BIAW Bulletin: End of 2021 Legislative Session

April 26, 2021

Welcome to the last edition of the Hammer with Himebaugh for the 2021 legislative session. This is the Hammer with Himebaugh. It is not the BIAW bulletin because the name is still boring. And the Hammer with Himebaugh is far more descriptive. Sine Die was yesterday, April 25th. And boy was this a doozy of a session…105 days in the last three days. There was a lot of garbage that came down at business. We’ve got a cap and trade program. Now we’ll have a low carbon fuel standard, and we’ll have a capital gains income tax. Now, all of these things aren’t implemented immediately. Some of the carbon stuff needs to wait for a transportation package of a 5 cent or more gas tax. So not only are they going to make gas more expensive, they’re going to make it more expensive. Uh, and maybe there’ll be a special session for transportation.

Maybe not. We’ll keep you updated on that. But all in all, BIAW and our members and home-building did alright in session. Besides those last-minute sorts of big doozies of bills, we stopped a lot of really bad GMA bills that would have constrained land supply some more and improved a lot of labor bills to make sure that you still are able to employ your employees safely and in a reasonable manner.

Thank you so much for all of your engagement over this past year or this past 105 days, signing into bills, testifying on bills, staying engaged, and up-to-date on our member calls on Tuesday mornings. As always, BIAW will continue to advocate for you. Now that we’ve ended the session, a lot of agencies will go into rulemaking. BIAW will also be there advocating for you and home builders so that we can continue to build homes affordably for Washingtonians. Thank you again. Really appreciate all of your engagement.

This has been the Hammer with Himebaugh Homes start here. Himebaugh out.