SB5509 – Creating a Washington State public infrastructure bank.
Prime Sponsor – Senator Kuderer (D; 21st District; Bellevue) (Co-Sponsor Lovelett – D)
Current status – Had a hearing in the Senate Committee on Business, Financial Services Gaming & Trade January 31st. Amended to change the bank’s capitalization from an appropriation to a five year loan from the State and passed out of committee February 16th.
Next step would be –
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
The bill would create a State infrastructure bank once that had been capitalized with sufficient State or Federal funds to allow it to issue competitive loans and various legal processes had been completed, including the approval of its organization by the local and tribal governments becoming members. The bank would be governed by an operating board of nine directors, serving without reimbursement; five of them would be elected local or tribal government officials chosen by those governments, three would be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, and the State Treasurer would be a director. The Board would hire a salaried executive director, and the bank’s administration and operations would be carried out by the State Treasurer’s Office.

The bank would be authorized to engage in a lot of typical business activities, including buying and selling property, acquiring insurance, and issuing bonds (on its own behalf, not as State debt.) The State Treasurer and local or tribal governments would be authorized to invest in these bonds, in addition to private parties. The bank would make loans to state or local or tribal governments for infrastructure and economic development projects, and could collect fees or chargers it decided would help accomplish its activities from its member governments. (It would have a goal of providing 30% of its annual lending to support housing in low to moderate-income areas after it had been operating for five years.) The actual bill doesn’t list examples, but its findings list projects for the planning, acquisition, construction, repair, replacement, rehabilitation, or improvement of streets and roads, bridges, water systems, storm and sanitary sewage systems, solid waste handling, communications systems, housing, and other public infrastructure and economic development projects. The bank could provide technical or financing assistance to state, local and tribal governments for helping to implement their financing programs, and it could distribute surplus funds to them if two-thirds of the Board approved. It could enter into agreements with other banks, including the National Cooperative Bank, or trust companies, to deal with its obligations relative to these bonds, or any matters relating to the exercise of its powers.

The bill would include the bank’s financial, commercial, and proprietary information in the current exemptions from disclosure in the Public Records Act