Legislative Update

Here’s a wrap up of what we accomplished this legislative session. Thank you for your support to make these victories possible!

Transportation

We made major progress this year with an historic transportation plan! The plan goes a long way to providing fundamental services that we all depend on, like buses, light rail, bike lanes and sidewalks. It also puts road safety and maintenance first, which is good for public safety and the environment. In the waning hours of session, the Legislature passed the plan, thanks to your calls, e-mails and support. The plan raises about $8.4 billion over 16 years and is funded through a phased in 9.5 cent gas tax as well as vehicle weight fees. Here are the details:

Highlights:

•   It’s a Fix-it-First package that prioritizes critical safety needs. Highlights include:$2 billion for the Alaskan Way Viaduct ($1 billion more than anyone predicted 6 months ago!), $500 million for the SR 520 Bridge, and $341 million for bridge replacements. Sizeable allocations also go to ferries, freight mobility, and local governments, which will receive a full penny distribution in the first two years.

•   The funding for I-405 (generous, at $972 million) is flagged for tolling and managed lanes. This is a giant step towards the I-405 plan that Futurewise & the Transportation Choices Coalition developed several years ago.

•   The package also funds $455 million in new transportation choices funding through vehicle weight fees –a new, reliable, ongoing flexible funding source. Items of note include $58 million for a new safe routes to school and related transit/bike/pedestrian investments, $50 million for special needs transit, $14 million for rural mobility grants, and $1.2 million for the implementation of HB 2124, which creates an Office of Transit Mobility at the Department of Transportation.

In addition to the funding package, the Legislature passed several other positive reforms this year with our support.

•   HB 2124 creates an Office of Transit Mobility at DOT

•   HB 1565 studies how cities and counties can meet concurrency requirements through transit, bike, and pedestrian improvements.

•   HB 1969, as referenced in the transportation budget, revises state transportation goals and benchmarks for moving people and goods

•   SB 6003 & SB 6012 support the Commute Trip Reduction program and multimodal options for downtown businesses

Growth Management

The usual suspects were at it again in Olympia, pushing bills to undermine the Growth Management Act and other critical environmental and land use protections. We successfully fought off attacks to rollback affordable housing and density, Best Available Science, GMA periodic update schedules, citizen rights to appeal bad land use decisions, designation of farmland, and much more. Thanks to the legislative advocacy of Futurewise and the leadership of courageous legislators, GMA rollbacks were stopped dead in their tracks. Without the presence of Futurewise in Olympia, there would be no credible voice to preserve our safeguards against out-of-control sprawl and over-development.

Your support helped to stop the following bad legislation – thank you!:

2132 / 5945: Would have seriously undermined designation of agricultural of long-term commercial significance

2079 / 5930: Would have changed GMA update cycle from 7 to 10 yrs & qualified some local governments up to 20 years between updates

1505 / 5152: Proposed adding a number of exemptions to the annual limit comprehensive plan updates

1162 / 5670: Would have required the opportunity for a referendum for critical areas regulations

1165 / 5671: Would have required counties to compensate taxpayers for land use ordinances, statutes, rules, or acts

1967 / 5907: Would have established that cities do not have to propose a minimum density

2219: With proposed Senate amendments, could have entitled all 29 GMA counties to have industrial land banks

5251: Proposed changing the Shoreline Management Act to give unreviewable deference to local plans

5661: Would have added exemptions for industry and developers from SEPA in towns and communities across the state – Dead

Sound Solutions

Sound Solutions: Saving Hood Canal and Puget Sound was one of four environmental community priorities. Sound Solutions addressed comprehensive water quality problems with bills for septic review and better development protections and incentives. Unfortunately, most of the bills encountered obstacles and did not survive. However, we laid the groundwork for similar legislation in the future.

The good news is that SB 5620, did make it through and is on its way to the Governor! 5620 requires counties to give priority consideration to lands with voluntary or required buffers in their open space plans and public benefit rating systems. It is a tax incentive that will affect more than a dozen Washington counties and thousands of property owners who are doing the right thing for water quality!

With the legislative session closed, we will look forward to working with you through the rest of the year on other efforts to protect family farms and forests from poorly planned development while making cities and towns great places to live. As always, you can keep up with the latest news right here on our website.

Thank you!