From the Director: Legislature Down to Work - Heavy Schedule of Hearings

Having arrived less than two weeks ago, the Legislature is moving to complete the 60 day session on time, if not early.

House and Senate Committees will have hearings on over 400 separate measures the week of January 23. Many of those measures impact cities and towns and the Association will offer testimony on those. Fortunately, with the City Legislative Action Conference scheduled for January 25-26, there will be many city officials in Olympia able to testify.

The general mood of the legislative session so far is positive. Legislators are pleased that this will not be a budget cutting session; the Governor has put forth a supplemental budget that preserves 2/3rds of the $1.4 billion in available revenues; and the inclination of most members is to expeditiously complete their business so that they can adjourn and start raising money for the November elections. All told, this bodes well for AWC. We anticipate a number of positive bills being enacted as well as avoiding most adverse proposals.

Streamlined Sales Tax

This past week, the Senate Ways and Means Committee approved SB 6594, the streamlined sales tax bill. As amended by the committee, the legislation provides for full mitigation of losses arising from transition from an origin to a destination basis of sales tax apportionment. At the hearing held on January 17, there was strong support from members of the business community, county and city officials. Our witnesses were led by AWC President Pam Carter, who articulated the need for passage of this legislation with full mitigation. The measure would take effect July 1, 2007.

The measure passed the Senate committee without opposition and may be scheduled for floor action next week. Please check our website for the latest information. Local officials are strongly encouraged to contact your Senators to urge their support for SSB 6594, with full mitigation.

This measure is a key element to the passage of legislation in Congress, requiring collection by remote sellers (Internet and catalogue) of state and local sales taxes. The measure has been before the Legislature for the past several years, but due to a strong division within the city family has failed to pass. This is an agreed upon measure, which hopefully will become law in 2006.

In Closing

We anticipate the 2006 session to be a positive one for cities and towns. As was the case last year, most legislators are mindful of the needs of their communities and do want to address critical needs. Issues will move quickly, and we see no reason why the Legislature would be unable to conclude on-time.

As we acknowledge throughout the year, contact from city hall is often the difference between success and failure. Please assist us in responding to those requests as they arise during the session. Legislators respond to their city officials. If we can be of any assistance, don’t hesitate to call.

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