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Clark County Today’s John Ley shares his thoughts on the difference between Gov. Jay Inslee’s words and his actions
In politics, a lot of words are often used to describe legislation that may or may not match the real impacts of bills that become law. Over the weekend, Washington Democrats passed a new capital gains income tax and two new carbon taxes.
Sen. Lynda Wilson (Republican, 17th District) said: “If you like a budget that is harder on people with lower incomes and people in marginalized communities, and sneaks a billion dollars out of the rainy-day fund into a slush fund, then the Democrat budget is a winner.
Washington state closed its legislative session with massive, watered-down wins. by Rich Smith • Apr 29, 2021 at 11:25 am
Weaknesses can be strengthened next year, though, so long as Democrats maintain their majority then stuff should be fine. YINYANG / GETTY
At a press conference over the weekend Democrats hailed the 2021 Legislative session as historic, declaring an end to incremental change in state politics.
Meanwhile, at their own press conference, Republicans did what they have become accustomed to doing: they licked their wounds, promised a backlash at the ballot box, and tried to frame the hybrid session as a hyper-partisan nightmare exacerbated by remote work. As we all know, real legislation only happens when people look each other in the eyes. The constituents and politicians file in, they stare each other down, they file out, and suddenly a bill is born. Eyeball lawmaking, as it s known around here. Handshakes
Washington state creates permanent rental assistance program
The Olympian 4/29/2021 Brandon Block, The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.)
Apr. 29 The idea of rental assistance the government stepping in to pay people s rent to prevent them from losing their home is not new, but it has taken on a new prominence and urgency in the pandemic, as billions of federal dollars have helped pull tenants out from under mounting debt.
Now, Washington state is making that policy permanent.
Legislators passed a bill on the penultimate day of the session that creates a dedicated funding source for ongoing rental assistance through a $100 surcharge on recorded documents.
ICYMI, Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler won: This year Kreidler requested a bill from the Legislature that would stop insurers from engaging in the racist practice of using credit scores to set certain insurance rates, which ends up forcing poor people to pay more for car insurance than middle-class and wealthy people with worse records. Sen. Mark Mullet worked with insurance lobbyists to gut the bill. Kreidler called for it to die. It died. After that, he used his emergency powers to issue a rule banning the practice for three years. The insurance companies sued, claiming he tried to do an end-around the state Legislature. Last Friday, a Thurston County Superior Court approved Kreidler s move. Today the Commissioner issued a May 6 deadline for property and casualty insurers to file their plans to meet the rule requirement, which should help protect those who are the most hurt financially by the pandemic from being forced to pay even higher premiums, he said.
Zeiger: A Call to Reform Emergency Powers Hans Zeiger April 22, 2021
Following the 2016 Cascadia Rising exercise led by the Washington Military Department in preparation for a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, I learned about limitations on the governor’s ability to respond to emergencies. While the governor had broad powers to prohibit activities “to help preserve and maintain life, health, property or the public peace,” he did not have the ability that many other governors had to suspend state statutes that could hinder an efficient emergency response.
In the interest of preparing for a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake or other emergency, I sponsored legislation to create this new flexibility for the governor to suspend statutes. There was an important condition I wrote into the legislation: if the governor sought to extend these suspensions past 30 days, the legislature would need to review them and either approve or deny extensio