The green flag goes up in Olympia

Lawmakers hit the ground running as tight deadlines loom

The first act of the Legislature’s short session begins today and per our tradition, we’ll spare you the ceremonial fanfare and zero in on the bills.

A smorgasbord of legislation is due for airtime on TVW this week, so we are highlighting several bills that we’re keen on writing about over the next 60 days. Since the Legislature operates on a biennial schedule, a bunch of bills from last year are back on the menu plus some new entrées.

Here’s why you should care about this: The Legislature subjects itself to a series of procedural deadlines designed to sharply winnow the field of bills under consideration. That leads to a complex clock-management problem we’ve written about before. The first of those deadlines — the house-of-origin policy cutoff — is on Jan. 31.

Perhaps the most consequential deadlines are for fiscal committees in February, when the guy in the middle of this picture, House Appropriations Chair Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, will crush some expensive dreams. (Photo by Tim Gruver)