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County lobbying team reports late-session progress on public safety, behavioral health, agritourism and other bills
Summary
Snohomish County’s legislative team briefed the council April 23 on late-session developments in Olympia, naming public safety funding, behavioral health crisis funding and an agritourism taxation change among items moving toward final action.
Annika Kavan, senior government affairs analyst in the county executive’s office, delivered the executive's final scheduled update for the 2025 legislative session at the end of the council’s April 23 meeting. She was joined online by the county’s state lobbying team.
Josh, a member of the county’s lobbying team, told the council the legislature appeared to be narrowing the revenue package and that negotiations with Gov. Jay Inslee were ongoing. He said the multi-component revenue package reported in the press at one point as roughly $12 billion had been reduced through amendments; he and a colleague described it as smaller and said recent changes removed a state-level property tax component. Josh noted the legislature and governor were still completing work in the final days of session.
On specific bills the staff highlighted: - House Bill 1261 (working farms open space taxation for agritourism): county representatives attended the signing of Representative Lowe’s bill; staff said the governor signed it. - House Bill 2015 (public safety funding and a new local option sales tax for criminal justice): Josh and staff reported the senate had amended the bill and the house concurred on those amendments; staff said the bill was headed to the governor and that the governor had identified the measure as a top priority. The bill includes a grant program (one-time funding) for hiring and a separate ongoing local-option sales tax (1% sales tax) intended as a sustainable funding mechanism for a range of criminal justice and public safety uses. Staff said grant funding levels are expected to be substantially less than the governor’s original $100 million request and are one-time awards; the local-option tax is intended to be the ongoing funding source. - Behavioral health/crisis funding (House Bill 1813): staff said the bill had passed both chambers and had two components the county had tracked. One component instructs the Health Care Authority (HCA) to change certain modeling about when crisis facilities open and Medicaid rates; another component shifts crisis services funding authority from managed care organizations to behavioral health administrative services organizations (BH-ASOs). Staff said these changes are intended to streamline funding and help providers operate crisis facilities.
Staff also noted other bills and items that did not advance (for example, a juvenile rehabilitation bill and a bill that would have changed taxation of short-term rentals) and said some measures had been scaled back or removed. Annika Kavan reminded the council that the county’s post-session process to prepare for the next (2026) session would begin immediately and that staff would meet with departments and then with individual council members about priorities for the short session.
Quotations in the update included Josh’s summary that the legislature had "moved in the governor’s direction" on some revenue components and his account that House Bill 2015 had been amended and concurred by the house and senate and would be going to the governor.
Ending: County staff said they would continue tracking final budget language and any remaining changes as the legislature completed the 2025 session and would report back to council members individually as part of post-session planning.
