More bills die as Washington state Legislature passes another cutoff date

OLYMPIA — It's that time in the legislative session when budgets are out, the countdown to the final day is on and more bills are dead after yet another cutoff in the Legislature.

Wednesday marked the cutoff date for policy bills from the opposite house of origin to pass out of committee, but the pace (and the drama) will increase as the next few weeks of session unfold.

Things are already getting spicy. Gov. Bob Ferguson doubled down this week against a new wealth tax, saying he would not sign either budget proposal passed by Senate and House lawmakers relying on such a tax to patch the estimated $16 billion shortfall over the next four years. That is leading the Democrat-controlled majorities in both chambers to rethink their proposals, and will require them to make some tough decisions in the coming weeks.

Other tax proposals by Democrats, including taxes for Washington's largest companies and adjusting the state's 1% cap on property taxes, are still on the table as lawmakers continue to negotiate a final budget. Ferguson declined Tuesday to say which of those proposals, if any, he supports.

Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, continue to rally against any new tax increases, including a gas tax increase for transportation projects.

The next cutoff for fiscal bills to get voted out of their respective committees is Tuesday. After that, remaining bills must be passed by April 16 before they are considered dead for the year.

Lawmakers will then spend the final 11 days of the session to concur on bill amendments made in each of the chambers, and to pass a balanced two-year budget.

Bills that did not make Wednesday's cutoff include:

• House Bill 1285, sponsored by Rep. Skyler Rude, R-Walla Walla, to require public school students to meet high school financial-education learning standards in order to graduate, starting with the graduating class of 2031. School districts, charter schools and state tribal education compact schools would have been required to provide all high school students with financial education.
• House Bill 1402, sponsored by Rep. Shaun Scott, D-Seattle, to prohibit certain employers from including having a driver's license as a requirement on job postings.
• Senate Bill 5000, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, to adopt "The Evergreen State" as Washington's official nickname.
• Senate Bill 5708, sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, at the request of Attorney General Nick Brown, to prevent social media sites from providing addictive feeds and sending push notifications during certain time frames to minors.
• Senate Bill 5240, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, to allow school nurses to administer epinephrine, such as an EpiPen, to treat anaphylactic reactions in students, regardless if that student had a prescription on file.
• Senate Bill 5729, sponsored by Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, to streamline the permitting process for affordable housing by allowing building permits to be deemed complete if prepared, stamped and signed off by professional architects and engineers under certain conditions. The bill outlined that local governments would only be allowed to request reviews or more information on permits three times, unless procedural requirements are violated.

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