In January, the Legislative Session seemed like it was going to be a rough ride but predicting what happened during this 105-day grind would have been a hard go for the most seasoned of veterans. It wasn’t all stinkers for the agricultural community, but it wasn’t all roses either.

The Good

HB1477: This bill implements the national mental health crisis hotline in Washington state. In addition to aiming to “enhance and expand behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention services” in our state, it also has a specific provision for the agricultural community; connecting members of the agricultural community with counselors who are familiar with the specific stressors of farming and ranching. 

HB1199: This bill protects farmers and ranchers with an active Washington State Department of Natural Resources lease permit from having their leases ended early. In the event a lease permit is ended early by DNR, the agency must pay the permit holder the balance of the lease plus interest as well as reimbursement for the cost of any value-added infrastructure that was added to the land.

HB1168: This bill takes aim at curbing the wildfires our state has suffered through during the last several summers by taking a proactive approach to community resilience and wildfire reduction in the wildland-urban interface. It also provides $125 million over the next eight years to ensure vulnerable populations are not “disproportionately burdened by the consequences of wildfire.”

The Bad

SB5396: This bill is a bait-and-switch. On the surface, the bill expands the sales and use tax exemption for building new farmworker housing, making it more cost-effective for farmers and ranchers to provide new housing for their employees. However, there’s a catch. If H-2A workers, employees hired via the federal temporary worker program, live in the housing built with that tax incentive in the first five years, the money saved must be paid back with interest immediately.

The ‘What do we do now?’

SB5172: Most farm and ranch operators in Washington state have probably heard this bill number at least once in the last 105 days. If they haven’t, they’ve heard what it is about: agricultural overtime wages. The bill lays out a phased-in approach to overtime wages for farmworkers beginning Jan. 1, 2022 with time-and-a-half being paid for any hours worked beyond 55 hours per week; then time-and-a-half must be paid after a 48-hour week in 2023; and after a 40-hour week in 2024. The bill also offers legal protection to all farmers, including dairy owners, against being sued for retroactive wages in any and all lawsuits filed on or after Nov. 4, 2020. 

The only the part of the agricultural overtime bill that was not settled during this legislative session was the question of seasonal flexibility. Farmers and legislators must go back to the drawing board to determine what sort of flexibility is necessary to keep farms and ranches in Washington state viable. The cyclical nature of farming and ranching make it a necessity to negotiate flexibility that allows farmers, ranchers, and their employees to tend to the needs of peak times of year whether it involves the births of livestock, the picking of our valuable fruit crops, or harvesting important hop and root vegetable stocks. 

The average hourly wage of farmworkers in Washington state is $17/hr. At time-and-a-half, that is $25.50/hr. – a wage most farmers and ranchers will be hard-pressed to afford in the current agricultural economy. Agricultural employers will be forced to make the difficult decision to cut the hours of their employees. Curbing the working hours of the thousands of men and women who make our farms and ranches a success will, ultimately, effect the ability to retain their employment altogether by effecting the income of the farm or ranch where they work.

If there are fewer successful births of livestock and/or less successfully harvested crops, there is less overall income for the farm or ranch, thus meaning less income to pay farmworkers, leading to layoffs to cover other farm costs like property taxes, equipment purchases or lease payments, seed, fertilizer, pesticide, and other input costs. 

So, as the 2021 Legislative Session fades, and the actions of lawmakers begin to take effect, it is important to take stock of where the agricultural community fits into the landscape and begin planning ahead for the next round in Olympia. Washington state’s food producers are a pillar of the economy and mightily diverse in what they provide to the people of our state and across the globe. It is critical to continue to fight for ag-positive policy that helps the entire agricultural community and recognizes farming and ranching for the pillar of this state that it is.