(The Center Square) – A bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the Legislature to study the primary cost drivers for home ownership and rental housing in Washington state has been vetoed by Gov. Bob Ferguson.
Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1108 would have required the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to study the primary cost drivers for home ownership and rental housing in the state.
“In recent years, multiple studies have identified the primary drivers of housing costs, and these findings can be utilized to make sound policy decisions,” Ferguson wrote in his Tuesday statement explaining his veto. “Given the pressures on Washington’s budget, our state’s limited resources should be spent on identifying and implementing solutions to the housing crisis; I do not believe the cost of another study on cost drivers is warranted.”
Rep. Mark Klicker, R-Walla Walla, is the bill’s prime sponsor.
He told The Center Square on Friday that he was disappointed that Ferguson vetoed the bill.
Klicker said the bill would have been drastically different from other studies into housing costs and would have included stakeholders of nonprofit and for-profit housing developments, builders, realtors, mortgage lenders and others.
Government bureaucrats who have predetermined conclusions about housing cost drivers have conducted prior studies, Klicker said, when what’s needed are answers from those working in the industry.
“Why don’t we look at it from another angle from people that are experiencing it every day?” queried Klicker. “It doesn’t matter if it is contractors or landlords or tenants or union people or economists, let’s find out what the root of the problem is.”
The representative said he worked with Democrats to ensure the bill would garner bipartisan support, which it did, with only a few members from either party voting against it in both chambers.
“It is such valuable information that we’re not going to get now. And why is that? Is it because the governor doesn’t want to know? Is it because he knows that the laws they have implemented on us or put on us, would show the finger would point right back at them, and that they’re the reason?” Klicker asked.
He doesn’t buy Ferguson’s cost-cutting rationale for vetoing the bill.
According to the legislation’s fiscal note, funding two non-full-time positions – one at the state Department of Corrections and the other at Evergreen State College in Olympia – to facilitate study participants and research would cost an estimated $234,000 over two years.
“It is such a low cost for getting great information,” Klicker said, noting he was initially encouraged when Ferguson gave his inaugural address, indicating a willingness to work across the aisle with Republicans. He said he and other Republicans are convinced they can’t trust the governor to keep his word.
“I thought maybe we had a chance, and we’re standing there and applauding. I’ll guarantee it next year when he does it, there’s no sense standing and applauding because I can believe only about 20% of what he says.”
The Center Square contacted Ferguson’s office for further comment and was told he had nothing more to add besides what he wrote in his veto.
