Today, the 26th day of the 60-day session, was the cut-off date for policy committees in the Senate. February 9th is the cut-off date for fiscal bills in both the House and Senate. The highlight of this week was on February 3rd when the state Senate and House ran floor resolutions honoring our fallen officers.

The Court has finally acted on the motion for reasonable attorney’s fees in the matter of Swisher v. City of Moses Lake. The Judge has advised Joe Fischnaller that he has granted the motion and awarded $6,425.00 in attorney’s fees against the City of Moses Lake.

See the full story with an update as of 2/5/2010

The third week of the legislative session has been completed. The cut-off date for bills to pass out of policy committees is February 2nd.  WACOPS reports that they are hopeful that all of their 2010 legislative priorities to be voted out of House Committees prior to that deadline.

View the list of pending legislation.  Most of these bills deal with law enforcement issues or LEOFF 2 pension items, but it is an interesting read.

Once bills pass out of policy committees they go to the Rules Committee which is chaired by the Speaker of the House. This committee decides which bills will go to the floor of the House to receive a vote from the full body. WACOPS reports that they have briefed members of this committee about the legislation.

February 3rd will be Law Enforcement Day in Olympia. Both the Senate and the House will be running resolutions honoring fallen officers.  This will be broadcast on TVW and you can check with www.tvw.org for local station and airing times.

The Legislature is in session.  Thus far we know of only two bills that impact LEOFF 1.  While they provide significant improvements for a few they have no impact on the overall pension.  Neither of these bills will affect many LEOFF 1 members.

HB 2519 LEOFF I & II State Patrol
Included is a LEOFF I amendment to increase duty death as a result of an occupational injury or illness from $150,000 to $214,000 and add an escalator. Also adds for LEOFF I a surviving spouse to the eligibility list for free college tuition.

SB 6078 LEOFF I Amendment
Allows a spouse of a member who is killed in the line of duty, with more than 25 years of service credit to select a 50% disability pension or a service pension of 2% for each year of service credit.  Example: 31 years of service credit equals a 62% pension.

Read the full story for more information on these bills.