OLYMPIA, WA – Democrats were moments away from passing a cap on residential rent increases off the Washington state Senate floor Friday night.
But a challenge from the Senate Republican leader, upheld by the lieutenant governor, is forcing a delay.
The issue amounts more to a do-over than a derailment. Democrats are now poised to vote on House Bill 1217 on Sunday, the last scheduled day of the legislative session.
The move from Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, late Friday came after about an hour of impassioned speeches about the help or damage that could result from the annual limit on rent increases, currently proposed to be 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower.
At issue is the bill’s title: “Improving housing stability for tenants subject to the residential landlord-tenant act and the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act by limiting rent and fee increases, requiring notice of rent and fee increases, limiting fees and deposits, establishing a landlord resource center and associated services, authorizing tenant lease termination, creating parity between lease types, and providing for attorney general enforcement.”
This title is much longer than that of just about any other legislation this session in Olympia.
Braun argued it’s overly prescriptive, leaving little room for amendments, and no longer accurately described the proposal. He noted the bill didn’t have the original online “landlord resource center” the state Department of Commerce would have been required to create.
“If an aspect of the bill is removed yet still referenced in the title, it simply does not provide an accurate description for the public,” Braun said. “It’s like if we had a bill that talked about whales that were going to be in danger from outboard motors, and then we didn’t talk about whales, we talked about manatees.”
An amendment approved on the House floor six weeks ago, from Rep. Nicole Macri, a Seattle Democrat and one of the measure’s chief backers, took out the landlord resource center requirement. A month later, the Senate passed the bill without that requirement.
In response to Braun, Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, noted the legislation still had other resources for landlords.
Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, who serves as president of the Senate, took an extended break before delivering his ruling on the arguments. While noting drafters have “great latitude” to choose a bill title, the Democrat said this one breaks Senate rules.
“As this President and my predecessors have warned, while selecting such a title may tend to protect a bill by preventing certain unwarranted amendments to the bill, it is not without risk in the Senate, especially when changes are made to the bill,” said Heck. He concluded: “Senator Braun’s point is well taken and the measure is ineligible for final passage in its present form.”
Democratic staff and lawmakers responded with muttered expletives in the wings.
The hullabaloo, which unfolded around 9 p.m. on Friday, came just a day after Democrats in the two chambers released a negotiated proposal meant to strike a compromise between the 7% limit on rent increases the House backed and the Senate-supported 10% plus inflation.
To deal with Heck’s ruling, Democrats had to convene a second so-called conference committee to draft a revised proposal that adds back the resource center. They released the new version Saturday morning, about 12 hours after the previous bill collapsed.
“We know that our landlords are important, and I’m happy to see that in this final conference report that we have a landlord resource center so that they can get the resources that they need,” said Senate Housing Committee Chair Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia.
The chambers must now wait 24 hours before voting on it.
Despite the latest setback, Democrats emphasized this would just mean a delay, not the divisive legislation’s demise.
“We’re going to pass rent stabilization this session,” House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said after a meeting with senators following Heck’s decision Friday night.
But at the conference committee meeting Saturday morning, Rep. Sam Low, R-Lake Stevens, raised another issue: Can the new version of the bill include something not included in the iterations that passed the House and Senate?
Bateman pointed to the Legislature’s joint rule that appears to allow for such changes.