OLYMPIA — It’s a wrap, for now.
The Legislature concluded its regular session on Friday by approving new rules for oil trains, including a means of letting emergency responders know in advance when shipments are traveling through their communities.
Some lawmakers also watched Gov. Jay Inslee sign a law that will bring most medical marijuana users and providers under the regulatory structure of the recreational pot industry.
Then, shortly before 6:15 p.m., lawmakers adjourned the regular session and went home two days early.
That’s because they’ll be returning to the state Capitol on Wednesday for the start of a special session during which the primary focus will be breaking a deadlock in negotiations on a new two-year state budget.
Lawmakers last held a special session in 2013. That year it took until late June before the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate finally struck a deal on the budget.
Sen. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, sounded cautiously optimistic that they won’t repeat that scenario.
“I think we’re in a better place. I think compromise will prevail,” he said.
But the political landscape hasn’t changed much. Democrats still rule the House and Republicans control the Senate. The divided government which stymied success on the budget also tamped down other legislation.
The oil transportation safety bill approved Friday provided a rare moment of bipartisan success in both chambers on a controversial subject.
Among its key provisions is a requirement for refineries to give the Department of Ecology seven-day notice of planned rail shipments of crude oil. Notices will include the day as well as the amount and type of oil shipped. Fire departments and other emergency responders will be able to access that information.
The bill also requires railroads to file documents showing they can pay to clean up a bad oil spill. And another big change: The state’s barrel tax will now be collected on shipments of oil by train in addition to those by ship.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Inslee all described the final product as a compromise with many items left out because of disagreements.
“I think the great news is clearly both sides see a strong need to act this year,” said Rep. Jessyn Farrell, D-Seattle, author of House Bill 1449.
Meanwhile, the medical-marijuana law signed Friday stands as one of the signature accomplishments of lawmakers.
Under the new law, patients who join a voluntary registry will be allowed to possess three times as much marijuana as allowed under the recreational law: 3 ounces dry, 48 ounces of marijuana-infused solids, 216 ounces of liquid and 21 grams of concentrates. Such a patient could also grow up to six plants at home, unless authorized to receive more.
Patients who don’t join the registry can possess the same as the recreational limit of 1 ounce and grow up to four plants at home — which recreational users can’t.
The bill also will require operators of collective gardens and dispensaries to obtain licenses from the state. However, if they are in a city where legal pot businesses are banned, they won’t be able to operate and would have to relocate.
In recognition of that possibility, the bill allows groups of up to four patients to form pot-growing cooperatives in communities with such bans.
“I do think this is far better than a totally unregulated system,” Inslee said after signing the bill.
Meantime Friday, a last-minute deal on revising taxation and regulation of the recreational industry eluded legislators. Disagreements surfaced on where marijuana taxes should be spent and what to do with cities and counties that ban sales.
That will be one of many issues to be addressed in the special session.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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