Last week, Bellevue City Council unanimously approved altering the city’s multifamily housing property tax exemption (MFTE), a program that helps embed affordable, workforce housing units in new and existing market-rate construction. This comes after a yearlong collaboration between the... Continue Reading
After the close of the 2021 Washington State legislative session, lawmakers from across the state met at the East King Chambers Coalition (EKCC)’s 2021 Legislative Wrap Up to discuss the historic, and challenging, session. EKCC is comprised of 11 Eastside chambers, encompassing more than... Continue Reading
After the close of the 2021 Washington State legislative session, lawmakers from across the state met at the East King Chambers Coalition (EKCC)’s 2021 Legislative Wrap Up to discuss the historic, and challenging, session. EKCC is comprised of 11 Eastside chambers,... Continue Reading
Bellevue is a city as unique as they come. Anybody who lives in the region knows just how much we’ve grown in the past 20 years. What was once primarily a residential community with a downtown commercial core has transformed into a high-tech and retail hub where people come to work and... Continue Reading
A little after 6:00pm on April 26th, the legislature adjourned the 2021 legislative session sine die. The 2021 Washington State legislative session was a long session, which means it lasted for 105 days and included the business of writing the full 2021-23 biennial operating,... Continue Reading
Week Overview Last week was largely focused on floor action to consider bills amended by the opposite chamber. Most bills with changes were concurred (agreed) on, though some did enter dispute where the house of origin asks the opposite house to recede from their amendments. Some bills that... Continue Reading
Week Overview ***Important note for this week’s report: The status of bills in this report have been updated as of end of day, Saturday, April 10th. Because of the timing of when I do this report and that the legislature convened for floor action on Sunday, this report does not reflect... Continue Reading
Week Overview General Update Last week was a flurry of hearings and executive sessions on budgets (operating, transportation, and capital) as well as bills that were referred to a fiscal committee. Normally budget week and fiscal week don’t fall at the same time, but due to the budgets... Continue Reading
Week Overview General Update Last week was filled of policy hearings and executive sessions as we worked towards the opposite house policy cutoff on March 26th. We also started seeing some bills start to be heard by the fiscal committees given there is a quick turnaround of just one week... Continue Reading
Week Overview General Update Last week had a continued focus on policy committee hearings and executive session as policy committees considered bills that have been sent over from the opposite house. Given the limitation on companion bills this year (where the same bill is introduced with... Continue Reading
Week Overview General Update The beginning of last week was focused on getting bills passed off the floor by house of origin cutoff on Tuesday. Bills that didn’t pass out of the chamber in which they were introduced by that day are considered dead unless they are deemed necessary to... Continue Reading
Week Overview General Update We have officially passed the halfway point in the 2021 legislative session! Both chambers were mostly on the floor last week debating and voting on bills that are in their house of origin. They were on the floor late into the night on some days; both chambers... Continue Reading
