Soon, more than 100 politicians from all over Washington will walk into rooms with coastal rhododendrons and English dogwood flowers printed on the carpet.
They will begin to debate potential state laws. They will argue over how to spend money from the state’s coffers while wearing suit jackets and walking through the hallways of the state Capitol Building, past marble drinking fountains and beneath Tiffany chandeliers.
Those 147 people are elected members of the Washington Legislature. On Monday, they will convene in Olympia to kick off this year’s legislative session.
The state government is made up of two chambers: The House of Representatives and the Senate. The House has 98 members, and the Senate has 49.
This year, the legislative session lasts 60 days, from Jan. 8 to March 7. In odd-numbered years, the sessions run longer — for 105 days.
For Washingtonians who reside east of the Cascade Curtain, the goings-on within the towering dome-shaped state Legislative Building may seem distant or out of reach. (Let’s face it: A chandelier the size of a Volkswagen Beetle hangs from the ceiling of the gargantuan marble structure.)
Yet what happens in the Capitol does not stay in the Capitol, and decisions made there impact daily lives: what’s taught in public schools, how much you pay in taxes, what types of gun you can legally carry.
For about a month, lawmakers have prefiled more than 300 bills in both the House and Senate. The proposed laws cover topics like housing, the opioid epidemic and climate change. In a poll released last week, 84 percent of voters indicated they want the state to fund behavioral health programs and combat the statewide opioid epidemic. Behavioral health is one of a few topics likely to come up in discussions between lawmakers in the upcoming session.
Here’s more on that, along with some other issues to keep an eye on:
Behavioral health and the opioid epidemic
Substance-use disorder. Depression. Post-traumatic stress disorder. These challenges intertwine in the lives of thousands of Washingtonians. In many places in the state, it takes five minutes and less than a dollar to buy a potentially life-ending fentanyl pill. In many of those same places, it can take hours to reach an opioid-use disorder treatment center.
Washington overdose deaths increased 21.4 percent between February 2022 and February 2023, the highest jump of any state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lawmakers are grappling with how to combat the epidemic. Many have predicted that the topic of behavioral health will be one of the most urgent things discussed in the next 60 days.
Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, chairs the Senate Ways & Means Committee. At a legislative preview event last week, she listed behavioral health and substance-use disorder treatments as one of her top priorities this year.
“Those are issues that all our communities and our family members continue to struggle with,” Robinson said. “We certainly have made a lot of investments in that area in the last several years, but I do think that’s an area that I will continue to push on.”
Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, leads the Republican members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. At the event last week, she echoed concerns about the fentanyl overdose crisis. Wilson said she will continue to push for a bill she proposed last year that would make it a Class B felony to expose dependent children and adults to fentanyl.
“We have way too many children that are being overdosed,” Wilson said. “It is either by their guardian or their parent. We need to be able to get these people into treatment.”
Last month, Gov. Jay Inslee proposed that lawmakers spend $464 million to fund 110 new beds in state behavioral health facilities, open a new behavioral health facility in Tukwila, and support a state diversion program that serves people who would otherwise be in jail to await competency services.
The housing shortage and homelessness
In the next 20 years, the Evergreen State must find a way to build a million homes if it wants to accommodate projected population growth, according to Inslee.
This year, the governor is asking lawmakers to give $100 million of their supplemental budget to continue funding a state housing and shelter program. The program, named the Rights-of-Way Safety Initiative, was spearheaded by Inslee to clear homeless encampments off public land and move campers into stable shelter.
The program has drawn criticism due to its lofty price tag, while supporters argue that helping people find safe homes will save the state money down the line.
The idea of rent control is another controversial topic among lawmakers right now. Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, argued that rent control is “counterproductive,” and the way to fix the housing crisis is by simply building more homes.
Sen. Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, suggested that this session might be a good time to push for more “meaningful but smaller steps” to address the housing crisis, like a bill to incentivize developers to turn commercial properties into rental properties through tax breaks.
When asked about rent control, he told The Spokesman-Review that “details matter” and that the state’s first priority should be building more housing.
“Yes, we need to help renters now,” Billig said. “We also have to balance any policies to make sure we are encouraging and not stifling the housing supply. In any policy, I want to get that balance right.”
Last August, the Gray and Oregon Road fires leveled hundreds of structures and displaced many residents of Spokane County. Local lawmakers across the aisle have vowed to do what they can to help the small community rebuild.
Flames that day burned just 300 yards from the home of Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Medical Lake. In a phone interview, Holy said he plans to ask the Legislature to send half a million dollars to help his home community rebuild.
“There’s a gap in there, and I’m trying to backfill that gap to get them back to 100 percent,” Holy said.
Billig said he supports asking the state to send more money and is working on a budget proviso to do so.
Climate change
Another hot-button issue this year is the state’s Climate Commitment Act, a law passed in 2021 to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emission across the state.
For months, the climate act has sparked heated debates between critics who blame high gas prices on the legislation and supporters who say big oil companies and a complicated economy are to blame for the uptick in prices.
A ballot initiative to repeal the state’s climate law reportedly picked up more than 400,000 signatures, well above the minimum of 324,516 needed to make it onto the November election ballot.
The effort to do away with state climate legislation is one of six initiatives backed by Let’s Go Washington to repeal laws passed by the Democrat-led state Legislature. Brian Heywood, a business owner from Redmond, has bankrolled the initiatives, spending more than $5 million trying to get them on the November ballot.
Sen. Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said he wants the Climate Commitment Act gone.
“In Washington, we ought to be able to handle climate change in ways other than on the backs of working Washingtonians,” Braun said. “It’s a highly regressive tax.”
Billig said he opposes the initiative to repeal the state’s climate policy.
“These initiatives roll back that progress,” Billig said. “I have confidence in the voters. I think once all the information gets out there, I think people do want to take responsibility for our part in climate change.”
Over the next 60 days, lawmakers have a bevy of state issues to discuss. Other topics on the docket will likely include K-12 education, transportation, police pursuits and law enforcement staffing levels. The Spokesman-Review’s Olympia bureau reporter will be following all the action up close and personal.
If you want to contact a lawmaker who represents your district, call the legislative hotline at 800-562-6000 (TTY for Hearing Impaired 800-833-6388) to leave a message, or visit an online tool to enter your area of residence and find out who your local legislators are.
When leaving a message for your legislator(s), be sure to provide your name and street address or city/town of residence.
