2023 Session – General Legislative Recap and Look Ahead: Week of March 13, 2023

Week of March 11, 2023

Today marks the 62nd day of the 105-day 2023 Legislative session in Olympia.   Wednesday, March 8 was a major cutoff for bills to be voted out of the House of Origin.  If bills did not pass out of the House of Origin, they are technically DEAD for this session, unless they are bills “Necessary to Implement the Budget (NTIB).”  All bills that do not pass will be alive in the 2024 60-day session. 

The next revenue forecast is coming up on Monday, March 20 which means that Senate and House budgets, to include Operating, Capital and Transportation,  will likely be released shortly after.  Budgets will start to roll out in the next couple of weeks.  We expect them to be made public in the days following March 20th.  As the three budgets for both the Senate and House come out. 

The next cutoff is on Wednesday, March 29 is the Policy Committee Cutoff in the Opposite House.  Which means this is the last day to read in committee reports from opposite house, except House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committee.

On the Real Estate end of things, all 6 rent control bills are now officially dead (HB 1388, HB 1389/SB 5435, HB 1625/SB 5615, SB 5697). Additionally, HB 1124 which had been the source is a lot of work and a potential deal between the parties, also died at the cutoff after the majority party went back on their deal.  That created some l fireworks between the parties as the minority party was very upset that the deal was not honored. 

Congratulations to everyone this year on all of their hard work in defeating these rent control bills!  The coalition that we have developed stood together strong and did an amazing job making sure these bills didn’t move forward. 

There are still several problematic bills for real estate, including SB 5335 instituting a capital gains tax on real estate to pay for universal healthcare, HB 1628 which wood could create a 4% REET tax in Washington state for sales over $5 million, that would make Washington the highest REET tax in the nation. 

We will continue to work against these problematic pieces of legislation and report back. 

Week of March 13 

Below is the weekly schedule of legislative committee hearings we are tracking for the week of Monday, March 13 to Friday, March 17. 

If anyone is interested in watching any of these hearings, they can do so on TVW at www.tvw.org and select the appropriate committee hearing to view. 

To take action on any of the bills you can do the following: 

• To Sign up to Submit written testimony,
• Testify virtually or in-person, or
• To Provide position to be noted for the legislative record, click here.

 Select either House or Senate (Whether the bills is being heard in a House or Senate Committee)

• Select the Committee name the bill is scheduled for a hearing.
• Select the date of the hearing to the corresponding bill.
• Click on the bill number of interest.
• Then you select one of the options you would like to take
• I would like to testify in person during the hearing.
• I would like to testify remotely.
• I would like my position noted for the legislative record.
• I would like to submit written testimony. 

Please let us know if you would like to take Action on any of these bills or update/change our position(s). 

Housing (House) - HHR B and Virtual JLOB - 3/13 @ 1:30pm

• E2SSB 5198- Public Hearing - Concerning the sale or lease of manufactured/mobile home communities and the property on which they sit. (Remote Testimony Available). (Concerns/High) 

Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs (Senate) - SHR 3 and Virtual JACB - 3/14 @ 8:00am

• E2SHB 1167- Public Hearing - Concerning residential housing regulations. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Medium)
• ESHB 1245- Public Hearing - Increasing housing options through lot splitting. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Medium) 

Labor & Workplace Standards (House) - HHR D and Virtual JLOB - 3/14 @ 10:30am

• SB 5089- Public Hearing - Making changes to factory assembled structures, manufactured or mobile homes, commercial coaches, conversion vending units, medical units, recreational vehicles, and park trailers requirements, including adding board members to the factory assembled structures advisory committee. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Monitor) 

Housing (House) - HHR B and Virtual JLOB - 3/14 @ 4:00pm

• E2SSB 5045- Public Hearing - Incentivizing rental of accessory dwelling units to low-income households. (Remote Testimony Available). (Neutral/Medium)
• ESSB 5197- Public Hearing - Addressing landlord-tenant relations by providing technical changes to eviction notice forms and modifying certain eviction processes. (Remote Testimony Available). (Oppose/High) 

Housing (Senate) - SHR 4 and Virtual JACB - 3/15 @ 1:30pm

• HB 1052- Public Hearing - Providing a property tax exemption for qualified real and personal property owned or used by a nonprofit entity in providing qualified housing funded in whole or part through a local real estate excise tax. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Medium) 

Housing (House) - HHR B and Virtual JLOB - 3/16 @ 8:00am

• E2SSB 5198- Exec Session - Concerning the sale or lease of manufactured/mobile home communities and the property on which they sit. (Concerns/High)
• ESSB 5466- Public Hearing - Promoting transit-oriented development. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Medium) 

Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs (Senate) - SHR 3 and Virtual JACB - 3/16 @ 10:30am

• E2SHB 1167- Exec Session - Concerning residential housing regulations. (Support/Medium)
• ESHB 1245- Exec Session - Increasing housing options through lot splitting. (Support/Medium) 

Housing (Senate) - SHR 4 and Virtual JACB - 3/17 @ 10:30am

• E2SHB 1110- Public Hearing - Increasing middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing. (Remote Testimony Available). (Support/Medium) 

Labor & Workplace Standards (House) - HHR D and Virtual JLOB - 3/17 @ 10:30am

• SB 5089- Exec Session - Making changes to factory assembled structures, manufactured or mobile homes, commercial coaches, conversion vending units, medical units, recreational vehicles, and park trailers requirements, including adding board members to the factory assembled structures advisory committee. (Support/Monitor)