Legislative Update: Clean fuels, capital gains legislation get hearings

||| FROM GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE’S OFFICE |||

The 2021 legislative session kicked off Monday. Legislators met in person in Olympia Monday to vote on new rules allowing for remote hearings and voting.

Legislators heard a variety of bills remotely this week, including several governor request bills. The Senate Ways & Means Committee heard testimony about a proposed capital gains tax supported by the governor. The legislation would place a 9% excise tax on gains from the sale or exchange of certain capital assets beginning Jan. 1, 2022, and would make progress toward improving the state’s regressive tax system.

The House Committee on Environment and Energy heard a governor request bill aimed at establishing a low-carbon fuel standard, a priority for the governor in recent sessions, and is scheduled for executive session next week. Legislation also working to reduce emissions through decarbonizing residential and commercial buildings went through first readings in both the House and Senate, being scheduled for public hearing in the House on Jan. 22.

Other priorities heard in committees this week include two of the governor’s equity proposals. The joint legislation proposed by the governor and insurance commissioner to prohibit the use of credit scores in determining insurance rates was heard this week in the Senate Business and Finance Committee. A bill that would establish Juneteenth as a state holiday was heard in the House Committee on State Government and Tribal Relations, and is scheduled for executive session next week.

House and Senate both went through first readings of their respective versions of unemployment insurance and worker protections responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Senate also hearing the unemployment insurance legislation in committee and scheduling it for executive session.

The regular 2021 Legislative Session is set to run through April.