A few min­utes ago, at mid­night, the one hun­dred and five day long ses­sion of the six­ty-sixth Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture was adjourned Sine Die, after a flur­ry of eleventh hour votes were cast on cru­cial bills on both sides of the Rotunda.

The House and Sen­ate were able to reach agree­ment on three bud­gets (oper­at­ing, cap­i­tal, and trans­porta­tion), a clean levy flex­i­bil­i­ty bill (ESSB 5313), and a host of oth­er impor­tant mea­sures before the clock ran out. (The Con­sti­tu­tion only gives the Leg­is­la­ture one hun­dred and five days for a long session.)

As a con­se­quence, there will not be a spe­cial ses­sion, as House Major­i­ty Leader Pat Sul­li­van had at one point cau­tioned there might need to be.

Leg­isla­tive lead­ers were jovial as the clock struck mid­night and the gavels fell. Leg­is­la­tors from both par­ties, exhaust­ed after many days of con­stant work, applaud­ed each oth­er and their staff for sev­er­al min­utes after midnight.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee was no less elated.

For his post-Sine Die media avail­abil­i­ty, he was flanked by a large con­tin­gent of leg­is­la­tors from both hous­es plus Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Cyrus Habib.

“On near­ly every front, leg­is­la­tors deliv­ered impor­tant poli­cies to move our state for­ward,” Inslee said after the Leg­is­la­ture adjourned. “Every­one here should feel real­ly proud of the progress we made to put our peo­ple first, sup­port our grow­ing econ­o­my and help more peo­ple feel secure about their future.”

“In the two years since Democ­rats retook con­trol of the Sen­ate, we have worked hard to pass leg­is­la­tion that puts peo­ple first and ensures more peo­ple have access to a qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion, health care, clean air and water and cre­ate an over­all bet­ter qual­i­ty of life,” said Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Billig.

“We fin­ished our work on time. We made sure diverse voic­es were heard through­out the leg­isla­tive ses­sion. And we will con­tin­ue to ensure every Wash­ing­ton­ian has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to succeed.”

“I am so proud of our team and the work we’ve done and what we’ve accom­plished for each and every Washingtonian.”

The Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus at the ros­trum of the cham­ber (Pho­to cour­tesy of the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic caucus)

“This is what putting peo­ple first looks like,” said Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Timm Orms­by, D‑Spokane, chair of the House Appro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee, in a state­ment hail­ing the com­ple­tion of the oper­at­ing budget.

“We’re mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant invest­ments in spe­cial edu­ca­tion and behav­ioral health, help­ing fam­i­lies stay in their homes and out of pover­ty, and expand­ing col­lege access and oppor­tu­ni­ty to more fam­i­lies across Wash­ing­ton,” Orms­by said.

With respect to rev­enue, leg­is­la­tors adopt­ed a pro­gres­sive real estate tax pro­pos­al which cuts tax­es for eighty per­cent of sell­ers while leav­ing the rate unchanged for an addi­tion­al eigh­teen per­cent. Rates will be increased for the remain­ing two per­cent sell­ing real estate val­ued at $1.5 mil­lion or higher.

Our favorite part of the Leg­is­la­ture’s 2019 rev­enue pack­age, though, is the busi­ness and occu­pa­tion tax increase on big banks. For too long, giant finan­cial insti­tu­tions have been allowed to avoid pay­ing their fair share in dues to our state. Thanks to the lead­er­ship of NPI’s Gael Tar­leton, the Chair of the House Finance Com­mit­tee, that is about to change. Well done, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tarleton!

Dis­ap­point­ing­ly, the Leg­is­la­ture did not approve a cap­i­tal gains tax on extra­or­di­nary prof­its, even though Gov­er­nor Inslee, the House Democ­rats, and the Sen­ate Democ­rats all intro­duced pro­pos­als to do so.

NPI research has con­tin­u­al­ly found robust sup­port among vot­ers for a cap­i­tal gains tax to fund our pub­lic schools, col­leges, and universities. 

We will con­tin­ue work­ing for adop­tion of a cap­i­tal gains tax on extra­or­di­nary prof­its dur­ing the inter­im and the upcom­ing 2020 short session.

The Leg­is­la­ture also failed to abol­ish the death penal­ty, repeal Tim Eyman’s push polls, and require pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates to dis­close their tax returns in order to appear on Wash­ing­ton’s bal­lot due to inac­tion in the House of Representatives.

We believe these are all bills that can and should pass dur­ing the 2020 ses­sion under a new Speak­er, and we’ll push for each of them to get a vote.

We thank Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er for spon­sor­ing two of these three bills (push poll repeal, pres­i­den­tial trans­paren­cy) and get­ting them through the Senate.

Sen­a­tor Kud­er­er has shown tremen­dous lead­er­ship since she became a leg­is­la­tor. It’s an hon­or to be rep­re­sent­ed by her and to work with her.

We con­grat­u­late the Leg­is­la­ture on the many bills that did get to Gov­er­nor Inslee’s desk. The list is rather long. We are par­tic­u­lar­ly hap­py that the Leg­is­la­ture took action to make Wash­ing­ton’s pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry usable by both major par­ties.

The Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee, which I am a mem­ber of, has already vot­ed to take advan­tage of the new pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry law.

This was the best ses­sion in NPI’s his­to­ry for progress on clean air, clean water, and clean soil. Because of the lead­er­ship of NPI’s Gael Tar­leton, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Fitzgib­bon, and Sen­a­tor Reuven Car­lyle, Wash­ing­ton now has the smartest, strongest, one hun­dred per­cent clean elec­tric­i­ty bill in the coun­try (SB 5116).

But that’s not all.

Leg­is­la­tors also vot­ed to phase out a super pol­lu­tant known as hydro­flu­o­ro­car­bons (HB 1112) and raise build­ing effi­cien­cy stan­dards (HB 1257). Plus the Leg­is­la­ture approved an appli­ance effi­cien­cy bill (HB 1444), a trans­porta­tion elec­tri­fi­ca­tion bill (HB 1512), and a renew­able hydro­gen ener­gy bill (SB 5588).

An addi­tion­al three bills were passed to help Wash­ing­ton’s endan­gered south­ern res­i­dent orca pop­u­la­tion. More needs to be done to help the south­ern res­i­dents, but the leg­is­la­tion approved this year is a good start.

Ground­break­ing leg­is­la­tion on long term care, behav­ioral health, opi­oid treat­ment, and pub­lic health also passed this ses­sion. Gov­er­nor Inslee’s Cas­cade Care pro­pos­al will help shore up some of the weak­ness­es of our insur­ance sys­tem as we con­tin­ue to lay the ground­work to secure Medicare For All.

Our team is delight­ed hat the min­i­mum age to buy tobac­co in Wash­ing­ton is being raised to twen­ty-one and that the so-called “per­son­al exemp­tion” for the measles, mumps, and rubel­la vac­cine is being eliminated.

Anoth­er tri­umph was the pas­sage of Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti’s cor­po­rate crimes bill (HB 1252). This bill (which increas­es the penal­ties for crimes com­mit­ted by cor­po­ra­tions for the first time since 1925!) did­n’t get to join the parade of good bills that got lib­er­at­ed from the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ grave­yard of progress last year.

This year, how­ev­er, it sailed out the Leg­is­la­ture with hard­ly any oppo­si­tion at all.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Pel­lic­ciot­ti scored anoth­er big win when the Leg­is­la­ture passed HB 1379. This leg­is­la­tion aims to end the nefar­i­ous prac­tice of using shell polit­i­cal action com­mit­tees to mask who is actu­al­ly fund­ing cam­paign advertisements.

“We won’t have full con­fi­dence in gov­ern­ment unless vot­ers have full trans­paren­cy in what spe­cial inter­ests are fund­ing our elec­tions,” said Pel­lic­ciot­ti on Earth Day when the mea­sure cleared the Leg­is­la­ture. He’s absolute­ly cor­rect and we thank him for get­ting this major reform across the fin­ish line. It will ben­e­fit us in 2020.

We also salute Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra — a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber — for her exem­plary work on gun safe­ty, tax fair­ness, and behav­ioral health solu­tions this ses­sion. She has become a force in the Legislature.

Ear­li­er this month, Gov­er­nor Inslee signed three of Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra’s bills into law on the same day: SB 5162 (jury ser­vice qual­i­fi­ca­tions), SB 5207 (vot­ing rights noti­fi­ca­tion), and SB 5889 (insur­ance communications).

Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra is one of the most effec­tive new law­mak­ers Wash­ing­ton State has ever seen. Her work eth­ic is top notch, and she has demon­strat­ed that she knows how to get bills from con­cep­tion to com­ple­tion quick­ly. Huzzah!

Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra: A force in the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture (State Sen­ate photo)

We also com­mend new leg­is­la­tors Sen­a­tor Emi­ly Ran­dall, Sen­a­tor Claire Wil­son, Sen­a­tor Mona Das, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Debra Lekanoff, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Debra Enten­man, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive My-Linh Thai, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Sharon Shew­make, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jared Mead, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Melanie Mor­gan, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lisa Callan, and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bill Ramos for their fine work this ses­sion. This is one of the most impres­sive, endear­ing group of fresh­men leg­is­la­tors we have ever seen.

The Leg­is­la­ture may have adjourned Sine Die, but the work goes on. The next ses­sion is only two hun­dred and fifty-nine days away. Dur­ing the inter­im, leg­is­la­tors will be work­ing hard to pre­pare bills and engage with constituents.

And that’s not all. In the House, a new leader will be select­ed, because House Speak­er Frank Chopp is step­ping down after twen­ty years in the role.

House Democ­rats have announced that a vote will be held to choose a new Speak­er on July 31st. NPI’s Gael Tar­leton is a can­di­date, as is House Major­i­ty Floor Leader Mon­i­ca Jura­do Stonier. Oth­ers are expect­ed to run as well.

Who­ev­er is cho­sen to suc­ceed Chopp by the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus will hold the title of Speak­er-des­ig­nate for almost half a year, since the House isn’t expect­ed to recon­vene until Jan­u­ary 13th, 2020, when the 2020 reg­u­lar ses­sion begins.

Hav­ing run a one hun­dred and five day marathon of sorts, many leg­is­la­tors will no doubt be tak­ing some time off to rest and recov­er. We wish them all the best.

We’re very hap­py that our elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives will soon be get­ting a pay increase that makes their com­pen­sa­tion a bit clos­er to the medi­an income in Wash­ing­ton. Ser­i­al liar and chair thief Tim Eyman attempt­ed to over­turn that pay increase with a self-serv­ing ref­er­en­dum, but his effort has spec­tac­u­lar­ly implod­ed and thank­ful­ly will not be qual­i­fy­ing for the bal­lot.

Today is not Thanks­giv­ing — we’re prac­ti­cal­ly half a year away from that fine hol­i­day — but it feels like a good day to be giv­ing thanks. Much has been accom­plished this ses­sion, espe­cial­ly in the final hours. It’s a huge depar­ture from what we had become accus­tomed to dur­ing the Rod­ney Tom error.

Take a bow, leg­is­la­tors. You’ve moved Wash­ing­ton State forward.