106 Newhouse Building ● P.O. Box 40404 ● Olympia WA 98504-0404

Report from Olympia |  March 10, 2021

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The 2021 legislative session is at the halfway mark. We spent the past week voting on legislation, moving toward yesterday’s 5 p.m. deadline for both chambers to pass their own bills – or they are considered off the table for the remainder of the session.

Several of my prime-sponsored bills survived this deadline and continue to move through the legislative process:

• Senate Bill 5009, enacting the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, passed the Senate unanimously on Feb. 26 and is now in the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee.
• Senate Bill 5024 would reduce the barriers to condominium construction and increase affordable home options for middle-income families. It cleared the Senate 37-12 and will hopefully receive a hearing before the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee soon.
• Senate Bill 5027, aimed at supporting hearing-impaired people through greater access to closed captioning, passed the Senate 48-1 and is also awaiting action in the House.
• Our felony DUI look-back bill, Senate Bill 5054, passed the Senate 41-7 on March 1, and is now scheduled to receive a public hearing this Friday, March 12, in the House Public Safety Committee.
• On Monday, the Senate voted unanimously to approve Senate Bill 5332 – our measure clarifying equipment requirements for wheeled all-terrain vehicles, which will be assigned to the House Transportation Committee.
• The House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday on Senate Bill 5347, which authorizes members of a cooperative association to vote by electronic transmission. The bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate, is also scheduled for executive action on Friday.

Unfortunately, the very troubling bills outweigh the good among the Senate bills passed by the Senate this year. The ugliest of the bills forced through by the majority side was an unconstitutional income tax on capital gains. You may read more about that and other actions below.

Thank you for giving me the privilege of serving as your voice in our state Senate.

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

Video Update:

Majority Democrats in Senate approve unconstitutional income tax on capital gains by a single vote in Saturday-evening vote

Click on the image above to watch Sen. Padden explain why a state income tax is unconstitutional in Washington.

On Saturday, the Senate’s Democratic majority approved legislation to create a state income tax, despite knowing an income tax has been unconstitutional in Washington since 1932.

Since 1934, Washington voters have rejected 10 attempts to enact an income tax, either through amending the state constitution or a citizen initiative. If Senate Bill 5096, passed on a 25-24 vote, becomes law in its current form, voters will undoubtedly challenge the tax through a referendum or initiative. A proposal to send the bill directly to the November ballot as a referendum was among all 15 Republican amendments rejected by the Democratic majority.

If the income-tax bill somehow survives a voter challenge, it will surely be challenged again in court. In my floor speech, I explained why the bill is unconstitutional – and how some may be hoping to force the income tax before the court, in order to give liberal justices a chance to open the door to a broad, general income tax that would directly affect you and your family!

Click here to watch my full comments.

Click here to read Washington Policy Center’s Jason Mercier’s blog post highlighting all of the editorials warning against the income tax on capital gains.

From the District:

Meals on Wheels helps get vaccine out to eligible community members

By Arielle Dreher, Spokesman-Review | March 5, 2021

Meals on Wheels volunteer Tom Lawson holds up his vaccination card after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine while speaking at a presser regarding the working relationship between Safeway and Albertsons stores with Meals and Wheels of Greater Spokane County on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at the Northwest Blvd. Safeway in Spokane. The stores are setting aside blocks of appointments for Meals on Wheels seniors to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. (Libby Kamrowski/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)

Tom and Gretchen Lawson became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in late January, when appointments opened to residents 65 and older statewide. They were able to get appointments through their health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, but those appointments weren’t until March 6.

…Both of them received their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a local Safeway pharmacy on Wednesday, thanks to Meals on Wheels’ partnership with the grocery store. The Lawsons are volunteers with Meals on Wheels of Greater Spokane County, and the couple drives the same route each Thursday, delivering meals to about a dozen clients.

With vaccine appointments hard to come by locally, community organizations have turned to forming partnerships with vaccine distributors directly. Meals on Wheels of Greater Spokane County has partnered with local Safeway and Albertsons pharmacies to get vaccines to their volunteers and clients who are eligible.

Click here to read to the full story.

In the News:

Income tax on capital gains bill passes Washington State Senate, headed to House

By Laurel Demkovich, Spokesman-Review | March 8, 2021

The state Senate passed a capital gains tax Saturday night, the only time since it was first floated six years ago that the controversial proposal has been up for a vote in the Senate.

After a more than four-hour debate, the bill passed 25-24 despite stiff opposition from Republicans who call it an unconstitutional income tax. Three Democrats also voted against it.

…Republicans also argued Saturday that this tax could lead to a broader income tax across the state.

In his speech on the floor, Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, pointed to previous Supreme Court cases striking down an income tax in Washington, as well as 10 ballot measures where voters struck down an income tax.

"Please stop asking the question," Padden said. "The question is settled."

Click here to read more.

In the News:

Renewed push to crack down on repeat DUI offenders in Olympia

By Hanna Scott, MyNortwest.com | March 3, 2021

It’s a rare, but familiar story in Washington. A driver under the influence causes a deadly pileup, or hits and kills a pedestrian or bicyclist. Then, it’s revealed that driver had a history of one, two, or even three previous DUIs. …It is those rare, but tragic, situations that are driving Republican Senator Mike Padden’s push for SB 5054, which would extend what is known as the look back period to 15 years. Washington has long had some of the most lenient DUI laws in the nation. Before Padden finally was able to pass a bill in 2017 to make a fourth DUI in 10 years a felony, Washington was the only state to wait until the fifth DUI to trigger a felony DUI charge. Surrounding states trigger a felony at three or fewer prior DUIs. Padden’s new bill would extend that look back period to 15 years, allowing prosecutors to go back 15 years, rather than 10 years, in determining whether a DUI is a felony. Click here to read more.

Reopening Update:

Republicans offer plan to move schools, employers to next phase now

As of yet, Governor Inslee has still not issued any plan at all

In response to sharply declining COVID-19 case rates and hospitalization rates statewide, legislative Republicans have announced a simple, practical and consistent plan to get all communities in Washington fully open for both school and business.

The Republican “Open Safe, Open Now” plan returns decision-making authority to local officials, ending top-down state mandates. It requires all school districts in Washington to resume in-person instruction and opens all business activity in the state to 50% capacity, with 100% capacity possible within three weeks.

You can read the plan for yourself, by clicking here.

The plan puts more trust in Washington residents to act responsibly, more than one year into the pandemic, and acknowledges people must learn to live – and earn a living – in the presence of COVID-19. On Monday, Republican leaders sent a letter to Gov. Inslee commending him for his belated efforts to get Washington’s students back into classrooms. The letter also asks him to open businesses, houses of worship and other institutions to 50% capacity and to allow local health jurisdictions to determine a county’s readiness for such a move.

Click here to read the letter.

In the News:

With drug possession law gone, lawmakers at odds over next steps

By Ben Adlin, South Seattle Emerald | Feb. 25, 2021

After a sweeping Washington Supreme Court ruling declared the state’s felony drug possession law unconstitutional, there’s currently no penalty on the books in Washington State for drug possession. The ruling has brought drug arrests and prosecutions across much of the state, from Seattle to Spokane, to a screeching halt. If the decision is deemed to be retroactive, tens of thousands of people previously convicted under the law could also become eligible for release or vacating of past charges. Another Senate bill, SB 5471, introduced Thursday by Sen. Mike Padden (R-Spokane Valley), would reinstate the felony law around knowing possession and add a civil fine of up to $3,000 for unknowing possession. Click here to read the full article.

COVID 19/School Re-Opening Update:

One year later and students are still not in the classroom

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the COVID state of emergency. On this someone grim milestone, there is some good news and bad news. 

Good news: Statewide, COVID is in free fall.

• Case Counts – Statewide, cases are now at level (below 200 per 100,000) where in-person learning is recommended for all K-12 students.
• Positivity Rate – Statewide, positive test rate is now below the World Health Organization target of 5%, which is defined as low incidence of COVID.
• Hospitalizations – Only 5% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID positive patients.

These figures are all down between 50-67% from figures in early January.  

Bad news: Many of our state’s children are still bearing a disproportionate brunt of the pandemic, in a way that is not justified by the current public health recommendations.

Washington ranks 47th in the country in children with in-person learning.  (And, to be clear, that’s “public” school children . . . virtually all private school children are having in-person learning.)   

And, what makes it worse? The public health metrics all indicate that in virtually every county, students in every grade should be attending in-person classes. See map below.

The map is based on the metrics contained in “K-12 Reopen Schools” initial bill (SB 5037), which the majority leadership on the Senate K-12 committee blocked from advancing. The bill said simply that in-person learning had to be offered if a county’s case metrics either (a) met the Department of Health’s recommendations, or (b) if positivity rate was below the World Health Organization’s 5% level, indicating low-COVID prevalence in the community.    

There’s an old adage that no proposal is truly dead until the session ends, so there is still hope that this common-sense proposal will get another look – sooner rather than later.

Contact us!

If you have a question or concern about state government, please do not hesitate to contact our office. We are here to serve you!

Phone: (360) 786-7606

Street address: 106 Irv Newhouse Building, Capitol Campus, Olympia, WA 98504

Postal address: PO Box 40404, Olympia, WA 98504

Email address: Mike.Padden@leg.wa.gov

PLEASE NOTE: Any email or documents you provide to this office may be subject to disclosure under RCW 42.56. If you would prefer to communicate by phone, please contact Sen. Padden's Olympia office, which will be open starting Jan. 6, at (360) 786-7606.

To request public records from Sen. Padden, please contact Randi Stratton who is the designated public records officer for the Secretary of the Senate and Senate members.