Washington: Biaw

Moments ago the Washington State Senate acted on another of NPI's 2009 legislative priorities by passing a bill to reform the state's retrospective ratings system. The proposal, Senate Bill 6035, is prime sponsored by Senator Kohl-Welles. <br /><br /> The Senate decided to send SB 6035 to the House by a vote of twenty five to twenty four, a tally <a href="http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2009/03/victory-washington-state-senate-passes.html">which mirrors yesterday's vote SB 5895</a>. <br /><br /> Basically, what SB 6035 does is prevent groups like the Building Industry Association of Washington from keeping a portion of industrial insurance refunds for some non administrative purpose without their members' consent. <br /><br /> <a href="http://www.

Last Wednesday, as our Executive Director reported, the House Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on HB 1045, a reshaped Homeowner's Bill of Rights proposal sponsored by Representative Brendan Williams. HB 1045 unfortunately seems doomed to remain stuck in committee, but there is good news from the Senate side: Senator Rodney Tom has introduced his own revised version of the Homeowner's Bill of Rights: SB 5895, which is cosponsored by Senators Kohl-Welles, McDermott, and Fraser.

The bill's rather long description reads:
Addressing residential real property construction improvements through consumer education, warranty protections, legal remedies, municipal liability, third-party inspections, contractor registration requirements, worker certification standards, and bonding requirements.

Those are just a few of the parts of HB 1393, a sweeping measure sponsored by Democratic Rep. Larry Springer of Kirkland.

"These folks all chose poor contractors," Doyle said.

Doyle and Harris mostly ignored HB 1045, which is proposed by builder nemesis and Democratic Rep. Brendan Williams of Olympia. But they said the warranties offered in the bills would harm builders, making insurance harder to get for contractors and driving up costs of housing.

"This bill will eliminate customer choice because many of the smaller builders will no longer be in business. They also will be forced to use the best and most expensive practices possible when they are finished doing a job," Doyle testified.

King County Judge Paris Kalls ruled today that Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi will have to give a deposition on his alleged role in helping the Building Industry Association of Washington coordinate its fundraising on behalf of Rossi's campaign.

The BIAW's ChangePAC has spent $7 million on Rossi's behalf this election.