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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Dozens of bills proposed

Richard Roesler Staff writer

OLYMPIA – The start of the legislative session in Olympia is still about two weeks off, but lawmakers already are proposing dozens of changes in state law.

One would make it easier to claim justifiable homicide. Another would regulate off-campus student housing. Yet others call for the automatic firing of any state troopers who abandon their posts in an emergency, and for setting up collective bargaining for child care workers.

In recent days, about 90 bills have been filed for the legislative session, which starts Jan. 9. Some are largely symbolic: calling on the federal government to toughen penalties for hiring illegal aliens, for example, or asking the feds to use one of the Hanford reactors to make hydrogen fuel.

Among the others:

  • Senate Bill 6135: Each state four-year college would have to review the safety and habitability of off-campus student housing. The schools also would have to seek ways to offset problems the housing creates for the residential communities around the schools. Prime sponsor: Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle.

  • Senate Bill 6139: In general, someone who kills a person and claims self-defense has a “duty to retreat” from the criminal if feasible. This bill would remove that requirement. In a justifiable homicide, there would be no duty to retreat, so long as the defender was in a place he was legally entitled to be. Prime sponsor: Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington.

  • House Bill 2350: Allowing government agencies to keep secret the location of gas and chemical pipelines. Prime sponsor: Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes.

  • Senate Bill 6137: Would require the immediate firing of any state trooper who abandons duty during an emergency. Prime sponsor: Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington.

  • Senate Bill 6151: A rare alliance between farm-country Republicans and environmental-leaning Seattle Democrats, this would eliminate the state’s controversial “use it or lose it” provision, which yanks irrigators’ water rights if they stop using the water. It would only apply to the Odessa “subarea” aquifer, which has been rapidly sinking while local growers await a federal water project.

    The area includes most of Adams County and parts of Lincoln, Grant and Franklin counties. Already, some growers and communities are pumping water from nearly 2,000 feet underground, said the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Mark Schoesler.

    “As things stand now, if you don’t pump your water for five consecutive years, you lose it,” said Schoesler, R-Ritzville. “So the incentive to conserve water is not there.”

    The bill, he said, would allow growers a “timeout” without worrying about losing water rights.

  • House Bill 2353: Granting collective bargaining rights to child care workers, but without the ability to legally go on strike. Prime sponsor: Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle. Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, is sponsoring a Senate version.

  • Senate Bill 6153: One of many sex-offender bills expected this session, this would set a mandatory prison term of at least 25 years for anyone convicted of first-degree child rape or first-degree child molestation. Also requires electronic monitoring for life. Prime sponsor: Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.