Holiday tree displayed in the Capitol building.

(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

The newest reconstructed building on the Capitol Campus is named after former State Senator Irving R. Newhouse. What was the building’s original name and what is former Sen. Newhouse’s political legacy in Washington State?

Tana Senn Announced as New DCYF Secretary

Governor-elect Ferguson has selected a familiar face to lead Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families with today’s announcement of State Representative Tana Senn as the incoming Secretary. Representative Senn is the current Chair of the Human Services, Youth, and Early Learning Committee and was the key architect of the Fair Start for Kids Act. I’m sure I speak for all of us when I wish her the very best at leading a complex state agency that oversees not only early learning but also Child Welfare and Juvenile Rehabilitation – we are very excited to work with her in this new role!

Release of Governor Inslee’s Proposed Budgets

On December 17th, Governor Jay Inslee released his final proposed biennial budgets. In what may be his final press conference as Washington’s Governor, Governor Inslee laid out the strategy behind his final budgets given the state’s fiscal challenges. (As a reminder, our state has a total of three budgets – Operating, Capital and Transportation). These comments were made after he bestowed a special honor to his wife, Trudi, by gifting her with his official Washington pin honoring her as the inspirational Washingtonian for the day. Governor Inslee said he had been waiting to do this for 12 years.

• Proposed New Revenue. Governor Inslee started his remarks by reflecting that when he assumed office in 2013 the state was still recovering from a recession that resulted in deep and painful cuts, particularly to human services programs. The Governor contrasted the situation today that while our state’s costs are up, we are not in a recession and our economy is booming. He then laid out his plan to adopt a wealth tax that would place a 1% tax on Washingtonians with assets over $100 million. According to the Governor, this would impact approximately 3,400 individuals and would generate $10.3B in revenue over four years (2025-2029).The Governor’s budget also includes an assumed $2.6B in revenue from increased Business and Occupations Tax Revenues, among other proposals. In all, the Governor’s released budget assumes $12.9B in new revenue over the four-year (2025-2029).
• “Book One and Book Two Budgets.” Our state’s governor is required to propose a balanced budget. Typically, during tough financial times, a “Book One” budget achieves that balance with an “all-cuts” approach and a “Book Two” budget typically contains proposed revenue to “buy back” some of the cuts. The budget released publicly this week is the “Book Two” budget in that it contains revenue – and a significant amount at that. Governor Inslee’s “Book One” budget was not released publicly, so it is not clear what his proposed “all-cuts” budget would look like.
• What about our incoming Governor? Great question! Come January 15, 2025, we will have a new Governor when Bob Ferguson is sworn in, and he will have an opportunity to put his mark on the budget. We do not expect him to submit a line-by-line “replacement” budget. Instead, the expectation is that he will submit to the Legislature his own priorities, which he has signaled to be around increased funding for local law enforcement and housing. More to come…

Proposed Early Learning Investments

• Working Connections Child Care.
  • Fund Working Connections Child Care Subsidy at the 85^th Percentile of the 2024 Market Rate Survey ($272.81M for child care centers and $183.54M to fund the Family Child Care Collective Bargaining Agreement for the 2025-27 biennium – for a total of $456.35M).
  • Delay Expansion of Working Connections Child Care Eligibility to the 75% of State Median Income until State Fiscal Year 2031 (Savings of $119.5M for the 2025-27 biennium).
  • Working Connections Child Care Outreach ($4.8M for the 2025-27 biennium).
  • Child Care and Development Fund Compliance ($67.49M State General Fund + $20.53M Federal for the 2025-27 biennium – for a total of $88.02M). Funding would support enrollment-based payments, prospective payments, 12 months of full eligibility, adding additional children during the eligibility period and restricting overpayments in certain circumstances.
  • Consolidation of Seasonal Child Care (Savings of $3.12M over the 2025-27 biennium). Program deemed longer needed because it has been absorbed into Working Connections Child Care.
• Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP)
  • Delay Implementation of Entitlement Until the 2030-31 school year (Savings of $145.89M over the 2025-27 biennium).
  • Rate Increase of 18% for School-Day Programs Starting in State Fiscal Year 2026 ($55.68M for the 2025-27 biennium).
  • Slot Conversion/Expansion – Convert 250 Part-Day Slots to School-Day and add 500 School-Day Slots ($9.39M over the 2025-27 biennium).
  • ECEAP Underspend – Sweep funding for 845 currently unfilled part-day slots (Savings of $17.04M for the 2025-27 biennium).
• Early Learning Facilities
  • $50M for competitive grants through the Early Learning Facilities (ELF) Fund – including $45M for eligible organization grants and $5M for health and safety minor renovations.
  • $8.629M for 9 school district projects recommended by the Department of Commerce.
  • Additionally, the Department of Commerce’s Local Community Projects budget includes $5M for Willard Early Learning Center (Tacoma) and the Department of Commerce’s Building Communities budget includes $1.57M for Jefferson County Early Learning & Family Support Center (Sequim).
• Additional Early Learning Investments
  • Home Visiting
    • The proposed 2025 Supplemental Budget (the current fiscal year we are in) presumes $400,000 in savings from the Home Visiting Services Account underspend.
  • Transition to Kindergarten
    • Funding to OSPI to distribute grants – in collaboration with DCYF – to support school districts in blending ECEAP and Transition to Kindergarten classrooms ($2M for the 2025-27 biennium).
  • Professional Development
    • Funding for DCYF to continue contracting with an organization that provides “relationship-based professional development support” to child care providers in various settings to establish and support new child care programs. Funding to support the opening of approximately nine new child care businesses per year. ($500,000 for the 2025-2027 biennium)
  • Continue Pierce County Pilot
    • Continued funding to support efforts in Pierce County to implement a countywide resource and referral linkage system and a voluntary newborn support program ($2.5M for the 2025-27 biennium).

Washington State Standard State Budget Resource

On December 9th, the Washington State Standard featured an excellent overview detailing the state’s budget situation. The article described the contributing factors of stagnant revenues and increasing costs, including expenses slated to come on-line in the next biennium such as the next steps of the Fair Start for Kids Act. It also included potential options on the table for raising new revenue. Worth a read!

2024 Legislative Committee Days

Olympia was a flurry of activity during the week of December 9^th for the annual rite of passage known as “Committee Days.” During Committee Days, current, future and soon to be former Senate and House members gather at the Capitol campus for a busy week of work sessions, meetings and fundraisers sprinkled in.

It is an intense week followed by an immediate reprieve – kind of like if the first day of school was immediately followed by winter break! Newly elected legislators received a taste of what awaits them in January – lobbyists chasing them down, their days blocked out in 15-minute increments, and jumping constantly from one topic to another. It is fair to say every Committee Days participant left exhausted and maybe a tad nervous about their session stamina!

Legislative Changes. As we wrote in our November Notes From Olympia, changes in the legislative make-up did not stop after the election. Last week, the King County Council appointed Tina Orwall to fill the seat of retiring Senator Karen Keiser of the 33rd Legislative District and also appointed Edwin Obras to fill Orwall’s House seat.

Over in the 26th Legislative District, Deborah Krishnadasan was appointed to fill the Senate seat of departing Senator Emily Randall who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Senator Patty Kuderer of the 48th Legislative District is expected to resign her Senate seat early in the new year to assume the elected position of Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Reportedly, her two seatmates, Representatives Vandana Slatter and Amy Walen, are both interested in that Senate seat. Should one of them receive the appointment, their House seat would also need to be filled by appointment.

Making matters even more interesting, the rumor mill is also going strong that some sitting legislators could be heading to the Ferguson administration to lead state agencies. If that occurs, of course their legislative seats would need to be filled by appointment.

If you are one of those people that select an inspirational word for a new year, perhaps you might want to select “change” or “patience.”

Committee Work Sessions. The work sessions during Committee Days often provide insight into 2025 priorities. Given the state’s precarious budget situation, it was not a surprise that both the Senate Ways and Means and House Appropriations Committees dedicated time to briefing their committee members on the budget situation.

• House Appropriations Committee. On Monday, December 9th, the House Appropriations Committee held a full work session. Related to child care, the Department of Children, Youth and Families’ Allison Krutsinger and Nicole Rose presented to the Committee on “Child Care Access and Affordability” (their presentation begins at 48:50). Their accompanying PowerPoint includes helpful data about subsidy utilization and provider capacity.
  • Additionally, the Committee’s Budget Coordinator Mary Munroe presented a helpful budget overview that provides an excellent primer on the state budget process. This is one I am keeping as a resource!

• Senate Ways and Means Committee. Over in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, on December 12th, the Committee heard the latest updates about our state’s caseloads and revenue forecasts (these two presentations started out the work session). This information was included in our November Notes from Olympia, but for reference, the caseload forecast information is here and the revenue forecast information is here.

Prefiled Bills

At the start of December, legislators can “prefile” bills with the Code Reviser’s Office. The Code Reviser’s Office is a critical support to the legislative process. For an inside look at how the Code Reviser’s Office helps with bill drafting, check out TVW’s behind the scenes explainer. (On a side note about the Capitol campus construction, with the Pritchard library construction underway, the amazing staff of the Code Reviser have been moved to the modular building on the northwest part of campus, the former temporary home of the Senate Republicans).

Prefiling opened on December 2nd for the 2025 session. Prefiled bills will be introduced the first day of session, Jan. 13th, and will then be assigned to a committee to proceed through the legislative process.

Related to early learning, three bills have been introduced to date. We’ll cover them briefly in this edition and dive deeper into their detail at the start of session:

• HB 1033. Sponsored by Rep. Couture, HB 1033 would allow counties to opt to act as the regulatory and licensing authority for child care centers and family home providers. The bill would also require DCYF to complete a study on the rate of utilization of this new local licensing and regulation option, and analysis of perceptions from providers, local governments, and DCYF of the local and state licensing and regulatory options. Effective 7/1/26.
• HB 1082. Sponsored by Reps. Senn and Eslick, this bill would allow licensed child care providers until August 1, 2028 to demonstrate experience-based competency as an alternative to comply with current child care licensing rules. It would also direct DCYF to convene a stakeholder group to improve early learning and school-age staff qualification requirements and verification processes.
• SB 5062. Sponsored by Senator Stanford, this bill would create the Washington State Child Care Workforce Standards Board with specific designated members and would requires the Board to adopt statewide rules every four years establishing minimum child care employment standards relating to compensation, health and safety, and other working conditions. The bill would exclude the licensing of child care facilities from the Board’s purview.

The Capitol building on a calm October day.

(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

Who cast the first Electoral vote for Ronald Reagan in the 1976 election? Hint: they are a current Washington State Senator.

Bonus Question: What did former Governor John Spellman call this now State Senator and his then-group of House Republican colleagues during the 1982 state budget crisis?

State Budget Shortfall Woes to Dominate 2025 Legislative Session

With the 2025 legislative session right around the corner, all attention is on the state’s growing budget shortfall. Here are some resources and context to help understand Washington’s precarious financial situation.

OFM Director Calls on State Agencies to Prepare Budget Reductions:

On November 8, Office of Financial Management (OFM) Director Pat Sullivan released a memo to state agency directors, statewide elected officials and presidents of higher educational institutions directing them to work with their OFM analyst to propose budget reduction options for the 2025 supplemental budgets and the 2025-27 biennial budgets by November 15, 2024.

In the memo, Director Sullivan projects a budget deficit ranging from $10-12 billion over the four-year outlook. In short, the state’s current revenue is insufficient to meet current commitments.

Director Sullivan suggests agencies consider actions that will produce immediate savings such as hiring freezes, delaying programs that have not yet been implemented, identifying under-expenditures and use of non-State General Fund wherever possible.

On November 19, the OFM website was updated to include a Budget Reduction FAQ and on November 20, the site was updated to include the various state agency budget reduction options. It is important to emphasize these are all just options and the budget writing process has just begun. If an item is on one of these lists, it does not mean a reduction is imminent.

Resources: To learn more about Washington’s fiscal outlook, here are a few resources.

• The Washington State Standard has a helpful article describing the situation. The Washington Research Council produced a brief “Anatomy of the Projected State Budget Shortfall” that highlights their perspective on the matter.
• The WA Research Council also prepared “Washington Faces an Estimated $5.1 Billion Shortfall” that includes interesting data. (Note that the projected shortfall has grown since release of this brief, but the underlying information is informative).
• Finally, the Research Council posted a blog specifically focused on the Fair Start for Kids Act budget implications.

State Revenue Forecast:

On November 20, the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met to receive the latest revenue forecast from its Executive Director, Dave Reich. The bottom line is Near- General Fund collections are down $400 million through 2029 from the September 2024 forecast.

This breaks down as:

• 2023-25 biennium (current): (-$89M)
• 2025-27 biennium: (-$181M)
• 2027-29 biennium: ($-131M)

The primary reasons for the drop in revenue, that continue to be lower than forecasted, are retail sales and reduced Business and Occupation Tax collections. The forecast suggests that reduced inflation and lower interest rates will lead to improved revenue growth. So, good news on the horizon, hopefully.

Overall state revenues are projected to grow 2.6% between the 2021-23 and 2023-25 biennia and by 7.6% between 2023-25 and 2025-27 biennia.

When asked about plans for Governor Inslee’s final budget, OFM Director Pat Sullivan replied that they are considering the release of a “book one” budget consisting of all-cuts as well as a “book two” budget that would offset some of the cuts with new revenue. Additionally, Sullivan noted that much of the drivers of the budget crunch lie in increased costs in maintenance level expenses and he specifically cited new expenses coming online for the Fair Start for Kids Act for Working Connections Child Care and ECEAP. Finally, Sullivan noted that overall state revenue for the upcoming 2025-27 biennium is down about $1 billion from earlier projections, further challenging the budget process.

Senate Ways and Means Chair June Robinson and House Appropriations Chair Timm Ormsby were asked about their approaches to the budget crisis. Both chairs responded that they are weighing a range of options, including evaluating recommendations from state agencies, recommendations they will receive from the outgoing and incoming Governor, revenue options as well as potentially delaying any ramp-ups of new programs slated to go on-line.

Next Steps for State Budget:

Outgoing Governor Jay Inslee will release one final budget in mid-December. Per state law, he is required to submit a balanced budget. With our state’s projected deficit, he can meet this requirement by proposing budget cuts, new revenue, or a combination of the two. We will be producing a summary of this budget following its release.

Incoming Governor Bob Ferguson will also have a chance to put his mark on the budget, but given the timing and the scarcity of funding, it is highly likely he will rely on Governor Inslee’s budget as a base.

State Election Results

In what can only be deemed as NON-breaking news, the following is a brief recap of some of the key take-aways from the state election results:

• Governor-Elect Ferguson hitting the ground running. Shortly after it was clear he was heading from the Attorney General’s Office (AG) to the 2nd Floor of the Legislative Building, Governor-Elect Bob Ferguson announced his senior staff, most of whom he is bringing over from the AG’s office. He also announced a 53-member transition team designed to assist him in preparing for his new role. Note their first meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 22nd – the same day you are receiving this newsletter.
• Capital Gains Funding Preserved. More than 64% of Washingtonians voted to preserve capital gains funding to support investments in education, including in early learning.
• New State Senate Leadership. On November 11th, Senate Democrats selected Senator Jamie Pedersen from the 43rd Legislative District in Seattle to serve as its Senate Majority Leader. Senator Pedersen assumes this role after Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig of Spokane announced he would not seek re-election. With this appointment, Washington is the first state in the nation to have both of its chambers led by LGBTQ+ leaders at the same time!
• New Addition to House Leadership. Earlier this week, House Democrats voted to affirm the leadership of Speaker Laurie Jinkins from the 27th Legislative District in Tacoma as well as Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon from the 34th Legislative District in Burien. They also elected Representative Chris Stearns from the 47th Legislative District in Auburn to serve as the new Speaker pro tempore.
• Democrats pick up one seat in the Senate and one in the House. While the Senate race in the 18th Legislative District is still close and will likely go to a recount, it does appear that the Democrats picked up one seat in both the Senate and the House. If Adrian Cortes prevails over Brad Benton in the 18th Legislative District Senate race, Democrats will hold a 30-19 advantage in the Senate and Democrats will hold a 59-39 advantage in the House (the Democrats picked up a seat in the House in the 26th legislative district when Adison Richards defeated Jesse Young for an open seat that was previously held by Republican Spencer Hutchins who decided not to run for re-election).
• More legislative changes coming. We’re not quite done yet with the moving chairs. A new Senator will need to be appointed in the 26th legislative district as sitting Senator Emily Randall was elected to Congress. In addition, Senator Karen Keiser of the 33rd legislative district is expected to resign shortly, and her seat will need to be filled. Finally, the seat of Senator Patty Kuderer of the 48th Legislative District will need to be filled after she was elected as the incoming state Insurance Commissioner. Of course, if any of the seats are filled by House members, the process to fill the House seats will begin.
• Committee Configurations and Assignments. We expect announcements shortly about legislative committee structures, membership and timing. Stay tuned!

Updated Caseload Forecast Released

On November 13, the Washington state Caseload Forecast Council met to release the latest projected caseloads for entitlement programs. The caseload forecasts help project what the state will need to budget for programs ranging from K-12 enrollment to Medicaid to prisons. Together with the revenue forecast, this data will inform the Governor’s budget that will be released in mid-December.

Sign Up For Email

Background: Founding Open Arms Perinatal Services and Pioneering Maternal Health Equity

Sheila’s journey as a social justice advocate began with her experiences as a doula, where she provided compassionate support to families throughout the childbirth and early parenting process. This work revealed to her the critical gaps in care for low-income families and families of color. Driven by the belief that every parent deserves access to a safe, supported birthing experience, she helped found Open Arms Perinatal Services in 1997. Open Arms offers free to low-cost perinatal and early parenting support services to meet the needs of each family through highly qualified, culturally matched doulas, lactation support peer counselors, childbirth educators, and resource navigators, helping thousands of families receive culturally relevant care and empowering them to have healthy birthing experiences.

Open Arms has become a model for perinatal support, addressing social and cultural factors impacting maternal health outcomes and reducing disparities in maternal and infant mortality. The organization’s impact has extended far beyond the Pacific Northwest, inspiring similar initiatives across the country and proving the significant effect of culturally responsive care on parent and child health.

Commitment to Systems Change in Public Health and Education

Sheila’s holistic approach across maternal health, early childhood education, and community advocacy has made her an influential voice for systems change, challenging institutions to better serve all members of the community.

Throughout her career, she has consistently advocated for systemic changes to support equitable social, health and early education outcomes. Sheila understands that policy changes and resource reallocation are necessary to tackle the root causes of inequity, especially for women, families, and children from marginalized communities. Her leadership has helped reshape community approaches to health and early education, making them more inclusive and equitable, and she has inspired policies that incorporate trauma-informed and culturally competent care.

Inspiring Future Leaders and Advocates

By focusing on the needs of marginalized communities and building support systems rooted in equity and compassion Sheila’s pioneering work has transformed maternal health support, early childhood education, and public health policies, setting new standards for equity and justice. As we launch our Community Advisory Committee, we look forward to Sheila’s partnership in our efforts to understand how we can best help families feel more empowered and a part of the process to create more equitable systems and support for children and families.

Learn more here about Best Starts for Kids and Open Arms Perinatal Services.

An early morning photo taken from the spot of Washington’s original Territorial Capitol
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Note to the reader: With the conclusion of the 2024 legislative session, this represents our final weekly edition of Notes from Olympia for the year. We plan to send out updates periodically throughout the interim. In the meantime, keep your eyes out for a survey – we are eager for your feedback and are always on the lookout for trivia suggestions. Thanks for reading!

Trivia!

License Plates. How many options do Washingtonians currently have to choose from for special design license plates?

• Bonus Trivia: Had SHB 2489 passed, Washingtonians would have had another choice for a special design license plate. Which beloved icon would this new special license plate option have featured?

This Week’s Highlights

The Legislature adjourned Sine Die with its traditional fanfare March 7. The Legislature spent its last week passing three Initiatives to the Legislature, taking final votes on scores of bills, saying goodbye to colleagues, and passing Supplemental Capital, Operating and Transportation budgets.

Initiatives to the Legislature. As expected, the Senate and House passed three of the six Initiatives to the Legislature: I-2113 (vehicular pursuits), I-2081 (parental rights) and I-2111 (income tax). This means that these three initiatives will not appear on the November ballot.

The two bodies’ approaches to the debates and votes on the initiatives captured the tenor of the session; the Senate moved efficiently, debating and voting on all three in under an hour and the House took over an hour to debate just one of the three initiatives. For further details, we will continue to recommend the Washington State Standard coverage.

Since there was no action taken on the other three Initiatives to the Legislature, they will appear on the November General Election ballot for consideration and decision by the state’s voters:

• I-2109: Repeal of the Capital Gains Tax
• I-2117: Repeal of the Climate Commitment Act
• I-2124: Opt-out option for Washington’s long-term care program Long-Term Care

If you would like more information about the initiative process, it was featured in our Jan. 19 edition of Notes From Olympia.

Bills, Bills, Bills. Last week we explained that when a bill is amended in the opposite chamber it must return to its originating chamber for “concurrence” in the amendments made in the opposite chamber. Early in the week, the Senate and the House spent time voting to concur in amendments made in the other body. This is a quick, but important step for a bill to take on its way to the Governor’s desk.

One important bill to note is ESSB 6038, clarifying tax exemptions for child care services. Deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget,” it was not subject to legislative deadlines. Before approving the bill 95-1 Tuesday, the House adopted a Floor amendment that removed the provision prohibiting DCYF from charging licensing fees. With that change, the bill serves to expand the business and occupation tax exemption for child care services for children up to age 7 to children up to age 12 and children up to age 18 who have a verified special need or are under court supervision. Perhaps there will be another effort in 2025 to eliminate child care licensing fees. The Senate then concurred in the House amendments to ESSB 6038 March 6.

Check out Start Early Washington’s bill tracker on our state policy resources page for a look at which bills made it to the end of the process. Not surprisingly, the list of bills that did not make it is much longer than those that did!

Cliffhanger revealed – 5 p.m. bills. Last Friday’s Opposite House Cutoff 5 p.m. bills were meaty, and each brought a level of drama. The Senate took up ESHB 1589 relating to clean energy. This bill had been brought up for debate a day earlier but was ruled unconstitutional by the Lt. Governor after a Republican objection. Overnight, the bill was re-worked to address the issue and after consideration of many, many amendments, the bill passed. ESHB 1589 experienced further drama when it returned to the House for concurrence in Senate amendments Monday, March 5. After five hours in caucus, the House finally concurred in the Senate amendments in the wee hours of March 6, adjourning just after 2 a.m.

Over in the House, the 5 p.m. bill was ESB 5241, the Keep Our Care Act. After announcing ESB 5241 would be the final bill for the evening, the House broke for caucus meetings and did not return to the Floor, so the bill did not advance.

Budgets

On Wednesday, Start Early Washington updated its state budget comparison chart to reflect the conference proposals for the Operating, Capital and Transportation budgets on our state policy resources page.

As one of the final actions before adjourning Sine Die, the Legislature voted to approve each of the budgets. On March 6, the Senate and House each unanimously approved the Capital budget and, as demonstrated by the picture below, with a bit of “fanfare” in the Senate. The Operating and Transportation budgets were each approved on the final day of session – March 7.

The budget is a bill and, like every other bill, does not go into effect until signed by the Governor. It is important to track to see if the Governor issues any vetoes on aspects of the various budgets.

Prior to voting in favor of the Capital budget, many Senators donned mullets in honor of Senator Mark Mullet, who oversaw the crafting of the Capital budget.
(Photo Credit: TVW screenshot)

In Memoriam

With heavy hearts, we want to honor Former Representative Peggy Maxie and acknowledge her passing on Feb. 18. We have included some information about her amazing life and accomplishments below, but if you would like to learn more about her career, we featured a more thorough overview in our Feb. 4, 2022 edition of Notes From Olympia.

Born in 1936, Representative Maxie was the first Black woman elected to the Legislature in 1970 and she served until 1983, for a total of six terms. She and her family came to Washington state in 1942 when her mother was hired by Boeing as part of the World War II workforce. After she graduated from high school, Maxie worked for the Attorney General’s office and for the Seattle Urban League. She then earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Seattle University and her Master of Social Work from the University of Washington. In addition to working as a consultant for health and community programs, she also trained for nine months to become a nun.

The story is that Representative Maxie had a somewhat comical entry into the political sphere. Her brother, Fred Maxie, had decided to run for Position 2 in the 37th District but changed his mind to go to law school. He’d already had campaign signs with their last name—Maxie—printed on them and didn’t want them to go to waste. It turned into a real-life example of the sunk cost fallacy, as he asked his sister to step up and run instead. Their other brother, Robert, had already forayed into the world of politics and had worked for years in the Democratic Party. Through providing organizational and financial support, he helped launch his sister’s political career, as she would soon become Representative Maxie. He even recruited Jim McGill, a professor of English at Seattle University, to be her campaign manager.

Peggy Maxie and one of her campaign posters
(Photo Credit: Seattle Times)

In Representative Maxie’s decade-plus tenure, she served on the House Appropriations, Judicial, Rules and Insurance Committees. She worked on notable legislation including the Landlord-Tenant Act and the Displaced Homemakers Act. The first act was responsible for defining the relationship between landlords and tenants and established some of the first tenant protections in our state. The bill faced active opposition from landlord lobbyists, but still passed. (Interestingly, the same Landlord-Tenant Act was a major issue during this 2024 session, with landlord lobbyists strongly opposing rent stabilization efforts). The second act supported women who had been “displaced due to divorce, death of a spouse, disability of a spouse, or other loss of family income of a spouse,” according to HistoryLink.

Peggy Maxie
(Photo Credit: Women in the Legislature)

We will be forever grateful for Representative Maxie’s contributions to civil rights, education and housing in the state. Her legacy has impacted so many—it extended beyond her time in the Legislature and will extend beyond her lifetime.

The first light of the day greets the Capitol Building for more legislative activity
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

The “Lost” Capitol. When it was still a Territory, Washington had a different Capitol Building. Where was the original Capitol Building located?

This Week’s Highlights

Action on three of the Initiatives to the Legislature. This week, joint legislative committees held public hearings on three of the six Initiatives to the Legislature:

• Initiative 2111 concerning the imposition of income taxes by state or local governments
• Initiative 2081 concerning parental rights in public school education
• Initiative 2113 relating to vehicular pursuits by peace officers

While each of the initiatives were heard before joint legislative committees (for example, the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee and the House Education Committee held a joint hearing on I-2081), each of the Senate and House Committees will meet independently Friday, March 1 in Executive Sessions to take a vote on the initiatives. Using the example of I-2081, the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee will meet in its own Executive Session to consider I-2081 and the House Education Committee will meet separately in its Executive Session to also consider I-2081.

If these initiatives are approved by their respective committees, they will move to the Senate and House Floors for debates and votes there. Those initiatives passed by both bodies will NOT appear on the November general election ballot.

Initiatives to the Legislature are not subject to legislative cutoff deadlines, nor do they require gubernatorial approval. For more information, the Washington State Standard has been covering the hearings on I-2113 (vehicular pursuits), I-2081 (parental rights) and I-2111 (income tax).

Another day, another committee cutoff. In what now feels like weeks ago, Monday, Feb. 26 represented the final committee cutoff – the deadline for bills to pass out of the opposite chamber’s fiscal committee.

For many advocates (including this writer), it made for quite a tense weekend of waiting to see if your beloved bill would make the Monday Executive Session schedule AND receive a vote. The bill that received the most attention was in the Senate Ways and Means Committee where an effort to pass rent stabilization failed to garner sufficient support for passage. Again, our friends at the Washington State Standard captured the issue – and the political implications – in a thorough manner.

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” Friday, March 1 at 5 p.m. represents the Opposite House Cutoff. This means that all bills (except those deemed Necessary to Implement the Budget) must be passed by the opposite body.

Maybe it is because so many bills did not make it through the filter this year, but it does feel like the Legislature has a more manageable list of bills to tackle before 5 p.m. on Friday. We again get to play the game of “What is the 5 p.m. bill?” (We really need more entertaining hobbies in this work). Check out the February 16 edition of Notes from Olympia for a description of the 5 p.m. bill concept.

The demise of the rent stabilization bill, as noted above, takes one of the likely options off the table for the Senate’s 5 p.m. bill. In the House, talk is that the “Keep Our Care Act” (ESB 5241) could be their 5 p.m. bill. Supporters argue the Keep Our Care Act will ensure that hospital mergers do not limit access to critical health care.

Check back next week for the riveting conclusion to the question gripping the state of Washington – “What was the 5 p.m. bill?” In the meantime, visit our state policy resources page for the latest status on bills. 

What’s on deck for the final week?

What can we expect? Other than the unexpected, of course!

Finalization and approval of budgets. A major – if not the primary – “to do” in the final week of the legislative session is the release and ultimate approval of the compromise Operating, Capital and Transportation budgets. Typically, this is one of the final acts before adjournment. If you are sitting in the Senate and House galleries watching the Floor debate right now, it is quite common to see budget writers popping on and off the Floor as they continue to iron out budget details. They are working to craft a balanced budget that also garners sufficient support for passage. As part of this process, Senate and House budget negotiators are identifying areas of variance between their two budget approaches and working toward compromise. Again, always with an eye toward a balanced budget that will pass both chambers.

Once the compromise budgets are released, Start Early Washington will update its budget chart with all the details on our state policy resources page.

“Get it right back where we started from.” Just like in the classic Maxine Nightingale song, sometimes you gotta “get it right back where we started from.” (Google the song if you don’t know it – it’s a classic toe tapper!). I’m working hard to spice up the rather dry mechanics of the legislative process, folks!

If a bill has not been amended in the opposite chamber, it can go straight to the Governor for action following passage and signature by the respective leaders. Conversely, when a bill has been amended in the opposite chamber, it must go back to where it started from (I did have a point with the song reference!) so the originating body can give their A-OK on the amendments made in the opposite chamber. This process is called “concurrence.” Much of the last week of the legislative session will focus on the Senate and House concurring on the opposite chamber’s amendments. There are occasions when there is disagreement over the direction the bill has taken in the opposite chamber, and there are steps in place to address when this occurs.

“So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu.” This classic song from “The Sound of Music” feels very appropriate right now. At the end of every two-year legislative session, it is customary for lawmakers to announce retirements. Sometimes legislators are retiring from elected office altogether while others might be seeking an office different from the State Legislature.

We are starting to see the retirement announcements roll out, including from freshman House Republican Spencer Hutchins from the 26th legislative district in Kitsap County. Last week, Representative Hutchins announced he would not seek reelection to the Legislature due to the impact holding office has had on his family and business. On Wednesday, former House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, who has served the 2nd legislative district representing parts of Pierce and Thurston counties since 2011, shared his plans to retire at the conclusion of his term.

During the last week of session, we will see time set aside in the Senate and House for lawmakers to honor and thank their departing colleagues for their contributions.

SINE DIE is March 7 – the end is near! In Latin, “Sine Die” literally means “without day.” What that means in the legislative context is there is no day designated on which the Legislature will resume its activities (until the next year).

During the legislative session, when the Senate and House officially adjourn each day, they announce their return. So, when the Senate adjourned last night, they announced the Senate was adjourned until 9 a.m. Friday, March 1, the 54th legislative day. Sine Die is the one day they do not announce a return date.

What Sine Die means for those involved in the legislative process either as a legislator, staff, advocates or other interested parties, is we can take a second to breathe and catch up on some much-needed sleep.

It might be Sine Die, but the work is not quite done. As we near the end of session, everyone is eager to get their bills approved by both chambers (relatively intact), signed by the House Speaker and Senate President and to the desk of the Governor for his hopeful signature. Of course, bills are not considered “law” if they don’t get the Governor’s “John Hancock.”

The timing of when the Governor must act on bills that reach his desk is connected to the timing of when they are delivered to his desk. In short, there are two main rules:

• Any bill that is delivered to the Governor’s office when there are MORE THAN five days before the legislative session ends, becomes a “5-day bill”—that is, the Governor must act upon it within five days.
• Any bill that is delivered to the Governor’s office when there are FEWER than five days remaining in the legislative session, becomes a “20-day bill”—the Governor must act upon it within 20 days.

Like with any rule, there are exceptions! One exception involves how the days are counted. Per the Governor’s office website, these time periods are counted using calendar days, not business days. Even Saturdays and state holidays are included in the count! But Sundays are not included.

Much like with babies, the key detail in this process is the delivery date, meaning the day the bill shows up at the Governor’s office. For example, a bill may have passed Feb. 29, but due to need for leadership signatures, it may not be delivered to the Governor’s office until March 2, so it becomes a 20-day bill because of when it was delivered.

Today, March 1, is the cutoff for 5-day bills. So, if you’re eagerly awaiting Governor Inslee’s signature, here’s to hoping your bill(s) was delivered to his office today!

How to track the status of bill signings? Governor Inslee’s website contains a bill action section that will include updates on scheduled bill actions and note actions taken to date. Most of the bill activity will occur in the Governor’s conference room in the Legislative Building but sometimes a bill signing will be scheduled at a relevant location off-campus, such as a school for an education-related bill.

If you’re *really* excited about a bill getting signed and want to see its signature ceremony, the best way to watch is on TVW. Bill sponsors are afforded a few invitations, but unfortunately bill signings have been closed to the public since the pandemic.

The Legislative Building awaits another busy week
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

The Humble Bivalve. HB 1984 by Representative Mike Chapman would designate which clam as the official clam of Washington state?

Spoiler alert: This bill was pre-filed before the legislative session, but it didn’t make it out of committee. Perhaps it will “mussel” its way through the Legislature in another year.

Highlights of the Week

Potato Day! The potatoes this year really hit the spot, and you can tell the people on campus love these sponsored food days. Thank you to the Washington State Potato Commission!

Potato Day!
(Photo Credit: Zoë Erb)

Caseload Forecast

On Friday, Feb. 16, the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council released its updated caseload forecast. These caseload forecasts project expected caseloads for entitlement programs ranging from K-12 education to public assistance to corrections. Budget writers use this data to inform their budgets.

In terms of early learning, the following are updated forecasted caseloads:

Narratives accompanying the caseload forecasts and analyses of note (including any risks to the forecasts) are as follows:

• Transition to Kindergarten (TTK). TTK has been more popular in smaller school districts and rural communities, and less common in certain areas such as King County. Risks to the forecast include variance depending upon the month in which a school district starts its TTK program. The narrative also notes TTK is a newer program, which makes forecasting future caseloads more challenging.
• ECEAP. The narrative notes that nearly all of the enrollment growth for ECEAP in the 2022-23 school year was from children who were not “entitlement eligible” (meaning children who meet eligibility to participate under rules adopted by DCYF, not those eligible by income). The forecast also finds enrollment has been higher in the 2023-24 school year than in the 2022-23 year.
• Working Connections Child Care. The forecast accounts for recently enacted legislation that builds on the Fair Start for Kids Act and further expands eligibility for Working Connections Child Care. There is also assumed continued recovery from the pandemic in terms of child care usage.
• Early Achievers Subsidy Providers. The forecasted growth in Early Achievers Subsidy Providers should have an asterisk next to it because it represents the use of a new system to track number of providers. With this new system, we should have a more accurate count of the number of licensed providers participating in Early Achievers going forward. One particular item of note is the assumption that the increased enrollment of new providers is being driven by recent increases in reimbursement rates, particularly those for family child care providers.

Supplemental Budget Updates. Earlier this week, the Senate and House released their Operating and Capital budgets (as well as Transportation budgets). The released documents reflect more of a traditional supplemental budget approach, with the limited new investments focused on high priority, time sensitive items such as fentanyl response, housing and the overall workforce crisis.

Start Early Washington shared a side-by-side comparison of the various – and varying – approaches to the Operating and Capital budgets proposed by the Senate, House, and the Governor that impact early learning, on our state policy resources page. The side-by-side comparison chart highlights how the bodies invested quite differently in early learning. With just 13 days left in the official legislative session, the clock is ticking for the two bodies to come to an agreement on their differences and settle on final budgets that will garner sufficient votes for passage.

We will continue to update the budget summary comparison chart as the process continues. We expect the Senate and House to pass their respective Operating budgets over the coming weekend.

One important tip to remember: it is protocol for the initially released budgets to include funding for bills passed out of the House of Origin. Typically, funding for a House bill would be included in the House budget, but not in the Senate budget, and visa versa. There are pros and cons to this approach in that each body’s budget holds “space” for funding of bills, but it also means – particularly in tighter fiscal years – there will likely need to be cuts during the negotiations to accommodate the funding of all of the bills that will make their way through the process.

Bills, Bills, Bills! Weds, Feb. 21 represented the final policy committee cutoff. Most early learning-related bills were heard – and approved – by the policy committee cutoff deadline. Start Early Washington updated its bill tracker on our state policy resources page to reflect the latest versions.

Continuing the theme of “no rest until interim” (sung to the tune of “no sleep till Brooklyn”), Thursday morning saw the start (again!) of marathon fiscal committee hearings in advance of the Feb. 26 opposite chamber fiscal committee cutoff. (Yet another weekend of work. Oh, joy.) And then it’s back to the floor where the bodies will consider bills from the opposite chamber. PHEW!

What’s on Deck for Next Week?

Hearings on Three Initiatives

This week, Democratic leadership announced public hearings on three of the six certified Initiatives to the Legislature Feb. 27-28, with the remaining three initiatives destined for voter determination in the November general election.

Scheduled public hearings include:

• Initiative 2111 relating to limiting the ability of state and local governments to impose an income tax, will be heard in a Joint Hearing by the Senate Ways and Means and the House Finance Committees Feb. 27 at 12:30 p.m.
• Initiative 2081 concerning parental rights and their children’s public school education, will be heard in a Joint Hearing by the Senate Early Learning and K-12 and the House Education Committees Feb. 28 at 8 a.m.
• Initiative 2113 relating to vehicular pursuits by police officers, will be heard in a Joint Hearing by the Senate Law and Justice and the House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee Feb. 28 at 9 a.m.

Speculation around the Capitol campus is that following these public hearings, the Senate and House will vote to accept these three Initiatives to the Legislature, so they will not go before the voters.

There is question about how consideration of these initiatives will factor into the typical end-of-session busyness involving budget resolution, final passage of bills and concurrence in amendments made in the opposite chamber. One thing can be said about Olympia – it is never boring!

The remaining three initiatives still slated to head to the November ballot are:

• Initiative 2109 – Repeal of the Capital Gains Tax
• Initiative 2117 – Repeal of the Climate Commitment Act
• Initiative 2124 – Repeal of the Long-Term Care Tax

The Feb. 16 edition of the Washington State Standard has a great piece by Jerry Cornfield covering the ins and outs of this issue. And refer to our Jan. 19 edition of Notes From Olympia for more information on the six initiatives and the initiative process.

Sign Up For Email

Start Early Washington had the opportunity recently to sit down with founder Heidi Stolte, and senior education program officer Brianna Jackson, and hear their thoughts on how efforts in the early learning education field are contributing to closing critical early learning and opportunity gaps.

Inspirational Beginnings

Thinking back to the beginning, what influenced your focus for the Foundation’s education goals on closing opportunity gaps by engaging families and communities in our region?

Heidi: When my husband Chris and I were deciding on the focus for the foundation and the inspiration for education, we had young children at the time, and I reflected on my experiences as a teacher and volunteer and the gaps that kids come to kindergarten with as far as being prepared to learn. Often unfortunately when they start out unprepared, they don’t catch up and they remain behind. Those early years and brain development between ages 0 to 5 are critical, so we recognized how critical the impacts of supporting early childhood learning are.

As I began to work with Social Venture Partners (SVP) on their early learning grant committee in 2011, we saw how much is either gained or lost in those earliest years and that starting early with healthy development is important. Seattle Foundation introduced us to local organizations doing early learning work, and specifically to ParentChild+ (PC+).

Having worked in education I just soaked up all of the little things I observed in PC+, like how early learning specialists provide coaching and role modeling, meeting the parents where they are at, supporting parents with learning how to enhance both the cognitive and social-emotional skills of their child, and also providing critical resources and supports.  There are so many components of PC+ that spoke to me.

Evolution of Focus

Going back to where things started in 2015, as you began the evolution of investing in early childhood and PC+, what’s changed the most for both of you?

Heidi: We focused on two areas: early learning and summer learning loss. The time when learning can be gained or lost, and we thought we could have some positive impact on that. In 2018 when we hired our first Education Program Officer, we realized that we needed to dive into this a little more and dedicate time to strategy and planning. We looked into a lot of areas and considered what spoke to us, what was needed, what gaps existed in funding, assessed education data both locally and nationally, and identified what geographic areas needed more resources and support. From there we decided to focus on parent-family engagement. Parents are such an important connection for children as their first teacher throughout their whole lives, and this is a critical time when they are with them before school begins.

Brianna: As you learn more, you become more intentional about your work. We have been able to be more on the ground and build the relationships with amazing community organizations, and be a bridge to increase visibility of those organizations with larger funders. We have been able to fund both systems-level as well as direct-service organizations, a great evolution for our investments.

Embracing Optimism

As a funder, and more important as someone entrenched in the work and watching the work change, what are you most optimistic about in the early childhood space going forward?

Brianna: There have been great wins in Washington state around early childhood and public funding, for example more of a focus on provider wages and ensuring that providers can make a livable wage. It’s exciting to see the direction things are moving with the Fair Start for Kids Act with the increase of access to child care benefits and consideration for the economic health of Washington’s families. In the 20+ years that I have been in this work, I am encouraged to see that we are finally understanding as a society that you can’t NOT invest in early childhood. And when we don’t invest in this critical period of development and growth for children and families there are real economic and social repercussions.

Brianna: When we look at our partnership, and what attracted us to the work of Start Early Washington, it really comes down to being excited about PC+ and what home visiting could look like in Washington state.

We love that Start Early Washington is thinking about how to strengthen a system by prioritizing those who are doing work within that system. Providing strong professional development, technical assistance support, and a framework for what core competencies look like across high-quality home visiting is key to their approach. We know that this is contributing to the overall strengthening of PC+ and therefore the home visiting system overall. We are also excited about the policy and advocacy work Start Early Washington is involved in; that they are not only focused on what it looks like on the ground but what it looks like at the systems level to build better policies for children and families. If we are not doing both then we are doing the field a disservice.

______________________________________________________________________

Learn more about the Stolte Family Foundation’s thoughtful commitment to improving the futures of Washington’s children and families.

An unexpectedly snowy morning at the Capitol
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia

Ranald MacDonald State Park, near the city of Curlew in Ferry County, is home to Washington’s smallest state park. What is the park’s size?

Week Highlights

Revenue report. On Feb. 14, the new State Economist Dave Reich presented his first Revenue Report to the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. This report provided updated revenue projections since the November forecast and the findings will be used to inform the budget proposals set for release in the next few days (see below for more information).

Despite revenue continuing to exceed projections, collection growth is slow. Revenue projections are adjusted as follows:

• 2023-25 biennium: Increase of $122 million (0.2% increase)
• 2025-27 biennium: Increase of $215 million (0.3% increase)

The Education Legacy Trust Account, which serves as an important fund source for early learning related programs, is projected to increase by $31 million for 2023-25 over November projections and by $6 million for 2025-27 over November projections.

It is also helpful to look at the overall projected budget levels as the operating budget is expected to grow as follows:

• 2023-25 projected operating budget: $67 billion (Growth of 3.5% over the 2021-23 biennial budget)
• 2025-27 projected operating budget: $71.7 billion (Growth of 7% over the 2023-25 biennial budget)

The next important data point that will influence budget writers is the caseload forecast, scheduled for Friday, Feb. 16 – right after the release of this newsletter. While the revenue forecast focuses on how much money budget writers can spend, the caseload forecast contains information on required expenditures (e.g., K-12 enrollment, Medicaid, prison populations, etc.). We will capture this information in next week’s update.

Senate Capital Budget released. On Thursday, the Senate released its proposed Supplemental Capital Budget. Notably, the budget documentation contains the names of both the Senate Ways and Means Committee Vice Chair (and lead on the Capital Budget) Senator Mark Mullet and the Republican Ranking Member Senator Mark Schoesler, signifying a bipartisan effort.

The budget summary document opens with two important notes:

1. An error was discovered in the underlying capital gains revenue forecast from November 2023, necessitating a downward adjustment of more than $200 million for the 2023-25 biennium. This means there will be less funding available in the Supplemental Capital Budget.
2. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the continuation of the Capital Gains tax and Climate Commitment Act given the November initiatives, the Senate Capital Budget does not assume revenue from either capital gains nor the Climate Commitment Act beyond 2024. If either (or both) of these initiatives do not pass, this revenue would be available for the 2025 Legislature.

Early Learning Facilities. The Senate Capital Budget includes a total of $8.8 million in new funding for early learning facilities, including:

• $4.5M in competitive grants
• $2.35M in minor renovation grants
• $1.95M for designated projects
• Note the proposed Supplemental Capital Budget bill also adds to existing prioritization for funds “facilities at risk of closure due to compliance with state licensure requirements.”

House of Origin Cutoff/Policy Committee return. Tuesday at 5 p.m. represented the House of Origin Floor cutoff; bills needed to pass out of their respective chamber by this deadline to be considered viable during this short session.

The contrast between the Senate and House of Representatives approaches to floor activity was striking. The Senate worked deliberatively and efficiently, making their way through their lists of bills, adjourning at reasonable hours every night and avoiding weekend work altogether. Conversely, the House put in two very late nights (working into the early morning hours). And while the House did end up passing 270 bills off their floor, I suspect many advocates lost sleep (and manicured fingernails) over whether the clock would run out before their bill came up for debate and a vote.

I do get a giggle when the House works past 10 p.m. and the Speaker announces the waiving of the rule requiring the wearing of jackets on the House Floor. That announcement always brings some murmurs of excitement, reminding me of my school days when indoor recess was called.

Despite the long hours, both the Senate and House were back at it Wednesday morning in policy committees as they considered bills passed out of the opposite chamber. With a short window before policy committee cutoff, there was little time to catch up on needed sleep!

What were the 5 p.m. bills? Last week, Notes From Olympia discussed the interest around the “5 p.m. bill,” which is often used as a strategy to run the more controversial bills that use up more clock time. As long as debate begins by 5 p.m. on cutoff day, it can go as long as it takes.

The House opted to go with ESHB 2114 related to rent stabilization as its 5 p.m. bill. Prime sponsored by Rep. Alvarado, ESHB 2114 is a top priority of House Democrats. In recognition that 35% of Washingtonians are renters, the bill aims to provide a number of protections for renters, including limiting rent increase to 7 % in any 12-month period.

The bill generated lengthy debate and ultimately passed on a 54-43 vote with four Democrats joining Republicans in voting no. It has an uncertain path in the Senate where a similar measure failed passage in the Senate Housing Committee earlier this session. For additional information on the rent stabilization effort, see this article in the Washington State Standard.

Over in the Senate, continuing with the deliberative and efficient approach I mentioned earlier, they wrapped up before 5 p.m. The Senate’s final bill related to … (drumroll please) establishment of the state nickname! By a 47-2 vote, the Senate approved SB 5595 which would adopt “the Evergreen State” as our state’s nickname. I thought it already was our nickname, but maybe this would make it official?

What’s on Deck for Next Week

Operating Budget and House Capital Budget releases. We’ve said multiple times that the last few weeks of the legislative session moves quickly – and we aren’t joking. We’ve also noted the Washington Legislature often works seven days a week – federal holidays included – also not a joke, as you will see below!

Week seven (the week of Feb. 19) is another big week as the Senate and House will unveil and receive public comment on their respective budget proposals. The proposed release dates are as follows:

Senate Operating Budget

• Release: Sunday, Feb. 18 around 4 p.m.
• Public Hearing: Monday, Feb. 19 at 4p.m. Public comment and testimony can be registered through the legislative website.
• Executive Session (Vote): Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 3 p.m.

House Operating Budget

• Release: Monday, Feb. 19 around 12 p.m.
• Public Hearing: Monday, Feb. 19 at 4p.m. Public comment and testimony can be registered through the legislative website.
• Executive Session (Vote): Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 4 p.m.

Senate Capital Budget

• Release: Thursday, Feb. 15
• Public Hearing: Thursday, Feb. 15
• Executive Session (Vote): Monday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m.

House Capital Budget

• Release: Monday, Feb. 19
• Public Hearing: Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 8 a.m. Public comments and testimony can be registered through the legislative website.
• Executive Session (Vote): Friday, Feb. 23 at 8 a.m.

Once both bodies finalize their respective budgets, they will negotiate the differences between the two approaches and present a compromise budget for consideration before the Senate and House before adjourning March 7.

Be sure to check Notes from Olympia next week for a rundown of all the details in both the Senate and House proposals. We are maintaining a chart on our website to track and compare the details.

Yet another cutoff and the return of marathon fiscal committee hearings. We are quickly moving from one cutoff to another. Next Wednesday is the final policy committee cutoff and focus will once again shift to fiscal committees for review of bills from the opposite chamber. This is all happening at a fast pace, so it is fortunate that the list of bills under consideration is considerably smaller!

Bill Tracker

Bills are moving quickly, but we’re still updating our bill tracker on our policy resources page on a weekly basis.

For the most current information, we recommend referring to the Legislative website. You will notice the number of active bills continues to decline as the legislative session progresses.

A calm evening at the Capitol (on the outside, at least!)
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia

How many Black legislators have served, and are currently serving, in the Washington State Legislature?

Highlights of Week

We’ve passed another cutoff! After a marathon four days of public hearings and executive sessions, the Legislature hit the House of Origin fiscal committee cutoff this past Monday. Bills that did not pass out of fiscal committees are considered “dormant” and not eligible for further consideration, unless deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget” by legislative leadership.

For advocates, it was a rollercoaster weekend as email inboxes pinged with updates of bills getting scheduled (exhilaration) and, sometimes, bills removed from calendars (despair). In a small number of cases, bills were scheduled for a vote in time for the Monday deadline only to have the Chair announce at the hearing that they were withdrawn from consideration (the depths of heartbreak).

As one example of the volume of work, the Senate Ways and Means Committee agenda had 82 bills on its executive session calendar this past Monday and the House Appropriations Committee had 52.

Attention turns to Floor action. There is little to no downtime in a short session of a part-time Legislature. Starting Tuesday morning, attention shifted to the Senate and House chambers where lawmakers began the process of debating and voting on bills in advance of the Feb. 13 House of Origin cutoff.

I have mentioned the “filter” process built into our legislative system and a very important step in this process happens prior to Floor debate and consideration. The Senate and House Rules Committees consider the bills passed by the policy and fiscal committees and decide which bills advance to their respective Floors. Unlike other committees, these meetings are not scheduled at regular times. One Rules Committee notice this week stated that the meeting would commence “20 minutes after going at ease for lunch.” Prior to the pandemic, these Rules committee meetings were not covered by TVW, but now they are available.

To get to the Floor for debate and vote, a bill must first be “pulled” from the Rules Committee. There are various ways this occurs, and the Senate and the House have variations in their processes. In most Rules Committee meetings, there are “leadership” or “package” pulls where a list of bills is presented for consideration for an up or down vote. There are also “consent” pulls where bills with minimal opposition are listed together and voted on at once. Finally, there are “individual” pulls where each Rules Committee member is assigned a certain number of “pulls” per meeting (e.g., each Rules Committee member is allowed to suggest one bill to advance to the Floor and the Rules members vote to approve that recommendation). Despite the various opportunities for bills to be “pulled” from Rules, not all bills will advance from Rules to the Floor and advocates get more nervous as the week goes on and their bills remain in Rules.

Here’s to hoping for only affirming and positive messages during the stressful period of Floor activity.
(Photo Credit: Molly Champion, image modified by Jess Galvez)

Stayin Alive, Stayin Alive …

The list of active early learning related legislation is much smaller at this stage in the process—post the initial policy and fiscal cutoffs. Be sure to check out our bill tracker on our policy resources page for more detail, but below is a quick look at the bills still moving their way through:

House Bills

• SHB 1945 (Alvarado) Makes children eligible for ECEAP and Early ECEAP if they receive Basic Food benefits and simplifies income eligibility for Working Connections Child Care (WCCC)
• HB 2111 (Nance) Makes technical changes to the WCCC statute
• SHB 2124 (Eslick) Changes WCCC work requirements to allow for family participation in Early ECEAP or Early Head Start and allows WCCC eligibility for ECEAP/Early ECEAP employees if their household income is below 85% of the state median income
• SHB 2195 (Callan) Modifies eligible uses of the Ruth LeCocq Kagi early learning facilities development account (ELF)
• SHB 2322 (Senn) Directs the Office of Financial Management to study existing employer-provided child care programs and provide recommendations for how to expand child care options through businesses
• 2SHB 2447 (Senn) Changes the removal standard for children regarding out-of-home placement due to the use or possession of a high potency synthetic opioid and provides targeted, voluntary home visiting and child care slots and other supports for families

Senate Bills

• SSB 5774 (Billig) Requires the Department of Children, Youth and Families to have the ability to conduct timely fingerprint background checks in its early learning and child care offices
• SB 5941 (Wilson, C.) Makes technical changes to the WCCC statutes
• SSB 6038 (Wilson, C.) Waives child care licensing fees and expands the child care business and occupations tax child care exemption
• 2SSB 6109 (Wilson, C.) Changes the removal standard for children regarding out-of-home placement due to the use or possession of a high potency synthetic opioid and provides targeted, voluntary home visiting and child care slots and other supports for families

What’s on Deck for Next Week?

It’s all about the money, money, money. On Valentine’s Day, the new State Economist Dave Reich is set to present his first Revenue Forecast to the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. This revenue projection will be used to finalize the 2024-25 Supplemental Budget. It is important to remember that Washington state requires a balanced four-year budget, so budget writers will also be considering out-year impacts of their investments and out-year revenue outlooks.

We expect to see the Senate and House operating, capital and transportation (remember our state adopts THREE budgets) shortly after the revenue report. In fact, the Senate Ways and Means Committee has a Feb. 15 public hearing scheduled to receive comments on its proposed Supplemental Capital Budget, so we can presume their proposed Capital budget will be released sometime that day.

The last few weeks of the legislative session move very fast.

Late nights and weekend work ahead. While most Washingtonians will be preparing their favorite appetizers for Sunday’s Usher concert and viewing of expensive commercials, those involved with the legislative process could be engaged in Sunday Floor activity in advance of the Tuesday, Feb. 13 House of Origin cutoff (the House of Representatives does have a 1 p.m. hold for possible caucus and session). Most likely, though, after a lot of late nights, there may be a break on Sunday so folks can find out if a certain someone was able to arrive from Japan in time for the big game.

In all seriousness, the periods of Floor activity are incredibly intense, with a lot of late nights. Sometimes when I am on my early morning walks, the lights in the Legislative Building are still on, indicating one chamber has pulled an all-nighter and is still deliberating. Tempers get short and bills that had been on a smooth glide could get held up for no apparent reason.

One of the traditions during floor cutoff is identification of the “5 p.m. bill.” Often the 5 p.m. bill is a controversial or consequential bill because if debate starts before the 5 p.m. deadline, it can go on as long as it takes. Occasionally, the final bill can be a “nothing burger,” but more often than not, it is one of greater consequence and there will be murmuring about what the 5 p.m. bill will be in both chambers. We will report back next week.

Groundhog Day? Immediately after the Feb. 13 House of Origin cutoff, we will dive right back into policy committee work. This time, policy committees in the opposite chamber will review the bills still alive in the process passed by the opposing chamber. This is a very compressed timeline with only six days of policy committee hearings and a Feb. 21 opposite house policy committee cutoff. I mentioned last week one of the benefits of introducing companion bills is socializing a concept in the opposite chamber. This benefit becomes clear in these tight time periods.

Bill Tracker

Our bill tracker is updated each Thursday and linked on our policy resources page. Because bills move quickly, the tracker may not have the most recent updates, but this information can be found on the legislative website.