Editorial: Legislation that deserves another look in Olympia

By The Herald Editorial Board

By recent accounts, state lawmakers, when their 105-day session begins Jan. 13, will have their hands full in negotiating budgets for general operations, transportation and capital projects, each a big lift.

At the same time that demands on the state are growing — most notably for K-12 education and the state’s 295 school districts, which have struggled in recent years to meet their own budget obligations because of inadequate funding for special education and inflation for the goods and services they use — the state’s revenue in tax receipts hasn’t met earlier expectations.

That led outgoing-Gov. Jay Inslee to warn of an anticipated $10 billion to $12 billion budget gap for the next two bienniums; $4.35 billion for 2025-27, and $6.7 billion for 2027-29. That gap has already prompted debate among those seeking to cut costs and those looking at new and/or higher taxes.

Those debates will get the bulk of attention until the regular session ends — and perhaps during a special session — but the Legislature this year also has the opportunity to consider and adopt changes and additions to policy also worthy of time and debate, including bills lawmakers have considered one or more times previously.

A quick look at what’s worthy of further review:

Financial literacy education: Legislation to require school districts to provide at least a half-credit of financial literacy education nearly was adopted last year. with passage in the House and Senate, but time during the short 60-day session ran out before conference committees could reconcile final language. The legislation, as proposed, would include funding — demonstrating that things have to be paid for — for districts to develop the curriculum.

The legislation last year had the backing of state Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti, reelected to a second term, who has noted that generational poverty is often linked to a lack of financial knowledge on how to manage personal finances and plan for the future.

Running Start for trades grant program: A bill last year proposed a grant program for the trades based on the successful Running Start program that allows high school juniors and seniors to take tuition-free college courses. Legislation, sponsored by Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Kent, and co-sponsored by Reps. Cindy Ryu, D-Shoreline, and Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Everett, would have expanded pre-apprenticeship opportunities for students.

The Washington Roundtable, in a recent report, warned that the state is facing a shortfall of nearly 600,000 workers for jobs that require educations beyond a high school diploma, including 228,000 that will require at least certification or apprenticeship. A Running Start-like program can help widen that path for high school students.

School district construction bond elections: Discussed repeatedly over the years, school districts facing the need to remodel and replace aging school buildings and facilities face a major hurdle in the current requirement that bond elections pass with 60 percent voter approval. And the state’s share of funding for construction for most districts is contingent on passage of those bonds, meaning long-needed construction often is put off for years, if at all.

Changing the requirement to passage by simple majority is a long shot — as it would require a two-thirds majority of House and Senate and approval by voters — but school districts, their voters and school children should be allowed to make that case with consideration of legislation that would put the question, as was proposed last year, on the ballot.

Lower blood alcohol limit for drivers: Washington state suffered a 33-year record high of 810 traffic deaths in 2023, with nearly half of those fatalities linked to the driver’s impairment from alcohol, drugs or both. Figures for 2024 are not complete, but may show some improvement, comparing the first nine months of 2023 and last year, with a nearly 11 percent decline last year, according to a recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Still, the state remains a long way off from its Target Zero goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero by 2030, reason to reconsider legislation drafted last year by state Sens. John Lovick, D- Mill Creek, and Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, that would lower the blood alcohol concentration limit for drivers from the current 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent. Similar action elsewhere, notably in Finland and Utah, has successfully reduced traffic fatalities.

Affordable housing: State lawmakers in their last two sessions have made impressive strides regarding policy changes and other efforts to encourage the construction of more homes and apartments and increasing the available stock of housing, seen as the best route to affordability.

Still, the projected need in the state is for an estimated 1.1 million homes in the next 20 years, as well as 90,000 beds for emergency temporary housing for those who are homeless. With a long lag time between policy and results, there remain solutions the Legislature can consider in a third “year of housing.”

Among proposals that did not advance last year were changes to the revenue source for the state’s Housing Trust Fund, community- and transit-oriented development, a construction sales tax exemption, rent stabilization, allowing lot-splitting of properties, and restrictions of local governments rejecting supportive housing developments.

Boys’ and men’s commission: For the past two years, proponents of a commission to consider the challenges facing boys and men have failed to convince lawmakers to provide full consideration of the proposal, or even schedule a public hearing.

The problem, not unique to Washington state: a growing gap between genders. For boys in Washington state, their high school graduation rate lags 5 percentage points behind that of girls; only 35 percent achieve a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher, compared to 51 percent for girls; and young men are 19 percent less likely than young women to earn a bachelor’s or more advanced degree. Men account for 70 percent of the state’s unsheltered population, 68 percent of fatal overdoses, 91 percent of juvenile detentions, 94 percent of the incarcerated population — and are serving longer sentences — and suffer 79 percent of the total number of suicides, according to statistics for the state from the American Institute for Boys and Men.

The problem in addressing those struggles — even in pointing them out — is the assumption that ultimately any efforts directed at improving the lot of boys and men will necessarily result in reduced effort and resources for women’s programs; just as women are making hard-and-long-fought-for gains in their academic, professional and political lives.

But lawmakers should consider what a commission — even working in tandem with the existing Washington State Women’s Commission — could do to further efforts and advancements for women and men, alike.

At the very least, hearings in both Senate and House with opportunities for public and expert testimony should afford proponents the opportunity to outline the need and potential benefits of a commission.