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JOSEPH TURNER AND SEAN COCKERHAM

; The News Tribune                                               jean marie button
Published: April 24th, 2007 02:26 PM
STATE Legislature roundup of issues from this session

JOSEPH TURNER AND SEAN COCKERHAM; The News Tribune
Published: April 24th, 2007 02:26 PM

Got a pet monkey? Its days are numbered.
Like to talk on your cell phone on the freeway?
 Don't get caught. Want to know what's going to happen
 to Seattle's waterfront freeway? You should.
You're paying for it. The Legislature just finished passing
522 new laws, and dozens of them will put the touch on you,
your wallet or your lifestyle.

The session was good for bronc riders and hockey fans.

 Hoop fans and NASCAR? Not so much. Some teachers will

receive inner-city combat pay. Lawmakers doled out raises for 250,000 state and school workers. Narrows Bridge commuters got a break on tolls. Well, for one year, at least. And frogs and onions got more attention than they deserve. Here's what this year's Legislature did for you ­ or to you ­ at a glance.

Here is a look at the status of dozens of issues considered during the Legislature's 105-day session that ended Sunday.

A number of measures passed the Legislature and are awaiting a signature or veto by the governor. She has until May 15 to act.

SENT TO THE NOVEMBER BALLOT

• SCHOOL LEVIES: House Joint Resolution 4204 asks voters to change the state Constitution to make it easier to pass school levies by lowering the threshold for passage from the current 60 percent "yes" vote to a simple majority.

• RAINY DAY FUND: SJR 8206 asks voters to change the state Constitution to put 1 percent of state general fund tax revenues - about $134 million a year - into a savings account that could be tapped only in emergencies or by a 60 percent vote of the Legislature.

• INMATE LABOR: Senate Joint Resolution 8212 asks voters to change the state Constitution to allow private companies to move inside prisons to provide employment to inmates, restoring a program that was eliminated by a Washington Supreme Court ruling.

GOVERNOR SIGNED INTO LAW

• CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE: SB 5093 adds an estimated 39,000 children from qualifying families to health insurance programs subsidized by the state and federal governments, making a family of four with an annual income of $60,000 or less eligible to get insurance for their children.

• DOMESTIC PARTNERS: SB 5336 gives gays, lesbians and unmarried seniors some rights of married couples, including hospital visitation, emergency health care decisions and property inheritance when there is no will.

• MENTAL HEALTH COVERAGE: HB 1460 requires companies with two to 50 employees to provide mental health coverage if they already offer an insurance plan that covers physical ailments. Larger companies already must do that.

• MILITARY DISCRIMINATION: SB 5123 adds active-duty and military veterans to the groups of people protected against discrimination in housing, employment and financial services.

• PASSPORT ALTERNATIVE: HB 1289 lets the state issue a driver's license - to cost $40 - that can be used as ID to cross the Canadian border.

• MILITARY FUNERAL PROTESTS: HB 1168 prohibits unruly demonstrations within 500 feet of a military funeral.

• JUNTEENTH: HB 1870 declares June 19 as a day of remembrance to recognize the day in 1865 when slaves learned they were free.

• EMINENT DOMAIN: HB 1458 requires public agencies to send a certified letter notifying property owners of any meeting to take action on acquiring their land. It stems from Sound Transit action in Tacoma.

• NARROWS BRIDGE FINE: SB 5391 sets a $49 fine for failure to pay the toll, with $9 going to help pay off the bridge.

• TROOPER RETIREMENT: SB 5313 lets Washington State Patrol troopers work until they're age 65, in part so they can accrue larger pensions, instead of making them retire at 60.

• IMPOUND VEHICLES: SB 5134 lets police officers impound motorcycles, buses and other commercial vehicles if drivers don't have a special license endorsement that allows them to operate the vehicles.

• TRIBAL HEALTH INSURANCE: SB 5640 lets employees of Washington's Indian tribes apply for health insurance coverage from the same programs that now offer coverage for state and local government workers.

• STATE VEGETABLE: HB 1556 designates the Walla Walla sweet onion as the official state vegetable.

• CAR BUYER FEE: SB 6129 lets auto dealers charge customers a $50 "document handling" fee - up from $35 - on the sale of vehicles and raises dealers fees for temporary permits to $15 from $5. The revenues go to the State Patrol.

PASSED BY LEGISLATURE (AWAITING ACTION BY GOVERNOR)

• "FAIR SHARE" OF EX-CONS: SB 6157 seeks to spread work-release and ex-convict reporting centers around the state, sparing Pierce and other counties that have more than their share of facilities that provide serves to former inmates. It also would require the prison system to develop a community reentry plan for every inmate and release most inmates to the county in which they they committed their first crimes.

• WASL: SB 6023 would delay until 2013 the requirement that students pass the math and science sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning to graduate.

• TEACHER BONUS: HB 2262 would give teachers a $5,000 annual bonus for 10 years if they achieve a national certification, increasing with inflation. An additional $5,000 bonus would go to board-certified teachers who teach in schools with concentrations of students from low-income families. A third $5,000 bonus - to math and science teachers in poor schools - failed.

• RODEO CENTER: HB 2388 would provide public financing for a proposed rodeo/equestrian center near Winlock, Lewis County.

• HOCKEY ARENA: HB 2388 would provide public financing for an events center in Kent that would host the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team.

• TRIBAL GAS TAX: SB 5272 would set the stage for the governor to negotiate with Washington tribes over a split of the state gas tax. If similar to the deal with the Squaxin Island tribe, other tribes would impose their own gas tax, keep 75 percent for tribal transportation projects and remit 25 percent to the state.

• FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE: SB 5659 would create a program to give most workers $250 a week for up to five weeks to care for newborns or adopted children, starting in 2009, and create a task force to figure out how to pay for it.

• STOLEN METALS: HB 5312 would require sellers of copper and other metals to provide photo identification and sign a statement that the materials weren't stolen, and it would prohibit buyers from making cash payments over $30.

• SHIPPING CONTAINER TAX: SB 5207 would authorize a study of a proposed tax on the contents of containers unloaded at Washington ports and other port-related fees to raise money for road projects that help the movement of freight. Some form of tax is likely to be enacted in 2008 because the transportation budget assumes there will be revenue for some highway projects.

• YOUNG ADULT COVERAGE: SB 5930 would require insurance companies to let parents add their adult children - 19 to 25 years old - to their health insurance policies as long as parents pay additional premiums.

• EARLY RETIREMENT: HB 2391 would let many teachers and state and local workers who are enrolled in Plan 2 pension programs to retire with full benefits at age 62, instead of 65, if they have at least 30 years on the job. If they retire at age 55, the penalty would be a 20 percent reduction in benefits instead of the current 30 percent penalty.

• GAINSHARING: HB 2391 would end bonus payments to state, local and public school workers who now share in extraordinary gains if their pension plan investments consistently earn more than 10 percent a year. A final pension payment boost of $10 to $11 per month would be authorized by 2009 for Plan 1 retirees who had 30 years on the job.

• GEODUCK HARVESTS: HB 2220 would allow the Department of Natural Resources to lease 15 additional acres of public tidelands to geoduck farmers but keep that limit until 2013 while a study determines whether the method used to harvest geoducks is harmful to state beaches. It also would require harvesters to register with DNR and say where they are harvesting.

• CHILD CARE WARNINGS: SB 5317 would require the state Department of Early Learning and child care providers to alert parents about allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse by employees within 48 hours, and require the state to post proven complaints against a child care provider online or at another public place.

• STATE FROG: HB 1069 would designate the Pacific chorus frog as the state's official amphibian.

• KOREAN AMERICAN DAY: SB 5166 would declare Jan. 13 a holiday in recognition of the 46,000 Koreans who live in Washington. However, schools, government offices and post offices would remain open.

• TOXIC HOMES: SB 5895 would require sellers of residential properties to disclose whether the sites have ever been used for legal or illegal dumping or had transmission poles installed or buried on the properties. The News Tribune highlighted the problem last year in an investigative piece entitled "Buyer Beware."

• LOCAL CAR TAX: HB 1858 would let county or city councils impose an annual license tab fee of up to $20 without a public vote to pay for transportation projects. The Pierce County Council and cities within the county could not impose the fee until 2008, after the joint Sound Transit/regional highway vote in November.

• PUBLIC RECORDS: SB 5435 would create a "sunshine" committee to review the more than 300 exemptions to the state public records law and recommend if the Legislature should repeal any.

• REPORTER SHIELD LAW: HB 1366 would prevent journalists who refuse to reveal confidential sources from going to jail.

• TEENAGE DRIVERS: SB 5036 would remove the expiration date on the law that restricts driving privileges for 16- and 17-year-olds, continuing the program indefinitely.

• SEX EDUCATION: SB 5297 would require schools that teach sex ed to use accurate materials, including information about birth control, but allow parents to exempt their children from such classes.

• PRIVATE CAREER COLLEGES: SB 5402 would allow the state Work Force Training Board to put for-profit schools on probation and demand changes under threat of closure if schools fail to meet financial standards. The News Tribune highlighted the issue with its investigation last year of a Gig Harbor-based computer training school.

• TESTING TRUCKERS: HB 1267 would raise the fee for commercial driver license tests to $100 so the state can take over most of the testing because of fraud among some private testers.

• MEDICAL CLAIMS: SB 5726 would allow people to sue insurance companies if the insurer unreasonably denies coverage or payment for medical expenses, and let courts decide whether to triple the amount.

• CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE: HB 1802 would require public schools to inform parents of girls in sixth grade and older about the human papilloma virus, its link to cancer and the availability of a vaccine. Parents of children in private schools would be referred to the state Department of Health for HPV information.

• CAR THEFT: HB 1001 would increase penalties for car theft and vehicle prowls and create a crime for making or possessing tools often used to steal vehicles.

• SUING CAR THIEVES: HB 2034 would make it easier for victims of auto theft to sue the people who stole their cars, recover costs to repair damage to vehicles and contents - plus up to $5,000 and lawyer fees - and authorize suspension of the perpetrators' driver licenses until those judgments are paid off.

• FERRY BOARDINGS: SB 5088 would make it a traffic infraction to cut in line at the ferry queue or to block a residential driveway, punishable by a $101 fine and being sent to the end of the line.

• CHILD ABUSE: SB 5321 would require the state to investigate allegations of child abuse within 90 days and notify foster parents whether the children they take into their homes are high risk, sexually aggressive, violent or have been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome or a mental disorder or have been a victims of or witnesses to abuse.

• WILD PETS: HB 1418 would ban private ownership of tigers, lions, leopards, wolves, bears, hyenas, rhinoceroses, monkeys, elephants, cobras, rattlesnakes, alligators, crocodiles and other wild animals. The animals could be confiscated and owners subject to fines between $200 and $2,000. People who now own such animals could keep them until they die, but could not breed them.

• VASHON FOOT FERRIES: SB 5862 would give King County one more year to create a taxing district and take over operation of state passenger-only ferry service between Vashon Island and downtown Seattle.

• HIGHWAY 520 BRIDGE: SB 6099 would select a six-lane bridge across Lake Washington as the alternative that will replaced the existing bridge. It also would prohibit construction on a new bridge until the state submits a financial plan that includes at least $1 billion from Pierce, King and Snohomish county taxpayers and an unspecified amount from tolls. A mediator and urban planners would be appointed to develop mitigation plans for neighborhoods.

• SOUND TRANSIT VOTE: HB 1396 would allow Sound Transit and the road-focused Regional Transportation Investment District in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties to put a single tax measure on the November ballot for their joint $18 billion list of bus, rail and road projects.

• GLOBAL WARMING: SB 6001 would limit the emission of green house gases to today's levels and set a timetable for further reductions by 2050.

• CAR FEE FOR PARKS: HB 2275 would levy a voluntary, $5-per-year fee on license tabs to help pay for state parks and require a study to promote tourism at the state Capitol campus in Olympia.

• INJURED WORKER PAY: SB 5675 would set minimum monthly pay for worker's compensation at $500, unless that is more than a worker actually was paid on the job.

• FOREST LANDS: HB 1636 would create a regional marketplace for the transfer of development rights to conserve rural lands.

• DRIVING WHILE TALKING: SB 5037 would ban driving while talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device.

• TEXT MESSAGING: HB 1214 would prohibit text-messaging while driving.

• HIGHWAY MONEY: HB 2394 would let the state borrow $1.12 billion to plug part of the $2 billion shortfall for projects that are supposed to be built with money from the last two gas tax increases. More than $13 billion will be spent on 432 projects between 2005 and 2021.

• TUITION FOR TEACHERS: SB 5101 would let state colleges waive tuition for teachers, librarians and other instructional staff who go back to college to obtain endorsements in subjects where there are shortages, such as chemistry, math and English as a second language.

PROVISIONS IN THE STATE BUDGETS (AWAITING ACTION BY THE GOVERNOR)

• BUDGET SURPLUS: Lawmakers would keep $724 million in savings, but spend nearly $1.3 billion more than they expect to collect in taxes over the next two years. Otherwise, the projected surplus by July 2009 would have been $2 billion.

• SUNDAY LIQUOR SALES: The state Liquor Control Board would open 29 more state-run stores on Sundays. By September there would be a total of 49 stores open on Sundays.

• UW TACOMA: Enrollment at the Tacoma campus would increase by 240 students each of the next two school years, reaching 2,349 students in 2008-09.

• CHENEY STADIUM: Tacoma would get $2.5 million toward its continuing $10 million renovation of the Rainiers' ballpark.

• INMATE TREATMENT: State prisons would get $28 million to provide drug treatment and high school and vocational classes to more inmates while they are in prison in the hope offenders will be less likely to commit more crimes when they get out.

• ALL-DAY KINDERGARTEN: Lawmakers would earmark $52 million to start phasing in all-day kindergarten, beginning with schools in low-income neighborhoods.

• ALASKAN WAY VIADUCT: The Legislature has $2.4 billion earmarked to pay for a replacement on Seattle's waterfront, but whether that will be another elevated structure, a partial tunnel, wider surface streets and beefed-up bus service remains to be seen. Work will continue at each end of the viaduct until a decision is made on the "miracle mile," perhaps in late 2008.

• STATE PATROL PAY: Troopers would receive bonus pay of 10 percent in King County, 5 percent in Snohomish County and 3 percent in Pierce County if they are assigned to work there. Those raises are in addition to the 4 percent annual raises that all troopers will receive in each of the next two years.

• SUBSTANCE ABUSE: The Pierce County Alliance would receive nearly $400,000 to conduct another pilot project on a drug, Prometa, which is supposed to remove cravings for meth, crack and booze. An additional $105,000 has been earmarked to evaluate the drug's effectiveness.

• COLLEGE TUITION: The University of Washington and Washington State University could raise tuition by 7 percent in each of the next two years. Other four-year colleges could see 5 percent increases and two-year community and technical colleges could go up by 2 percent.

• PRISON WORK-RELEASE: Capacity in work-release would be increased to house 120 additional inmates in more parts of the state, and three new ex-convict reporting centers would be built by 2011.

• PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY: Nearly $9.7 million would be earmarked to pay for the May 2008 election in Washington, though Democrats and Republicans are unlikely to pay much attention to the results in selecting delegates to their respective nominating conventions. The date may be moved to February or March so Washington won't be among the last states to vote.

• STATE WORKER PAY: Most state employees would get a 3.2 percent raise this year and 2 percent in 2008, plus a lump-sum payment of $756 on July 1.

• TEACHER PAY: Most public school and community college workers would receive 3.7 percent raises this fall and 2.8 percent raises in the 2008-09 school year.

• DRUG PRISON: State prison officials would use new funding to convert the Airway Heights prison outside Spokane into a so-called therapeutic community where most of the 2,150 inmates will receive drug treatment or sex offender therapy.

FAILED TO PASS

• SONICS ARENA: SB 5986 would have authorized King County to use state taxes collected in the area to raise $300 million to help build an arena in Renton for the Seattle SuperSonics. The Sonics said the decision leaves them "little hope" of remaining in Puget Sound after next season.

• NASCAR: HB 2062 and SB 6040 would have set up a public speedway authority to raise $164 million to help finance a NASCAR racetrack in Kitsap County. After the bills failed, International Speedway Corp, the company proposing to build the track, abandoned the site but said it hoped some other community in Puget Sound would be interested in a track.

• "THREE STRIKES, YOU'RE OUT": SB 5964 would have dropped second-degree robbery and assault as crimes that are considered "strikes."

• VOTER REGISTRATION: SB 5561 would have let people register to vote as late as Election Day instead of cutting off registration about two weeks earlier.

• FLEEING POLICE: HB 1030 would have imposed longer sentences for people convicted of eluding police if they endanger the lives of others.

• STATE PARKS DIRECTOR: HB 1192 would have allowed the governor to hire the state parks director, taking that power away from a governor-appointed commission.

• MOUSE AND MOLE TRAPS: SB 5722 would have let people catch mice and moles with conventional traps by exempting them from the state law that prohibits the use of body-gripping devices to catch or kill animals.

• PROPERTY TAX LIMIT: HB 2117 would have made the 1 percent limit on the growth of property tax revenues law instead of waiting to see how the state Supreme Court responds to a King County judge's ruling that Initiative 747 is unconstitutional.

• SCHOOL SAFETY: HB 2268 would have expanded the kinds of weapons that are prohibited in schools to include bats, clubs, certain knives and sharpened screwdrivers if they are used as weapons.

• SCHOOL NEWSPAPERS: HB 1307 would have given high school and college journalists the same free-press rights as their professional colleagues, including a ban against keeping news reports from being published.

• GAS TAX: SB 5414 would have allowed Pierce and King counties to add a 15 percent surcharge on the state gas tax, equal to 5.6 cents a gallon, to raise money to finish some highway projects.

• PAYDAY LOANS: HB 1020 would have imposed restrictions on payday loans, including a cap on interest rates.

• SUPREME COURT RACES: HB 1186 would have provided a pilot project for public financing of state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals races.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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