By / Kathleen Collins, Government Relations Consultant
On January 10, 2022, the Legislature will start a 60-day session. Whether it will be in-person or virtual or something in between is unknown at this time. Concerns about the pandemic will dictate the format. The most likely scenario is that committee hearings will be virtual and floor activity will be in person for legislators. But unless the pandemic conditions improve, it is doubtful that the public will be welcomed back into the buildings.
The 2022 legislative session will be a mix of new and old issues. There will be pressure to fine tune some of the laws passed in 2021, specifically the police reform laws and the long-term care insurance law. Confusion over when and how police can respond to different situations may lead to clarification in the current laws. There will be calls to repeal the long-term care insurance law that goes into effect January 1, 2022. Repeal is unlikely but moderating some of the requirements for use are likely. Efforts to reform the emergency powers law will once again be debated. The current declaration of emergency for the pandemic has exceeded 600 days with decisions being made largely by the Governor. Many legislators would like to give the Legislature more control.
Transportation funding may be a major topic in 2022. The last transportation funding package was passed in 2015. A new funding package would include some of the money from the 2021 Climate Commitment Act (the cap and invest law), a new gas tax, and some other transportation fees. It might also include some sales tax money from transportation related projects that currently goes to the general fund. However, passing new taxes, even for transportation, in an election year is difficult.
Other issues in 2022
In 2018, the Legislature passed a law changing the way prevailing wages are calculated, relying on collective bargaining agreements (CBA) to set the prevailing wage rates instead of traditional surveys. The Associated General Contractors (ACG) filed a lawsuit challenging the new law arguing the law in unconstitutional because it delegates the decision on prevailing wage rates to non-governmental activities, namely collective bargaining. The Appeal Court agreed with AGC, and the issue will be heard be at the state Supreme Court. We expect the building trades to propose a bill this coming session to fix the 2018 law that would still preserve the use of CBAs in setting prevailing wage rates.
Reducing the use of natural gas and propane in homes and businesses is a goal of many environmental groups that argue the reductions are necessary to combat climate change. There are proposals under consideration by the Building Code Council that would restrict some natural gas uses. There was legislation proposed in 2021 that would have curtailed the use of natural gas. There will be proposals in the 2022 session that impact the use of fossil-based fuels in the following ways:
- Require net-zero building codes for construction of homes and buildings by 2030.
- Require natural gas utilities to develop and implement clean heat transition plans that change to alternative heating sources and use of renewable natural gas or renewable hydrogen.
- Expand the current Clean Building law to lower the threshold of covered buildings to commercial buildings of 10,000 square feet or more and change the program to use greenhouse gas emissions as a measurement of the energy use in the buildings.
- Allow publicly owned electric utilities like Seattle City Light to use rate payer money for incentives to convert from gas to electric.
We expect that Governor Inslee may make some or all of these proposals Governor request bills.
Senator Karen Keiser, Chair of Labor, Commerce and Tribal Affairs, will be proposing expansion of apprenticeships to include new career fields in non-traditional occupations, such as health care, education, technology, and hospitality. She wants to explore ways to use apprenticeship programs in combination with community college classes to provide associate degrees. Another part of her proposal is to improve financial support for apprentices taking community and technical college classes and do more to encourage participation at the high-school level. This is an expansive proposal that may need to discussion beyond the 2022 session.
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