Washington state Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, listens to the roll call results for her first piece of legislation, House Bill 2138. The bill provides financial relief for disabled veterans needing adaptive housing. It was signed into law in May.
A law providing some savings for adaptive housing for disabled veterans and support of the reinstatement of a committee on aging are among the highlights of freshman state legislator Vicki Kraft’s first year in office.
Kraft, R-Vancouver, has Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature on a piece of legislation she sponsored that gives sales tax exemptions on adaptive housing projects to make homes livable for disabled veterans.
House Bill 2138 allows the exemptions for veterans who have received funding for two federal grants from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) and Special Housing Adaptation (SHA) grants.
According to the session law document, up to $2,500 can be saved through the legislation for each adaptive housing project.
For her first piece of legislation, Kraft was looking for something in the veterans or public safety sphere to push forward. Through a conversation with a staffer Kraft became aware of a bill in 2016 that focused on tax exemptions for disabled veterans looking to add accessibility options to their home.
The legislation was initially sponsored in 2016 by Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma, though it did not end up going through. When Kraft asked Kirby if she could sponsor a new version of the bill for 2017 he agreed.
“(Veterans) are such a critical community, and we need to make sure we are doing everything we can,” Kraft said.
The bill had “very strong bipartisan support” including several legislators who were veterans themselves, Kraft said.
“It’s a good thing, because it was running pretty late in the session,” Kraft said.
The bill was introduced about two months into the regular session before heading to Inslee’s desk just days before that session was scheduled to end.
Work wasn’t done in Olympia, however, and Inslee called a special session during which he signed the bill on May 4, getting the legislation on the books for a rollout date of July 23.
The speed at which the legislation passed was out of the ordinary given its short time frame. Kraft talked with House Finance Committee Chair Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes, and House Ranking Minority Member Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, to get the bill moving, eventually suspending rules on typical numbers of readings needed before approval in order to quickly get it to a floor vote.
In that vote the bill passed unanimously. Kraft commented on how swiftly and supported the bill passed through.
“It kind of gives me the hope that, yeah, all things are possible,” Kraft said.
Kraft’s personal connection to veterans comes through her father, who had served in the Army at Fort Lewis. She mentioned that her father, Michigan-born and raised, met her mother on a blind date when he was in Washington before eventually heading back east where Kraft grew up before coming full circle and returning to The Evergreen State.
Committee on aging
Although HB 2138 was Kraft’s big win for her first session, her legislative work has also been for the benefit of another critical population, that of the aging. Although her personal bill regarding the issue was not the bill moving through the legislature, she is the primary sponsor for the House companion bill to Senate Bill 5180, a bill reinstating the legislative advisory committee on aging.
The joint committee was first approved in 2013. The committee focuses on a few key identified issues in aging populations through its work, such as sensory impairment in the elderly, expansion and use of palliative care and encouraging savings for retirement.
Kraft’s involvement with the companion bill was spurred by conversations she had with aging population advocates, specifically regarding Alzheimer’s disease, where the sunsetting of the committee in July of this year was brought up.
Kraft contacted Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, to explain her desire to support a house companion bill for Bailey’s SB 5180.
“I thought that is such an important issue, I wanted to make sure in the House we had that companion bill, that the awareness was there,” Kraft said.
Although the bill didn’t get to Inslee’s desk before the end of the first session, on June 13 SB 5180 was placed on a third reading in the Senate and as of press deadline was waiting on that reading to move forward.
Though not signed yet, Kraft believed the Senate bill would go through, with the only complications being financial, mostly as a result of the McCleary decision mandate.
“I think, really, just the collective interest in this … they understand there’s a need for this, and we’ll just have to see if it goes through,” Kraft said.
