Updating laws concerning agricultural fairs, youth shows, and exhibitions.

Modifies provisions regarding agricultural fairs, youth shows, and exhibitions on the following: (1) The state fair fund;

(2) Categories of agricultural fairs that may be eligible for state allocations;

(3) Eligibility requirements for those allocations;

(4) Reimbursements for incurred operating expenses; and

Concerning public-private partnerships for alternative public works contracting.

Banning all billboards pertaining to marijuana retailers or marijuana products.

Addressing the impartial participation of members of the growth management hearings board on matters before the board.

Requires the rules of practice of the growth management hearings board to provide that a board member or hearing examiner must disclose to all parties to a hearing if the board member or hearing examiner has ever: (1) Been employed by, or served as a volunteer for, a party to the hearing;

(2) Provided legal representation or counsel to a party to the hearing; or

(3) Been a member of the board of directors of a party to the hearing.

Authorizes a court in reviewing a board decision, in the event that a board member fails to abide by disclosure and disqualification requirements, to do either or both of the following: (1) Invalidate and remand the decision by the board; and/or

Concerning accessible public on-street parking for individuals with a physical disability.

Encouraging employers to promote and support workers' educational attainment.

Provides a business and occupation tax credit and a public utility tax credit to small and medium employers for contributions made to their employees' educational expenses.

Requires the department of revenue to keep a running total of credits approved for each calendar year.

Requires the application for the tax credits to be submitted to the department before making a contribution to qualified educational expenses.

Concerning collection of medical debt.

Modifies medical debt collection provisions regarding: (1) Collection of prejudgment interest not allowed by hospitals or other medical services providers;

(2) Personal property exemptions;

(3) Form of writ of garnishment;

(4) Amounts exempt from garnishment; and

Providing enhanced payment to low volume, small rural hospitals.

Increases payments for recipients eligible for medical assistance programs for services provided by a hospital, regardless of the beneficiary's managed care enrollment status, to one hundred fifty percent of the hospital's fee-for-service rates, when services are provided by a hospital that: (1) Has less than fifty available acute care beds;

(2) Is not currently designated as a critical access hospital, and does not meet current federal eligibility requirements for designation as a critical access hospital; and

Establishing a prescribed burn certification program at the department of natural resources.

Eliminating certain tax preferences not being used and recommended for repeal as determined by the joint legislative audit and review committee.

Eliminates the tax preference for wood biomass fuel.

Concerning public disclosure of certain information procured or obtained pursuant to a loan or grant application under the underground storage tank revolving loan and grant program.

Concerning the statute of limitations for unfair labor practice complaints filed in superior court.

Studying the constitutional and statutory obligations and tax revenue capacity of local government entities.

Requires the department of commerce to conduct a study that analyzes local governments' revenue capacity in relation to its constitutional and statutory obligations.

Makes an appropriation from the liquor revolving fund to the department of commerce for purposes of the study.

Requiring permission to bring a concealed firearm into another person's residence or dwelling place.

Prohibits a person from carrying a concealed firearm into the residence or dwelling place of another person without first obtaining the express permission of the owner or person in legal control or possession of the residence or dwelling place.

Requires the court, upon conviction for a violation, to: (1) Order the person to surrender any concealed pistol license; and

Concerning veterans' assistance levies.

Addresses the veterans' assistance levy.

Requires the levy to be imposed by the legislative authority of the county as: (1) A separate levy, independent of the regular property tax levy; or

(2) Part of its levy authorized in RCW 84.52.043 (1) (b).

Ensuring that water is available for permit exempt and instream uses.

Addresses the availability of water for permit exempt and instream uses.

States that, to achieve the goals of this act, significant legislative action is needed to address both the impact of new development on streamflows and to restore and enhance properly functioning watersheds to preserve and enhance instream resources.

Directs the department of ecology to: (1) Implement a program to restore and enhance streamflows by establishing watershed restoration and enhancement committees and develop and implement plans for streamflow restoration to support vibrant fish and wildlife, including restoring threatened and endangered salmonids;

(2) Prepare and adopt a watershed restoration and enhancement plan for certain water resource inventory areas;

(3) Distribute to the state building code council and to each county, city, town, or other local permitting authority, a list of each of the sixty-two water resource inventory areas and an identification of the statutes, rules, and other legal authorities that apply to groundwater uses in each of the areas;

(4) Initiate a pilot project to measure water use from all new groundwater withdrawals in water resource inventory area 9 (Duwamish-Green);

(5) Issue permit decisions for up to five water resource mitigation pilot projects; and

(6) Implement a program to restore and enhance streamflows to develop and implement plans to restore streamflows to levels necessary to support sustainable salmon populations.

Authorizes the state finance committee to issue general obligation bonds to provide funds for the watershed restoration and enhancement program.

Creates the joint legislative task force on water supply to: (1) Review the treatment of surface water and groundwater appropriations as they relate to instream flows and fish habitat;

(2) Develop and recommend a mitigation sequencing process and scoring system to address the appropriations; and

(3) Review the state supreme court decision in Foster v. Department of Ecology.

Concerning reimbursement of the financing of the Alaskan Way viaduct replacement project.

Requires the tolling authority to establish, and the department of transportation to charge and collect, tolls and fees on the portion of state route number 99 that is a deep bore tunnel for certain costs and financial requirements of the tolled portion of the Alaskan Way viaduct replacement project.

Requires the department of transportation, in consultation with the office of the state treasurer, for determining the amount of bonds to be designated as reimbursable bonds and enabling the tolling authority to establish the initial toll rates on the portion of state route number 99 that is a deep bore tunnel, to prepare and submit an Alaskan Way viaduct replacement project toll reimbursement plan to the tolling authority.

Establishing maritime Puget Sound regional prevailing wages.

Requires all data collected by the department of labor and industries, for establishing the shipbuilding and ship repair prevailing rate of wage, in Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, Mason, Thurston, Pierce, King, Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, Island, and San Juan counties to be used to establish the maritime Puget Sound regional rate using the collective data from these counties.

Concerning the integration of reclaimed water, water system planning, and groundwater source protection.

Requires a permit applicant or permittee to enter into a written agreement with the group A public water system before he or she may distribute, supply, use, or otherwise make available reclaimed water for use or distribution at one or more locations within the retail or wholesale service area of a group A public water system.

Prohibiting marijuana licensees from engaging in activities that can be seen or smelled from public places or nearby properties.

Concerning lost or destroyed state warrants, bonds, and other instruments.

Providing options for local governments to adopt alternative voting procedures.

Allows a county, city, town, or district to: (1) Eliminate the primary for a single or multiple position office within their jurisdiction; or

(2) Use a proportional voting system for an office with multiple positions.

Prohibits a primary from being held for an office where the primary has been eliminated.

Requires the secretary of state to approve a proportional voting system before it is adopted by a county, city, town, or district.

Allowing a deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses from the calculation of disposable income for senior property tax programs.

Modifying the learning assistance program.

Allowing a local sales and use tax as a credit against the state sales tax for rural high-speed internet infrastructure without increasing the total sales and use tax rate.

Concerning quality in assisted living facilities.

Creates the assisted living facility quality council and requires the council to make recommendations on measuring quality, providing consumer information, and reporting value.

Creates the assisted living facilities quality measurement program within the department of social and health services to provide consumers with information and data about the facilities to allow them to make informed decisions about residential options.

Imposes civil penalties of up to: (1) Three thousand dollars for each incident that violates facility licensing statutes or rules and other related rules and laws; and

(2) Ten thousand dollars for a current or former licensed provider who is operating an unlicensed facility.

Requires the receipts from the civil penalties to be deposited in the assisted living facility temporary management account.

Concerning the deduction of union dues and fees.

Concerning issuance of search warrants by district and municipal court judges.

Restricting the practice of conversion therapy.

Concerning the distribution of aircraft fuel tax revenue.

Requires the money collected from a consumer or user of aircraft fuel to be transmitted to the state treasurer and distributed as follows: (1) An amount equal to revenues collected from one percent of the total 6.5 percent of the use tax or the retail sales tax must be credited to the aeronautics account; and

Addressing employee benefits provided by the school employees' benefits board.

Finds that school districts and educational service districts in many rural and urban areas must aggressively compete for employees and they need to offer better employee benefits and/or benefits at a lower cost to recruit and retain employees.

Concerning a pilot program to provide wheeled all-terrain vehicle tourism routes.

Provides the authority for a limited number of wheeled all-terrain vehicle tourism routes on a pilot basis.

Allows the following counties to designate tourism routes: Okanogan, Chelan, Kittitas, Grays Harbor, Pierce, and Lewis.

Encourages a county, before proposing a combination of highway, road, trail, or other designated segments as a tourism route, to form a stakeholder group to identify potential tourism routes that would enhance travel tourism.

Modernizing fuel content standards and references.

Concerning diaper changing stations at restaurants.

Establishing the Washington state women's commission.

Creates the Washington state women's commission in the office of the governor.

Requires the director of the commission to: (1) Monitor state legislation and advocate for legislation affecting women;

(2) Work with state agencies to assess programs and policies that affect women;

(3) Coordinate with the minority commissions and human rights commission to address issues of mutual concern; and

Concerning presidential electors.

Improving placement stability for children and youth involved with child welfare services.

Allowing the department to use a different assumption for annual investment returns for the reserve funds for self-insured and state fund pension claims.

Concerning additional poverty-based learning assistance program allocation.

Concerning child care for student parents in public institutions of higher education.

Declares an intent to: (1) Improve access and completion rates of student parents enrolled in community and technical colleges by reducing existing restrictions to subsidized child care; and

(2) Address the teacher shortage by allowing students receiving working connections child care program benefits to pursue certificates and degrees in teaching, paraeducation, and early childhood education, without losing their working connections child care program benefits.

Ensuring the funding of fairs.

Requires the money received as the result of the imposition of the state retail sales tax on sales occurring during events held at fairgrounds where agricultural fairs occur, to be deposited into the fair fund.

Concerning the certification and evidence of adequate and available water.

Addresses adequate and available water provisions in the following areas: (1) Certification and evidence of adequate and available water;

(2) Mitigation and certificates;

(3) Elements of comprehensive plans; and

Concerning suspension and expulsion of students including kindergarten and early elementary school students.

Ensuring that attempts to limit greenhouse gas emissions in Washington state do not make Washington's agricultural products and food processing businesses economically uncompetitive, thereby shifting emissions to jurisdictions without similar greenhouse gas policies.

Providing regulatory relief from greenhouse gas emissions rules for producers of agricultural commodities and food products.

States that, if a rule is created that regulates greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural activities and food processing, the producers of agricultural commodities or food products may request the department of ecology to calculate greenhouse gas emissions in a comparison of a specified competitor's agricultural commodity or food product imported from out-of-state against the same type of agricultural commodity if obtained in the state.

Regarding ownership of marijuana businesses.

Considers a person or entity in any of the positions in a business, as shown in section 1 (11) of this act, applying for a marijuana producer, processor, or retailer license is considered an applicant and must be named on the license.

-- 2018 REGULAR SESSION --
Jan 15	First reading, referred to Commerce & Gaming (Not Officially read and referred until adoption of Introduction report).