The big five
Education
Gov. Chris Gregoire is backing a slate of changes: phasing in all-day kindergarten, expanding prekindergarten learning programs, adding thousands more college students, increasing teacher pay and shrinking class sizes.
Where things stand: The Senate approved setting up a task force to re-examine how the state pays for public schools, although some districts – including Spokane public schools – say their budget woes can’t wait.
Among this year’s dead bills: a Republican-backed measure to require state lawmakers to “fund education first” before allocating money to anything else and a bill to require lap-and-shoulder belts on all new school buses.
Health care
Lawmakers are considering adding 38,000 children to state-paid health coverage, spending $26 million over the next two years to improve childhood vaccination, and an array of other reforms to make health care more affordable for more people.
Where things stand: On Tuesday, Gregoire is slated to sign into law Sen. Chris Marr’s bill to set up a state system to cover low- and some middle-income children.
Despite Republican criticism that the system will encourage people to pull their kids off employer-offered health plans and sign them up for the government plan, the measure overwhelmingly passed the Senate and House.
Dead bills include one to ban any below-the-neck body piercing of minors’ “certain sensitive parts.”
The economy
From making health care cheaper to a “holiday” for some workers’ compensation costs, lawmakers and the governor say they want to help the cooling economy, particularly small businesses.
Where things stand: Look for an economic forecast Thursday, when the state Revenue Forecast Council dusts off its crystal ball to estimate how much the state can expect in taxes and other revenue over the next two years.
Lawmakers approved continuation of a deal with some Indian tribes under which tribal gas stations collect the 34-cent state gas tax, with the money split between the tribes and the state.
A similar agreement is in the works for the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
Same-sex marriage
Proponents want it, or at least domestic partnerships that would include many of the legal rights of married people.
Critics are countering with a call to write the state law banning gay marriage into the state constitution – an unlikely move that would require approval from a legislative supermajority as well as voters statewide.
Where things stand: The Senate has passed a bill to set up a state domestic partnership registry that would provide rights such as the right for partners to visit each other in the hospital, inheritance rights if there is no will, and the right to make medical decisions if a partner is incapacitated.
Gay and lesbian couples, as well as heterosexual couples with at least one partner older than 62 would be eligible.
Environment
Gregoire has proposed spending $200 million toward the $9 billion problem of cleaning up Puget Sound, among other proposals.
Where things stand: Among the lesser-known environmental proposals this year: House Bill 2143, requiring state regulators to come up with a list of “environmentally preferred” alternatives to lead tire weights.
The lead weights, used to balance tires for decades, tend to eventually come loose and land beside roads and highways, where they can leach into soil and water.
New lead weights would be banned for all vehicles registered in the state by 2010.