Gay marriage and other successful bills are exception in Olympia

The gay marriage bill appears to headed to the governor’s desk for her signature, but it is one of the few bills that will actually make it that far.

We report on bills that come up every legislative session, but most of them don’t go anywhere.

It’s reminiscent of that old School House Rock cartoon of the bill sitting on Capitol Hill waiting to become a law.

Looking back at every session in Olympia since 1983, only one in five bills have been successful. Some never even come up for hearing. Some get hearings and die. Others make it as far as the House or Senate floor, but that’s it.

Lawmakers introduced 2,091 bills in 2011, and that includes the special session. Only 428 became law.

>>View a record of bills introduced and passed in odd years

>>View a record of bills introduced and passed in even years

So why are so many bills introduced each session? Lawmakers need to show that they’re pushing ideas of their constituents. That’s why many get floated. Others are pet projects. Most of them never get a hearing so they don’t waste a lot of time or money.

For some lawmakers, it’s enough to raise the issue, to put something on paper for others to look at. Some are happy just starting the debate on something with a committee hearing.

Others introduce bills simply to get something off their chest. Representative Sam Hunt floated a bill this session to keep Costco from selling liquor because he believes the company bought the November election.

“There are things that people have called message bills, and I suppose you would put this in that category,” Hunt said. “I didn’t think it would ever get a hearing. I knew I was swimming upstream here, but I was pretty angry about the whole thing and said, ‘I’m at least going to throw something down that shows how upset I am.'”

There are hero bills that champion a cause like the
Zachary Lystedt Law on concussions.

And many bills are re-introduced every year before they ever get heard, not because they’re wacky but because the political timing isn’t right. Representative Cary Condotta knows a lot about that.

“Sometimes we have to run these things for a few years, and they start to move,” Condotta said. “They take time, but occasionally you’ll get a hearing. I’ve introduce minimum wage bills for nine years, and I just got a hearing last year and we just got a major hearing yesterday. These are items we never talked about here before.”

It took seven years for the cell phone bill to become law. Gay marriage falls into this category. Some bills keep showing up even though most people know they don’t have merit; splitting the state into two at the Cascades comes to mind.

So just remember when you hear about something being introduced in Olympia, like bills
debating the butter used in theater popcorn or
forcing convicted drunk drivers to put a “Z” on their license plates, most bills never go anywhere.