — in Washington since late 2017 and have used the past few years to push through major policy priorities, like banning assault-style weapons, starting a capital-gains tax and capping carbon emissions. The majority party is framing the upcoming session as a continuation of that work.

But efforts are afoot to repeal or modify some of those policies by sending them to voters in November.

The Secretary of State’s office is working to verify signatures on six petitions. Petitioners turned in signatures to repeal the carbon market (which opponents are blaming for high gas prices) and the capital gains tax, and one to make the state’s payroll tax for long-term care optional. They also have submitted signatures for petitions to roll back limits the Legislature placed on when police can chase suspects, to ban state and local income taxes and to require parents of students in K-12 schools be allowed to review curriculum and be notified of medical services provided at school.

Officially, the petitions would go to the Legislature first. With each, lawmakers can adopt it, or they can propose an alternative for the ballot to run alongside the original petition, or decline to take it up — in those two cases the petition would go to voters.

Inslee’s last session

As he heads toward the door, Inslee, who has been in office since 2013, is taking a last big swing at state policy. He is pushing for $2.5 billion more in state spending to address some of Washington’s most challenging issues, including the gap in mental health treatment and the fentanyl crisis.

He wants to make another push to address homelessness, in particular, using state money to get people out of encampments along Washington’s roads and highways and into housing.

He’s also pushing to pass more policies on climate — his pet issue — with measures to require oil companies to disclose their profits and a bill to stop Puget Sound Energy from using methane.