A tug-of-war over gift card reform

Plus some curriculum mandates, a big Ferguson endorsement, and a golden opportunity

Editor’s Note: We’re swiftly coming up on the first major deadline of the session — the house-of-origin policy cutoff on Jan. 31. A look at something that might get stuck in committee — and some things that have already made it past that hurdle.

There’s a chance this year’s crusade to plug the so-called “gift card loophole” will be harder than its friends—or foes—anticipated.

When it was first unveiled in December with TVW fanfare, the bid to return unredeemed gift card cash to hard-pressed shoppers was hailed by the Washington Consumer Protection Coalition as a battle of the ages between working Washingtonians and Big Retail. The business associations that rallied last week to bury it in committee were exactly what its fanbase anticipated, but they brought some interesting and expensive objections.