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Monroe council directs staff to send letters on LEO retirement sweep, 'millionaire's tax' and ALPR bill
Summary
Council instructed staff to send letters to the 12th-district delegation asking that any restructuring of LEO retirement funding protect local contributions (HB2034), that revenues from Senate Bill 6346 mitigate lost sales tax revenues for cities, and to seek inclusion of gross misdemeanors in the ALPR bill (SB6002).
Monroe City Council on Feb. 10 gave staff direction to send letters to the city’s legislative delegation concerning several bills under active consideration in Olympia.
Legislative consultant Liam McCorkle briefed council on session timing and a set of bills the city has been tracking. He said the opposite-house cutoff is March 6 and sine die is scheduled for March 12. McCorkle recommended two letters to the city’s twelfth-district legislators and sought council input on a third.
First, McCorkle asked the council to send a letter on House Bill 2034 (referenced in the meeting as a proposal affecting LEO 1 retirement funding), asking that any sweep or restructuring of the LEO 1 account recognize the city’s historic contributions and help mitigate city costs for retiree medical obligations. “Our ask in this legislative letter would be to ask our legislators to recognize the city's historic contributions and the continuing cost and utilize that surplus that they would get from sweeping that account, to mitigate city costs,” McCorkle said.
Second, McCorkle sought direction on Senate Bill 6346 (referred to in the meeting as the “millionaire’s tax”), which he described as highly contentious and potentially removing some city sales-tax authority and exemptions (for example, on hygiene products). He said the city should request that any new revenue allocations to cities be proportional to sales-tax losses so local indigent defense and other obligations are not left unfunded.
Third, McCorkle discussed Senate Bill 6002 related to automated license plate readers (ALPR, or “flock cameras”); the current negotiation focuses on allowable uses. Several council members urged McCorkle to ask that gross misdemeanors be included among allowable uses for ALPR systems so local police retain those investigative tools.
Council members expressed consensus on sending the two letters (LEO fund and millionaire’s tax mitigation) and agreed to include language about gross misdemeanors for the ALPR bill. Council member Fisher reviewed why protecting LEO retirement funds matters to small cities; Walker and others supported adding gross misdemeanors to the ALPR language. McCorkle said he would proceed to draft the letters based on the direction provided.
The council’s direction does not represent approval or opposition to the taxes or bills themselves but asks legislators to consider specific mitigations and protections for city finances and public-safety tools.
