The Washington Observer: The Morning Wire

Kraken taxes, hog fuel, deep fakes, and magic mushrooms

Tim Gruver — Wed, 10 May 2023 15:42:44 GMT

For bills that survived the Legislature’s many obstacles, springtime in Olympia typically means a signature from Gov. Jay Inslee and a closeup on TVW before they hit the books.

Bills that get to the governor’s desk fewer than five days before lawmakers leave town have 20 days to get his John Hancock. Given how much legislation passed during the waning mo…

Scenarios in the governor's race

Paul Queary — Wed, 03 May 2023 14:36:12 GMT

Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s campaign launch video plays like one long progressive mic drop, highlighting wins on reproductive rights, gun control, and various fights with the Trump Administration. There’s a reason a crusading attorney general is always a solid candidate for governor.

Along with his sizable war chest, favorable poll numbers, and a gr…

Inslee signs weapons ban, gun-rights groups head to court

Tim Gruver — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:35:48 GMT

When Democrats took their gun control shots this session, it was a foregone conclusion they would draw fire from the Second Amendment crowd.

The first shot across the bow came on Tuesday in the form of a lawsuit from a pair of gun rights nonprofits—The Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. The target: House Bill 1240 from Rep. S…

Lawmakers pass PTSD protections for nurses

Paul Queary — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 15:21:31 GMT

Keeping nurses at hospital bedsides may hinge on footing the bill for the immense emotional toll that comes with a life-and-death job.

Easing the exodus of nurses from the field was a top priority of organized labor this year and the near-term solutions included expanding worker compensation claims for post-traumatic stress, a big reason nurses are walki…

A business-labor battle divides Democrats

Paul Queary — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 16:18:02 GMT

(Editor’s Note: Today is the opposite-house cutoff. After 5 p.m., most House bills must have passed the Senate and vice versa. We’ll take a look at the casualties on Friday. Today we’re looking at some notable survivors. The Legislature is set to adjourn 11 days from now.)

A fight to help injured workers get their due from self-insured employers split …

Middle housing gets a haircut

Paul Queary — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 16:28:39 GMT

Going big on housing this year may mean going smaller on middle housing as progressives and moderates duke it out over where denser developments get built.

If passed, House Bill 1110 from Rep. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia, would permit denser housing—we’re talking duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and sixplexes—in areas currently limited to single-family …

Casualties and survivors at the second cutoff

Paul Queary — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:35:28 GMT

Today is the second policy cutoff, when most Senate bills have to clear House committees and vice-versa. Most of the noteworthy action happened on Tuesday, especially in the Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee, where the hearing room was absolutely packed with high-priced lobbyists.

Some of them were there to rejoice in the death of “right…

A tax break for ADUs

Paul Queary — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 15:57:16 GMT

Of all the proposals to put roofs over more heads this session, building more accessory dwelling units is emerging as the clear frontrunner.

Senate Bill 5045 from Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, would let King County1 offer property tax exemptions for ADUs — think mother-in-law apartments or backyard cottages — rented by low-income tenants earning less t…

Big Biofuel raises red flags with Washington tribe

Tim Gruver — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:26:34 GMT

A tax break for greener jet fuel is raising eyebrows among a tribe that doesn’t want Big Biofuel in its backyard.

Here’s the deal. Senate Bill 5447 from Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, would cut big players in the biofuel scene a preferable business and occupation tax rate of 0.275 percent. We’re talking about producers who can pump 20 mil…

A truce in nurses v. hospitals

Paul Queary — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 16:54:07 GMT

Editor’s Note: Today is the house-of-origin cutoff, which means most bills that haven’t passed either the House or the Senate by the end of the day — there are more than 100 proposals on the floor calendars — will be dead for the year. Today we're looking at some narrow escapees from that fate. We’ll have the casualties on Friday. Want to hash over the…

Abortion rights, orcas, ADUs and tow-trucks

Tim Gruver — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:37:46 GMT

If legislative procedure and speechifying are your jam, you’re in luck for the next couple of weeks. Action in the Legislature has shifted from the committees to actually passing bills on the House and Senate floors. Some of the notable action this week:

Keeping other states’ anti-abortion laws out of Washington

The House took the first substantive vote o…

Higher real estate taxes for affordable housing

Tim Gruver — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 16:02:14 GMT

In Monday’s housing policy roundup, we noted that any deal on sweeping housing reform was likely contingent on finding a giant pile of money for affordable housing. Tuesday’s House Finance Committee meeting featured one potential source of that pile: Higher taxes on real estate transactions.

House Bill 1628 from Rep. Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, would raise …

Puget Sound Energy pushes to curtail its own gas business

Paul Queary — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:21:47 GMT

It’s not often that a major company asks the state to halt the growth of one of its largest lines of business. But that’s exactly what Puget Sound Energy is doing in the form of House Bill 1589, which would ban most extensions1 of the company’s natural gas network as of June 30.

PSE2, the state’s largest gas company with nearly 840,000 customers, faces a …

Lawmakers clash with unions over licensing reform

Tim Gruver — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 17:32:06 GMT

Moving to Washington can be costly if your line of work requires a license from the state.

From cosmetologists to architects, the state licenses hundreds of occupations in the name of public safety and consumer protection. Transferring your license can cost you hundreds of dollars in fees and hundreds of hours in training — all so you can do someone’s n…

Expanding the working families tax credit

Paul Queary — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:03:26 GMT

No lower-income Washingtonian has yet received the state’s working families tax credit, but there are already proposals to expand the tax break.

The credit, as longtime Observer readers will recall, was originally passed by the Legislature way back in 2008 but languished in unfunded limbo for more than a decade while lawmakers spent sparse cash on other…

The Supremes finally take up the capital gains tax

Paul Queary — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 18:30:57 GMT

One school of thought argues that the entire point of passing the capital gains tax two years ago was to set up Thursday’s oral arguments in front of nine folks in black robes.

The idea — deeply held for years on the left — is that a contemporary Washington Supreme Court largely appointed by Democratic governors and elected by increasingly D-leaning vot…

Recycling and gun control take the stage

Paul Queary — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 18:10:25 GMT

We’re back roaming the actual halls of the statehouse this week for the first time since early 2020. It was a surprisingly moving experience to see the people’s business — and a lot of paying clients’ business — conducted in person. The Legislature can be viewed as a big, complicated competition, with constantly shifting objectives, allegiances, and adv…

Inslee's old-news State of the State

Paul Queary — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 16:10:35 GMT

Gov. Jay Inslee’s team does a nice job of exploiting the budget-rollout process in December to frame his agenda1 for the coming session. That has the effect of kinda stepping on the State of the State speech nearly a month in advance. Tuesday’s speech was very much in that vein: There wasn’t much new news among the branches-of-government2 formalities.

Gov…

Here comes the big recycling bill

Paul Queary — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 16:46:54 GMT

There’s a big rollout scheduled this morning at the Seattle Aquarium1 for sweeping proposed changes to the way Washington handles the recycling of plastic and other materials.

We touched on this topic a couple of weeks back when we wrote about Rep.-elect Beth Doglio taking over House Environment & Energy. Today’s event features the sponsors of the measur…

Ferguson stacks more campaign cash

Paul Queary — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 21:17:40 GMT

Editor’s Note: Apologies that The Morning Wire became The Afternoon Wire today. Substack went down this morning just as I was about to hit publish, which of course enabled me to write another item and make it even later…

Attorney General Bob Ferguson has raised some $300,000 in campaign cash since Election Day, per his campaign’s filings with the Public …