Last week marked the cutoff for floor action for legislation in their respective houses of origin. What does that mean?

Essentially if a bill starts in one chamber (either the house or the senate) it has to be brought up for a vote on the floor before midnight on the night of cutoff (March 11th). It makes for some pretty good theatrics sometimes, with legislators waiting until the final hours to vote on controversial bills.

But wait. Does that mean every bill that didn’t get voted on is now dead?

Heck no.

If a bill, such as SB 5323 (The Commute Trip Reduction Tax Credit bill we support and are tracking), has a “fiscal note”, that means there is money involved with the bill. You can look here to see what a fiscal note looks like on SB 5323 here. But basically its just a document the Office of Financial Management (OFM) prepares for any bill that either creates revenue (taxes) or spends money out of the budget. These bills are called “Necessary to Implement the Budget”, and it means those bills are still alive until a budget is passed either with or without them included.

Still with me? Here’s where a few of the bills we are tracking stand right now:

  • CTR Tax Credit Expansion Bill:Did not pass either house but is “Necessary to Implement the Budget” (see above) so that’s okay, its staying alive.
  • Transportation Package & Sound Transit Bill:The Sound Transit 3 Authority bill’s fate is now tied to the Transportation Package as a whole, which as mentioned previously, we have pretty serious concerns The package passed the Senate, and it is now waiting for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee. So even though the ST3 Bill was already heard in the House, the package the Senate passed will now be heard again.
  • The Community Transit Bill:We strongly support this legislation to extend more local options to Community Transit so they can restore lost bus service and meet growing demand. This bill is currently waiting for a vote in the House, but like the CTR tax Credit expansion, it is necessary to implement the budget so we could still see movement a number of different ways.

We also had our first “Action Day” of the session last week. Constituents from across the state met with key legislators to talk about the transportation package and asked them to:

  • Give Sound Transit full authority to expand to communities all across the Puget Sound region
  • Increase transit investments to reduce traffic and pollution and;
  • Remove the provision that pits transit funding against clean fuels. We’ve definitely got some champions on the House but that doesn’t mean our job is done.

Whew, so what happens next? The hearing for the Transportation Package is currently scheduled for March 26th. We will have opportunities to testify at the hearing, and we’ll be asking the TCC community (if you’re reading this that probably means you!) to write their legislators, asking them to pass a bill that supports transit, gives Sound Transit full authority, and doesn’t pit transit against clean fuels. This will likely be done with amendments in the committee.

Then, if the House Transportation Committee votes to pass the bill (presumably fixed at this point), the leaders of both the House and Senate will get together to agree on compromises on the differences between the Senate version and the House version.

All of that means there is still a ton of negotiation to be done, and we’ll need your help to make a pretty heavy lift on this Transportation package as well on our other legislative priorities. Even though the cherry trees are in full bloom, this session is only half over. If the first half is any indicator, there will be even more fireworks before the gavel drops.

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