2011 Legislative Agenda

While the Legislature is back for a Special Session, we now have an opportunity to reflect on the 2011 legislative session.  This year our legislative agenda focused on two goals:

1.       Maintaining our Community Protections.

The session was almost explicitly focused on defending the fundamental laws that protect our communities – like the Growth Management Act, Shoreline Management Act and State Environmental Policy Act. This has long been the priority of Futurewise – this year was no different.  The usual suspects were at it again in Olympia, we worked on (and successfully defeated!) over 40 bills aimed at weakening the basic foundations of our state’s environmental laws ranging from suspending the GMA, delaying impact fee collection, urbanizing our rural areas, and extending urban areas into floodplains.

For the past three years, Futurewise has been part of statewide negotiations determining how to best protect wetlands, fish & wildlife habitat, groundwater drinking water supplies, and other critical areas from the impacts of farming while maintaining our agricultural industry.  Futurewise and the rest of the negotiating team are pleased that HB 1886 passed to help provide a new opportunity to provide real protections for our critical areas while keeping our farmland working.

2.       Investing in Community Solutions.

Knowing that one of the fundamental barriers to better land use decisions & actions here in Washington is a lack of infrastructure funding, we chose to focus on increasing a number of funding tools available to focusing growth inside cities and protecting working farms and forests.  Unfortunately a number of the tools we sought to create or expand were stopped this session – like the tool to charge polluters a fee to fund clean water infrastructure improvements, or fully authorizing an equitable & smart growth-oriented Tax-Increment Financing tool, we are able to celebrate a victory for King County bus riders.

We’ve worked for the past few years to help prevent massive cuts to King County Metro bus service by passing emergency short-term transit funding.  This year we were successful thanks to the leadership of Senator Scott White and Representative Marko Liias. Senate Bill 5457 passed the legislature to allow King County to enact a $20 congestion reduction charge to help prevent up to 17% cuts to bus service in the next year. We’re now turning our focus to finding a long-term funding solution for all transit agencies and the hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians who depend on them to get between their homes, jobs and everywhere in between.  Learn more about our Transportation For Washington campaign here.

Environmental Priorities Coalition

We can have a strong economy that provides everyone with the opportunity to prosper and a clean, healthy, and safe environment for ourselves and future generations.  This year, the Environmental Priorities Coalition had mixed success with our four priority proposals that achieved these goals.

• Clean Fertilizers, Healthier Lakes & Rivers! The Community successfully advocate for the passage of the bill to ban fertilizers with phosphorous for residential use.
• Coal Free Future for Washington! Washington State now has a plan to successfully transition off of coal-power by 2025. 
• We worked with our environmental community partners to Protect against unsustainable cuts to core environmental programs that protect our water, air, and land – given that the Legislature is back in special session, we do not yet know how these programs will be affected. 
• Unfortunately the legislature has missed the opportunity to pass the Clean Water Act of 2011, set to grow new revenue and jobs through clean water infrastructure investments.

Futurewise is fighting for communities across the state, including yours, to help protect our quality of life for today and future generations.  But we certainly don’t do it alone – thanks so much for your emails & calls to legislators!

Our 2011 Legislative Agenda focuses on two goals:

Maintaining Community Protections

•    Prevent rollbacks to environmental laws. The Growth Management Act (GMA) and Shoreline Management Act (SMA) are strongly supported by Washingtonians across the state. Futurewise will work to prevent rollbacks to these and other laws that our communities depend on including the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

•    Implement the Ruckelshaus agreement. For the past three years, Futurewise has been part of statewide negotiations determining how to best protect wetlands, fish & wildlife habitat, groundwater drinking water supplies, and other critical areas from the impacts of farming while maintaining our agricultural industry.  Futurewise will work to implement the Ruckelshaus agreement to ensure critical areas are protected and working farms are conserved.

Investing in Community Solutions

•    Create new infrastructure tools. We support authorizing Tax-Increment Financing for cities as long as a portion of the funding is dedicated to “community benefits” like affordable housing, conservation of nearby resource lands, or other public amenities as determined locally.  We also support extending existing TIF authority to cities’ use of Transfer of Development Rights to promote sustainable growth, economic development and address urban infrastructure needs together.

•    Emergency Transit Funding. More Washingtonians are relying on public transit, unfortunately, transit agencies across the state are seeing their revenue decline and have already taken aggressive action to reduce operating costs and delay capital investments.  Transit agencies, and the Washingtonians who depend on them, need new funding tools in order to avoid catastrophic cuts in the near term.

•    A 21st Century Transportation System. New revenue is needed to replace unsafe bridges and roads, preserve existing infrastructure, stimulate job growth, save transit service, reduce traffic congestion, and meet the needs of Washington in the 21st Century. The next transportation package should include: greater transit investments from the State (including new local options), funding for clean water infrastructure, local share gas tax and local tax options for cities and counties, prioritization of maintenance and preservation over new capacity, and tolling, and direct support for building sustainable communities.

•    Support environmental programs. Futurewise supports efforts to end tax exemptions to major polluters, implement more user fees, and oppose cuts to core environmental programs that ensure a healthy place for Washingtonians to live and work. Futurewise supports investing in clean water by charging a fee on polluters.

For more information, please contact: April Putney, 206-450-3622 / april@futurewise.org

Announcing the 2011 Environmental Priorities

We can have a strong economy that provides everyone with the opportunity to prosper and a clean, healthy, and safe environment for ourselves and our children. 

This year, the Environmental Priorities Coalition has chosen four priority proposals to support during Washington State's legislative session that achieve these goals.

• Budget Solutions for Our Environment
• Coal Free Future for Washington
• Reducing Phosphorous Pollution
• Working for Clean Water

Lobby Days

Don't miss these two upcoming events where you can learn more about our the environmental priorities and transportation issues and participate in the legislative process:

• Transportation Lobby Day – Thurs. Feb. 10, Olympia, WA.
  

• Environmental Lobby Day – Tuesday, Feb. 15, Olympia, WA. 
  

Futurewise is a member of the Environmental Priorities Coalition.

Click here to read more about the 2011 Coaltion Priorities.  For more information, contact:

April Putney
(206) 343-0681 x120