NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 10

Greg Hanon, Communico

The legislature is now focused on the policy committees considering bills from the opposite house.  The next deadline is March 29 when bills from the opposite house need to be passed from the policy committee.  Next week the focus will be on committee hearings, and you will see that reflected in the upcoming events section of the report.

On Monday at 2:00 the State Economic Forecast Council will release the final economic forecast that the biennial budget will be based upon.  The Senate is expected to make their budget public sometime next week, and on Friday the Senate Ways and Means committee will hold a marathon public hearing on the budget.

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 9

Greg Hanon, Communico

Wednesday, March 8 was the last day for bills to pass out of the House of origin, unless they are necessary to implement the budget.  You will see on the report that a number of bills did not survive the cut off and are now in the dead bill file. You may also see bills that appear to have not moved out of various committees that are still part of the active list.

To access the full report, log in to your NAIOPWA member profile. Now is a great time to join the association and get access to exclusive legislative updates like this one. For more information, contact Danielle Duvall, [email protected]

Click here to read the full report.

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 8

Greg Hanon, Communico

Today is day 54 of the 105 day legislative session.  We are past the halfway mark. The focus this week has been on floor action and the legislature has been working long hours to act on bills prior to the March 8 deadline for bills to pass out of the Houses of Origin. 

NAIOP Washington State members have full access to our state legislative reports. For more information about joining, please contact Danielle Duvall, [email protected] 

Click here to read the full report.

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 7

Greg Hanon, Communico

Today, February 24, 2023, is the final day for consideration of bills in the fiscal committees (unless necessary to implement the budget). Starting Monday and until March 8, legislators will be focused on floor debate in each chamber. By March 8, bills from the original chamber need to be passed to the other chamber.

To view NAIOP's bill tracking report and the full legislative update, log in to your NAIOPWA member profile by clicking below. 

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 6

Greg Hanon, Communico

Friday, February 17 is policy committee cutoff, meaning all bills need to be out of their policy committee or they will not advance.  The fiscal committees will meet next week and have until February 24 to act on bills. Today’s report still shows bills that may be voted on in today’s hearings.

To view NAIOP's bill tracking report and the full legislative update, log in to your NAIOPWA member profile by clicking below. 

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 5

Greg Hanon, Communico

The last week of bills to be heard in policy committees is next week.  The focus next week will be considering amendments and voting bills out of committee. Bills with a fiscal impact will have until February 24 to be considered and voted on.  In the meantime, both the Senate and the House will start to spend more time on the floor debating and passing legislation to the other body.

Log in to your NAIOPWA member profile to see the status of the bills we are following and committee hearings next week.

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 4

Greg Hanon, Communico

The week of February 6 is week five.  The focus will be on policy committee activity on hundreds of bills.  We have two weeks to go prior to the February 17 cut off. You can find next week’s hearings in the upcoming events section by logging in to your NAIOPWA member profile below.   Also, the bill status section of the bill tracking overview will illustrate where the bill is at in the process as of Friday, February 3.

I will provide a more detailed update of which priority bills have moved out of committee after February 17. 

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 3

Greg Hanon, Communico

Week three was focused on committee hearings with hundreds of bills being considered by the various policy committees.  Next week will be the same.  You can review the new bill introductions as well as next week’s hearings using your member profile. For more information about becoming a member, contact Danielle Duvall, [email protected]

Click here to read the full report

NAIOP Washington State 2023 Legislative Report - Week 1

Greg Hanon, Communico

The 2023 session of the Washington State Legislature convened on January 9 for a 105-day legislative session. This is the first since 2020 to completely return to Olympia for both committee hearings as well as floor action.  One addition to the legislative process is the complete integration of hybrid legislative hearings allowing for both in person testimony as well as remote testimony allowing individuals who cannot make the trip to Olympia to participate in hearings from around the state.

Per tradition, the first few days were dedicated to the organization of the legislature, the swearing in of public officials, as well as a state of the state address from Governor Inslee in which he presented his priorities for the legislative session.  Governor Inslee outlined several policies including significant increases in spending on housing, homelessness, behavioral health, and education.  He also advanced policies on gun control and abortion rights.

Washington State Legislature 2022 End of Session Summary/Update for NAIOPWA Members

The Washington State Legislature is expected to adjourn sine die on Thu, Mar 10. Friday night was the deadline for non-budget bills to pass; now we look at the concurrence process in which differences between House and Senate versions of bills passed are ironed out and the budget is confirmed.

Click here for this week's update (members-only content; login required) on key CRE issues including SEPA reform, GMA vesting, and building codes. 

The Washington State Legislature is down to the last two weeks in the 2022 legislative session, and several bills of interest for CRE continue to be amended and are moving forward, including SEPA reform, GMA vesting, and building codes.

Click here for this week's update (members-only content; login required) on key issues for NAIOPWA members this session. 

With just 17 days left in the session, the legislature faces another deadline: Thursday, Feb. 24, is the deadline for bills to be advanced out of opposite-house policy committees. We expect to see supplemental budgets announced this week as well.

Click here for this week's update (members-only content; login required) including information on bills related to CRE with updates on key issues for NAIOPWA members this session. 

It's an all-hands-on-deck race to the deadline in this short session! Legislators (and NAIOPWA's Government Affairs team) are working around the clock, every day of the week, to make amendments, address suggested amendments, and pass the bills! NAIOPWA's team focuses on bills and issues that will support a positive business environment for commercial real estate in Washington state. 

Click here for this week's update (members-only content; login required) including information on bills related to CRE with updates on key issues for NAIOPWA members this session. 

The 2022 session of the Washington State Legislature is reaching its midpoint.  On February 3, bills needed to pass out of policy committees.  On February 7, all bills must pass out of fiscal committees.  And all bills, unless needed to implement the budget, must pass out of the house of origin by February 15.

The legislative session continues to operate remotely, with all committee hearings entirely remote and floor action mostly remote, with a few legislators in person.

Week three is behind us, with this Thursday being the cut-off for all bills to pass out of their committees of origin; after that, the slate will focus on "live" bills of concern to the CRE community.

Click here for this week's update (members-only content; login required) including information on bills related to CRE including possible green roof requirements, rent control, SEPA reform, middle housing and more. 

The Washington State Legislature has completed its second week of the 2022 session. The first of several self-imposed deadlines is February 3; any bill that hasn’t passed out of policy committee and advanced to the Rules or Fiscal Committee by then will be considered dead for the session.

Click here to read a week 3 preview (members-only content; login required) including updates on bills related to CRE including possible green roof requirements, rent control, SEPA reform, middle housing and more. 

The 2022 Washington State Legislature convened on January 11 for a 60-day legislative session. In the first week, over 800 new legislative proposals have been introduced, several of interest to NAIOPWA members. Governor Inslee, in his state address, outlined a variety of issues related to increasing housing options and addressing homelessness, as well as a broad suite of programs aimed at reducing the state’s carbon emissions. Some of the most notable bills for NAIOPWA are summarized below. As happens each year, all bills and issues noted will evolve through the course of the session via both public hearings and other negotiations. 

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Alongside our efforts at the state level to ensure the continuity of MFTE, the NAIOPWA government affairs/advocacy team continues to work in Seattle and on the Eastside on MFTE program implementation. Over the past year, our East Side Task Force in particular has worked with Bellevue city staff and council members on program amendments that would ensure the program operates more successfully going forward.

Based on feedback from many of our members, our primary areas of focus were:

NAIOPWA has been involved with the state legislative process for more than four decades. It’s with this depth of experience that we report both that the 2021 session was one of the more challenging for our industry in recent years, and how we managed to come out with three significant wins this year.

During the session, dozens of bills were introduced that, if passed, would have had a devastating impact on the commercial real estate development community. While in the end, some of these were favorably amended and several others failed, many of the same issues are expected to return in 2022.