Legislative Bulletin Bill Room (360) 786-7573 Legislative Hot Line 1-800-562-6000 February 11, 2000 http://www.wacounties.org Bulletin #5 Washington Counties Scholarships! Post those flyers and pass out the applications! The application process for 2000 Washington Counties Scholarship Fund awards is underway and applications have been mailed to every county office. This year five $1500 awards will be made to children of county employees who will be enrolled full-time during the 2000/01 school year in a baccalaureate program, associate degree program, or vocational/technical certification program. Dependents of county officials and employees have until April 3, 2000 to apply. For information or applications, call (360) 753-7319 or (360) 753-1886. The Washington Counties' Scholarship Fund is a joint project of WACO and WSAC. Please feel free to copy the application and encourage eligible students to apply! ************************************** FUNDING FOR I-695 LOSS IS MOVING TARGET With only a month to go in the regular session neither the House nor the Senate is ready to present a budget. It is the House's turn to take the lead; however, with a 49-49 split it is unlikely they will find agreement. Therefore, it is likely that the Senate will present a supplemental budget on or about the 50th day (Feb 29th). The Senate wants to deal with the I-695 impacts within the budget, rather than through specific legislation. This makes it difficult to know exactly what the details of any proposal is until the budget document itself is made public. At the last Legislative Steering Committee meeting, January 28, the committee was briefed that key legislators were aiming at a proposal that would restore up to 90% of the lost MVET funds for public health (about $34 million). They were told that it would come out of the Health Services Account. In addition, there would be up to another $85 million for criminal justice, and sales tax equalization split between cities and counties (the exact split had not been decided). This would have provided about $119 million for cities and counties, a figure very close to what the Governor had proposed in his budget. The loss for transit ($100 million for King County alone) is being debated in the Transportation committees. Proposals center around allowing the lid on sales tax for transit to be removed, thus giving King, Snohomish and Kitsap the authority to go to the voters for a vote this next fall. The amount of bridge money to keep transit operating until the election has not been decided, but it is rumored that it that $70 million will be offered. Still under discussion is use of using general fund dollars for transit, ferries and highways. Of course the use of general fund dollars for transportation places additional pressure on other needs. This past week, things have changed from two weeks ago. What we now hear is that there may be $85 million available for non-transit MVET replacement, but it will include public health and it will all come out of the general fund. So the pie is getting smaller, as the realities sink in that there will not be a 2/3 majority vote to either raise the I-601 lid or to use reserve funds. This is going to make the decision very difficult as they try to balance, education, transportation and replacement of MVET with limited budget options. In the House some Republicans want to drive money back to the locals by identifying budget cuts, or earmarking future sources of state funds. Either way, it will serve to lower the I-601 lid, something the Democrats oppose. Some Democrats have suggested the counties and cities have enough excess taxing capacity (they have circulated a paper saying the locals have $600 million) to take care of most of their needs. In either case there is little likelihood of agreement. Therefore, the Senate budget is the most likely vehicle to provide any relief. It is still unclear whether any reimbursement for WSAC supported criminal justice bills will be considered in this budget. WSAC continues to advance the position that we need to be reimbursed for judges salaries and benefits, state prisoners in jails, indigent defense costs for dependencies. One good piece of news is the LOEFF 1 Medical Costs bill that would provide a potential future source of funds to pay nursing home care for deputies and immediately reduce the contribution rate from 6 percent to zero. This bill passed the Senate and has a decent chance of passing the in House. Today the Legislative Steering Committee will be in Olympia and the committee members will be contacting key members of the Legislature on the floor of the Senate and House and will urge them to provide a funding package for transit, criminal justice, public health and sales tax equalization. With only four weeks left in the session, all members should take the time now to call, write or email you legislators and insist that they provide for lost funds essential to the public's health and safety. ************************************** SENIOR CITIZEN - PROPERTY TAX RELIEF On Monday afternoon, the House Finance Committee considered HB 1683, prime sponsored by Representative Pennington. The measure would extend benefits to senior citizens whose incomes are between $30,000 and $50,000. Anyone who would qualify in this category would have a limitation placed upon any property valuation increases at 2% per year. The measure goes on to provide that this restricted value will be used for calculation of the state levy in all instances and will be used for calculation of local levies unless the Board of County Commissioners votes to opt out of the program on behalf of all units of local government. If the commissioners made that choice, then the full market value would remain on the rolls for all local taxing districts, but the restricted value would be on the rolls for just state levy purposes. The measure than goes on to say that all levies will be adjusted to offset any tax shift which would have resulted from this reduction in increases in assessed valuation. Assessors would have to keep track of the incremental change in values and what that would translate into in terms of taxes that would have been paid had the full values been placed on the rolls. Then the levies for the appropriate taxing districts would have to be reduced by that incremental amount so that no tax shift would take place. Also heard on Monday afternoon was HB 2551, Governor Locke's bill, which would allow eligible seniors and disabled persons a credit against the state levy. Speaking in favor of the measure was Fred Kiga, Director of the Department of Revenue (DOR). Mr. Kiga stressed that the Governor's proposal would not result in any loss of revenues to local government and that there would be no tax shift to the tax payers. Testifying in opposition to both of these measures was a citizen lobbyist, Paul Telford, of Thurston County, who attacked both of these bills as "pandering" and asked the legislature to work on "real" property tax reform which would benefit all property taxpayers and not a select segment of the community. ************************************** DOR PROPERTY TAX SIMPLIFICATION On Monday afternoon, the House Finance Committee gave a do pass recommendation to HB 2783, which is the DOR clean up bill. Assessors have not recently reviewed this, and should access it on the Internet and take a look. The Department of Revenue shared this with us earlier in the year, and it appears likely it will pass, so a quick review would be prudent. On Monday afternoon, the Senate Ways & Means Committee had SB 6832 listed for public hearing. It was the 24th bill on an agenda of 35 bills. This measure was introduced at the request of Pierce County Assessor/Treasurer Barbara Gelman. The apparent problem is that when a senior citizen makes a conversion from an IRA to a Roth IRA, it shows up as taxable income on IRS returns, although the senior does not actually receive any income since the total amount of funds are transferred from one to the other. In some cases, the amount of "income" is enough to disqualify them from the senior citizen exemption, even though they actually have no further disposable income. The bill died in the Senate Ways & Means Committee with the cutoff. ************************************** TRANSPORTATION ************************************** FERRY-DEPENDENT COUNTIES TO RALLY AT THE CAPITOL The Ferry-Dependent Counties Coalition is planning a Thursday, February 17 rally on the Capitol steps to encourage the governor and legislators to maintain existing ferry service. The rally will begin at 12:30 p.m. on the front steps of the Capitol building in Olympia. Central and south Puget Sound counties are arranging boat transportation to carry rally supporters from various communities to Olympia; exact boarding locations and times still to be determined. San Juan County is arranging bus transportation from the Anacortes ferry terminal for island residents disembarking from the early "redeye" ferry. The coalition welcomes all ferry users and supporters to join in the music, signs, and speeches to send a powerful message to the Legislature. Attendees are encouraged to wear green and white (ferry system colors) and bring a fog horn. For more information on this event, contact the Kitsap County Commissioners office at 360-337-7146 or the San Juan County Commissioners office at 360-378-2898, or check out the ferry rally home page at: http://ferryrally.homepage.com. The Ferry-Dependent Counties Coalition comprises the following counties: Clallam, Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom. ************************************** FERRY PROPOSALS MOVE TO RULES COMMITTEES Two major ferry-related bills are still afloat. SSB 6212 is in Senate Rules Committee, eligible to be placed on the floor calendar at any time. This substitute bill combines several proposals that were considered in the Senate Transportation Committee, including allowing privatization of passenger-only ferry service if the state abandons routes and creating a task force to make recommendations on long-term service and fare structures. SHB 2866 is under review by the House Rules Committee. This version of the bill drops a controversial provision for ferry fare increases, but still provides for a task force similar to that created by the Senate bill. ************************************** BILL TO LIFT LID ON TRANSIT TAX CLEARS HURDLE TO HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE House Transportation Committee voted 18-6 last week to pass HB 3074 on to the House Rules Committee. The bill would lift the sales-and-use tax lid for transit. Currently, transit agencies may levy only up to six-tenths of one percent. King and Snohomish Counties are currently levying the maximum tax; Kitsap County is at five-tenths of one percent. This bill would eliminate the maximum and allow any amount approved by the voters. ************************************** TRANSIT SYSTEM SERVICE REDUCTIONS - AT A GLANCE As a result of Initiative 695, local transit systems are losing more than $220 million in MVET funding in year 2000 alone. The 1999-2001 biennial loss is $441 million. As a result transit systems statewide already have implemented various degrees of service and staff reductions, and are planning further cuts. Many systems already are dipping into reserves. The attached spreadsheet, prepared by the Washington State Transit Association, shows current and future reductions for each transit system. ************************************** DAY LABOR BILL A SURPRISE SURVIVOR After a similar bill failed to get a hearing in the Senate State and Local Government Committee, Senate Transportation Committee Chair Mary Margaret Haugen introduced SB 6773. Following a tight Transportation Committee vote, the bill now awaits review in the Rules Committee. Counties supporting this bill should contact Rules Committee members and ask that the bill be moved to the floor. This bill would raise by 10 percent all day-labor limits for county road construction. The bill would benefit primarily small, rural counties and would most likely affect only one road project per county per year. Counties estimate that in-house road construction results in a one-half to two-thirds reduction in engineering costs, a one-quarter to one-third reduction in construction costs, and a project that takes one-third to one-half as long to design. ************************************** ENVIRONMENT, LAND USE & RESOURCES ************************************** A HANDFUL OF GMA BILLS REMAIN Most land use and GMA bills failed to make it past the Legislature's first cut-off and others died in Ways and Means or Appropriations. Few are left. SB 6446, which delays the time frame for revision of comprehensive plans based on Census 2000 population forecasts, remains alive. It says that needed revisions to comprehensive plans must be completed by September 1, 2003, a year later than current law. SB 6446 also clarifies that any critical areas ordinances which do not include "best available science" be revised by September 1, 2002. WSAC supports SB 6446 with an amendment to delete the five-year review requirement. Also still alive is Substitute SB 6519, requiring revisions to county- wide planning policies to include special purpose districts in GMA planning. WSAC opposes this bill. Senate Bill 5244 attempts to reverse the State Supreme Court's Mount Vernon decision to make GMA comprehensive plans prevail over outdated development regulations. Substitute SB 6643 amends the GMA population threshold so that the prison population in the new state corrections facility does not require Grays Harbor County to plan under GMA. HB2561 and SSB 6432 are companion bills to allow growth outside of urban growth areas for a national historic town, such as Port Gamble in Kitsap County. SSB 6583 allows legislators to sit ex officio on the King, Pierce and Snohomish Regional Growth Management Policy Board. ESB 5816, authorizing short plats up to nine lots, has moved from the Senate to the House. SB 6520 changes when a permit application vests. Under long- standing Washington law, a proposal is subject to the land use and regulatory provisions in place at the time a developer submits a complete application; SB 6520 changes the time of vesting to permit approval. Most states set vesting at the time of permit approval or after there is substantial investment in the project. HB 2985 allows hearing examiners to make final decisions on plats. ************************************** SHORELINES ISSUES REMAIN ALIVE Only three bills relating to shorelines remain alive. SHB 2806, which would have merged shoreline planning into the Growth Management Act died in House Appropriations Committee. Still alive are SHB 2391 and SSB 6776. SHB 2391 creates a Joint Task Force on Shoreline Planning to review and make recommendations for shoreline legislation and policy. The current guidelines revisions would be suspended until the Joint Task Force developed guidelines -- focused on urban shorelines environments west of the Cascades - and received assurances from federal agencies that revised master programs under these guidelines would meet ESA requirements. SSB 6776, requires King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap and Clark Counties and the cities within them, to adopt revised master programs within three years after receiving funding. Other counties and cities also would be required to amend shoreline master programs within three years after they receive full funding from the Legislature. Also still alive is SSB 6376, which allows landowners to seeks injunctions against violations of the shorelines act and master programs. ************************************** WELL DELEGATION BILLS MOVE FORWARD SSB 6349 and HB 2997 both continue to allow counties at their option to accept the responsibility for well inspection and decommissioning authorized in RCW 18.104.043. SSB 6349 has moved from the Senate to the House and HB 2997 is in House Rules and likely to be sent to the Senate. ************************************** PERMIT TIMELINES HUNG UP ON HOUSE FLOOR Substitute HB 2847 has been put on hold by House members alerted to its problems by counties phoning in. As reported from Committee, the bill permanently places in statute the 120-day permit clock but eliminates the protection that counties and cities have from suit if the timeline is not complied with. It also provides a mandamus remedy to compel a permit decision from the court after 120 days. Legislators sensitive to unfunded mandates have promised to work to fix this bill to continue both the 120-day requirement and protection from suit for failure to meet the deadlines. ************************************** CLINTON BUDGET PROPOSAL INCLUDES FUNDING FOR LAND PRESERVATION, SALMON RESTORATION, AND FARM CONSERVATION President Clinton's current budget proposal includes significant funding relief for salmon recovery efforts in the west. The proposed budget includes funding for federal, state, and local efforts that are directly and indirectly tied to salmon recovery. The proposal includes $100 million for direct salmon efforts by Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California as well as $60 million to implement the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the United States and Canada. Of note is the fact that the $100 million earmarked for the four-state fund is proposed as a dedicated recipient of Outer Continental Shelf oil revenues, which would eliminate the need for annual appropriations. Reportedly, $39 million is included for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The budget proposal includes approximately $100 million to fund projects by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps will receive $91 million for Columbia River basin projects. In addition, the Corps will receive funds for the study and design of projects in the Green/Duwamish and Stillaguamish basins, Bellingham Bay, and on nearshore habitat along the central Puget Sound shoreline. In addition, the President's budget proposal includes $1.4 billion for the "Lands Legacy" program, with $521 million targeted to state, local, and tribal governments for open space and wildlife initiatives and $450 million for expansion of national parks, forests, and refuges. It also includes $1.3 billion for farm conservation programs, including a new $600 million program to assist in farm conservation planning efforts. ************************************** SENATE BILLS PROPOSE TO GIVE CITIZENS ABILITY TO SUE UNDER STATE HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS If passed, two Senate Bills currently under consideration before the Senate Rules Committee would allow for citizen suit provisions under state environmental and health laws. SSB 6376 proposes to amend the Shoreline Management Act to allow private parties to seek injunctive relief. Currently, the Shoreline Management Act allows only the State Attorney General or the applicable local jurisdiction to bring a claim, which tends to result in monetary damages after a violation has occurred. SSB 6542 applies more broadly to state health and environmental laws. SSB 6542 would allow any citizen to bring a civil claim in Superior Court to enforce health and environmental standards or requirements, and governmental agency orders. Currently, citizens are limited in their ability to sue on behalf of the state to enforce environmental and health laws. ************************************** STATE SALMON OFFICE PREPARING TO DEVELOP VOLUNTARY CONSERVATION GUIDELINES FOR WATERSHED PLANNING EFFORTS The Governor's Salmon Office is preparing to develop voluntary state conservation guidelines for watershed planning efforts and seeks local government participation. The idea behind the guidelines is to link watershed management in Washington State with local salmon recovery and ESA response efforts. If they gain federal approval, the guidelines would provide voluntary criteria and procedures whereby local watershed management plans could be assured compliance under ESA. The guidelines are also believed to be a useful tool to improve consistency of watershed assessment and encourage data integration. The development effort will involve federal, state, local, and tribal representation. Involvement is intended to occur at two levels. The first level would be an "inner circle" of representation that will represent all interests, meeting together regularly to develop and finalize details of the guidelines. Inclusion in this inner group requires a dedication to attend meetings and a commitment to work out the details of the guidelines with the goal of federal protection under a future ESA 4(d) rulemaking. The development effort will be centered in the south Puget Sound region, although some meetings will be held in eastern Washington to ensure that eastern Washington representatives have the opportunity for involvement. The Governor's ESA office hopes to recruit two county/local representatives from outside the Tri-county area to participate as part of the "inner circle." It has been suggested that one of these representatives represent Southwest Washington and the other represent Eastern Washington. The second level of involvement will include persons who want to remain informed and involved, but will not be directly involved in the development of conservation guidelines. Rather, these people will receive information about the guidelines as they develop and will have the opportunity to provide input either through written comment or through representation by regional county representation. If you would like a copy of the current proposal or if you have interest in being involved in this group, please contact Joe Christy or Paul Parker at WSAC, 360.753.1886. You may also contact Phil Miller of the Governor's ESA office at 360.902.2219. Also, if you have not received email on this topic and would like to be added to the list currently receiving information please email Joe Christy at intern1@wacounties.org. ************************************** HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES ************************************** FISCAL CUT-OFF DOOMS ANOTHER LARGE NUMBER OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES BILLS As Tuesday, February 7 drew to a close, another large chunk of health and human services-related bills fell by the wayside as the fiscal committee deadline passed for bills in their house of origin. Some of the larger bills we have an interest in were amended narrowing their focus and cost and then moved on to the entire floor of the House and Senate. These included the Patient's Bill of Rights, HB 2331, which had the scope of the right to sue section narrowed to require both substantial harm and an independent review before qualifying for the right to sue. Discussions were held during the public hearing over the groups not covered in the bill and the health carriers urged their inclusion to no avail. Uncovered groups of interest to us include the self-insured counties and counties who purchase health benefits through the Washington Counties Insurance Fund; behavioral health programs we administer that have medicaid funds in them such as mental health, chemical dependency, and developmental disabilities; and public health which also receives some medicaid dollars. It appears the only local government programs that would be included are the few special districts who insure through the state Health Care Authority. They should examine the bill for potential cost impact. A number of Republicans voted against the bill as a protest against the failure so far to agree on an individual health insurance market bill. Those negotiations continue in privacy. Another bill of interest to counties is the Chemical Dependency Involuntary Treatment Act bill, SB 6749. This bill was narrowed to exclude the proposed expansion that would have allowed the involuntary commitment of an individual from a private residence. That pretty well removed the fiscal impact since the expanded definitions, improved clarity, and authority for other than superior and district courts to handle petitions don't change the essentially voluntary nature of the act as currently written. Note: People interested in this legislation should not be dismayed by the technological marvel of the system now calling this a bill relating to state forest lands in some of the state publications. It is still the ITA bill. A number of smaller bills of interest made it through the first screening by the fiscal committees. These include the atypical medication bill, HB 2663, the disabled persons' employment bill, HB 2364, the family long-term caregiver, HB 2454/SB 6546, the exchange of mental health information with DOC, HB 2513, SB 6487, and long-term care training, SB 6502. More in the public health arena were bills relating to microbial contamination of free-flowing water, HB 2462, youth access to tobacco, SB 5881, and the addition of "public health facilities" to the Health Care Financing Authority's scope, SB 6553. A couple of bills of interest did die in the fiscal committees. These included the mental health administrative cost and single audit bill, HB 2664, the intensive case management for TANF clients' program for community action agencies (Family Development Services), HB 3029, the plan to merge Aging and Health and Rehab at DSHS, HB 2627, the carve- out for DD/MH housing, HB 2981, and the bill to raise the wages of DD community service providers, SB 6623. POTENTIAL HEARINGS OF INTEREST IN HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NEXT WEEK Tentative schedules indicate that the bill regarding pulling the Residential Habilitation Centers out of DSHS and setting an independent administrative board, SB 6655, will have an informational hearing on Wednesday, February 16 in Senate Health & Long-Term Care at 1:30. Next Thursday, February 17 at 8:00 PM it appears the House Health Care and House Children and Family Services Committee will have a joint mental health hearing on a variety of subjects including the RSNs, parity, the PACT community service model, mental health audits, and possibly children's mental health. This is enough subject material to cover weeks much less one hearing. Senate Human Services and Corrections has tentatively set their schedule to include the House version of the exchange of mental health info with DOC, HB 2513 on Thursday, February 17 at 8:00 AM, and Rep. Kagi's blended funding bill, HB 2807 on Friday, February 18 at 1:30. ************************************** HARBORVIEW HOSPITAL TO TEST METHADONE PILOT PROJECT Beginning on February 1, Harborview Hospital became the first hospital- based clinic in the nation to provide methadone through their pharmacy to selected heroin addicts. Health officials hope opening the program will help ease the logjam of addicts waiting for treatment in the Seattle area. Seattle is reported by some drug-abuse experts as having one of the worst heroin problems in the country. The patients in the pilot project are those who have been in treatment for a long time and are stable. There is no need for them to be in a clinic with less stable patients says Dr. Joseph Merrill, a University of Washington researcher who will direct the project. The pilot is affiliated with Evergreen Treatment Services, a long-time methadone clinic in Seattle. It will serve as a model for studying how to integrate stable patients into a traditional medical practice. Evaluation of the program, including its implications for other projects, is being financed by a $350,000 three-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, long involved in health-care research. Patients' treatment is paid by their own insurance, Medicaid, or themselves. The King County Council recently authorized the expansion of the number of licensed treatment slots to 3,150 in an effort to combat the methadone treatment waiting list problem. Some say methadone is just substituting one drug for another. But addiction experts say it enables patients to hold a job, support their families and live a normal life. Studies have shown drops in crime and medical services as a result of methadone programs. Health officials also note the treatment helps slow the spread of HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases transmitted through shared needles. The Harborview project is the first in the country to receive permanent waivers of the stringent federal regulations for methadone programs from the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The project reflects a shifting philosophy among many experts that favors greater freedom for stabilized, recovering heroin addicts by distributing methadone through primary care physicians. Even the federal drug czar, General Barry McAffry supports the idea. The methadone bill from last session that would allow individual physician prescription and a lifting of the limit on enrollees in a program is alive in House Children and Family Services. The bill also includes a pre-emption of county authority to say no to methadone clinic facilities being sited in their county which the WSAC Legislative Steering continues to oppose. ************************************** OLYMPIA'S ST. PETER HOSPITAL'S PSYCHIATRIC INPATIENT UNIT IN PERIL IMPACTING SEVERAL RSNS The community inpatient unit that serves five counties as its primary inpatient resource is closely examining its ability to continue to provide services. Thurston-Mason, Grays Harbor and Timberlands RSNs would be heavily impacted by the loss of this resource. Their clients in crisis would be forced to go to other counties or Western State Hospital which are not good solutions. Other county inpatient units are fully utilized and Western State is staying barely at its required census target. Hospital administrator, Scott Bond cites rising health care costs, shrinking profit margins and lower reimbursements from the government, both federal and state, as jeopardizing the program. He says the unit's fate will be decided in April. Up to now, the hospital says it has been paying for the psychiatric unit out of cost-shifting from patients who have insurance. But along with several other units, the substance abuse treatment unit, the kids' sexual assault treatment unit, physical rehabilitation, and a Family Practice program that provides care to the poor, the psych unit's costs are becoming too large for the hospital to cover. Providence says it is spending $10 million per year more than it earns on these programs. Another huge cut will come to the hospital as its reimbursements for Medicare patients are cut to meet the 1997 federal Balanced Budget Act Amendment. These are estimated at $20 million over the next five years. Hospital administrators and their lobbyists have been working with the state legislature to try and win legislative support for higher reimbursement for in-patient care which will begin to help with the problem. So far it hasn't been promising, but certainly it isn't over as yet. Rep. Alexander, a key Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and the lead on mental health issues in his caucus says he is sympathetic to the problem and needs additional specific information from the hospital to go to bat for the psych unit. ************************************** LAW & JUSTICE ************************************** SENATE PASSES COUNTY EMINENT DOMAIN BILL With little debate, the Senate passed SB 6190 this week, sending it to the House for consideration. The bill declares that county eminent domain proceedings under chapter 8.08 RCW shall have precedence over all cases in court except criminal proceedings. The laws governing eminent domain for cities and state highway purposes have long given precedence to these cases over other non-criminal court cases This promotes expeditious resolution of public-use disputes in eminent domain proceedings. ************************************** SOME RELIEF POSSIBLE FOR JAIL HEALTH-CARE COSTS As reported in a previous Legislative Bulletin, Representative Cathy Wolfe has become very concerned about the costs associated with providing health services and prescription drugs for local jail inmates. According to a survey prepared by Wolfe's staff, health-care expenses accounted for 6.46 percent of 1998 jail budgets statewide. Five counties (Asotin, Jefferson, Kittitas, Whatcom, and Whitman) spent more than 10 percent of their 1998 jail budgets on health care. For her part, Wolfe has indicated that she will seek a budget proviso to establish a study of county jail health issues and to provide funding assistance for counties that experience unanticipated, catastrophic costs. In addition, the state Department of General Administration (GA) is developing a program for pharmaceutical services procurement that would allow local governments to purchase prescription drugs and pharmacy services at competitive rates that could generate significant savings for jails. The program will be modeled on a service in New York state that has been able to obtain significant reductions in prescription drug prices, competitive dispensing fees, and direct delivery of prescription drugs to local jails. Bill Joplin at GA is leading this project and anticipates a May effective date. For more information, contact Joplin at 360-902-7417. ************************************** INDIGENT DEFENSE BILL STALLED The Senate Ways and Means Committee declined to pass SSB 6386 before its cut-off deadline this week, but options might still remain to obtain funding for indigent defense for dependency cases. Some senators are discussing a budget proviso, among other approaches. The bill would transfer responsibility from the counties to the state for indigent defense in dependency and parental-rights termination cases. Counties currently spend more than $5 million a year to provide attorneys for indigent parents and other parties. The state Office of Public Defense would like to take over the function, and fund it at more than $10 million - comparable to the amount the DSHS and the Attorney General spend to initiate the cases. ************************************** TRAFFIC SAFETY BILL WOULD ABOLISH COUNTY DUI FUND Counties and cities are working to stall SB 6630, which is currently under review by the Senate Rules Committee. This bill takes funds from the Impaired Driving Safety Account, which the Legislature established in 1998 to assist counties and cities with the costs associated with DUI laws, moves the money to a new Traffic Safety Improvement Account, and repeals the Impaired Driving Safety Account. The state Traffic Safety Commission is strongly supporting the bill as a way to fund the Commission outside the transportation budget. The justification offered for this fund switch is that local governments currently receive only $1.2 million per year from the account and that the money would be better used by the Traffic Safety Commission for things like traffic safety task forces. Counties and cities are taking exception to that viewpoint. It is true that $1.2 million is not much money, but it was a commitment on the part of the Legislature to help local governments pay for the costs of a package of 1998 DUI legislation. And while the Traffic Safety Commission says it would return 60 percent of the funds it receives to local government, the bill itself does not say that local government will receive any money. In addition to redirecting local government funds to a state agency, the bill also establishes two new fines - a $10 fine for traffic infractions and a $50 fine for every misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor or felony traffic offense. These new fees would cause a further loss of funding to counties and cities as well as to the Public Safety and Education Account, which supports crime victims compensation. Every time a new non-waivable fine or fee is added to existing penalties, it tends to compress the amount of the underlying fines and fees that can be collected from violators. ************************************** OTHER LEGISLATIVE NEWS ************************************** PERS EARLY RETIREMENT The only early retirement bill still alive is the Governor's request bill, SB 6537, which relates only to PERS employees of certain state agencies specifically designated for a reduction in staffing. PENSION BILLS PASS SENATE, SB 6530, AND SB 6792 Both of these important pension bills passed out of the Senate this week and are now headed to the House where Appropriations will hear them. SB 6530 is the Pension Reform bill increasing PERS and LEOFF Plan 2 benefits while creating a new Plan 3. In last weeks' Legislative Bulletin we mistakenly stated for PERS 2 employees it would lower the reduction factor from early retirement to 30% per year. This should have read 3%. WSAC support is contingent upon the Legislature providing adequate funding for lost MVET funds. SB 6792 is a priority bill of WSAC and would provide an immediate reduction in the LEOFF 2 contribution rates. More importantly it will direct a study by the Joint Committee on Pension Policy next year that may provide at least $50 million to local governments for long-term nursing home care and extraordinary medical costs. Members are urged to contact members of House Appropriations and ask them to support the bill. ************************************** E-911 LOCAL OPTION TAX PASSES SENATE, SB 5542 SB 5542 has passed the Senate and is now in House Local Government. This is the same bill supported by WSAC last year and would authorize counties to impose an additional 0.1 percent sales tax for the financing, design, acquisition, construction, equipping, operating, maintaining, remodeling, repairing, re-equipping, and improvement of emergency communication systems and facilities, subject to voter approval. Authority is provided for counties to develop joint ventures to collocate emergency communication systems and facilities. This is the only E-911 bill alive that would offer financial assistance to local centers. Members are urged to contact members of the House Local Government Committee and ask them to support the bill. ************************************** JOINT TASK FORCE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT The WACO/WAPA legislative recommendation, proposing a joint task force on local governments, HB 2392, is in the House Rules Committee. Please call House Rules member in support of the bill and ask for it to be pulled to the House calendar. LAW ENFORCEMENT STUDY SHB 2370, directing the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) to conduct a law enforcement study, died with the cutoff in House in House Appropriations. STATE INVESTMENT BOARD SB 6271, the State Treasurer's request bill increasing the size of the State Investment Board by two members (one of whom would be a representative of local government), is in the Senate Rules Committee, waiting to pulled onto the Senate calendar. MANUFACTURED HOMES/ESCROW SHB 2872, establishing an escrow procedures for the sale of manufactured homes, so that any sale of a manufactured home whose title has not been eliminated prior to the sale shall be closed in escrow, is in the House Rules Committee. ************************************** CLERKS' BILLS MOVING HB 2328, Anti-harassment filing fees, and HB 2329, Judgment Summaries, are both scheduled for hearing in Senate Judiciary next Wednesday, February 16, 2000, at 8:00 a.m. Calls to Senator Mike Heavey, Chair, and the members of the committee are in order. SB 6154, Credit Cards, passed out of the Senate on Tuesday and has been referred to the House Local Government Committee. Please contact Representatives Pat Scott and Joyce Mulliken, Chairs, to request a hearing. Also contact your representatives on Local Government to enlist their support of SB 6154. SB 6155, Removing social security numbers from dissolution files, was not heard in Senate Ways and Means but sponsor, Senator Jeri Costa, has assured us the conditions of the amendment that was inadvertently missed in Senate Judiciary will be met. The amendment would have required the Division of Child Support (DCS) to work with the county clerks and the federal government to secure a waiver from the federal government. The amendment would also have extended the effective date for one year. SB 6155 was referred to Ways and Means due to the testimony of DCS and a representative of the federal government who warned the committee of the potential loss of federal funding and alleged that SB 6155 would constitute a violation of federal law. The county clerks will be advised as this measure progresses. SB 6244, extending the jurisdiction in juvenile offender cases to allow the collection of penalty assessments, is on the Senate Floor Calendar. Please contact your senators to enlist their support and please extend our thanks to the sponsor, Senator Costa, for SB 6244. SB 6359, entering three identifiers into JIS on domestic violence cases, is in the Senate Rules Committee and is expected to be amended on the Senate Floor to include a driver's license number and the state of issue, per the Domestic Violence Task Force Consensus Agreement. Please contact your Senators, especially those on Senate Rules to enlist support for SB 6359. ************************************** COURT REFORM PUT TO REST Both HB 2898 and SB 6191, Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge's court reform bills, failed to clear the financial committees before Tuesday's deadline. A fiscal note of costs to local governments was never prepared. ************************************** FIRST ONE TO THE FINISH LINE HB 2337, the jail tracking and reporting system bill, passed out of the Senate on Wednesday. It should be on its way to Governor Locke for his signature. Governor Locke has five days to take action on a bill or it automatically becomes law. Congratulations, sheriffs and WASPC! WE NEED A LONG TERM FIX HB 2392, creates a task force on the allocation of services and revenues between cities, counties and the state. This bill is a WACO and WAPA priority, supported by WSAC and AWC. Please contact your legislators and support passage of this bill. Local government needs restructuring if we are to avoid coming hat in hand to the legislature or the public every year to fund basic services. HB 2392 bill is on the floor of the House. NO HELP FOR JAILS HB 2796, HB 2797, and SB 6142, bills to pay for confinement in county jails of persons charged with misdemeanors by state agencies, all died on Tuesday, the cutoff for moving bills out of the financial committees. STATEWIDE-WIDE PROCESSING OF WARRANTS HB 2799, Establishing a pilot to allow state-wide processing of warrants by courts of limited jurisdiction, passed out of the House on Wednesday. The bill also gives the Office of the Administrator for the Courts (OAC) the responsibility for developing a formula to allocate costs and monies collected between the participating courts. HB 2799 allows district and municipal courts to take recognizance, approve bail, and arraign defendants. Sheriffs and prosecutors, what about personnel, transportation costs and jail space? TOXICOLOGY LABORATORY FUNDING HB 2330 has passed out of the House and been referred to Senate Ways and Means. HB 2330 "fixes" the only "glitch" in the merger of the State Toxicology Laboratory and the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory. It is not new money and merely redirects liquor license monies to the Death Investigations Account to be paid to the Toxicology Laboratory. Please contact your Senators on Ways and Means and enlist their support of HB 2330. CHILD DEATH INVESTIGATIONS SHB 2476, Investigations of Sudden and Unexplained Child Deaths, passed out of the House and has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The substitute bill provides full reimbursement to counties for autopsies of children under whose death is sudden and unexplained if the autopsy is done by a forensic pathologist. MORE FOR SHERIFFS SB 6397, An act relating to partial confinement, allow a judge the discretion to sentence an offender up to two days of partial confinement for every one day of total confinement. There is no fiscal note for SB 6397 but there is some feeling that the impact is increased costs to counties for the potential additional days of confinement, partial or not. Please let us know at WACO. SB 6397 is in Senate Rules. THE FOLLOWING BILLS ARE STILL MOVING SB 6206, Student Firearms Violation, is on the Senate Calendar. SSB 6467, Vehicle license fraud, is also on the Senate Calendar. In effect, the substitute puts the vehicle license laws back to pre-July 1999 and repeals changes made in the 1999 session. SB 6337, A DOC investigative unit, is in Senate Rules. SB 6792,LEOFF I Medical Costs bill, passed out of the Senate Thursday afternoon, 47-0. ************************************** COUNTY AUDITORS The Good News. It would appear that SB 6819 is dead. This bill establishes a two-year vehicle license renewal cycle. The program is mandatory and counties would only collect a $3.00 fee. Thank you for contacting your Senate Transportation Committee members. SSB 6363 is the Auditor's absentee/mail ballot bill and it is in Senate Rules. If you have not contacted your Senate Rules members to pull this bill, please do. SHB 2506 provides for the sale and transfer of subagencies and was amended to include the language suggested by the auditors. The amendatory language includes a provision giving the auditor authorization in the process. Three bills dealing with moving the date of the primary are moving: 2SHB 1636, HB 2828 are both in House Rules. 2SHB 1636 moves the primary date to the second Tuesday in August. HB 2828 moves the date to the second Tuesday in June. SSB 6495 is in Senate Rules. It also moves the primary election date to the second Tuesday in June. SB6304 is another bill of interest is a bill sponsored by Senator McCaslin that repeals a statute that requires license plates to be replaced every seven years. You may recall, the Auditor's Association fought passage of this for many years. SB6304 is on the Senate Second Reading Calendar. SB 6274, relating to replacement ballots has passed the Senate and is onto the House. Let your legislative members know the following: Call House Rules members to pull/support: SHB 2506 and HB 2828. Call Senate Rules members to pull/support: SSB 6363, SSB 5405, SSB 6304 and SSB 6495. These bills may be reviewed on the web at The substitute version of the bill will have a lowercase "s" following the bill number. ************************************** INTERNET VEHICLE LICENSE RENEWALS WACO Executive Director Fred Saeger, Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn and Don Burrell (subagent representative) were invited to a closed door meeting by the House Transportation Committee to explain the counties and subagents' position regarding the Internet service delivery method for vehicle licenses. The message delivered was simple: Fund the original RFP for the purpose of Internet vehicle license renewals or do not fund it at all. The original RFP supported connections to all the counties. Fred Stephens, Department of Licensing (DOL) Director, told the Auditors and Sub-Agents that as a result of I-695 they could no longer support the original RFP and were now going with a modified RFP that would be a one line connection going to DOL. DOL is requesting the funding for the modified RFP be included in the House Transportation budget. We are uncertain as to whether this appropriation will be included or not. Please continue to contact your legislators and let them know that we want the original RFP funded or do not fund it at all. Stress that the Auditors are not against Internet vehicle license renewals--just the way DOL wants to do it. ************************************** COUNTY NEWS ************************************** AUDITOR REFUSES TO PAY CLAIMS According to the Whitman County Gazette the county auditor's office has refused to pay $336,000 in claims approved by the Board of County Commissioners. Auditor Dave Repp said his office would not pay the claims because a quorum was not present at the commissioners meeting. Furthermore, they would not be processed until they had two valid signatures done in an open public meeting. Les Wigen, Chairman of the Board, attended the meeting. Commissioner Keifer approved the claims via a conference call from her home and Commissioner Jamison was out of the county on vacation. The claims were approved and signed by Commissioner Wigen; Commissioner Keifer authorized her signature be affixed using her signature stamp as she was departing to a meeting in Seattle. Repp, who was attending the Auditor's Conference in Olympia was faxed a letter by Tobin Krauel and Ann Shannon, Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys. The letter stated the Board of County Commissioners did not exceed their authority and the claims should be paid immediately. When called by the Gazette, Repp refused to comment. According to the Prosecutors' letter, Wigen is authorized "to sign all documents requiring the signature of the Board, and his signature as Chairman of the Board shall be as legal and binding as if all members had affixed their names." This is the second clash recently between Repp and the Commissioners. On January 7 Repp sent a letter to members of the Whitman County Bar Association asking for support to increase his budget for the year 2000. Repp stated the budget shortfall in his department is a legal issue that he plans to fight. ************************************** PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD (SLIGHTLY) EXTENDED National Marine Fisheries Service has extended the deadline for public comment on the proposed coast-wide 4(d) rule for salmon and steelhead listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The comment period has been extended from March 3 to March 6. Comments should be sent to Garth Griffin, Protected Resources Division, NMFS, 525 NE Oregon Street - Suite 500, Portland, OR 97232. Comments by e-mail are not accepted. ************************************** KING COUNTY IS MOVING FORWARD WITH SHORELINES UPDATE King County's Department of Development and Environmental Services is proposing changes to the County's Sensitive Areas Code and the Shoreline Master Program to address aspects of salmon recovery. A section by section summary and the proposed rules, can be found at the DDES Web site at http://www.metrokc.gov/ddes/pub_rule. The proposed rules include changes to clarify when a stream is used by salmonids. The proposed rule creates a presumption that certain types of streams are used by salmonids. The rules also will provide additional guidance for the consistent implementation of the procedures the county will follow to ensure appropriate mitigation in sensitive areas. ************************************** COMING EVENTS ************************************** February 24-25 County Auditors' Records Conference, The Enzian Inn, Leavenworth. 29 Western State Sheriffs' Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada. Through March 3. March 3-7 National Association of Counties' (NACo) Annual Legislative Conference, Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C. 27-31 Washington State Association of Coroners' and Medical Examiners' Spring Training, "Basic Death Investigation," Criminal Justice Training Center, Burien. 28-30 Washington State Association of Sheriffs' and Oregon State Association of Sheriffs' Annual Joint Meeting, Red Lion, Port Angeles. ************************************** WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES ************************************** FARM TO TABLE CONFERENCE On March 24-26 a unique conference on community-based food and farm systems will take place in Olympia. Titled, "Farm to Table: Growing Healthy Foodsheds and Community," is being sponsored by Washington State University Cooperative Extension, the Cascade Harvest Coalition, and the Sustainable Agriculture Program at the Washington State Department of Agriculture. This forum will feature sessions on farmland preservation, sustainable farming practices, consumer food decisions, community-based marketing and processing, urban agriculture, connections between the farming and culinary community, and much more. Complete information about all sessions, registration information and forms is available on the worldwide web at: