Concerning watershed management actions by watershed improvement districts.

Authorizing political subdivisions to implement district-based elections.

Concerning port district worker development and training programs.

Providing postsecondary education to enhance education opportunities and public safety.

Modifying administrative processes for the utilities and transportation commission in managing deposits and cost reimbursements of the energy facility site evaluation council.

Concerning the department of early learning's access to records and personal information for purposes of determining character and suitability of child care workers.

Requires the department of social and health services to maintain and share records of child abuse and neglect with the department of early learning for purposes of determining character and suitability of child care workers.

Includes the department of early learning in the definition of "juvenile justice or care agency" for purposes of chapter 13.50 RCW (records by juvenile justice or care agencies).

Requires the department of early learning to: (1) Be given access to certain records and information collected and retained by a juvenile justice or care agency; and

Creating the Washington effective licensing port and eliminating various occupational licensure and certification requirements.

Creates a Washington effective licensing port and eliminates certain occupational licensure and certification requirements.

Requires the department of licensing to create the comprehensive and user-friendly web site for public comment on and review of all individuals working in one or more of the following occupations: (1) Animal massage;

(2) Auctioneer;

(3) Boxing announcer;

(4) Snowmobile/off-road dealer;

(5) Food fish or game fishing guide, or both;

(6) Landscape architect;

(7) Manicurist; and

(8) Whitewater river outfitter.

Concerning recounts of statewide advisory measures.

Concerning election errors involving measures.

Limiting the uses of the fire protection contractor license fund.

Extending the term of validity for a driver's instruction permit.

Changes the length of time that a driver's instruction permit is valid from one year to eighteen months and authorizes the department of licensing to issue one additional permit for eighteen months.

Requires the holder of an intermediate license to: (1) Have possessed a valid instruction permit for a period of not less than one year; and

Authorizing local governments to use a young driver safety training program created by the national safety council.

Establishes the alive at twenty-five act.

States that the purpose of the young driver safety training program, which is the national safety council's alive at twenty-five defensive driving course, is to instruct, educate, and inform those who attend the training program on defensive driving techniques and other strategies for staying safe on the road designed specifically for young drivers.

Modifying the operating restrictions for intermediate license holders.

Concerning the possession and transfer of marijuana, marijuana plants, useable marijuana, marijuana-infused products, and marijuana concentrates.

Addressing the overpayment of wages by a municipal corporation.

Preventing discriminatory treatment by government of a person or entity based on beliefs and practices held with regard to marriage as the union between one man and one woman.

Establishes the Washington state protection of the free exercise of religious beliefs and rights of conscience regarding marriage as the union of one man and one woman act.

Provides that an individual or entity has the constitutionally and statutorily recognized and protected right to choose whether or not to provide services or goods related to the solemnization or celebration of marriage if the marriage is contrary to the individual's or entity owner's sincerely held religious belief, philosophical tenet, matter of conscience, or practice regarding the institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Concerning gender requirements in the election of chair and vice chair positions for state committees of political parties.

Merging the department of agriculture's fruit and vegetable inspection districts and accounts.

Modifying the powers and duties of the Washington dairy products commission to include research and education related to the economic uses of nutrients produced by dairy farms.

Concerning the mandatory nonbinding arbitration provisions of the Washington state seed act.

Concerning recordkeeping requirements of secondary commercial fish receivers.

Creating the Washington state historic cemetery preservation capital grant program.

Creates the Washington state historic cemetery preservation capital grant program to benefit the public by preserving outstanding examples of the state's historical heritage, enabling historic cemeteries to continue to serve their communities, and honoring the military veterans buried within them.

Providing accountability and transparency for aerospace-related tax incentives.

Establishes the aerospace tax incentive accountability act.

Declares it is the legislature's specific public policy objective to: (1) Maintain and grow the state's aerospace industry workforce to one hundred thousand five hundred employment positions by 2040; and

(2) Provide tangible taxpayer accountability for the state's largest aerospace company by adopting a minimum employment baseline that must be met by the company to fully qualify for aerospace tax incentives.

Requires the joint legislative audit and review committee to assess: (1) Whether aerospace industry employment within the state is on target to reach an employment level of one hundred thousand five hundred by 2040; and

Increasing the safety of school bus riders.

Concerning public funds and deposits.

Increasing the number of wineries and microbreweries that may offer wine or beer samples at farmers markets.

Providing small winery tax relief.

Concerning school district boards of directors adopting procedures to implement a policy.

Concerning animal forfeiture in animal cruelty cases.

Modifies animal cruelty provisions regarding: (1) Timelines for euthanization;

(2) Petitioning the district court for an animal's return; and

Eliminating accounts.

Eliminates certain accounts.

Addressing plan membership default provisions in the public employees' retirement system, the teachers' retirement system, and the school employees' retirement system.

Disposing tax foreclosed property to cities for affordable housing purposes.

Requires the county legislative authority to give notice to a city in which any tax foreclosed property is located within at least sixty days of acquiring the property and prohibits the county from disposing of the property at public auction or by private negotiation before giving the notice.

Providing for an exemption from disclosure of certain financial, commercial, and proprietary information held by a city retirement board on behalf of its employees' retirement system.

Concerning rail fixed guideway system safety and security oversight.

Addresses incidents, accidents, security breaches, identified hazards, and identified security vulnerability with regard to rail fixed guideway systems.

Concerning the deposit of moneys from various advertising activities.

Authorizes the department of transportation to: (1) Sell commercial advertising, including product placement, on department web sites and social media; and

Concerning vehicle maximum gross weight values.

Concerning the maintenance and disclosure of health care declarations.

Requires the department of health to contract with an entity, which may be a private organization or another state that operates a similar registry, to coordinate and manage the statewide health care declarations registry in compliance with certain standards identified in this act.

Requires the application form for a new or renewal driver's license or identicard to ask the applicant to designate whether he or she: (1) Has executed a health care declaration; and

(2) Has executed a health care declaration that is stored in the health care declarations registry.

Concerning the excise taxation of personalized handguns.

Requires the purchaser of a pistol to include on the application whether the pistol is a personalized handgun.

Concerning the reliability of incentivized evidence and testimony.

Concerning the excise taxation of crowdfunding donations.

Improving state budgeting through zero-based budget reviews.

Counting experience at a private school under the years of service calculation for classroom teachers.

Concerning tribal cultural resources protection in the forest practices act.

Developing a plan for the consolidation of traffic-based financial obligations.

Requires the administrative office of the courts to develop a plan to establish a program for the efficient statewide consolidation of an individual's traffic-based financial obligations imposed by courts of limited jurisdiction into a unified and affordable payment plan.

Requires the office of the attorney general to convene a work group of stakeholders to provide input and feedback to the administrative office of the courts on the development of the plan and the program.

Concerning the design and construction of certain transportation facilities adjacent to or across a river or waterway.

Concerning the developmental disabilities community trust account.

Creating the Washington next generation educational savings account program.

Creates the Washington next generation educational savings account program to expand educational opportunity and financial capability for every child born or adopted in the state.

Requires the student achievement council to: (1) Administer the program;

(2) Partner with one or more private organizations to establish and fund the program; and

(3) Determine when an adequate amount of funding has been secured to begin implementation of the program.

Implementing sunshine committee recommendations to repeal obsolete exemptions to public disclosure provisions.

Eliminating some authority of school districts to exempt students from participation in physical education.

Requiring legislative approval of tax preferences as part of the two-year budget process.

Providing transparency on the effect of tax expenditures on the state's budget.

Addresses the department of revenue's reporting to the legislature regarding a listing of the amount of reduction for the current and next biennium in the revenues of the state or the revenues of local government collected by the state as a result of tax exemptions.

Requires the governor's operating budget document to clearly state a baseline revenue estimate in the operating budget balance sheet that excludes the impact of any current tax preferences and a revenue adjustment that includes the estimated impact of current tax preferences.

Requires the submitted forecast document to clearly state a baseline revenue estimate that excludes the impact of any current tax preferences and a revenue adjustment that includes the estimated impact of current tax preferences.

Concerning administrative processes of the state parks and recreation commission that require a majority vote of the commission.

Vacating convictions arising from offenses committed as a result of being a victim of trafficking, promoting prostitution, or promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor.

Concerning physical education instructional requirements for public school students.

Requires the office of the superintendent of public instruction to develop a competitive grant program for school districts to increase compliance with certain physical education instructional requirements.

Reforming the school assessment system to focus on teaching and learning.

Concerning the definition of "agency" for purposes of early learning programs.

Relating to utility relocation costs.

Concerning recoverable costs from the recording of certain judgment liens.

Concerning filing fee surcharges for funding dispute resolution centers.

Allows a county legislative authority to: (1) Increase the surcharge on each civil filing fee in district court and the surcharge on each filing fee for small claims actions; and

Updating workforce investment act references and making no substantive changes.

Authorizing cities and counties to exempt certain housing from the state building code.

Authorizes the legislative authority of a city or county to adopt an ordinance that, for innovative housing, creates an exemption from requirements of the state building code.

Clarifying which counties may provide and maintain detention rooms or detention houses.

Regulating nursing home facilities.

Consolidating the duties, powers, missions, functions, and funds of the life sciences discovery fund authority and the cancer research endowment authority within a center of excellence for life sciences and cancer research.

Creates a center of excellence for life sciences and cancer research to promote sustained investment in life sciences and cancer research.

Consolidates the missions, powers, duties, and functions of the life sciences discovery fund authority and the cancer research endowment authority within the center.

Authorizes the life sciences discovery fund authority to establish a fund as a separate private account outside of the treasury, to be known as the CARE fund.

Changes the name of the cancer research endowment program to the cancer research program.

Establishing the Washington open education pilot grant program for the four-year institutions of higher education.

Creates the Washington open education pilot grant program within the student achievement council to create a competitive grant program to provide an incentive for faculty to adopt open educational resources and reduce students' costs of attendance.

Requires the student achievement council to award up to one hundred grants per year to faculty members to develop or obtain open educational materials and resources.

Authorizing pharmacists to prescribe and dispense contraceptives.

Providing automatic voter registration at qualified voter registration agencies.

Expands the streamlined voter registration process to increase opportunities for voter registration without placing new undue burdens on government agencies.

Requiring a feasibility study to identify improvements for state route number 26.

Requiring that rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions must provide for the establishment of credits for certain emission reduction activities.

Criminalizing female genital mutilation.

Creates the crime of female genital mutilation.

Making the cost of textbooks and other college course materials more affordable.

Requires community and technical colleges to revise their college catalogs and course descriptions to designate which courses qualify as having open educational resources.

Requires the state board for community and technical colleges to: (1) Administer a grant program to fund campus level coordinations to promote and facilitate expansion of the open course library; and

(2) Administer a grant program to support colleges that seek to develop an entire degree or certificate program composed of courses designated as having open educational resources.

Requires the student achievement council to administer a grant program to fund campus level coordinators to promote and facilitate access to open educational resources for the four-year institutions of higher education.

Providing parity in coverage for hearing disabilities.

Establishes the hearing disability parity act.

Requires each group contract for comprehensive health care services which is entered into, or renewed on or after January 1, 2017, to: (1) Include coverage for hearing aids for children under the age of eighteen when medically necessary; and

(2) Offer optional coverage for hearing aids for adults.

Requires a health plan offered to employees and their covered dependents, under state health care authority laws, issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2017, to include coverage for hearing aids for children under the age of eighteen when medically necessary.

Authorizing cities to impose a temporary property tax increase to fund historic building rehabilitation.

Authorizes a city legislative authority, subject to any otherwise applicable statutory dollar rate limitations, to impose regular property taxes in an amount exceeding the limitations provided for in chapter 84.55 RCW (limitations upon regular property taxes).

Creating a financing program for historic building preservation.

Creates the historic building rehabilitation financing program in the department of commerce for the following purposes: (1) Supporting the public interest in preserving the state's historical heritage;

(2) Protecting public safety and health in and around historic buildings; and

(3) Contributing to the economic stability of the state's communities by keeping historic buildings functional and economically viable.

Requires the department of commerce and the selected certified nonprofit community development financial institution to consult with the department of archaeology and historic preservation to determine which proposed projects involve historically significant buildings and whether the rehabilitation plans for those buildings are consistent with the United States department of the interior's standards for rehabilitation.

Creates the historic building rehabilitation revolving loan fund.

Creating a pilot project to provide middle and junior high school students strategic and intentional academic support beyond the traditional school day to promote accountability and responsibility.

Establishes the accountability, responsibility, and academic achievement act.

Creates a pilot project that will be administered by the department of commerce to: (1) Create after-school learning labs in public middle and junior high schools; and

(2) Provide public middle school and junior high school students with an organized and consistent learning environment.

Requires each middle school and junior high school participating in the pilot project to: (1) Have a learning lab that is open to students from after school until six o'clock p.m. each day that school is in session; and

(2) Have a lab director.

Concerning Central Washington University's fifth year promise.

Authorizes Central Washington University to offer a program that promises that a student enrolled in a four-year baccalaureate degree program will graduate within four years or Central Washington University will allow the student to enroll in his or her remaining required courses for free in the fifth year, as long as the student: (1) Commits to following a degree pathway developed in conjunction with his or her advisor and degree-planner software;

(2) Attempts to enroll in courses required for his or her degree program; and

Creating a higher education performance funding incentive system.

Creates a performance funding incentive system for the four-year institutions and requires the legislature to appropriate funding to each four-year institution contingent on the achievement of performance targets set for each four-year institution.

Requires the four-year institutions to work with the education data center to establish a menu of achievement metrics designed to measure progress towards the statewide achievement goals.

Requires the education data center to establish a three-year average performance baseline for each institution's selected metrics.

Requires the office of financial management, once an institution's performance targets are approved, to determine each institution's proportion of the total performance funding appropriated for that period.

Establishing a marijuana lounge endorsement to a marijuana retailer's license.

Concerning background checks in emergency placement situations requested by tribes.

Ensuring that historic public recreational access is not diminished by the road maintenance and abandonment efforts of public forest landowners.

Concerning the sale of marijuana plants and seeds for medical purposes.

Concerning campaign finance reporting requirements.

Revises the fair campaign practices act with regard to campaign finance reporting requirements.

-- 2016 REGULAR SESSION --
Jan 18	First reading, referred to State Government (Not Officially read and referred until adoption of Introduction report).
Jan 20	Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on State Government at 8:00 AM. (Subject to change)
Jan 21	Scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on State Government at 1:30 PM. (Subject to change)