The calm before WA's budget storm: 2023 legislative session so far

We're just about halfway through the 2023 legislative session.

It's been mostly smooth sailing thus far, but that might just be the calm before the budget storm. We're approaching some legislative deadlines for bills to pass out of committee. Some will get over the hurdle, some won't, and others are expected to go through a heated debate.

KUOW's Jeanie Lindsay and Amy Radil spoke to Morning Edition host Angela King about the latest.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Angela King: Amy, let me start with you and some of the more challenging conversations happening around police practices. You've been following legislation regarding police car chases.

Lawmakers passed a bill in 2021 that required officers to have probable cause before they could give chase. So, remind us why is this issue back before the legislature now?

Amy Radil: Basically, [that's because of] feedback from many law enforcement officials that the current threshold is too high and allows people to ram their cars and flout orders to stop. And it's true that crime is up nationwide. It appears that many constituents here are associating our current law with rising crime, and they're calling our legislators about that.

Is this bill likely to pass? What's the sense among lawmakers?

Radil: It's interesting. They're looking at a bill to give police more discretion in some circumstances. It doesn't go all the way back to what we had previously, but it does allow pursuits in more situations. It's gotten out of committees really easily because all the Republicans and many Democrats are voting for it. But I can't say it's likely to pass, because some Democrats, including leadership in the Senate, want to keep the existing restrictions for now. Also, Gov. Inslee has encouraged lawmakers to approve these changes.

Amy, you're also watching a bill that would change Washington drug possession laws. It was filed in response to a 2021 state Supreme Court decision that said the state's felony drug possession law was unconstitutional. Fill us in on that and where things stand right now.

Radil: It is a big, complex bill. But essentially, it would make drug possession a gross misdemeanor, with a big emphasis on diverting people into treatment rather than being charged. You know, since the Supreme Court decision, legislators first made drug possession a misdemeanor, and even that is not widely enforced right now. So, this bill would create more of a penalty than we currently have.

Law enforcement officials are really stressing they do want people to get help under this bill, not to get a criminal record. But there are people who had hoped Washington was going to move more towards decriminalization and who are not happy with this direction.

Jeanie, let's talk about another fairly controversial piece of legislation. The state is trying to find a spot for a new commercial airport. But people who live near the three proposed locations in Pierce County and Thurston County aren't happy. Some lawmakers are siding with them, right?

Jeanie Lindsay: Yeah, and there's actually a bipartisan bill to do over the process. Essentially, those three proposed sites were met with pretty intense public backlash. I mean, they passed the law to start this process in 2019, and then Covid-19 happened right in the middle of it. The original legislation required this commission that's been working on it to propose a single site by this year. So, the lawmakers who have been working on this new legislation that's currently being considered say the way that they wrote the original 2019 bill was a mistake. They say that there were too many things coming into play.

This new bill would basically take a huge step back; obviously, they won't undo all of the work that's been done so far, but they want to take a broader look at transportation needs...and decide whether we need a new commercial airport or not.

We're getting to the point when the budget conversations start in earnest. Any idea when those are actually going to start, and what might be some of the sticking points?

Lindsay: Today is actually the fiscal committee cut-off. So, those conversations are already sort of happening in the background as lawmakers consider what proposals to keep moving forward and how much they can afford. A huge issue is housing. The governor has his proposal. The vision for doing something big on housing is there, the prioritization of that is there, but figuring out how to pay for it is going to be a huge topic of conversation as they work on that.

Radil: One thing that I heard about this week is tied to our drug laws, and that's the backlogs and delays at the Washington State Patrol's toxicology lab. Apparently, it's taking months to get tests back, and that affects court cases. So, prosecutors and defense lawyers are both saying this is a major problem. I heard lawmakers say this week that they do hope to include funding to address those issues.