Inside the Capitol

April 15, 2009

There are only nine days left in the 2009 legislative session.. maybe.

In odd numbered years, after the legislators are elected, their primary task is to adopt a two year State Budget. To do that the legislative session is longer, 105 calendar days as compared to 60 in the even numbered years. Although that is the time limit there is always a possibility of a “special” session of 30 days following if they haven’t been able to complete their work on time. This may be one of those “extra-inning” years. With state revenues $9 Billion less than they had predicted much of this session has been devoted to hand wringing and floating ideas for cuts in programs as well as speculation on whether any temporary increase in taxes might be part of their budget-balancing mix.

As the final day approaches it seems the legislators are getting farther apart rather than closer together. Miracles may happen but unless they can come to agreement in a week and a half they possibly could be here for a long time.

The Towing and Recovery Association of Washington has done well this year. Although several “Bad” bills surfaced we managed to kill or amend them all and in the event the legislators look to a tax increase it would be almost certainly be a small temporary sales tax increase on the ballot and not business taxes that they would consider.

As I have said many times our most important mission in Olympia is to work to stop bad things from happening to the industry. The worst threat we had this year was Senate Bill 5524 dealing with requiring repeat telephone call notification of impounds. This was a constituent request through Senator Rockefeller resulting from a vehicle being impounded while the owner was on vacation. We marshaled opposition at the hearing, bringing together other groups including the WSP to kill the bill. Special thanks to Doug Faber for his direct contacts with the chair of the Senate Transportation committee, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen.

A bill we had to amend dealt with impounding vehicles driven by the patrons of prostitutes. As it was originally drafted we could have become a collector for law enforcement of a civil penalty in the amount of $500. We amended the bill to make sure that we didn’t have that responsibility and additionally to protect us if we release a vehicle depending on a fraudulent document authorizing release.

We have now passed our bill, House Bill 1426, allowing officially the use of “electronic return receipts” with certified mail. With this bill’s passage we can save up to $1.20 for each letter we send out, slightly less if we use a mail service vendor. The Governor has about three weeks to sign the bill but that is almost a foregone conclusion that she will.

The budget crisis here, as in most other states, has put a damper on getting through any good changes in the law that cost any money whatsoever to implement including even minor new rules. Hopefully after they stabilize this budget we can then move forward on the important issues that will not just defend the industry but give us a better business environment to operate in.

Stu Halsan
TRAW Lobbyist