Hirst ruling, family leave, B&O tax among stalled bills

The heavy lifting still has to be done on a pair of state bills that will greatly affect Tri-City area businesses — dealing with the Washington Supreme Court’s Hirst ruling and installing paid family leave.

Washington’s Legislature is deadlocked on almost every budget issue before it. The standstill has led to slow progress on several non-budget-related items, mainly because the budget impasses decrease the pressure to get other bills passed by the end of the regular session on April 23.

Right now, a Senate Republican bill to deal with the fallout of the Hirst ruling — trying to balance the ability to dig private wells against preserving salmon and other fish — has stalled in the Democrat-dominated House. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans are still trying to reach a compromise on paid family leave.

Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, introduced a bill designed to deal with an October 2016 Supreme Court ruling dubbed the Hirst decision.

The Hirst ruling came from a lawsuit by the environmental organization Futurewise against Whatcom County over a complicated technical dispute involving the Growth Management Act. In simple terms, the ruling means that a landowner must prove a new well won’t threaten nearby stream levels needed for fish.

Warnick’s bill would give county governments some bureaucratic flexibility in reviewing and granting permits for wells for building projects. It also would allow a builder or developer to mitigate impact to fish or water resources from digging new wells. Part of the bill’s extra flexibility would allow that mitigation to be something other than replacing stream water affected by a new well.

The Senate bill passed 28-21 with three members of the minority Democratic caucus supporting it. Right now, Republicans and Democrats are negotiating on a compromise that would be more likely to pass the House.

“We sent House Democrats a reasonable and affordable solution for Hirst weeks ago. But they killed our bipartisan remedy and didn’t pass any bills of their own, even though the situation around small household wells continues to get worse for Washington families. … I am daily hearing from people who are running into problems resulting from the Hirst decision. …  We simply must deliver a reasonable policy that lets property owners have access to water on their property without undue burdens and costs that will make their lives harder,” Warnick said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes, said the Democrats have their own proposed Hirst solutions in two bills still in the committee stage, and want to work out an agreement with the GOP before advancing any bill. Lytton is confident that a compromise will be reached during the legislative overtime period.

“Our water laws, in a nutshell, are extremely complicated,” Lytton said.

Gov. Jay Inslee said he wants a Hirst-related bill passed this session, but declined to say whether he prefers the Democratic or Republican approach.

Family leave

Negotiators on both sides of family leave legislation — Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn, Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, and Rep. June Robinson, D-Everett — have said they will reach a compromise, with the latest optimism voiced in late April.  All three declined to say how far each side has moved toward the other.

In a related matter, the Legislature unanimously passed a Keiser bill to require employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant employees.

The new legal requirements include providing more frequent, longer and flexible bathroom breaks, modifying no-food and no-drink policies, allowing pregnant women to modify their work schedules, providing flexibility or pre-natal visits, providing assistance with manual labor and other measures.

“These measures will help secure economic stability and promote positive health outcomes for women and their babies,” Keiser said.

“Women shouldn’t have to choose between being able to work and provide for their families, and having a healthy pregnancy,” said Rep. Jessyn Farrell, D-Seattle, who shepherded the bill through the House. “Both employers and employees will now have more clarity with regards to workplace accommodations for expectant mothers, and the important work of improving health outcomes for mothers and babies will continue.”

Here is a rundown of other bills of interest to Tri-City businesses:

Business-and-occupation tax

The business-and-occupation tax is one of many budget issues Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked on, sending the legislative session into overtime.

Gov. Jay Inslee and House Democrats propose increasing the B&O tax rate from its current 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent, while exempting all businesses making less than $100,000 annually from the tax. That threshold would exempt roughly 38,000 of the state’s smallest services businesses — such as accountants, attorneys and other non-manufacturing and sales firms.

Roughly 170,000 businesses would still be liable for the increase in B&O taxes. Inslee’s plan for B&O taxes is predicted to raise an extra more than $1 billion annually for education improvements.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans oppose tinkering with the B&O tax system, contending because of its complexity and increased taxes on bigger businesses. Instead, the Senate Republicans recently unveiled a plan to greatly change the state’s property tax system, which would have the effect of increasing such taxes in the Seattle area and shrinking the same taxes in rural Washington.

Tourism marketing bill

This bill is in limbo due to the budget talks impasse. Because it involves a possible revenue shift, the bill by Sen. Dean Takko, D-Longview, is on hold along with the rest of the budget-related bills.

Washington is the only state that does not have a statewide tourism marketing program. The bill would create the Washington Tourism Marketing Authority, whose efforts would be paid by rerouting 0.1 percent of the retail sales taxes collected on lodging, car rentals and restaurants. The program would have an upper limit of $5 million.

The bill would create the marketing authority that would manage state revenue and contracts for state tourism marketing efforts. It would be controlled by a 13-person board of four legislators and nine representatives from tourism-related businesses. Geography, business size, gender and ethnicity would be factors in making appointments to the board.

Josh McDonald, executive director of the Washington Wine Institute, believes this bill will help increase visitors to the state’s wineries.

Sports and wineries are prime attractions to bring out-of-staters to the Tri-Cities, according to Visit Tri-Cities. In 2015, the last year data is available for, Benton and Franklin counties had 5,900 tourism-related jobs, produced $432.9 million in tourism-related revenue and produced $47.2 million in state and local taxes.

Winery tasting rooms

The Legislature passed a bill to increase the number of allowable off-site tasting rooms per winery from two to four under a domestic winery license in Washington state.

Rep, Cary Condotta, R-Wenatchee, introduced the bill because he contended wineries – especially small ones – need the extra tasting rooms to expand their customer bases. Clusters of tasting rooms in Woodinville and near the Walla Walla Regional Airport offer small wineries the opportunity to market their wares beyond their immediate locations, he said. For example, he said Eastern Washington wineries could increase their Western Washington exposure in Woodinville.

In 2000, a change in state law allowed Washington wineries to open satellite tasting rooms. Before then, the only way a winery could operate an additional tasting room was to have wine production on the premises. The change in 2000 provided wineries with the opportunity to have up to two tasting rooms in addition to their main production facility. Wineries didn’t begin to take advantage of the new law until a few years later.

One Washington winery already has four tasting rooms, but that is because it has two production licenses. Goose Ridge Vineyards operates tasting rooms in Richland, Leavenworth, Woodinville and Walla Walla.