Despite the session’s complexity, lawmakers finished on time Sunday evening, gaveling out one last time after signing a budget including a host of new taxes, cuts to services and new spending. Over the final full week in session, the Legislature approved contentious policies like yearly rent caps, new permit requirements for purchasing guns, parental rights stipulating when family members can access information about their school-aged children and the establishment of unemployment benefits for striking workers.
Overall, they approved three new spending plans and more than 400 bills.
Sunday came as a relief to both Democrats and Republicans, who described the session as one of the most difficult they’d ever experienced, with budget challenges, tough policy fights and a few unexpected personal losses.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest moments from the past 105 days:
Executive challenges
Majority Democrats’ work this year was complicated by a lack of (public) direction from Gov. Bob Ferguson.
In the final weeks of the session, Ferguson refused multiple new revenue sources proposed to balance the budget, but did not specify a clear alternative to fill the funding gap. He was also tight-lipped about hotly debated policies like rent caps, parents’ rights and unemployment benefits for striking workers.
Still, Ferguson managed some big wins. Lawmakers approved a $100 million grant program for local law enforcement; backed down on some of their major tax increase proposals; and passed some of Ferguson’s priority policies, including reimbursing farmers who have been paying extra in fuel costs and prohibiting other states’ National Guard forces from entering Washington without permission.
In a statement released Sunday, Ferguson said he appreciated that lawmakers had changed their approach on the budget and approved some of his priorities.
“I look forward to carefully reviewing the budgets line by line over the next few weeks,” he said. “When that review is complete, I will share my thoughts with the public in greater detail.”
The fate of the budget and all policy bills now rest with Ferguson, who has 20 days to sign or veto laws. Any bill he neither signs nor vetoes automatically becomes law on its effective date.
Budgets balanced
Both the operating budget, which funds government services and programs, and the transportation budget, which funds roads and transit, are facing shortfalls over the next few years.
Lawmakers ended this session with balanced approaches for both, employing new taxes, fees and spending cuts to fill funding gaps.
The final operating budget totals nearly $78 billion over the next two years. It includes more than $4 billion in new tax revenue and nearly $3 billion in spending cuts. These reductions will have their greatest impact on higher education, behavioral health and health care programs.
In the final transportation budget, lawmakers approved a 6-cent increase to the state gas tax. The tax, currently 49.4 cents a gallon, will increase to 55.4 cents in July. It’s expected to bring in $1.4 billion over the next six years, helping to close a funding gap for major future projects.
The final deals also include fee hikes for Discover Passes for state parks, hunting and fishing licenses, vehicle weight, new state IDs and ferry rides.
Party politics
The past 105 days sometimes divided majority Democrats and pushed Republicans to protest.
“This is the kind of year in which all of us get whatever limits we say we have pushed very hard,” Jinkins told reporters earlier this month.
Votes were split on new taxes, yearly rent increases, the closure of a school for people with developmental disabilities, the final budget proposal and other contentious policies, with policies sometimes passing by only one or two votes.
Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said it felt as if fewer bills passed with bipartisan or unanimous support this year than in previous years.
“Democrats were negotiating with themselves,” he said. “It was definitely more partisan.”
Progressive Democrats weren’t shy about expressing disappointment in Ferguson and some of their moderate colleagues, joining protests with state workers and rallies calling for more taxes on the wealthy.
Republicans too found ways to show their distaste for the majority’s policies. Throughout the session, GOP members criticized Democrats for increasing taxes, proposing unnecessary cuts and working on budget proposals without their input.
In the House, Republicans used procedural tactics and protests to delay passage of controversial policies.
All House Republicans walked out in protest after a committee approved the closure of Rainier School, which houses adults with disabilities. During a final vote on a parents’ rights bill last week, Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah, shouted angrily in disagreement despite not having been called on by the Speaker. He was subsequently banned from the final days of floor sessions, and had to join virtually. His outburst shut down House floor debate for hours as lawmakers determined how to proceed.
In the Senate, Braun said Republicans took a different approach, focusing more on changing lawmakers’ minds on majority bills instead of using procedural measures to slow the legislative process. He said he felt they had been successful in stopping a number of proposals that they did not support.
Compromises in the final days
A host of much-debated policies got their final approval over the weekend, following days of closed-door negotiations and compromise.
Among the most contentious was a bill to cap yearly rent increases. The final version caps yearly rent increases for most renters at 7% plus inflation, not exceeding 10%.
Another big fight this session involved rights for parents of children in K-12 schools. Lawmakers voted along party lines to pass a bill updating an initiative that passed last year outlining parents’ access to information about their children in public schools. The final proposal removes some parental access to medical and mental health records, as well as prior notification of when medical services are being offered to a child and when their child needs follow-up medical care outside of school. Democrats said most of these rights were already included in other state and federal laws, but Republicans said their excision stripped protections for parents.
A bill giving striking workers unemployment benefits passed the Legislature after Democrats compromised over how long workers could access benefits. A proposal requiring permits and safety training to accompany firearm purchases in Washington also passed last week.
Lawmakers sent Ferguson hundreds of other bills on everything from the state’s recycling system to closures of schools for people with disabilities to residential parking requirements to allowing for denser housing near transit to requiring that insurance companies cover a 12-month supply of birth control.
Big losses
For lawmakers in Olympia, this legislative session was marked by unexpected losses of colleagues past and present. Longtime House Speaker Frank Chopp, who retired last year, died in March. His death came just days after that of former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, the longest-serving secretary of state in Washington history.
The wife of Republican Sen. Chris Gildon, Autumn, died on Saturday, April 26, after she was found unresponsive at her workplace. Gildon spent the final day of the session at home with his family.
The Senate lost a sitting member. Sen. Bill Ramos, D-Issaquah, died just one week before the session adjourned. The Senate, with members of the House sitting in the galleries, honored him in an emotional tribute on Sunday.
