Ybarra sees wins, disappointments in 2024 legislative session

OLYMPIA — Washington state Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, who represents the 13th legislative district, said there are a lot of things that went well during the short 60-day 2024 legislative session in Olympia. 

Ybarra said this was his sixth and best session, as he was able to put a lot more bills into the legislature.

“I think it went better than the first five sessions I was at. This was the best session yet, because we're always playing catch-up,” he said. “There's nothing that we can pass because we lack votes, and that’s just a given, so because of that we always just basically try to stop bad bills.”

Ybarra said one success of the session was seeing three citizen initiatives, which he said don’t require the governor’s signature to become law, pass through the legislature. 

“This year, we actually were able to get those three initiatives out of six initiatives that were out there,” he said, “That was really positive … Most of the constituents in Grant County are pretty happy about that across the board. Not everybody, but most people.”

The three initiatives expand police vehicular pursuit authorizations, prohibit state and local taxes on personal income and expand rights for parents and guardians of public school children, according to the Washington State Legislature website. 

“We knew that lots of the voters in the state of Washington really wanted those initiatives passed, and we were able to, I wouldn't say make, I would say convince, the other side of the aisle that they could listen to those initiatives in the legislature, and so we can vote on them in the legislature rather than having the vote of the people,” he said. 

Ybarra also discussed budgetary wins and projects in the 13th district that were awarded funding.

“One of the ones I prioritized was the Quincy Event Center for $309,000,” he said. “That's the community center in Quincy … because it needs a lot of work, and so that’s going to be a pretty good job. Anybody that uses that facility is going to have a brand-new kitchen and bathrooms. It's a huge facility, so it's going to be a good one.”

Despite several funding awards for projects in his district, Ybarra wrote in his March 18 legislative wrap-up letter that he wished Republicans had been more involved in the negotiations for the operating budget. He also said that it is a positive that there were no additional taxes in the budget, but it also lacked any tax relief. 

According to the wrap-up letter, the operating budget also included $350,000 for expanding industry and education partnerships to create more workforce opportunities in Chelan, Grant and Adams counties.

Ybarra sponsored various bills that passed as well, such as House Bill 1948, which modifies methods for calculating the electric load of utilities. Ybarra said the modifications removed conflicting law requirements on the electric load calculations.

“Because of the law that we changed, so the two bills didn't conflict, it saved a lot of money that the utilities wouldn't have to spend to buy more renewable energy credits, which means basically, since they'd have to spend it, our rates don't go up,” he said. “It's not going to make a huge difference, but It's gonna make a decent dent in maybe rates not going up as quite as high as before, just a minor amount.”

One bill Ybarra argued against would have increased property taxes, which did not pass through the legislature. 

“Right now, property taxes are held, I think by the Constitution, at 1%. There was a bill that was out there that they wanted to move it to 3%,” Ybarra said. “So, if you own a home and you have property tax on your home, you can get up to three times more taxes on your home … We were able to kill that, so that was a really good one.”

Much of Ybarra’s focus during the off-season will be on making sure energy bills are not redundant, don’t conflict with other laws and are doable, he said. 

“Yes, I want clean air. Yes, I want a clean environment for my kids in the future,” Ybarra said. “But I think that the state is just moving too fast and putting requirements in place that are unattainable.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Washington State Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy. Ybarra recently completed his sixth legislative session as a state representative, the short 60-day 2024 session.