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Home / Washington Business - January/February 2004 / 2004 Legislative Preview |
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2004 Legislative Preview |
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Written On: January/February 2004 |
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Written By: By Paul Schlienz |
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Although AWB’s 2004 legislative agenda encompasses many issues, the common thread is creating a more prosperous and business-friendly Washington. State legislators will gather in Olympia in early January for a 60-day session.
AWB’s mission is to be competitive with other states and countries.
“We need to create and maintain jobs, AWB Vice President Gary Chandler said. “The state needs to make spending decisions like a family or business. There is only so much money and we have to spend it on the essentials.”
First and foremost, AWB will push to make the Priorities of Government and Price of Government (POG) budgeting process a permanent part of state government. Thanks to POG, Washington was able to preserve essential service without major tax increases like those in 1993. In our state nearly half of the state and local taxes collected come from business so tax increases hurt employers in Washington harder than in other states.
Specifically, AWB is looking to introduce legislation to institutionalize POG throughout state government. Some agencies were exempt from the initial POG. “We want to be sure that POG is in place no matter who is governor,” stated AWB’s Tom Dooley.
Tax Appeal Changes Needed
AWB will also push for comprehensive state tax appeals reform, Dooley said.
“We do not believe the Dept. of Revenue’s appeals division is fair and unbiased. People sometimes think because they’re going before a judge that they’ll get an impartial hearing. In reality, the department’s administrative law judges answer to the director.”
AWB, the Washington State Society of CPAs, the tax section of the Washington State Bar Association and the Tax Executives Institute are committed to overhauling this system. Their reforms include:
• A taxpayer’s right to a review of tax decisions by an independent examiner,
• Requiring Revenue to publish and follow all rulings issued by the department, agencies or courts reviewing these rulings,
• Giving taxpayers access to an independent hearing without prepaying assessed taxes,
• The right to an informal independent hearing with representation of the taxpayer’s choosing, and,
• Requiring that individuals who review tax agency decisions be members of the Bar Association or have a high level of experience in the application of state property and excise tax law.
Dooley believes AWB’s tax and budget agenda will have a fighting chance in 2004’s Legislature. “We’ve had good bipartisan support on
tax issues.”
Liability Insurance Reforms Are “Musts” in 2004
“We’re going to aggressively push a liability reforms,” said AWB’s Kris Tefft. AWB will work through the Liability Reform Coalition, which it helped establish in 1986.
At the federal level, AWB will continue its efforts to reform medical malpractice, asbestos and class action lawsuit reform.
“We are responsible for the Washington congressional delegation as part of a national coalition,” AWB President Don Brunell said. All three bills failed in 2003, but are positioned to move in the U.S. Senate after passing in the House.
In the last state legislative session a comprehensive tort reform bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but died in the House.
AWB’s liability reform agenda includes:
• An end to ambiguities in employment law,
• Greater employer protections for reference checks,
• Reasonable limits to liability for wrongful acts of third parties,
• Greater fairness in the determination of tort judgment interest rates,
• Reasonable limits on pain and suffering (non-economic damages) and,
• Non-regulatory ways to bring insurers back into the state’s liability market.
• Tefft also believes there may be legislation to make employment law more favorable to business.
“We need legislative changes to give employers greater certitude and predictability so they can rely on consistent federal and state standards for payment of wages and exemption from certain requirements for salaried employees.”
While 2003’s legislative session made stunning progress in reforming unemployment insurance, much remains to be done with workers’ comp.
Introduced last session, SB 5378 would simplify workers’ compensation wage calculation and save more than $124 million while addressing costly court decisions. SB 5378 passed the Senate but died in the House. AWB’s Amber Balch Carter believes a grass-roots effort is needed to pass SB 5378 because of strong union objections.
Health care reform also is a priority, according to Carter. “We need health care market reforms, including giving employers greater flexibility in choosing which benefits are covered in their insurance programs.” AWB believes SB 6521 provides those reforms if passed.
Minimum Wage Laws Need Fixing
AWB’s Grant Nelson is gearing up for another attempt to reform Washington’s minimum wage laws, the nation’s highest at $7.15 per hour. Last session a bill passed the Senate that would have tied Washington’s minimum wage to the unemployment rate, but it died in the House.
Nelson is also working on environmental issues, including electronic waste, stormwater and greenhouse gasses.
HB 1942 puts enormous responsibility on manufacturers of electronics products, including computers, televisions, games and other electronic devices, and retailers who sell those products. Oregon and California already passed legislation addressing electronic waste. Now Washington’s legislators are looking at those two models.
While Oregon sets up an advisory committee to examine the capacity to reuse and recycling, California law requires manufacturers to abide by expensive labeling and reporting requirements and to eliminate certain heavy metals in the products. Retailers are forced to collect a fee at the time of sale to pay for collection and recycling.
“Rather than a state-by-state approach, we should push for a national solution,” Nelson concluded.
For the past three years, AWB has attempted to develop an industrial stormwater permitting system that is fair to business. Current stormwater regulations need to be simplified, reducing costs for businesses while maintaining current environmental protections. While many of AWB’s efforts have focused on the courts, Nelson expects stormwater to be an issue during the 2004 Legislature.
On greenhouse gasses, the Energy Facilities Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) and the Dept. of Ecology are considering carbon dioxide mitigation rules. “The federal government should be in the lead on this issue,” Nelson observed. “If a state CO2 mitigation policy is established, it needs to be voluntary. Industry should be given credit for all carbon dioxide reduction.”
Also on Nelson’s plate is PBT (Persistent Bio Toxins) legislation.
Water Rights are Front and Center
Water rights have been a point of contention throughout Washington’s history. AWB’s Kristen Sawin anticipates water rights relinquishment will be the big issue this year.
“The ‘use it or lose it’ policy that’s currently in place is a disincentive for water rights holders to engage in conservation. We need to develop a more rational policy.
“As for land use permitting AWB is interested in legislation to require local governments to make timely permitting decisions in 120 to 150 days,” Sawin stated. “The more politically unpopular a project, the more problems many local governments have in making permitting decisions. There needs to be clout in the law to force local governments to make timely decisions.”
For more details on AWB’s legislative agenda, visit our website at www.awb.org. It is updated daily to keep you up-to-date.
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