After spending several hours on the Floor today waiting to take action on House Bill 2088 and Senate Bill 5952 we finally got started. The debate on House Bill 2088 focused on the educational/training aspects of the bill and largely ignored the"permit streamlining” provisions that had been previously praised by the Governor. The fact of the matter is House Bill 2088 does absolutely nothing to streamline permitting in Washington State. We introduced House Bill 2090 yesterday that would streamline permitting for all business and property owners throughout Washington; unfortunately, the Governor doesn’t appear to be interested in actual solutions. TVW will have a recording on the debate available later today/tonight … be sure to watch the comments Representatives Shea, Overstreet and I made during the debate. House Bill 2088 passed 77 to 9 with 12 excused.
Debate on Senate Bill 5952, which is the companion bill to House Bill 2089, was all about the importance of creating a more business friendly tax structure in Washington. The fact this this bill doesn’t address the tax burden facing small business was even admitted; unfortunately, it didn’t stop the bill from moving forward. If reducing the tax burden on business is a good policy, and it is, why aren’t we doing it for all businesses? If lower taxation drives economic development and business expansion, and it does, why aren’t we doing it across the board and not limit it to one specific industry? {... Crickets ...} Kudos to Representative Jason Overstreet for hammering home the procedural problems associated with this bill. Senate Bill 5952 passed 75 to 11 with 12 excused.
We’re still waiting to hear whether we’re going to Sine Die the third Special Session or if they’ll keep it open to consider a gas tax increase later this month.
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