OLYMPIA - With the ceremonial pomp and circumstance of opening the new 65th Legislature behind them, state lawmakers have settled into the early session routine of introducing bills and attending committee meetings.

So far, House members have introduced some 400 new bills and resolutions, while senators have introduced 275 measures. The pace of daily bill introductions is picking up and will continue until February 17th, the first cut-off deadline for bills not passed out of committee. For fiscal and transportation matters, the first cut-off date is February 24th, and March 8th is the deadline for bills to pass in their originating chamber.

Action on spending bills and tax measures, like SB 5127, Governor Inslee’s proposed tax on energy, will not likely take center stage until mid-March, after the latest state revenue forecast figures are released.

The spotlight this session will be on the lawmakers’ response to the state Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary order on education. The court has held the state in contempt since September 2014 and has imposed a $100,000 per day fine for failing to fully comply so far. The fine is having little effect, since lawmakers are simply placing the money in an education-funding account.

Some 5,500 teachers, school administrators, and students gathered in Olympia Monday to demand more money for education. The speeches and rallying calls centered on the state’s “paramount constitutional duty” to fund basic education and claims of inadequate conditions suffered by school children around the state.  The calls come after lawmakers have added $4.2 billion, an increase of 36%, to education spending in the last four years.

The protesters then split into smaller groups to deliver their message personally to legislators with posters that listed a “Student Bill of Rights.”  According to news reports, the protestors were frustrated when they found that many lawmakers were not available in their offices. Few legislators had attended the rally either.

Also on Monday, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, joined by Governor Inslee and a bi-partisan group of legislators, announced proposed legislation to repeal the state’s death penalty law.

Ferguson, a Democrat, was joined by former Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna in calling for ending the death penalty. “Legislatures are acting on this important issue with up-and-down votes,” Ferguson said during the news conference. “And it’s time for Washington, the state Legislature here, to take that vote.” Governor Inslee, who unilaterally stopped executions in 2014, said death-penalty sentences are unequally applied in the state of Washington, they are frequently overturned and they are always costly. Inslee recently commuted the death sentence of Clark Elmore, who was convicted for the 1995 rape and murder of 14-year old Kristy Ohnstad in Bellingham.  Ohnstad would have turned 36 this year.

Sen. Mark Miloscia, R-Algona and Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, will sponsor the bills in their respective chambers.

Visit www.washingtonvotes.org to keep track of these and other important issues, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. #waleg