Clarifying residency requirements for licensed marijuana businesses.

Clarifies residency requirements for licensed marijuana businesses.

Ensuring the competitiveness of Washington state's fishing and seafood processing industries by supporting the recapitalization of fishing fleets through certain tax preferences.

Enabling electric utilities to prepare for the distributed energy future.

Declares it is the policy of the state that any distributed energy resources planning process engaged in by an electric utility in the state should accomplish certain goals.

Provides an explanation for the goals and requires the legislature, beginning January 1, 2023, to review the state's policy pertaining to the planning and determine: (1) How many electric utilities in the state have engaged or are engaging in a planning process;

(2) Whether the process has met the specified goals; and

Concerning school bus safety.

Requires every school bus, beginning September 1, 2019, to be equipped with an automated school bus safety camera.

Requires every school bus manufactured or assembled after September 1, 2019, to be equipped with a shoulder harness-type safety belt assembly for each passenger position.

Requires passengers in school buses equipped with seat belts to wear the belts, in a properly adjusted manner, when the school bus is in motion.

Creates the school bus safety account.

Concerning the evaluation and prioritization of capital budget projects at the public two-year and four-year institutions of higher education.

Requires the office of financial management, in consultation with the legislative fiscal committees, the state board for community and technical colleges, and the public four-year institutions of higher education, to develop: (1) Learning space utilization standards for higher education facilities;

(2) Reasonableness of cost standards for higher education capital projects; and

(3) A criteria scoring and prioritization matrix for use by four-year higher education institutions and other decision makers to produce single prioritized lists of higher education capital projects that consists of a numeric rating scale that assesses how well a particular project satisfies higher education capital project criteria and a numeric measure to weigh the importance of those criteria.

Concerning dangerous objects on county roads and bridges.

Concerning tribal-state relations.

Creates the joint committee on tribal-state relations and requires the committee to: (1) Serve as a forum for effective government-to-government communications;

(2) Seek to foster resolution of issues of mutual concern between the tribes and the state; and

(3) Consider the needs and concerns of tribal groups and organizations in the state, as well as American Indians in the state.

Provides that this act is null and void if appropriations are not approved.

Authorizing marijuana retailers to sell marijuana merchandise.

Authorizes the sale, by marijuana retailers, of marijuana merchandise which is defined as wearable apparel that serves to promote or advertise the retail outlet, or a product line sold by the retail outlet, and that has labeling affixed to the wearable apparel that includes: (1) The retail outlet's name, logo, or other symbol associated with the retail outlet; or

(2) A name, logo, or other symbol associated with a product line sold by the retail outlet.

Requires the state liquor and cannabis board to adopt rules: (1) Regarding retail product design and marketing standards for marijuana merchandise and other products sold by licensed retailers; and

Concerning a community aviation revitalization loan program.

Requires the department of transportation to: (1) Convene a community aviation revitalization board;

(2) Provide management services, including fiscal and contract services, and staff support, to assist the board in implementing this act;

(3) Make direct loans, if certain conditions are met, to airport sponsors of public use airports in the state for the purpose of airport improvements that primarily support general aviation activities; and

Creating a rural county jobs program.

Creates the rural county high employer demand jobs program to: (1) Meet the workforce needs of business and industry in rural counties by assisting students in earning certificates, associate degrees, or other industry-recognized credentials necessary for employment in high employer demand fields; and

(2) Provide selected students scholarship funds, as determined by the opportunity scholarship board, to help them meet their eligible expenses for up to one year, when they enroll in a community or technical college program that prepares them for a high employer demand field.

Requires the opportunity scholarship board to create the rural jobs program account, from which scholarship funds will be disbursed beginning no later than the fall term of the 2020 academic year, if by that date, state matching funds have been received.

Reducing air emissions associated with certain port trucking operations.

Requires, by January 1, 2019, a drayage truck that is delivering or receiving goods from a high-volume port to meet the emission standards adopted by the United States environmental protection agency for new vehicles with heavy duty highway engines applicable to 2007 and later model years as those standards existed as of January 1, 2018.

Modernizing and clarifying in-state distilled spirits production licenses and fees.

Defining the process for best interest determinations of students in out-of-home care.

Requires school districts to: (1) Collaborate with the department of children, youth, and families to develop protocols specifying specific strategies for communication, coordination, and collaboration regarding the status and progress of children in out-of-home care placed in the region, in order to maximize the educational continuity and achievement of these children;

(2) Designate a foster care liaison to facilitate district compliance with state and federal laws related to students in out-of-home care; and

(3) Collaborate with the department to address educational barriers for these students.

Requires a student, when practical and in his or her best interest, who is placed into out-of-home care, to remain enrolled in the school they were attending at the time they entered out-of-home care.

Clarifying the authority and procedures for unit priced contracting by public port districts.

Adding proximity to working forests to the residential real estate disclosure statement.

Concerning seizure and forfeiture procedures and reporting.

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.

Concerning expanded learning opportunities.

Reconstitutes the expanded learning opportunities council as the expanded learning opportunities advisory council within the center for the improvement of student learning.

Establishes new and/or modified governance provisions and duties for the advisory council.

Addressing joint self-insurance programs for property and liability risks.

Enables a qualifying state agency to participate in a local government joint self-insurance program covering property and liability risks.

Defines "qualifying state agency" as a state agency, board, commission, or other entity of the state, other than a local government entity, with a biennial operating budget of not more than five million dollars.

-- 2018 REGULAR SESSION --
Jan 24	Public hearing in the House Committee on Business & Financial Services at 1:30 PM.
Jan 26	BFS - Majority; 1st substitute bill be substituted, do pass.
	Executive action taken in the House Committee on Business & Financial Services at 9:00 AM.
Jan 30	Referred to Appropriations.