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

Report from Olympia |  March 12, 2015

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This has been a busy week as the Senate and the House of Representatives have been voting full-time on legislation. Yesterday was the last day for either chamber to act on its own bills.

As of today, we have returned to our assigned committees to begin weighing bills received from the House. Policy committees have until April 1 to act on bills from the opposite chamber, and fiscal committees have until April 7 to act. Bills necessary to implement the budget are exempt from those deadlines and can be raised until the end of the session, which is April 26.

Although we are now well past the halfway mark of the session we have yet to see a draft budget from the majority party in the House of Representatives, which is responsible for initiating the budget process this year.

Thank you, as always, for the opportunity to represent you in Olympia. If there is anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am here to help.

Best Regards,

Senator Mike Padden

Legislative Update: Key bills gain bipartisan support

Yesterday’s ‘house of origin” voting deadline means that several bills have died for the session, but this is a good thing. The deadlines we put in place help to prioritize bills that have statewide significance and broad appeal. They also help identify bills that need additional tweaking or perhaps more work to gain support.

By reaching out across the political aisle we were able to build bipartisan support for a number of measures that cleared the Senate this week.

Senate OKs measure protecting private-property rights

“Eminent domain” is one of the most invasive powers of government. The term refers to the ability of state or local governments to take private property for public use.

Thanks to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, the definition of “public use” is so broad that governments at various levels can take a citizen’s property for whatever purpose they choose, even if it is to sell that property to a private developer or another private citizen.

Yesterday the Senate voted 30-19 to approve Senate Bill 5363, a measure to prohibit government’s use of its eminent-domain power for economic development.

The government should not be determining winners and losers. Moreover, economic development should never be the deciding factor when initiating a property-condemnation action.

Bill to simplify collection of forensic samples passes unanimously

On Monday the Senate unanimously approved a bill aimed at making it easier for law enforcement to obtain blood samples for forensic testing in criminal investigations – especially those concerning DUI offenses. Senate Bill 5066 would create the classification of “forensic phlebotomist,” which is a police officer, law-enforcement officer, or corrections employee who has completed a blood-collection training program and who is collecting a blood sample for forensic-testing purposes. The bill would also permit a physician, nurse or first responder to withdraw blood or collect a blood sample without a person's consent, if instructed to do so by a properly-authorized law enforcement officer for the purpose of forensic testing. In addition, it would clarify that a health-care professional’s refusal to take a blood sample or collection would not be considered failure to obey an order from law enforcement. The refusal rate for blood tests in Idaho, however, dropped from 98 percent to 20 percent after the adoption of similar legislation. In some jurisdictions there is up to a five-hour delay in acquiring an authorized blood sample. This legislation will help reduce that time-frame and reduce the strain that is often put on medical professionals.

Protecting taxpayers from costly and unsafe nuisance properties

As mentioned in a Report from Olympia back in January, Spokane Valley City Manager Mike Jackson and City Attorney Cary Driskell came to Olympia to meet with lawmakers and discuss how dealing with nuisance properties is often a difficult and costly process for cities and their taxpayers.

“Nuisance abatement” refers to the municipal-code enforcement action used to improve the quality of life and safety issues at the neighborhood level.

Many of these nuisance activities can actually result in fire hazards or become public health or safety issues; an individual who causes this sort of disruption should be the one who pays to correct the problem, not the taxpayers.

On Tuesday the Senate voted 40-9 to approve Senate Bill 5694, a bill to allow cities to assess a special charge on nuisance properties for the purpose of reimbursing the city or town for abatement expenses. In these situations, the special assessment would become a lien against the property and be of equal rank with state and local tax liens.

The bill would limit the assessment only to those nuisances tied to health and safety concerns.

Incremental progress on parental-notification bill

As the deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin rapidly approached this week, the Senate Rules Committee pulled Senate Bill 5289 , the parental-notification bill, to the Senate floor calendar. This means that measure was eligible to come up for a full vote of the Senate. While we fell one vote shy of the votes needed to actually move SB 5829 to a full Senate vote, this was still a significant step in the right direction.

Moreover, it is a sign that bipartisan support is increasing in the Senate for this common-sense change in the law. (By contrast, the abortion insurance mandate bill in the House appears to be losing support, passing by a smaller margin compared to previous years.)

SB 5289, which would require that an underage girl’s parent or guardian be notified before she may have an abortion, is about recognizing the right, responsibility and need for parents to be involved in their children’s lives. In a state where parental approval is needed for a school to give a minor an aspirin, parents should at least be informed of a medical procedure being performed on their child.

While the bill will not advance any further this session, it is still eligible for action next year. Given the growing bipartisan support in this chamber, I am committed to working to win Senate passage next session.

Reminder: Human Trafficking Discussion Panel in Olympia

Thursday, March 19th | 6 p.m. | Senate Hearing Room 1, J.A. Cherberg Bldg.

Don’t forget: Next Thursday, March 19, I will be joining other concerned Washington citizens at the “Ending Global Slavery” symposium in Olympia, which will focus on ending human trafficking and feature special guest Shared Hope International founder and president Linda Smith. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle, Sen. Steve O'Ban of University Place and I will discuss anti-trafficking legislation in Washington. If you can join us in Olympia, please do. If not, the event will be streamed online at www.tvw.org.