The state House and Senate chambers have had a quiet week so far, as both bodies briefly convene and then adjourn floor sessions each day to take care of “pro forma” business, such as reading in bill introductions. The lull in floor action follows last Friday’s cutoff deadline for action on bills to clear their house of origin.

Some 650 bills survived that deadline, and lawmakers are now busy with committee work ahead of the next cutoff date on March 29th. That is the last day for bills to pass from the opposite house out of committee and remain alive in this session. As is the case throughout the session, budget and transportation matters and bills that affect state spending are exempt from such deadlines. Lawmakers continue to introduce new bills on these topics.

House Democrats introduced five new bills on Friday to provide relief for taxpayers hit by a huge increase in car tab fees imposed by Sound Transit. The agency is set to raise $28 billion in new taxes to help fund a $54 billion expansion of light rail, commuter train and express-bus services across the Puget Sound region over the next 25 years.

Voters approved Sound Transit’s latest round of new taxes, including higher car-tab fees, last November.  However, due to the exaggerated value schedule used by Sound Transit officials, yearly car-tab fees are turning out to be much high than expected.

HB 2147, introduced by Rep. Mike Pellicciotti (D-Federal Way) would make car-tab fees cheaper by correcting the valuation formula to make used car values more accurate.

Senator Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish) introduced a similar bill (SB 5851) last month that would base the car tab fee on Kelly Blue Book or National Automobile Dealers values, whichever is lower, rather than the exaggerated values used by Sound Transit.

HB 2148, sponsored by Rep. Kristine Reeves, (D-Federal Way) would offer rebates for low-income people of up to 40 percent on car tab fees and property taxes charged by Sound Transit.

Additional bills (HB 2149, 2150, and 2151) are accountability measures that would require updates on the progress of Sound Transit projects to be provided to vehicle and property owners who pay Sound Transit taxes.

Meanwhile, the Republican-led Senate passed SB 5001 on a 29-20 vote last week, to replace the 18 local officials appointed to the Sound Transit board with 11 board members who are directly elected by voters.  The intent of the bill is to bring more accountability and transparency to regional transit planning.

With 38 days to go in this 105-day Regular Session, lawmakers have introduced nearly three dozen “title only” bills – bills with blank pages to be filled with last-minute transportation and budget-related legislation. The practice is used to avoid the state’s constitutional requirement that no new bills can be introduced during the last ten days of session, unless a two-thirds majority of the members vote to do so. Most final budget and transportation bills agreed upon by lawmakers in recent years have started out as title only measures, with the contents provided in the last week or so of session.

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