HB2748 – Requires relatively large employers providing a parking subsidy to offer a cash out option.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Ramel (D; 40th District; Bellingham)
Current status – Passed the House Committee on Labor & Workplace Standards January 30th. Referred to Rules. Failed to pass out of the House by cutoff.
Next step would be – Dead bill.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Comments –
In a parking cash out an employer offers a cash allowance to an employee as an alternative to the subsidy they’d otherwise get to provide the employee with parking. For what it’s worth, the findings say, “According to some studies, parking cash out programs tend to reduce driving to work by twenty percent or more.”

Summary –
The bill requires employers with fifty or more employees in the state that provide a parking subsidy to offer a cash out option to the employees who get it. The subsidy’s set at the difference between what it would cost the employer to provide a parking space and what, if anything, the employee would pay for it.

A program may require employees who choose the cash option to certify that they’ll comply with guidelines designed to avoid neighborhood parking problems, with a provision that employees who don’t comply with the guidelines will no longer be eligible for it.

The bill exempts employers who are easing parking and would have to pay penalties if they reduced the number of spaces.