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Just over three weeks remain in the 60-day legislative session. Several important issues will be considered in the homestretch, including taxes, housing, homelessness, your data privacy, gun rights, property rights, energy policies and sex education in schools.

State lawmakers will also finalize supplemental operating, transportation and capital budgets. These are mid-course adjustments to these two-year state budgets. These budgets are important and reflect our priorities as a state.

Capital budget

As a member of the House Capital Budget Committee, I’m directly involved in the development of the capital budget. This budget funds projects such as schools, public buildings, parks, housing, water infrastructure and habitat. It’s financed through general obligation bonds, dedicated cash accounts, federal funds and alternative financing contracts.

Last year, we made historic investments in the capital budget. They included: $1.09 billion for K-12 school construction; $973 million for higher education facilities; $308 million for mental and behavioral health; $232 million for projects that benefit the environment, orcas and salmon; $175 million for housing; and $125 million for the Public Works Assistance Account.

I was honored to lead House efforts to craft the bipartisan and historic funding for the mental and behavioral health aspects of this budget. We should all be proud of the commitment our state is making in these critical areas.

Due to these key investments last year, the capital budget has an ending-fund balance of around $70 million in bonding capacity for this year. State lawmakers are now deciding how to use this funding. This process starts with reviewing requests from agencies. I believe the Legislature should make some minor adjustments to the mental and behavioral health enhancements from last year to ensure we are deploying resources in the most effective ways. Our state should also make more investments in public school seismic retrofitting. I’m confident the supplemental capital budget will again be bipartisan and something our state can be proud of.

My bills

I wanted to provide an update on two of my prime-sponsored bills.

House Bill 2645 would change our existing solar stewardship laws to cover utility-scale panels, so we are addressing the full life cycle of the products we use. It would require solar panel manufacturers to have a plan for sustainably recycling solar panels at the end of their life. The law currently applies to residential panels, and my bill would include the panels at utility-scale solar farms.

This measure passed in the House 95-1 Feb. 16.

House Bill 1665 is about the potential economic development of building out our recycling capabilities. We should create more robust opportunities here in our state, rather than shipping our waste elsewhere – often overseas. The bill would direct the Department of Commerce to complete an economic analysis of recyclable material and solid waste processing, export and disposal in our state. It would also require Commerce to submit a report of the economic analysis, accompanied by recommendations, to the Legislature by September 1, 2021.

This measure is in the House Rules Committee and could come to the House floor.

In addition, I’ll continue to fight for you to have meaningful data privacy rights.

I encourage you to contact me at [email protected] so we can tell you how to be involved. The next two weeks will be critical, and I invite your involvement.

Rep. Norma Smith represents the 10th Legislative District.