State lawmakers delivered 423 bills to Gov. Bob Ferguson this year and he signed them all.
Except one. Its sponsor hopes the Washington Legislature will override the veto the next time it is in session.
“It shocked me,” said Rep. Mark Klicker, R-Walla Walla. “People were excited about this and the governor turned around and vetoed it.”
Klicker authored House Bill 1108 that sought to unearth “the primary cost drivers for homeownership and rental housing” in Washington.
It had 25 co-sponsors – 14 Republicans and 11 Democrats – and cleared the Legislature with only nine people voting against it.
It directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to research, analyze and determine “to the extent practicable” the forces at play in the cost of building single-family homes, apartments and other types of residential construction.
Those conducting the study would have had to gather perspectives from all players with a tie to the housing industry. Economists, builders, unions, lenders, and realtors are on the list. So too are tenants and landlords, as well as cities, counties and public utility districts.
The report would have been due Dec. 1, 2026. The bill carried a $233,000 price tag.
Ferguson vetoed it quietly in his office on May 20, the final day on which he could act on legislation.
“Given the pressures on Washington’s budget, our state’s limited resources should be spent on identifying and implementing solutions to the housing crisis; I do not believe the cost of another study on cost drivers is warranted,” Ferguson wrote in his veto letter to lawmakers.
Klicker learned of the veto the day before from Ferguson’s staff.
“I am pretty upset,” Klicker said. “I’ll be honest with you. He doesn’t want to know the truth about the reasons for the cost drivers.”
The bill passed by margins of 94-4 in the House and 44-5 in the Senate.
“I really appreciated the Democrats working with me to get it to the governor’s desk,” he said.
He said Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, and Sen. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia, the chairs of the House and Senate housing committees, respectively, were each instrumental in helping get it to the finish line.
While the vote margins in the House and Senate exceed the two-thirds majority required to override a veto, it won’t be easy to convince the Democratic leaders of the Legislature to do so, especially since the governor is a Democrat.
“I am going to talk to them,” Klicker said. “This was the bill that was most important to me.”
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