What’s Ahead – Key Issues

Two infrastructure funding bills that are AWC priorities will be heard next week. The House version of the LIFT bill (HB 1277) bill will be heard on February 7 at 8 am, and SB 5762 will be heard on February 7 at 3:30 pm. Please see the Municipal Finance section for more information.
Public hearings will be held on several bills permitting greater fiscal flexibility. SB 5647 clarifies the uses of lodging tax revenues; HB 1369 removes non-supplanting language on the voter-approved property tax lid lift; SB 5498 removes non-supplanting language on voter-approved property tax lid lift and the voter-approved three-tenths sales tax; and HB 1737 lowers the population threshold for the multi-family property tax exemption to 5,000. Please see the Municipal Finance section for more information.
HB 1669, which provides for a gross negligence liability standard for misdemeanant offender supervision, will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, February 6. Please see the Law & Justice section for more information.
HB 1781, allowing shared use of Best Available Science, will be heard before the House Local Government Committee at 8 am on Thursday, February 8. Please see the Land Use & Housing section for more information.

Last Week’s Highlights

SSB 5089, the Senate’s Streamlined Sales Tax bill was approved by the full Senate on February 2, with a vote of 45-3. Please see the Municipal Finance section for more information.
After publication of last week’s Bulletin, two Realtor-sponsored land use and housing bills (HB 1726/HB 1727) were added to the February 1 House Local Government Committee agenda. Please see the Land Use & Housing section for more information.

All cities are encouraged to contact their legislators to remind them of the importance of passing streamlined sales tax legislation with full mitigation. Cities cannot assume the Legislature will pass the bill this year. Please see the Muncipal Finance section for more information.
AWC is working on alternative language for the transmission siting preemption proposal (HB 1037) and needs your comments. Please see the Energy & Telecommunications section for more information.