Grant County Home Builders Meet With Senator Warnick

MOSES LAKE, Washington - Senator Judy Warnick met with members of the Grant County Home Builders Association last week to debrief on the 2021 legislative session. Sadly, many of the bills that were passed will have significant financial fallout for the most vulnerable in our community.

Numerous bills this year advanced political agendas while the repercussions of newly passed house bills seem to have somehow missed protecting the paychecks and purchasing power of financially susceptible renters and first-time home buyers.

Energy codes passed in 2018 by the Washington State Building Codes Council added an estimated $20,000-$30,000 when it went into effect February 1, 2021. Proposed impact fees for road improvement projects uniquely affect new construction, putting the cost of new homes out of reach for more and more families. In fact, for every $1,000 in cost, 189 families are priced out of the housing market.

Senator Warnick has repeatedly questioned who should oversee housing policies in our state. “I believe our local communities and builders should be the ones coming up with efficient housing solutions, not mandates by the government that do more to harm buyers than good.”

Just last week The Seattle Times wrote a piece titled ‘It’s Seattle’s state now in politics, and everybody else is living in it.’ This is certainly true in housing as policies are decided by a few people living in apartments in Seattle, or other metropolitan areas, who don’t understand Grant County and what our citizens want.

“While we in the building industry understand the ever-increasing burden placed on our industry by over-regulation, Senator Warnick was able to share specifics that served to illustrate just how disconnected many in Olympia are from what we know are solutions to our worsening housing crisis,” Dustin Swartz, Grant County Chapter Chair, said. Local builders have already demonstrated their ability to meet the reduced carbon output requirements on their own, but their homes cannot be approved since they don’t the use the specifically prescribed “credits” from the Washington State Energy Code.

“GCHBA is dedicated to making housing affordable, but we know we cannot achieve our mission alone, we are a vehicle by which you can make your concerns heard. The more people we have working together, the louder our voice is in Olympia,” Swartz said.

 

###

Grant County Home Builders Association works to protect, promote, and educate the community with the aim of creating attainable housing options. For more information contact Dustin Swartz or Isaiah Paine.