Modifying the election and authority of regional transit authority board members.

Calculating the benchmark rate for certain community residential services.

Requires the department of social and health services to use the King county classification for the purposes of determining the benchmark rate in Snohomish county for community residential service businesses.

Concerning pro bono legal services for military service members, veterans, and their families.

Creates the office of military and veteran legal assistance within the office of the attorney general to promote and facilitate civil legal assistance programs, pro bono services, and self-help services for military service members, veterans, and their family members domiciled or stationed in this state.

Providing information to students about education loans.

Establishes the Washington student loan transparency act.

Requires educational institutions to provide to enrolled students who have applied for student financial aid a notification about the student education loans the educational institution has certified.

Concerning financing essential public infrastructure.

Improves access and reliability to low-cost financing for local government infrastructure projects by authorizing public works bonds when local governments can demonstrate: (1) The importance of the project;

(2) Their difficulties accessing existing private credit markets for borrowings at reasonable interest rates; and

(3) The ability to reliably repay their share of the state's total cost of retiring the public works bonds.

Makes changes to the existing public works program and creates the public works financing assistance program.

Authorizes the housing finance commission to develop and implement a program to provide financing to local governments for infrastructure projects.

Authorizes a local government to enter into a financing agreement containing the terms and conditions of a loan from the housing finance commission and evidencing the obligation of the municipal corporation to repay that loan under the terms and conditions set forth in the financing agreement.

Creates the public works financing assistance account and the public works financing assistance bond repayment account.

Concerning government performance and accountability.

Establishes the performance management act.

Creates the office of performance management, in the office of the governor, which should: (1) Be granted administrative authority over state performance management programs, ensuring that all executive branch agencies properly implement world-class lean performance management systems to achieve operational excellence; and

(2) Coordinate performance assessments of state agencies by independent examiners.

Requires each agency to adopt an agency strategic plan, an agency ethics plan, a workforce learning and training development and workforce performance management system, and an agency performance management implementation plan.

Requiring financial literacy seminars for students at institutions of higher education.

Concerning the creation of a property tax exemption for spouses of military members or first responders killed in the line of duty.

Provides a lifetime property tax exemption for a residence owned by a spouse or domestic partner: (1) Currently receiving dependency and indemnity compensation;

(2) Who had received dependency and indemnity compensation, but for whom such compensation was discontinued as a result of remarriage;

(3) Recipient of a duty-related death benefit from the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system; or

Facilitating local funding and involvement in expanding early childhood education and assistance program eligibility.

Creates a local pathway to high quality early learning to help local governments, school districts, institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations understand how they can use additional local and private funds with existing funds to expand access for existing programs.

Authorizes local governments, school districts, institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations to contribute funds to the department of early learning for: (1) Initial investments to build capacity and quality in local early care and education programming;

(2) Reductions in copayments charged to parents or caregivers; and

(3) Expanding access and eligibility in the early childhood education and assistance program.

Requires those funds to be deposited in the early start account.

Requires the department of early learning to: (1) Reduce barriers and increase efficiency for using local or private funds, or both, to provide more high quality early learning opportunities; and

(2) Separately track funds received for each local government, school district, institution of higher education, or nonprofit organization that deposits funds into the early start account.

Enhancing oversight and transparency of lobbying activity.

Requires lobbyists and lobbyists' employers who are required to file certain reports to file the reports required by the fair campaign practices act electronically over the internet as provided by the public disclosure commission.

Requires the public disclosure commission to design, develop, implement, and maintain computer hardware and software to accommodate electronic filing of the required reports.

Requires state agencies, counties, cities, towns, municipal corporations, quasi-municipal corporations, and special purpose districts, that expend public funds for lobbying, and employees of an agency lobbying on behalf of the agency, to register and report as a lobbyist, and requires the state and local agencies to report as a lobbyist employer.

Requires certain former state officers and state employees to file a postemployment disclosure statement.

Prohibits certain former state officers and state employees from receiving compensation from certain sources within one year after leaving state office or employment.

Requires the ethics boards to: (1) Adopt rules at each of their agencies describing a process for a person to seek a waiver from the postemployment requirements; and

(2) Collaborate to design a uniform postemployment statement that permits online filing.

Concerning the exemption of property taxes for nonprofit homeownership development.

Requiring coverage for hearing instruments under public employee and medicaid programs.

Requires a health plan offered to employees and their dependents under chapter 41.05 RCW (state health care authority), issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2018, to include coverage for hearing instruments.

Requires medical assistance coverage offered under chapter 74.09 RCW (medical care), issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2018, to include coverage for hearing instruments when medically necessary.

Providing local governments with options to preserve affordable housing in their communities.

Authorizes a city governing authority to adopt a property tax exemption program, and a county governing authority to adopt a property tax exemption program for unincorporated areas of the county, to preserve affordable housing that meets health and quality standards for very low-income households at risk of displacement or that cannot afford market-rate housing.

Concerning individuals receiving both employment and community access services.

Requires clients of the department of social and health services who are at least twenty-one years old to have the option to select employment services or community access services at the outset or at any point during the discovery process.

Creating the civic learning public-private partnership.

Creates a civic learning public-private partnership to ensure that students in K-12 schools and expanded learning opportunities are equipped with the knowledge and skills to engage effectively in government as citizens.

Creates the Washington civic learning public-private partnership account.

Concerning seizure and forfeiture reporting.

Creating the Washington academic, innovation, and mentoring (AIM) program.

Creates the Washington academic, innovation, and mentoring program to enable eligible neighborhood youth development entities to provide out-of-school time programs for youth six to eighteen years of age.

Conducting a workforce study of employment opportunities in the agriculture, environment, outdoor recreation, and natural resources economic sectors intended to provide educators with the information needed for informing students about employment opportunities in the studied fields.

Requires the workforce training and education coordinating board to conduct a workforce assessment for the agriculture, natural resources, outdoor recreation, and environment sectors to assess the available data on current and projected employment levels and hiring demand for skilled mid-level workers in those sectors.

Modifying the infraction of and penalties for distracted driving.

Addresses traffic infractions for the crimes of distracted driving and driving dangerously distracted.

Revises distracted driving provisions with regard to portable electronic devices which are defined as a device that is capable of wireless communication or electronic data retrieval and is not manufactured primarily for hands-free use in a motor vehicle.

Authorizing specified local governments to designate a portion of their territory as a creative district subject to certification by the Washington state arts commission.

Authorizes a local government to designate a creative district within its territorial boundaries subject to certification as a state-certified creative district by the state arts commission.

Making expenditures from the budget stabilization account for catastrophic wildfire events in fiscal year 2017.

Makes appropriations from the budget stabilization account to: (1) The department of natural resources for fire suppression costs incurred during the 2016 fire season; and

Concerning claims against public entities.

Addresses the state's immunity from liability for the tortious conduct of its employees and officers.

-- 2017 REGULAR SESSION --
Mar 20	First reading, referred to Law & Justice.
Mar 21	Scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Law & Justice at 10:00 AM. (Subject to change)