Submitted by Gov. Jay Inslee’s office

A historic, largely virtual, 105-day legislative session ended Sunday night with lawmakers taking action on the state’s operating budget and making final decisions on important legislation, including the Climate Commitment Act, the low carbon fuel standard, police accountability and the capital gains tax on extraordinary profits.

Inslee’s focus of the 2021 session was “relief, recovery and resilience,” and the Legislature passed a life-saving $2.2 billion COVID-19 relief bill, a Working Families Tax Credit and climate legislation that will both improve public health and increase economic opportunity while fighting the climate crisis.

The governor had 11 pieces of request legislation this year; eight bills were passed, two were incorporated into the budget and Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler instituted a rule ensuring the implementation of the focus of the remaining bill.

“It was a remarkable session with far-reaching impacts to the long-term well-being of our state,” Inslee said. “So many of these achievements were years in the making. It took hard work, sweat and tears of many in this state to see these policies finally make it over the finish line.”

The Legislature also passed a historic suite of equity policies that Inslee supported in his budget, funding a new Office of Independent Investigations for police use-of-force cases, placing a statue of Billy Frank Jr. in the Capitol and National Statuary Hall, and restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals.

With the improved state revenue collections and large infusions of federal COVID-related relief funds, legislative budget writers had far more resources to work with than the governor did when he put together his budgets last fall. The final operating and capital budgets — including for the current and next biennium — fund most of the priorities the governor put forward in December.

Climate

The 2021 session saw extraordinary wins for climate, with key pieces of governor-request legislation that will further Washington’s lead in tackling the climate crisis.

“We finally have meaningful climate legislation that reflects the values and priorities of Washingtonians, and respects the science of climate change,” Inslee said. “The Climate Commitment Act caps and reduces climate pollution across our economy and enacts arguably the strongest environmental justice policy in the nation, obligating us to improve air quality for overburdened communities that live daily with air pollution from emissions. We now have a clean fuel standard as well, making our air cleaner and giving consumers more choice at the pump. These policies also create good, local jobs and better position our state to lead in a cleaner and more just economy.”

The governor-request Climate Commitment Act, sponsored by Sen. Reuven Carlyle, creates a cap and invest program that limits and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the state, and invests in programs and projects to reduce emissions, expand clean transportation, improve climate resiliency and reduce air pollution in overburdened communities.

The governor-request clean fuel standard, sponsored by Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, requires the reduction of carbon emissions from transportation fuels by expanding use of electric vehicles and lower-carbon fuels, including biofuels. The new clean fuels standard will reduce emissions, clean the air and grow good jobs, proving that Washington can improve public health and increase economic opportunity by fighting the climate crisis. Another climate bill sponsored by Rep. Fitzgibbon became law and requires reductions in hydrofluorocarbons that are a growing source in Washington of especially potent greenhouse gases.

Lawmakers also took historic action on environmental justice when they passed SB 5141, the HEAL Act. The bill will embed environmental justice considerations in agency decision-making, including climate policies and programs. This will help to reduce the environmental health disparities experienced in Washington’s most vulnerable communities by targeting additional investments to clean up these communities and by ensuring more inclusive engagement of frontline communities.

In addition to request legislation, several governor priorities were adopted into legislation. Key policies from clean buildings legislation were instituted by replacing state law that historically required advancing fossil fuels with instead providing affordable energy service, securing $1.3 million to advance and progress the State Energy Strategy and building decarbonization efforts over the next two years, and directing the Utilities and Transportation Commission to develop a pathway to reduce emissions from natural gas. The Legislature also secured $10 million to fund building electrification. A total of $76 million was included in the capital budget for the Clean Energy Fund, building energy retrofits, energy efficiency improvements to low-income homes and other programs.

Equity

As the governor did in his budgets, lawmakers provided funding for many of the state’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to eliminate racial disparities in Washington. The Legislature fully funds the state’s new Equity Office, which will help agencies develop and implement their own diversity, equity and inclusion plans. It also includes funding to provide planning and technical assistance to communities that have been historically underserved by capital grant programs. Lawmakers also funded new environmental justice legislation to reduce health and environmental impacts on overburdened communities, and re-instated voting rights for people who have completed their prison sentence.

“I firmly believe Washington will be an anti-racist state, and I will be taking actions that hold our state to that commitment. We need our policies and budget to reflect our dedication toward disrupting the harmful systemic cycle of racism and inequity,” Inslee said. “Now is the time to implement real change.”

Lawmakers also funded the governor’s request to establish June 19 — Juneteenth — as a state holiday to recognize the country’s history of slavery. Juneteenth is the historic day in 1865 that commemorates and recognizes when Union soldiers told slaves in Galveston, Texas 1865 that they were free — nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Additionally, HB 1267 was passed, ensuring that investigations into police use of deadly force are truly independent. This new standard of independent investigations is a critical step toward eliminating systemic injustice faced by people of color in the judicial system.

The governor and Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler proposed legislation this year that would eliminate the racist policy of using of credit scores in establishing insurance rates. As the bill progressed through the Legislature, it lost components that would make it effective at improving equity within the insurance system. The commissioner has taken separate action to temporarily halt the use of credit scoring due to the pandemic’s unique impact on the accuracy of credit history information, and to protect those who have been financially hurt the worst by the pandemic. But the commissioner’s rule is only temporary. Further legislative action will be needed to ensure that this racist policy ends once and for all in Washington.

The operating and capital budgets also make major new investments in expanding broadband access across the state. The capital budget includes more than $400 million to boost broadband infrastructure. The operating budget includes over $30M in funding to promote overall digital equity & inclusion, facilitate the creation of a statewide digital equity forum in collaboration with the office of equity, create broadband action teams, add new WiFi hotspots around the state, implement a digital navigator program to assist limited-access households with WiFi devices and subscriptions, and renew ongoing investments in the State’s Universal Communications Services Program.

COVID-19 and health care

Lawmakers made vital public health system investments that will help in the battle against COVID-19 and ensure the state is better prepared to address future health crises. The final operating budget provides $1.1 billion in federal funds to state, local and tribal governments for COVID testing, contract tracing and vaccine distribution.

The Legislature provided significant funding to help businesses and nonprofits across the state that have been hard hit by the pandemic — a key priority of the governor. In addition to nearly $200 million in business assistance grants, the budget includes $500 million to provide unemployment insurance tax relief to assist businesses heavily impacted by pandemic-related unemployment, adding to their early action on a rate relief package requested by the governor projected to prevent over $921 million in employer tax increases in 2021, and approximately $1.7 billion in tax increases over the 2021–2025 time period.

Meanwhile, the Legislature approved $150 million for foundational public health services — funding state and local health jurisdictions can use for public health infrastructure, expertise and public education to support public health efforts, and passed a bill that will strengthen local public health boards. The budget also provides funding for regional public health service centers, regional health officers and coordinators to promote shared services across counties.

Economic justice

Lawmakers funded a range of efforts to strengthen state’s unemployment insurance system and address large claims backlogs caused by the pandemic, as well as fully funding the Working Families Tax Credit, putting money back into families pockets who need it most.

The Legislature also successfully passed legislation to right Washington’s upside down, regressive taxation system. The long-awaited capital gains tax works toward having the wealthiest Washingtonians pay their fair share instead of lower-income people shouldering the payments, paying a higher percentage of their incomes. The excise tax has been a priority of the governor for several years and will make systemic changes to our state’s tax system.

Lawmakers passed legislation to assure a 40-hour workweek and rights to overtime pay for Washington farmworkers, some of our state’s lowest paid and most dangerous jobs, and continued investments in financial relief for immigrant workers left out of federal stimulus payments and traditional unemployment insurance programs.

The Legislature earmarked more than $1 billion in federal and state funds to help households impacted by the pandemic keep up with rent and utility payments, and avoid foreclosure. This includes funding for a new state rental and utility assistance program aimed at assisting individuals most at risk of becoming homeless or suffering severe health consequences due to eviction.

That funding is in addition to over $300 million lawmakers set aside in the operating budget for adult and youth homelessness response programs, including emergency shelters, temporary rental assistance and permanent housing supports. Meanwhile, the capital budget includes more than $350 million for new projects that create housing for low-income Washingtonians, including people with chronic mental illness, people with developmental disabilities, farmworkers, people who are homeless, and people in need of permanent supportive housing.

Protections for workers

The Legislature also fought to protect workers this session, passing governor-request legislation to ensure Washington’s workers are safe on the job. The legislation will protect workers from retaliation if they report unsafe working conditions, and it supports businesses with the cost of job site safety measures during a public health emergency.

The Legislature passed additional safety measures for workers during a public health emergency that include a presumption of occupational disease for employees of healthcare facilities and certain frontline workers, as well as job protections for high-risk workers currently afforded through proclamation of the governor during the COVID-19 crisis.

Legislation improving Washington’s cybersecurity also made it through the legislative process. SB 5432, requested by the governor, will improve our state’s cybersecurity and help protect Washingtonians personal information.

“With the Legislature’s work done, it is now time for everyone to carry our state and each other forward in our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Inslee said. “This legislative session has given us a strong roadmap for the next two years and beyond. The journey on the road to a more sustainable and equitable future begins now.”