It was President Harry Truman who once said, “Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.” Yet now as both the State House and Senate struggle with the bills passed by the opposite house, both Republicans and Democrats are re-learning this lesson. Both parties would prefer to kick the more controversial bills away, but the political heat forces them to try and compromise on some and the result is a sticky mess.

Among others, House Democrats must struggle with Carbon Reduction, Transportation, and Education Accountability bills that passed the Senate.  Senate Republicans in turn are struggling with Minimum Wage, Equal Pay, Toxic Chemical and Voting Rights bills that passed the House. Partisan stakeholder groups on both sides are not happy.

Meanwhile the next legislative cutoff is approaching on Wednesday, April 1, when all policy bills are required to be voted out of committee. Fiscal committees have until April 7 to pass out bills with budget impacts. Nonetheless, at this point in the session there is a growing number of bills designated NTIB (Necessary To Implement the Budget), and outside the cutoff restrictions.

Looming over all of this is the countdown on the first draft of the state budget which the House Democrats are expected to release within a week.

Lastly, not to be outdone by the State of Oregon, Washington appears to have its own state wide office holder scandal brewing. Troy Kelley has been awfully quiet since he took the helm of the State Auditor’s Office. So it’s not a good sign that the first major press he’s been able to generate is a federal investigation. Considered the vanilla wafer of Washington’s otherwise eccentric statewide personalities, Kelley is unlikely to find legislators and constituents to come to his aide should things continue on a sour trajectory. Already rumblings are heard around the dome of possible replacements should Kelley resign. More from Austin Jenkins on this developing story. And you can join all the cool kids tracking it over on twitter.

QUOTES

“It’s kind of unique when you are working on a Governor request bill that gets vetoed by the Governor.”  Sen. Brian Hatfield was testifying Wednesday on SB 5442, concerning eligibility criteria for the community economic revitalization board programs.

“Oh Jesus.” A TVW hot mic catches Lt. Governor Brad Owen in an unfortunate eye roll moment.

CALENDAR

There are two feature hearings this week.  The first is on Tuesday at 10 AM when the House Technology and Economic Development Committee will hold a public hearing on SB 5735, the Senate alternative to Governor Inslee’s cap and trade bill.  SB 5735 uses the existing mechanisms in the Energy Independence Act (Initiative 937) to reduce carbon emissions without imposing a new tax on major employers and consumers.  The bill would allow utilities to meet I-937 targets by investing in verified carbon reductions such as electric vehicle infrastructure and fleet vehicle conversions. Opponents argue the bill will not reduce as much carbon as the Governor’s bill, HB 1342, and would leave the EIA unchanged.

The second is on Thursday at 3:30 PM with the House Transportation Committee holding a public hearing on the Senate’s Transportation package, SB 5987.  The bill would increase the gas tax by 11.7 cents per gallon in order to fund transportation projects across the state.  While there is broad support for new funding, Democrats are particularly opposed to a couple of conditions, “poison pills,” that have been added to the package including a prohibition on the Governor adopting a Low Carbon Fuel Standard in Washington State to further reduce carbon emissions.

Other public hearings include:  Senate Government Operations and Security Committee on Monday at 10 AM hearing HB 1745, the Voting Rights bill; Senate Energy Environment & Telecommunications Committee on Tuesday hearing  HB 1472, the Toxic Chemicals bill (the Governor considers this to be tied to the proposed new Water Quality rules which will close public comment after today, Monday).

Finally both the House and Senate will be considering new tax breaks for a variety of activities from reinstating a tax preference for high-technology research and development (SB 5665, HB 1769) to extending the expiration date of tax preferences for biofuel, biomass, to extending the Green Fuel Vehicle Sales Tax Exemption and funding the EV Infrastructure Bank (SSB 5333), and energy conservation (SB 5700, HB 1758).  The Senate Ways & Means Committee hearing will be on Wednesday at 3:30 PM and the House Finance Committee hearing will be on Friday at 8 AM.

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