Bills being considered in Olympia. The good, the bad, & the very, very ugly.

Bills are making their way through the legislature in Olympia at high speed.  Ruth Peterson of Lewis County (PCO, State Committeewoman, who works at the Capitol in the State Senate), shares a few of the ones that need attention.  The following is from her email alert:

Heard last week, but you can definitely still weigh in with your legislators:

SB 5096 – Capital Gains Income Tax – make no mistake. This is a push for an income tax.

SB 5037 – Sen. Braun – requiring schools to offer face to face classes depending on COVID metrics. While we believe in local control, there needs to be some incentive for school districts to be required to meet face to face. Our kids have been out of school for a year. Some are thriving, but a huge number are going to suffer in their educational future forever because of this!

SB 5114 – Sen. Braun – Another big one. This would move all of the state into Phase 2 of the Governor’s “COVID plan,” allowing restaurants and other industries to open back up safely. We are killing our small businesses and the hospitality industry is suffering mightily. There were over 1600 people who signed up to testify. The vast majority were for the bill. It sounds like the Chair will not allow it to come out of committee. You need to make your voice heard.

SB 5243 – I usually tell you about controversial bills, but having built several houses, I think this one looks interesting by one of our new Senators, Senator Gildon. This bill will streamline the approval of engineered plans. A little in the weeds, but honestly, trying to build anything in some counties is an absolutely nightmare. SB 5207 by another freshman senator, Senator Wilson, J. (We now have two Wilsons – Lynda & Jeff). This bill will streamline environmental permitting.

SB 5245 – Sen. Brown – Requiring written notification of crime victims before release of prisoners for certain crimes.

SB 5316 – Sen. Wilson, L. – This is also in the weeds, but this is big. The state has gotten

The ugly (I can’t even call these bad – they are far worse)

Heard last week (but you can still contact your legislators)

HB 1110 – Increase gas prices – Isn’t this one of the best ideas? Right when most of WA state has been out of work for the past year? Here is the Everett City Herald weighing in and they are not a conservative news source by any means. Even they hate the bill — https://www.tri-cityherald.com/article228308049.html?fbclid=IwAR1x8WhOOBpjcCAPzS3vyNrzeBZw3z8hjs-lq2gAtA4QLCJX0HZMniwiDT0  
There are three new bills addressing the carbon tax: SB 5231, HB 1091, and HB 1036.

HB 1141 – Expanding assisted suicide

SB 5044 – Imposing Critical Race Theory on our children in public school. This one is fast tracked, folks. May be on the floor this week, passed and sent to the House for a quick pass and then, boom, into law before the end of February. You need to organize and work to get this defeated. A very good article about this issue: SB 5044 would require public school training curriculum that runs afoul of core civil rights protections by Liv Finne at WPC.

SB 5052 – Concerning the creation of health equity zones. This is the year of racial equity & social justice. These bills are fast tracked and will likely be passed. There are a bunch of them. I’m only hitting on a few. These are racists bills. If you have to check a person’s color or gender to be able to choose what action to take, you are doing it wrong!

Hearing TODAY – Monday the 25th:

SB 5078 – I’ve told you about the Hi Cap Magazine ban bill which is being heard this morning (the 25th) at 9:30 (both this and 5038 are being fast-tracked. Fire up those emails!)

HB 1225 – creating school-based health centers in our schools. Basically removes the parent from the health decisions of their children. This one is fast-tracked, as well. Scheduled to be passed out of committee before the end of the week.

Hearing on Tuesday the 26th:

SB 5227 – Requiring diversity, equity, and inclusion training AND testing at our institutions of higher learning. Can you say, “racist indoctrination?”

SB 5038 – Prohibits open carry at demonstrations at the Capitol.

SB 5188 – It’s baaaaack! The WA State Bank. Ugh. Terrible idea, but they are definitely pushing it. We have great ratings in this state, thanks to Treasurer Duane Davidson (we will miss you!). They want to destroy that good rating by creating our own state bank. Not the place of government to do that!

There are lots more bills, but that’s probably enough for now. There are over 350 bills already in the Senate alone. I will be back with more in a week. But there are lots of places to get info on these bills. The NRA, the Washington Policy Center, WFPI, Freedom Foundation, etc. Good sources to keep up to date.