5 issues to watch as the WA Legislature convenes Monday

OLYMPIA — After two years of debates, committee meetings and votes on Zoom, Washington legislators will return Monday in person to the Capitol.

In the 105-day session, legislative leaders and Gov. Jay Inslee have signaled they’ll tackle thorny issues including homelessness, public safety, abortion rights and gun violence.

Before their scheduled adjournment in April, lawmakers also must write the 2023-25 state budget, armed with a surplus that majority Democrats hope to channel to what they say are some of the state’s most urgent needs, like workforce shortages and child care.

Here are a few key issues to watch in the upcoming session:

Homelessness and housing

A Crosscut/Elway poll released last week shows Washington voters cited homelessness, along with the economy and crime, as a top priority for legislators to address.

After years of concentrating on climate change, Inslee signaled a new urgency about homelessness as part of his budget proposal, asking lawmakers to approve a measure to raise $4 billion over six years by issuing bonds and using that money to build thousands of housing units.

While the state has invested tens of millions annually in affordable housing, Inslee said it hasn’t proved adequate to the scale of the problem.

“It is simply not acceptable to think the most beautiful state, the No. 1 state in the United States, would somehow accept this level of people living in squalor on our roadsides, in our parks and in our neighborhoods,” he told reporters at a legislative preview last week.

Inslee expressed impatience with encampments that have spread over public spaces such as schoolyards and parks, saying cities should be able to remove them.

“As far as outlawing homeless encampments, yes, we do have to in certain areas,” he said, citing Seattle’s Woodland Park and playgrounds as examples of places where people “are going to have to move.”

At the same time, Inslee emphasized people living in such encampments need to be offered shelter and services, saying a ban on camping “isn’t sort of a magic laser beam … You can’t vaporize people who are homeless.”

Because Inslee’s bond plan would go outside the state debt limit, it would also require voter approval.

Apart from building government-funded housing, lawmakers also will wrestle with proposals to expand market-rate housing by forcing cities to loosen restrictive single-family zoning and allow more apartments, triplexes and other housing options — especially near transit centers.

Drug possession

In 2021, after the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s felony drug-possession law during the legislative session, lawmakers passed a stopgap measure to classify possession as a misdemeanor but refer people to treatment before charging them.

That law expires in July, so lawmakers have to decide how to classify possession of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, going forward.

Some lawmakers favor maintaining a criminal penalty, while others advocate for decriminalizing drug possession. Most agree that more treatment options are needed for people with substance-use issues.

Guns and public safety

Democrats are making a new push to restrict gun purchases, citing the stream of mass shootings at schools, including the killing of a student at Ingraham High.

They’ve announced proposals to ban assault weapons, require a permit to buy a gun, and make gun sellers potentially liable for selling weapons used in crimes. Those efforts would build on previous laws that have banned high-capacity magazines, expanded background checks and required better firearm storage.

Meanwhile, lawmakers face pressure to respond to increases in crime and to problems with keeping and hiring police officers.

Coalitions of suburban mayors have banded together to plead for help and ask that the Legislature revisit laws passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests that some argue have overly restricted police.

That includes a law that has restricted when police can pursue criminal suspects who flee in cars. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs last week called the law a “get out of jail free card” and asked lawmakers to restore more discretion to police.

Inslee and Democratic legislators have proposed more funding to help train police officers, including regional training campuses spread across the state.

The economy

About a third of the 400 respondents to a December Crosscut/Elway poll said the economy was the most important matter state lawmakers should focus on in 2023.

Republicans are pushing for tax relief, including a proposal from Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, to expand the state’s new “working families” tax credit, which will send annual payments of up to $1,200 a year to an estimated 420,000 lower-income people. Stokesbary’s proposal would double the maximum payments and make more people eligible.

Majority Democrats have said they’d consider such targeted tax relief or other assistance for those in need, but reacted coolly when asked about a general tax decrease that would also benefit wealthier people.

Lawmakers may also pursue policies to address shortages of skilled workers across industries, including child care and health care. That could mean, for example, relaxing some licensure requirements to make it easier to qualify as a mental health professional.

State House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, pointed to requirements for social workers, who already have master’s degrees and thousands of hours of training.

“And then we require an additional 4,000 hours, which is two years, and we require you to pay for it in order to get licensed in this state?” Jinkins said at the legislative preview. “We need to be thinking about what it is we are doing in some of these areas.”

Abortion

Six months after the fall of Roe v. Wade, Democrats in the state Senate have introduced a proposal to amend the state constitution to protect access to abortion and contraception.

But its future is tenuous given that it requires some Republican support to meet the two-thirds threshold needed in each chamber to pass. It would then require the approval of Washington voters.

“I’ll be talking to legislators to encourage them to step up to the plate and act,” Inslee said Dec. 14. “I’ll be encouraging Republicans to support this effort.”

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, said in an interview in late December that he was “doubtful” the bill could get sufficient support to pass in the House and Senate.

“I have personally not heard of any Republican support for this,” Padden said.

Washington voters passed Initiative 120 in 1991, codifying Roe into state law, and it has remained in state statute even though Republicans did hold a majority in some years since then, including in both chambers in 1997.

But supporters say an amendment would afford stronger protections for abortion rights, because it’s easier for the Legislature to repeal a statute than a constitutional amendment.

Even if it doesn’t pass, a vote on the measure could show Washingtonians, a majority of whom opposed the overturning of Roe, where legislators stand on abortion. Democrats also plan to introduce a package of legislation to fund and provide access to reproductive health services.

“We have more protections for providers and patients coming in 2023 to guarantee the right to an abortion remains safe and legal in Washington,” Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, one of the sponsors of the amendment, said in a statement Dec. 27.