ADOPTEE RECORDS
A bill that passed the House unanimously would allow adult adoptees access to their birth certificates unless a biological parent has filed an affidavit to the contrary.
The bill would place Washington among a handful of states, including Oregon, that allow adult adoptees to access their birth certificates.
The measure would also allow adoptees unconstrained access to non-identifying information about their birth parents, which could shed light on adoptees’ medical histories.
Adoptees born in Washington after Oct. 1, 1993, have long had these rights. The bill applies to those born before that date.
It would also allow adoptees to learn whether a birth parent who has filed an affidavit of nondisclosure is dead.
The bill now heads to the Senate.
ELECTRIC-CAR FEE
The Senate passed a bill to charge electric-car owners a $100 annual fee to compensate for the lack of gas taxes they pay.
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the Camano Island Democrat who sponsored the bill, said that while electric cars are good for the environment, they put the same wear and tear on the state’s roads that gas vehicles do.
The same bill passed in the Senate last year but failed in the House.
Washington’s gas tax stands at 37.5 cents per gallon and is the state’s largest source of transportation money.
The bill does not apply to hybrid vehicles or to those that don’t exceed 35 mph.
The bill passed Saturday on a 31-16 vote and goes next to the House.
TAX BREAKS
The Senate passed a bill to rein in future tax breaks granted by the Legislature.
Approved by a 45-3 margin Saturday, the measure would put five-year sunsets on all new and extended tax breaks unless otherwise specified.
It also would require the Legislature to explain what the tax break is intended to achieve.
There are more than 600 tax breaks in Washington’s books, most of which have no expiration date.
A separate, more ambitious effort in the House to phase out 251 existing tax breaks amounting to nearly $2 billion and subject them to a review remains in committee and faces an uphill battle to get a floor vote.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Craig Pridemore, a Vancouver Democrat, goes to the House next.
