As state lawmakers return to Olympia, we take a look at what’s on the agenda for the 2024 Legislative Session and the potential impact of a slate of initiatives.
From roadside encampments to rent stabilization, speed cameras to police staffing levels, there are a lot of legislative proposals in the mix as the 2024 Legislative Session gets underway.
The 60-day session started Monday, January 8th and runs through Thursday, March 7th.
This week we’re joined by a veteran reporter turned political insider for perspective on the state government issues to watch this year and the clash of interests behind the scenes.
“It’s going to be very interesting. Interesting to see how the various kinds of interest groups with skin in the game respond to these initiatives during the campaign year,” said Paul Queary.
Queary is a former AP reporter and political communications consultant who now runs The Washington Observer newsletter.
“The market rate housing people had a really big year last year. They got a lot of things designed to build housing in the free market,” said Queary. “The low income housing folks kind of got the short end of the stick. You saw tenant protections and rent restrictions and things like that sort of die at various key points last year and those folks will be back this year.”
“The people that we talked to who really follow this issue closely, think that it might be the year for some of those things to pass,” he continued.
Check out the full interview with Paul here:
Earlier this week we spoke with the governor and the caucus leaders from both parties in the House and Senate.
See those interviews here:
One-on-one with Governor Jay Inslee
One-on-one with Senate Republican Leader John Braun (R-Centralia)
One-on-one with Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig (D-Spokane)
One-on-one with House Speaker Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma)
One-on-one with House Republican Leader Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn)