2027 State Legislative Agenda
At a glance
Based on auto-generated captions; names, numbers and details may be misheard.
- What: The council's list of priorities for the city's lobbyists in the 2027 state legislative session, revised after a first study session in September.
- Where it stands: at the October 13 study session staff walked through the changes and councilmembers added several requests; no one objected to the list.
- Next: staff and the city's government relations team fold in the changes and bring the agenda back for adoption on the consent agenda on 2026-11-02.
What staff changed
- Fonts were enlarged and the text streamlined after the Council President said the agenda had grown dense; the packet had redlines of the substantive changes.
- No separate multifamily tax exemption item on the front page; staff said there is flexibility to address it during session and it is already referenced on the regional page. The front page keeps the maintenance and operations center capital project, continued funding for the overlay bicycle and pedestrian improvement project, and state grant programs (adding other transportation grants alongside the park grant).
- Technology item: added "prioritizing swift action" and regulatory surveillance-capability language to reflect data privacy and surveillance concerns; the vehicle-miles-traveled reduction item was removed because it is already embedded elsewhere.
- Housing: renter share from census estimates added; condominiums folded into general homeownership; new language on administrative fees renters face.
- Environment: net-zero target corrected to 2040 (not 2030); clearer wording on clean energy technologies such as battery storage.
- Community vitality: new lead sentence recognizing immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
- Public safety and criminal justice: new request for state funding for legal services (requested by Soni); the treatment alternatives and youth drug education language was reinstated.
Councilmember requests
- Forsythe: restore the explicit condominium reference (liability reform bills are expected) and add youth crisis response, citing the city's budget request for a youth mental health crisis responder.
- Nuevacamina: agreed on both, and asked that youth counseling and mental health be included.
- Soni: add explicit references to state land-acquisition and infrastructure programs (the captions say "CHIP") and to operations and supportive-services funding, to align with ARCH's legislative priorities.
- Kritzer: consider listing other partner agendas (Eastside Transportation Partnership, a salmon recovery council); reword the immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker sentence so the state is asked to protect civil liberties and support tailored human services.
- Stuart (presiding): the city budget sustainability paragraph already supports new revenue tools such as a short-term rental tax; she proposed changing "excessive" administrative fees to "unpredictable" fees. Forsythe agreed ("junk fees"); Parsi suggested "appropriate versus inappropriate" fees as another framing. Stuart said the point is to signal support for a statewide solution.
- The lobbyists said none of the suggestions would hurt the agenda in Olympia and noted the city has supported the housing trust fund and the connecting housing infrastructure program, with talk of a third program to offset impact fees for housing.
- Stuart read back the list (condominiums, youth crisis response and counseling, a phrase supporting the state land program and housing trust fund, two added partner agendas, reframed community vitality language) and asked for objections; there were none.
Sources
Discussion time
About 26 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).
| Meeting | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-13 - City Council Study Session | 26 |
Log
- 2026-11-02 - City Council Special Meeting - Approved as part of the consent agenda by voice vote with no opposition; a speaker asked for additions on PFAS source control and urban forestry.
- 2026-10-13 - City Council Study Session — Staff presented revisions; councilmembers asked to restore condominium language, add youth crisis response, add references to housing funding programs and partner agendas, and reframe the immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker language; "unpredictable fees" replaces "excessive administrative fees". No objection to the list; returns on consent 2026-11-02.
- 2026-11-02 - City Council Special Meeting - 2027 Legislative Agenda on the agenda; vote not yet recorded.