OLYMPIA, Wash. — A bill requiring Washington companies that pollute to purchase allowances for emissions passed out of the House Friday afternoon. The cap-and-trade measure puts a price on carbon emissions and includes a new 5-cent increase of the gas tax.
The proposal creates a “cap-and-invest” program to gradually set tighter limits on carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases. It requires polluters to decrease emissions steadily, or buy allowances for pollution. The money collected would go toward projects that include, among other things, energy conservation, transportation and assistance for a transition to clean energy.
The new 5-cent tax will be added on top of the 67.8 cents currently paid in state and federal taxes on gasoline in the state.
With just over two days to go in Washington's legislative session, lawmakers have several other big bills awaiting votes and final approval.
Versions of a bill to establish a capital gains tax on the state’s top investment earners have passed out of the House and Senate, but negotiators need to finalize the bill before sending it to Gov. Jay Inslee's desk for a signature.
The House version included a clause preventing voters from being able to overturn the tax with a referendum.
It’s still not clear how, or if, legislators will rewrite the state’s drug possession law. In February, the state’s Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional.
Currently, those caught with drugs are not being arrested and at least 18 state inmates have been released for their past drug convictions.
A Senate bill to re-criminalize possession, perhaps as a gross misdemeanor, but with an emphasis on treatment, rather than prison time, has not been passed out of the House.
“It’s tough to move something this quickly and this big of an issue,” said Speaker of the House Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma. But she added, “I think we’ll get something done.”
Republican Senate Leader Sen. John Braun, R-Lewis County, feared the legislature will not take action on the issue, letting individual communities come up with their own drug policies.
"There's a large contingent in the majorities in both chambers,” said Braun. “They want to see, you know, up to the legalization of carrying around personal amounts of LSD and crack. That doesn't make any sense.”
A negotiated budget is expected to be publicly released Saturday.
Jinkins thought all of the bills would be passed before the session is scheduled to end Sunday night at midnight.
As for chances of a special session, Jinkins said, “I don’t see any reason why we should have to do that.”
