Concerning disclosure in initiatives, referenda, and recall petitions.

Regulates signature gatherers and those who employ signature gatherers.

Modifying the Washington advanced college tuition payment and college savings programs.

Requires the governing body of the advanced college tuition payment program and the college savings program to allow account owners who purchased units before July 1, 2015, to redeem the units at the unit cash value price if the redeemed funds are deposited immediately into an eligible state college savings program account.

Requires the committee on advanced tuition payment and college savings, in consultation with the state actuary and state investment board, to: (1) Establish a period that is not less than ninety days during which eligible purchasers may redeem units at the unit cash value price and provide at least thirty days' notice before the ninety-day window to all eligible account holders about the redemption option; and

Updating application requirements for the academic acceleration incentive program.

Addresses eligibility for advanced courses in mathematics, science, or computer science and equitable access to dual credit opportunities.

Requires the office of the superintendent of public instruction to, in making grant awards, give priority to grants for high schools: (1) That have not previously received grant funds through the academic acceleration incentive program;

(2) With a high proportion of low-income students;

(3) Identified as having high disproportionality in their dual credit enrollment data; or

(4) Seeking to develop new capacity for dual credit courses rather than proposing marginal expansion of current capacity.

Allows a high school, in a district that has not adopted an academic acceleration policy, to apply for grants if in practice it follows the academic acceleration guidelines and meets other criteria.

Authorizes the office of the superintendent of public instruction to retain a percentage of learning assistance program allocation funds to support districts in meeting certain requirements, including data collection and reporting and providing professional development and technical assistance.

Allows a school district: (1) During the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years only, to expend a portion of the district's learning assistance program allocation to develop a dropout early warning and intervention data system; and

Addressing the presumption of occupational disease for purposes of workers' compensation by adding medical conditions to the presumption and extending the presumption to certain publicly employed firefighters and investigators and law enforcement.

States that, there exists a prima facie presumption, with regard to public employee fire investigators who are covered under the state industrial insurance act, that the following are occupational diseases: Respiratory disease, heart problems, cancer, and infectious diseases.

States that, there exists a prima facie presumption, with regard to law enforcement officers who are covered under the state industrial insurance act, that the following are occupational diseases: Heart problems and infectious diseases.

Improving health outcomes for injured workers by facilitating better access to medical records and telemedicine.

Requires a self-insured employer to ensure that relevant medical records of an injured worker scheduled for an independent medical exam are provided as electronic medical records to the independent medical exam physician or physicians; if electronic records are not possible, paper records must be delivered to the physician or physicians at least ten business days before the exam.

Requires the director of the department of labor and industries to adopt policies developed by the telemedicine collaborative to establish access to telemedicine for independent medical exams and reimburse independent medical exam physicians for services.

Requires the telemedicine collaborative to: (1) Develop policies for the department to establish access to telemedicine for independent medical exams and reimburse the physicians for services in a manner that is similar to the policies developed for commercial health insurance plans and medicaid managed care plans; and

Requiring a public hearing before a local government may remove a recorded restrictive covenant from land owned by the local government. (REVISED FOR ENGROSSED: Requiring a public hearing before a local government may remove, vacate, or extinguish certain covenants from land it owns. )

Concerning the transparency of local taxing districts.

Requires a metropolitan municipal corporation, public utility district, diking district, drainage district, sewerage improvement district, solid waste collection district, solid waste disposal district, water-sewer district, and city or town operating as a municipal utility to disclose information on billing statements sent to customers as follows: (1) The rates of state and local taxes imposed on the corporation, district, or utility, as appropriate, with respect to the billed services, if any; and

(2) The amount of the taxes to be paid directly by the customer or taxpayer through the billing statement.

Requires an electric utility, except as otherwise provided, to: (1) Provide written or electronic notice of public hearings where changes in electricity rates will be considered or approved by the utilities and transportation commission or governing body; and

(2) Disclose on each billing statement the rate of tax imposed upon the electric utility, if any, and the amount of the tax to be paid directly by the retail electric customer through the billing statement.

-- 2018 REGULAR SESSION --
Feb 1	LGOV - Majority; 1st substitute bill be substituted, do pass.
	Minority; do not pass.
	Public hearing and executive action taken in the Senate Committee on Local Government at 1:30 PM.
Feb 2	Passed to Rules Committee for second reading.
Feb 8	Placed on second reading by Rules Committee.
Feb 13	1st substitute bill substituted.
	Floor amendment(s) adopted.
	Rules suspended. Placed on Third Reading.
	Third reading, passed; yeas, 34; nays, 13; absent, 0; excused, 2.
Feb 21	Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Local Government at 8:00 AM in anticipation of other legislative action.
Feb 22	Scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Local Government at 1:30 PM in anticipation of other legislative action.