— from the Office of the Governor —
The following bills were signed into law on March 10, 2016, by Governor Jay Inslee following the 60-day Legislative Session.
| 6295 | Senate | Relating to clarifying the venue in which coroner’s inquests are to be convened and payment of related costs. | ||
| 6202 | Senate | Relating to the enforcement of employment rights arising from state active duty service by a member of the national guard. | ||
| 6463 | Senate | Relating to luring. | ||
| 6421 | Senate | Relating to authorized health care providers prescribing epinephrine autoinjectors in the name of authorized entities. | ||
| 6376 | Senate | Relating to recognizing human trafficking awareness day. | ||
| 6286 | Senate | Relating to reimbursement of correctional employees for offender assaults. | ||
| 6282 | Senate | Relating to the mortgage lending fraud prosecution account. | ||
| 6219 | Senate | Relating to sentencing for vehicular homicide. | ||
| 5864 | Senate | Relating to sales and use tax for cities to offset municipal service costs to newly annexed areas. | ||
| 5342 | Senate | Relating to human trafficking definitions. |
While the governor signed 10 bills before him into law, he vetoed 27 others. To see a full description of each bill, go to https://app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/ and type in the bill’s number, i.e. ESSB 5145.
The measures that Inslee vetoed included:
- ESSB 5145: Health tech clinical comm.
- SB 5265: Public funds/recip. deposits
- SB 5458: Health district banking
- SB 5549: Pharmacy assistants
- SSB 5767: Local govt treasuries
- SB 6148: Storage/personal property
- SB 6162: Invasive species council
- SB 6170: Retirement info. disclosure
- SSB 6177: Marijuana research licenses
- SB 6196: Energy site eval. council
- ESSB 6206: Industrial hemp growing
- SB 6220: Federal economic dev. funds
- SSB 6281: Uniform athlete agents act
- SSB 6284: Fire sprinkler systems
- SSB 6290: Apple commission
- SSB 6326: Automobile facility records
- SSB 6341: Cannabis producer services
- SSB 6342: Private activity bond alloc.
- SSB 6354: Reverse transfer agreements
- SB 6398: Cultural foods
- SB 6401: Secondary fish receivers
- SSB 6466: Higher ed. disabled students
- SB 6491: Apostille services
- SSB 6498: Recovery sponsor privilege
- SSB 6569: Patient out-of-pocket costs
- ESSB 6606: Wholesale vehicle dealers
- SB 6633: Marine resources adv council
The Washington State Legislature concluded the regular 60-day legislative session on Thursday, March 10 but Gov. Inslee immediately called them back for a special session to finish several bills. Inslee said, “Legislators have one fundamental task they are required to do every year and that is to keep the state’s budget balanced. They had sixty days to make some relatively minor adjustments, and have yet to make the reasonable compromises that are necessary.
“I am keeping the clock running. There is no break and no rest – legislators need to balance the books and finish their job.”
Why do I think that it looks like a total waste of time and my taxes to put together 37 pieces of legislation and have 27 of them vetoed? Either the Governor or the legislators are on a ……….I can’t think of a word that word describe that performance. Pathetic, maybe?
When the Legislative session is extended past its mandated term, either 60 or 90 days, depending on the year, are the legislators paid “overtime”? If the costs of an extended session continue to mount, is there are incentive for them to work on our behalf in a more efficient manner?
To pursue Charlie’s question further, how many bills were filed that never made it to the floor for a vote? There needs to be a prioritizing of this plethora of proposed legislation so that the required work is completed first, like the budget !!