The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About12/08/2009 06 2010 State Legislative Priorities • BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL • YAKIMA, WASHINGTON AGENDA STATEMENT Item No. 6 • For Meeting Of: December 8, 2009 ITEM TITLE: City of Yakima 2010 State Legislative Priorities SUBMITTED BY: Richard A. Zais, City Manager CONTACT PERSON / TELEPHONE: Michael Morales, 575 -3533 SUMMARY EXPLANATION: Attached is summary draft of the 5 key issues for city's 2010 State Legislative Priorities.. These issues have been discussed with some council members at the Economic Development and Public Safety committee meetings, and it is presented tonight as a possible action item. Our legislative agenda is developed in consultation with council, department staff and other cities that share common interests and concerns, in addition to our involvement with the AWC. As with any issue, all cities do not always take the same position' on specific bills, nor do we all place the same level of priority on certain issues in the legislative arena. The Legislative Agenda sets the stage from an issue and policy standpoint for the city. Based on its content, staff will monitor and recommend positions in support or opposition of bills that come up during the session relating to the topics identified in our agenda. Staff and council may also advocate for the creation of legislation and financial requests that meet the objectives of the legislative agenda. Resolution Ordinance Other (Specify) Adoption Contracts Mail to (name and address): Phone: Funding Source APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL: �� City Manager STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends adoption BOARD RECOMMENDATION: COUNCIL ACTION: • • 1 DRAFT CITY OF YAKIMA PROPOSED 2010 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES CRIMINAL JUSTICE Support local tools and innovation for gang prevention and intervention; seek sustainable, ongoing funding for gang prevention and intervention, graffiti removal programs, and law enforcement suppression activities. Support sentencing enhancements, for gang related offenses, and the use of civil injunctions on known gang members and enterprises. CONTINUED APPROPRIATION OF COMMITTED STATE FUNDS Ensure that important and committed state-shared revenues and state funds continue to be allocated to local governments. This includes: maintaining full mitigation for streamlined sales tax; continuation of the city-county assistance account; continuation of important state-shared revenues such as the criminal justice assistance account, liquor excise tax account and liquor revolving account. STATE FACILITIES State facilities provide important services to the most vulnerable members of society, education and vocational training, and living wage jobs to our community. The City of Yakima opposes the closure, service reduction or funding of critical state facilities in our community, including Ahtanum View Corrections Center, Yakima Valley School, and Yakima Valley Community College. CAPITAL BUDGET Yakima Downtown Futures Initiative — $1.0 million: Lighting; sidewalks and paving; electrical upgrades; and other beautification efforts to complete the,"A" Street and 2n Street corridors. Miller Park Activity Center Expansion -- $500,000: Funding to retrofit former senior center and pool complex that now serves at risk youth in Yakima through the Yakima Police Athletic League. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS Maintain existing and establish new and broad application of existing tax incentives to promote economic development and infrastructure expansion. Increase Existing Grant and Loan Programs to stay current with construction inflation: This includes the Public Works Assistance Account (Public Works Trust Fund); Transportation Improvement Board; WSDOT Highways and Local Programs (i.e. Bicycle/Pedestrian Programs); opportunities within MTCA (Model Toxics Control Act) funds for one-time capital investments. _PREEMPTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY & UNFUNDED MANDATES.' Oppose legislation that preempts local authority over policy or operational prerogatives that have historically and traditionally been vested with local government. Oppose unfunded mandates on local government, especially those that would result in the loss of existing revenue or revenue authority. t_egisiative Services Legislative / AWC Legislative Services/ AWC 2010 Legislative Priorities AWC 2010 Legislative Priorities On September 25, the AWC Board of Directors adopted three preliminary major legislative priorities for the 2010 session (pdf, 82 kb). They are: City flexibility package, Stormwater funding, and Street utility. City flexibility package In 2009, AWC advanced a broad city flexibility package. This included "flexing" restrictions and requirements in areas such as fiscal health, land use, infrastructure, community safety, public records management, and more. In particular this included greater flexibility with existing revenues and local determination of how these revenues are allocated. The state did many of these same things in adopting the 2009-11 biennial budget, so AWC argued that the same latitude should be given to local governments, even if for a limited period of time. Below is a list of just some of the ideas AWC will be pursuing that support fiscal flexibility, cost-effective options, and local discretion in allocating resources in order for cities to best provide essential services (see fact sheet for more information): • Public safety sales tax (0.3% county-wide local option) — 2SSB 5433, which passed in 2009, allowed for partial supplanting of the public safety sales and use tax until 2015. Pursue full removal of non-supplant language and no expiration date. • Real estate excise tax — Currently cities that collect the 2nd 0.25% REET must spend those funds on a shorter list of projects than the 1st 0.25% REET. Allow the list of projects for the 2nd 0.25% locally collected real estate excise tax to match the list of projects for the 1st 0.25% real estate excise tax. • Gambling tax — Currently this tax can be used for local gambling enforcement programs. Expand uses to general public safety purposes. ,t Lodging tax — Currently the lodging tax is restricted to specific uses that are tourism- i related. Expand uses for any purpose that maintains or enhances tourism, including public safety. • GMA impact fees — Currently cities can charge for fire, parks, roads and schools if provided by the city. Add police/public safety and emergency response facilities, as well as fire, if provided by a district. Broaden definition of allowable transportation expenditures to include "multimodal" (trails, transit and others). Extend period of time when impact fees can be spent. • GMA & shoreline update — Skip next round of GMA updates in smaller/slow growth cities and counties. Alter GMA and Shoreline planning update schedule (i.e. provide more time). • Grant-Matching requirements - Reduce matching requirements for State grants. • Transportation Benefit District- Amend statute to extend voter approved sales tax beyond current 10 year provision. This would allow bonding of this revenue stream. ^" 7�/� U �«� � funding Municipal ��^x8~D��0K��D. xuu��uoDD�� A long- term state funding mechanism is needed to support "Phase I" and "Phase ll" NPDES stn/uivvu1zrrcquircmuco<u as well as Puget Sound cleanup efforts, that impacts 137 cities. AWC Will aggressively pursue ESHB 1084 (from 2009) which would establish a fee on a barrel of unrefined oil (approximately 1 20M/year in revenue); however, we will remain open to alternative le islation that provides equivalent funding. Please see more information regarding storm water funding in our fact sheet. Street utility ��][U�4�� DBuuu8u � Z>cc\ursd unconstitutional in 1495, a new authority would enable cities to charge a fee based on trip generation. There was strong opposition from many in the business community-during the 2OO9 Session (11Bl947). The Asxociu�onof�Vnshiogton Business has been open todiscussion this sunnnocr(no cnunnniUoen<sn, specific policy statement from them at this ho`r.)AJ�<� has already met with }{ and Senate Transportation <�h � d h � of legislators rc ycu vv/ � ouscoo �n n u/ruao a os o other outlining the need for this legislation. Please see more information on the street utility on our fact sheet. � AWC will be preparing promotional pieces for dhcsc priorities and advance them at the remaining Re i000l Meetings. The AWC Board adopted the priorities early so that city officials can talk with their legislators during the coming months. The Board will continue to look at the other components of our legislative agenda and will adopt the final package at their meeting on December 4. This package will include "other priority issues" and "issues to cndorsc." "Other priority iuuues" are im issues for cities; however, they do not raise to the leve of importance of the top priority priority issues. 'TIssues to endorse" are issues that would be good for cities (or at least for some cities) if they passed, however, AWC staff should not divert energy away from higher priorities to work on these issues. The L iolotivc Committee and its various subcommittees continue to meet and will have final oon` co |a��oa�oudvanu��ntboBourdhy��uvsn`h�r20� If uhuvcapeciticlegislative proposals for the Legislative Committee to consider, please email djennto Jim Justin at ' iimj@avvcnetorg with a' copy Sheri Sawyer at sboisaduv/cu«t.or . Thank you in advance for your contribution to AWC's policy development process. ' © Copyright 2009 Association of Washington Cities Association of Washington Cities Page 1 of 2 � , Zais, Dick From: Mike McCarty [mikem©awc et.org] Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 4:43 PM To: Zais, Dick Subject: State Budget Crisis: Cities and counties meet with Governor If you have trouble viewing this email, click huem view this message in your Web browser: Right-click � »e^a download pictures, To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this -- pic/urehomme|noa,00t. | / Forward to a friend State budget crisis: Cities and counties meet with Governor Last session, the state needed to close a $9 billion gap. Governor Gregoire and the Legislature made difficult decisions and received significant help from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, receiving about $3 billion to shore up programs. The state now faces an additional shortfall estimated at around $2.6 billion out of eligible expenses of only $9.3 billion. That gap must be closed in the I010 supplemental budget the Governor will propose next week. The Governor's Office and the Office of Financial ManogernenL has prepared a video outlining the fiscal and economic crisis. Click here to view the video. The Board officers from both AWC and the Washington State Association of Counties met with Governor Gregoire and her senior staff on December 1, just as the Governor is putting the finishing touches on her budget. The Governor fully understands that local governments are also suffering and she is mindful of the impacts of reduced state funding on cities and counties. State resources are expected to be tight for a number of years and direct state aid for local governments will be tough to secure. We asked her to please consider the following when completing her budget: • The importance of city and county state shared revenues including criminal justice allocations. -w Infrastructure funding which is critical to grow local economies. • Providing "skips and pauses" for regulations that the state can no longer id funding for locals to accomplish |ik GMA d t prov e n ng r oco s - like updates. es. ° Greater flexibility with existing revenues and local determination of how these revenues are allocated. The upcoming session will be extremely difficult given the economy and the expected additional budget cuts. Please, we need your help over the coming months. Remind legislators that you also are experiencing budget difficulties and ' 12/2/2004 • • Association of Washington Cities Page 2 of 2 have made difficult cuts impacting key programs and services. Continued State assistance is critical and so are local tools and flexibility to allow you as city officials to work with your citizens to provide the services they need and expect. The Governor is scheduled to release her budget on Wednesday, December 9. Please look for an email from AWC later that afternoon which will contain links to her budget and information on how the budget impacts cities. Please feel free to contact Jim Justin or Sheri Sawyer if you have any questions regarding the State budget and the potential impacts on cities and town. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing, click here. Association of Washington Cities 1076 Franklin Street SE, Olympia, WA 98501-1346 3OD'753-4137.1'DUU'5G2'8981 Fax: 360-753-0149, Insurance Services Fax: 360'753-0148 - — - E Right click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the |n0 • • 12/2/2009 •