At a legislative update hosted by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday, state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, and state Reps. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, and Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, spoke over Zoom about their plans for the upcoming legislative session beginning on Jan. 9.
The update, which was scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m., was delayed due to technical issues with Zoom and lasted less than an hour.
Orcutt was the first legislator to speak. As the top Republican on the House Finance Committee, his comments were primarily focused on budget issues.
According to Orcutt, a recent state revenue forecast showed the state government had brought in about $700 million above what was previously projected in September and the state has brought in $2.2 billion more than was projected when the supplemental budget was passed during the legislative session earlier this year. In total, since the current biennial budget was written in 2021, revenues have come in at $6.7 billion more than what was expected.
Those higher than expected revenues have encouraged Orcutt to push for a reduction in taxes.
“My primary goal is property taxes,” Orcutt said.
Orcutt said the state reformed property taxes several years ago as part of the “McCleary fix,” which made changes to state education funding following the Washington state Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary decision, but property taxes increased anyways because of significant increases in home prices. He said his proposal is to lower the state levy on property taxes to where it was expected to be at this time.
Orcutt also mentioned real estate excise taxes as a source of increased revenue, though as rising interest rates have cooled the housing market revenues from real estate excise taxes are expected to stabilize.
A third source of increasing revenue Orcutt discussed was sales taxes.
“As the price of a transaction goes up, so does the sales tax,” Orcutt said.
As inflation has driven up prices, tax revenue from the state sales tax has increased as well.
“If we can’t get tax relief now, are we ever going to be able to do tax relief?” Orcutt said. “That’s really the big thing for me right now.”
Abbarno spent his time speaking to the attendees discussing his involvement in the state’s paid family leave program and the bills he is working on pre-filing ahead of the legislative session.
“A lot of my late summer and fall was spent on paid family leave,” Abbarno said.
Abbarno serves as a co-chair of the task force charged with making the program financially solvent alongside Democratic state Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett.
“The problem is that the program is running into solvency issues,” Abbarno said.
As part of the task force, Abbarno has helped create proposals for how to extend the program’s solvency, including what he calls “minimal” increases in taxes.
Discussing the bills he intended to prefile, Abbarno mentioned four pieces of legislation.
The first two bills, which he filed with the House on Monday, Dec. 5, were House Bill 1004 and House Bill 1005.
HB 1004, also known as “Zack’s Law,” would require signs to be installed on or near bridges to warn people of the danger involved in jumping off bridges into water. The bill is meant to address the problem of cold water shock drownings and is named for Zachary Lee Rager, who died after jumping into the Chehalis River along the Willapa Hills Trail. Abbarno proposed the same legislation earlier this year. That version of the bill received bipartisan support but was unable to make it to the floor for a vote due to the shortened length of sessions during even numbered years.
HB 1005 would expand the current program providing Business and Occupation tax credits for hiring veterans. The bill would double the size of the credit from $1,500 for qualified employees to $3,000 and expand the credit to include the spouses of veterans and active duty military members in addition to veterans.
Another bill, House Bill 1011, was prefiled on Tuesday, Dec. 6, and would repeal the state’s long-term care program.
“It’s not long-term care, it’s short-term care,” Abbarno said. “What we’re finding is that the amount of revenue isn’t going to be enough.”
According to Abbarno, the program may only be able to fund three to five months of care and some people might pay more money into the program than they’ll receive. He also pointed to issues with the program, including the fact benefits can’t be shared with a spouse and are non-transferable to other states.
Abbarno prefiled his fourth bill, HB 1014, on Wednesday, Dec. 7. The bill would create a competitive grant program for rural fire districts. He told attendees the bill would help fire districts that are facing growth or don’t have the tax base necessary to fund adequate services. As of Tuesday the bill had not yet been prefiled with the House.
Abbarno ended his time by mentioning he anticipates continuing his service on the House Capital Budget Committee and said anyone interested in receiving capital budget funds can contact his office.
Orcutt then told meeting attendees about the process of committee selection. According to Orcutt, the majority party, which will remain the Democrats following November’s election, determines the number of people who will sit on each committee. He also added the numbers of members of each party don’t have to be proportional for every committee, only for the aggregate number of seats on committees as a whole.
During a time for participants to ask questions, one meeting attendee asked if there was anything being done to help Lewis County seniors. Orcutt said there is currently a property tax exemption for seniors that included an income limit. He told attendees legislators are currently working to make sure seniors aren’t kicked off the program because inflation has put them over the limit.
At the end of the meeting Braun, who was in an airport and had faced technical difficulties, was able to appear and briefly discussed his priorities for the upcoming session. Among the issues Braun briefly touched on were reforming laws regarding police pursuits, improving affordability and working on education issues to address COVID-19 related learning loss.
The Chamber of Commerce’s legislative updates are for members of the chamber and occur monthly. The next event will be in January.
