From the Director: Legislature Adjourns: Closing Days Prove Fruitful for Cities
By Stan Finkelstein, AWC Executive Director
As expected, the Legislature adjourned sine die late on Thursday, March 11th, the 60th day of the session.

From the standpoint of cities, the session was a "mixed bag." We had a number of successes and a number of disappointments.

While we had hoped that the legislature would provide additional relief to those cities most adversely impacted by elimination of the motor vehicle excise tax, given the state’s continued revenue shortfalls that proved unlikely. Additionally, AWC was disappointed that the conflicts within the city family regarding implementation of the streamlined sales tax could not be resolved. Both of these issues will be before the Legislature in 2005, and hopefully can be addressed in a positive fashion.

Closing Days See Successes

The Association was gratified to see a number of beneficial measures pass in the closing days and hours of the session and a number of harmful measures pass by the wayside.

Amongst the successes were:

• SHB 2985, which reduces the burdens on jurisdictions to provide access for retirees to group health insurance plans. The new law only requires the jurisdiction to make a good faith effort, which may not be successful;
• SHB 2615, which clarifies the authority and simplifies the requirements for local governments to make purchases from purchasing alliances such as U.S. Communities;
• HB 2485, which reduces the tort judgment interest rate from the current 12 percent to 2 percent over the 6 month Treasury bill rate (currently just over 1 percent); and
• SB 6493, which provides that noncharter code cities can delay an election arising by initiative calling for a change in the form of government to the next general election, and not be required to assume the cost of a special election.

Each of these bills passed in the closing days of the legislative session and required the hard work of the AWC lobbyists to achieve success.

I am also pleased to acknowledge that once again AWC was able to dodge the bullet of water/sewer districts attacking cities’ current authority to assume those districts under certain circumstances. In the closing days, legislation that we thought was dead for 2004 was resurrected as an amendment to another measure and took on a life of its own. This measure will undoubtedly come back next year and AWC has indicated a desire to work with the district’s association to determine whether accommodations can be agreed to prior to the 2005 session.

In Closing

I am pleased to report that in retrospect this has not been too bad a session for cities and towns. However, as we move towards the 2005 session, it is apparent that we must refocus our efforts at addressing the fiscal needs of our cities and towns. Many of our communities are experiencing unacceptable fiscal stress, and with the prospect of another tax cutting initiative looming on the horizon conditions will only worsen. All city officials are encouraged to "tell the city story" to their legislators regarding their financial difficulties, and remind them of the need to reestablish a strong state-local partnership.