This Year's Graveyard of Olympia Legislature Bills
By Tim Gruver, Sara Kassabian, and Paul Queary
Another mountain of bills bit the dust on Monday as budget committees dumped a host of pricey dreams and dicey proposals ahead of the Legislature’s second cut-off.
Ideas never die in Olympia, but since the Legislature works on a biennial cycle, the bills pushing up daisies this week will stay in the grave at least until 2025 unless they get the zombie budget treatment.¹
Homegrown weed. Cannabis might be 100% legal in Washington, but the homemade variety is still no bueno without a doctor’s note. House Bill 2194 from Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Kirkland, was poised to let anyone 21 and older grow four plants under their roof, no questions asked. This bill was pretty important to rural Washington where weed shops are often scarce. Substance-abuse advocates, cops, and apartment dwellers argued the bill would have spurred neighbor wars and perturbed schools, daycare centers, and other places where whiffs of weed are a no-go.³ The bill made it to the House Appropriations Committee where it died in silence. — Tim Gruver
Charter school money. Senate Bill 5809 from State Senator Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, would have required the state to match local levy money for public charter schools in districts where the levy passed beginning in fiscal year 2025. Right now, charter schools get state education support, but not a share of the local levy dollars raised by the district they’re located in. The disparity leaves many aggrieved, as more than half of the roughly 4,500 students enrolled in the 19 public charter schools across the state come from low-income, minority families. The charter schools also report better educational outcomes and growing enrollment, compared to Washington public schools. The influential teacher’s union, the Washington Education Association, opposes charter schools and has tangled with Mullet over the issue before. The WEA testified against the measure during the public hearing in Senate Ways & Means. It never came up for a vote after that. — Sara Kassabian
-more-
https://www.postalley.org/2024/02/08/this-years-graveyard-of-olympia-legislature-bills/