Governmental Affairs Radar - February 15, 2023

Governmental Affairs Radar

February 15, 2023

Council Vote on

Landlord Management Ordinance

Set for February 27th

CALL – EMAIL – TESTIFY

Calling all REALTORS® & landlords: consider testifying, or calling/emailing your city council representative and encouraging them to say “no.”

This unprecedented action by the council threatens the local rental industry, and your tenants.

Call to Action!

At this week's Spokane City Council briefing session – by a vote of 5 to 2 - the city has placed it’s controversial landlord management ordinance on the agenda for a February 27th vote.

Good news:

They have dropped the provision that requires individual real estate agents to purchase a license to operate in the City of Spokane.

Bad news:

They are going forward with:

Portable background checks
Individual licensing and registration by all landlords
Charge an annual per door fee for all rentals
Random inspections (despite a court ruling in Illinois that makes this unconstitutional)
Legal funds -duplicating what the State does

Read the SR Position.

Come join us at Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar on Monday, February 27th, for light appetizers and beverages!

We want to show you all about what RPAC does, where your investment dollars go, why RPAC is important to you AND play some trivia!

We have some awesome REALTOR® swag along with 1st, 2nd & 3rd place trivia winner cash prizes!

This event is FREE with absolutely no pressure or expectation to invest in RPAC.

We hope to see you there!

The Washington State Legislature now has 371 bills related to housing in various committees.

This promises to be an interesting week with Friday the 17th being the last day to read in committee reports (pass bills out of committee and read them into the record on the floor) in house of origin, except House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees.

Here are a few of the key bills we are tracking that have already passed their respective houses:

Read the Feb-15 Update

Please take 30 seconds

and ask your Legislators to make the 2023 session a session where housing is the top priority.

Call to Action!

We know that housing inventory and affordability are at crisis levels in Washington.

We need your help to encourage our State Legislators to make Housing the top priority in the upcoming session.

Please use the form on this page to send a message to your state legislator, urging them to make 2023 the year where housing is a top priority!

Washington REALTORS® is working in a coalition on a number of housing bills including:

encouraging more condominium and townhome development,
allowing ADUs in rural areas,
allowing the option of duplexes and triplexes in single-family neighborhoods.

Please take 30 seconds and ask your Legislators to make the 2023 session a session where housing is the top priority.

New Hire

Darin Watkins (pictured), SR's contract Governmental Affairs Director since 2019, has joined the association as a full-time employee, effective this week.

This doesn't change Darin's day-to-day work for the SR, but does give both parties more confidence in planning for the future and establishing long-term relationships for the association.

Congratulations, Darin!