LEGISLATIVE STEERING COMMITTEE AGENDA - Wacounties.org

Public Outreach Campaign Plan for consideration and approval. Those recommendations are included in
separate documents.
Finance and Reform Workgroups
The Finance and Reform Workgroups continued to work through the summer. The Reform Workgroup
reached consensus of several key issues concerning the structure of the reform agenda. They concluded that
the agenda should have a narrow focus and have a clear set of limited priorities. The workgroup also
developed a set of criteria to consider when determining whether or not a reform idea should be a WSAC
priority:
1. Likelihood to achieve a meaningful policy change. Factors include, political opportunity, potential
savings/efficiency for counties and state, and timeliness of issue
2. Yields greatest result for greatest number of counties
3. Number of counties that would utilize proposed reform
4. Alignment with WASC's mission and policy statement
Public records, liability, and personnel reform all ranked very high on the workgroup members' list of reform
ideas. The results of this exercise confirmed the input from the WSAC survey as well as the preliminary work
done during the May LSC retreat.
The Finance Workgroup met twice by phone after the retreat. Staff provided a list of budget and finance ideas
that WSAC has considered over the last several years. The workgroup recommended that the LSC place
ideas into tiers in order to focus our efforts.
Similar to the Reform Workgroup, the Finance Workgroup went through an exercise to rank ideas, using the
same criteria. We did not receive a particularly large number of responses to this request, and several
members utilized inconsistent ranking approaches. This made it difficult to draw strong conclusions from the
ranking process. However, based on this exercise, the following ideas rose to the top:
1. Flexibility to use permit fees for long-term planning
2. Flexibility to use Public Works Trust Fund for a broader range of capital projects
3. New transportation/transit funding
4. Increasing the 101% property tax limit by tying it to inflation
A Framework for WSAC’s Legislative Agenda
Over the course of our work this interim a consistent message has emerged: our legislative approach should
more clearly delineate which proposals have a high likelihood of being achieved in the short term, and which
items required greater stakeholder and legislative work. There is a strong desire that we integrate a
communications and education strategy into our legislative approach, so that we are building support for our
priorities over time.
Our recommendation for this approach is described in more detail in the attached Framework document. The
document separates issues identified by the Finance and Reform Workgroups into those that are ready for
immediate action in the 2013 legislative session, and those that require concerted effort over time. It also
identifies the types of strategies and tactics we intend to employ to build stakeholder and legislative support for
the issues that are not ready for immediate success.
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