Government
Rep. Young updates city officials on session bills
No bills have yet been sent to the House floor for votes in this current legislative session, according to Rep. Jesse Young, R-Gig Harbor. Young met virtually with the Gig Harbor City Council and administration Wednesday for an update on his priorities in this short session.
Typically in a short session, bills that didn’t receive a vote in the last session are brought back to the body of origin — in this case, the House — and are “cued up to get them out right away, so they have their full possibility of moving through in this session,” he said. “So far, we haven’t done that to much of an extent at all. So not a lot is happening from last year.”
State Rep. Jesse Young
Young is focusing on public safety issues, including fixing some of the confusion that resulted from law-enforcement legislation passed last year, especially clarifying the definition of “probable cause” or “intent,” he said.
He’s also working on a bill that would prohibit anyone from interfering with first responders who are trying to respond to a scene.
“Believe it or not, we don’t have a law in this state that prohibits this,” he said. “If someone is impeding the (first responders’) effort, whether it’s because they’re drunk or scared or whatever the cause may be, this bill will allow the responder to inform police that the person is impeding. And that frees up the cop to interject.”
He noted that Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One Chief Dennis Doan recently testified on this issue.
Young is also working on bills that cover data security issues and what big corporations are allowed to do with a person’s private information. Currently, there are restrictions on the kind of information that can be sold, but not on the kinds of information that can be given away free. He noted that if an insurance company wants to acquire “intimate knowledge of your glasses prescription and if you’re in an automobile accident and they can prove that you didn’t have your glasses on, they can deny your claim. These are the kinds of things we‘re trying to shut down,” Young said.
Young has already voiced opposition to HB 1782 regarding residential zoning density. That bill, and a similar bill in the Senate, have been put forth at the request of Gov. Jay Inslee to add more affordable housing throughout the state. Among other things, it would require cities to update their comprehensive plans to allow additional housing in areas currently zoned for single-family dwellings.
He’s also watching HB 1660 regarding Airbnbs and VBROs. That bill has been modified so that it won’t affect units that are used as short-term rentals, according to Annika Vaughn of the city’s lobbying team.
Young is aware of the city’s request for funds for the sports complex, but he’s not hopeful it will come this year.
When asked about the possibility of eliminating tolls from the Narrows Bridge, Young said he believes that the bill recently proposed by Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, that would abolish bridge tolls “can’t be passed because the bridge was funded by non-callable bonds” that can’t be redeemed early except with the payment of a penalty.
According to SB 5488, $672 million to pay outstanding principal and interest on bonds issued to construct the bridge would be moved from the general fund to the Highway Bond Retirement Fund.