How did Snohomish County lawmakers’ bills fare in Olympia?

OLYMPIA — Three budgets, three initiatives and hundreds of bills, all in 60 days.

On Thursday night, the state Senate and House of Representatives officially gaveled out this year’s legislative session.

Their supplemental operating, transportation and capital construction budgets passed Wednesday and Thursday, pouring millions more dollars for construction, preservation and expansion of projects in Snohomish County.

Earlier in the week, lawmakers made a historic move in passing three citizen initiatives — one to ban a tax on personal income, another to codify parental rights for students in public schools, and a third to relax restrictions for police in engaging in vehicular pursuits.

Over the past two years, Snohomish County’s 23 state lawmakers sponsored 515 bills and cosponsored hundreds more.

Here’s where a few bills coming from Snohomish County lawmakers and others ended up.

Future laws

These bills have crossed the legislative finish line. Now they wait for Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature.

Here is what they do:

• Cap the out-of-pocket cost for generic EpiPens and inhalers at $35;

• Require public schools to include the dangers of fentanyl in drug abuse prevention education. The bill passed both chambers unanimously. Mandating overdose prevention education was a high priority of the Snohomish County Council going into the legislative session. Another bill that made it though the Legislature will require all public schools to stock naloxone, an overdose reversing nasal spray;

• Create two emergency shelters, one on each side of the state, for homeless youth to use after exiting inpatient behavioral health treatment. Sponsored by Rep. Julio Cortes, D-Everett, the bill allows people aged 18 to 25 to use the shelters for up to 90 days while looking for permanent housing;

• Rename the curriculum educating students on tribal history and culture in the Pacific Northwest after late state Sen. John McCoy. A member of the Tulalip Tribes, he represented the 38th Legislative District for almost two decades in the House and Senate and helped pass the original bill creating the curriculum;

• Renew a grant program for public schools to offer K-8 dual language programs and require 10 new schools to offer the program each year. The bill from Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, builds off an existing program present in Snohomish County. Everett, Mukilteo Edmonds and Monroe school districts all offer dual language enrollment for its students;

• Require public schools to integrate LGBTQ+ histories and perspectives into curriculum. The measure was sponsored by Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, a member of the Legislature’s LGBTQ+ Caucus; and

• Fund and require the roll out of all-electric schools buses across the state. Thanks to grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy, Everett Public Schools already has three electric buses in the fleet and will receive three more by the next school year, spokesperson Kathy Reeves said last month. State funds from House Bill 1368 will help cover additional costs, Reeves said.

Dead in their tracks

Some bipartisan, most not — these bills won’t become state law anytime soon.

Here is what they could have done:

• Prohibit rent increases of more than 7% per year. The bill died last week when not enough Democrats supported the bill to move it out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Though two different versions of the bill died this session, lawmakers have already said it will be reintroduced in 2025;

• Allow cities and counties to switch local elections to even-numbered years to run alongside more popular state and federal races in an effort to boost voter turnout. This bill was faced with opposition from Republicans and the state’s top election official, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs. The former Democratic state senator from Lake Stevens said compiling local, statewide and federal elections all onto one ballot would cause “fatigue” and lead to less engagement with lower profile local races.

• Allow local governments to add 0.3% to the local sales tax to use as dedicated public safety revenue. Despite broad support from law enforcement and local governments, including local officials in Snohomish County, the bill failed to get a vote out of its committee;

• Require car headlights to be on 24/7. Sponsored by Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, this bill was one of many this session aimed at reducing traffic fatalities. It failed to move past its public hearing, when opponents of the bill said it could have disproportionate consequences in enforcement.

• Lower the legal blood alcohol concentration limit to 0.05%. The House and Senate version of the bill, both sponsored by Mill Creek legislators, died after pushback from the hospitality industry.

• Create a grant program to help improve attendance in schools. Snohomish County school districts supported this bill after seeing high drops in attendance following the pandemic. Despite unanimous approval from the Senate floor, the bill failed to make any progress in the House;

• Require people convicted in a DUI crash to pay child support for dependents, if the incident caused the death or disability of a parent. Lovick, the bill’s sponsor, hoped it would create more accountability in people who choose to drive while intoxicated. It passed unanimously in the Senate, but failed to get a hearing in the House;

• Allow students to take 45 credits of community college tuition free, regardless of income. The bill had a few requirements, like requiring completion of the FAFSA and attending a community college within the region where the student acquired their high school diploma. It failed to make progress in the House Appropriations Committee with its $62 million price tag for the next two years;

• Remove barriers to accessing solar power by allowing third parties, rather than just private energy companies, to build community solar projects where neighbors can subscribe to in order to recieve its benefits. Snohomish County PUD currently manages two community solar projects, one in Arlington and one in south Everett set to break ground later this month. The bill failed to get a vote out of committee;

• Create a working group focused on addressing shortfalls in the state’s ferry system. The group would have tried to restore reliability by assessing the funding sources of the ferry system and evaluating the economic impact of service disruptions. The state Department of Transportation did not support the bill, saying that evaluating funding has already been done and evaluating the economic impacts of disruptions would push focus in a negative direction; and

• Ramp up the punishment for fighting in schools and at school-sanctioned sports events. House Bill 2079 focused on protecting referees, but its language initially sought to prosecute minors with a class C felony if they fought on school grounds. The bill was later amended to only prosecute adults. It failed to make any progress in the Senate after passing unanimously on the House floor.

Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter:@jenelleclar.