Here’s your crash course in the basics of the Washington state legislature:
The state legislature meets for legislative session starting in January every year – the second Monday of the year, to be specific. Now, usually, they come to Olympia, but the last two years have been mostly virtual because of COVID. In odd-numbered years they meet for 105 days, wrapping up at the end of April; in even-numbered years, they meet for just 60 days, ending the second week in March. (Side note – those 105- and 60-day numbers include weekends and holidays. The legislature always works on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day). They meet for longer in odd-numbered years because that’s when they pass the biennial budget, which includes our state employee contracts.