Building Industry Association of Washington

Background

BIAW is the 3rd largest state association affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders. The BIAW wants lower taxes and fewer regulations, particularly environmental ones. The association wants to be a counterweight to unions and their allies that have helped keep the governor's office in Democratic hands since the 1984 election.

Leadership

Funding

The main source of the BIAW's political money is the state Department of Labor and Industries' Retrospective Rating Program, known as Return on Industrial Insurance Program or Retro. Through Retro, participating employers can recover a portion of their workers' compensation premiums if they are able to reduce injury rates and lower associated claim costs. Of the 40-some Retro programs in the state, BIAW has the largest. BIAW's Retro group has about 1,600 member companies. The BIAW collects 20 percent of the workers' compensation refunds provided by the state of which ten percent goes to BIAW and ten percent goes to local associations. This translates into about $3–4 million from the refunds in each of the past few years. In 2009, a computer programming error was uncovered that resulted in the Dept. of L&I refunding $10 million to $15 million more per year more than they were supposed to for the last fifteen years.

BIAW-MSC was set up in order to manage the Retro program. BIAW Member Services Corporation (BIAW-MSC) is a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of BIAW formed in 1993. BIAW-MSC also sells insurance and runs educational programs.

Campaign Financing

In 2008, the BIAW contributed to Dino Rossi for governor. More than $7 million provided by the BIAW was spent on ads. Rossi's top contributor was the BIAW.

The group also spent heavily in 2006 in an attempt to oust state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander. The BIAW spent nearly $1 million on the primary campaign. The advertisements said John Groen would do a better job of protecting "our constitutional rights to limited, open and accountable government". TV ads portraying Justice Alexander as a judge too old for the job were bought by the group. In 2004, more than $500,000 was spent on independent ads by the BIAW to help Dino Rossi. Rob McKenna, now Attorney General, received more than $415,000 from the "It's Time for A Change", one of BIAW's PACs. The BIAW gave $150,000 on the campaign of their former lawyer, Jim Johnson, running for State Supreme Court Justice. State Supreme Court justice Richard Sanders received $35,000 from the BIAW.

While the BIAW has been contributing to Republican candidates, Democratic candidates also have received BIAW contributions, including Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, state Auditor Brian Sonntag, Rep. Deb Wallace, Rep. Marko Liias, Rep. Christine Rolfes, Rep, Al O'Brien, Rep. Pat Sullivan, Rep. Fred Jarrett, Rep. Judy Clibborn, Rep. Deb Eddy, Rep. Ross Hunter, Rep. Liz Loomis, Rep. Larry Springer, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, Sen. James Hargrove, and Rep. Dave Quall.

The BIAW uses PACs to fund various campaigns. BIAW has several PACs. Washington Affordable Housing Council, "It's Time for a Change" and "Walking for Washington". The same legal contact information appears for all BIAW PACs.

The BIAW also gives funds to local affiliates such as the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, and the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County.

Legal challenges

In 2008 a letter to Attorney General Rob McKenna and three county prosecutors accused the BIAW of amassing $3.5 million in an illegal secret fund for its campaign to defeat Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. It also claims that the builders associations failed to properly register as "political committees" or report where the money is coming from. The accusation comes from a group led by two former Democratic state Supreme Court justices Faith Ireland and Robert Utter. The group said it would sue if the government attorneys do not take action against the BIAW and two local builders associations. PDC investigators dismissed the claims that the BIAW is acting as a PAC. The PDC did find evidence that the BIAW-MSC was improperly concealing its role in bundling about $585,000 in workers' compensation refunds for donation to the BIAW's political arm. McKenna filed a lawsuit against the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties and a second lawsuit against the BIAW-MSC, a subsidiary of the BIAW. King County Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas required Rossi to testify about his personal involvement in the building association's fundraising campaign a few days before the 2008 election. Rossi did not remember details about his dealings with the BIAW and stated the lawsuit was a "phony complaint by political operatives".

Homeowner protection legislation

The BIAW says it opposes regulations which add additional costs to homes. Damon Doyle, former president of the Building Industry Association of Washington, said “Builders are not opposed to warranties. Builders are opposed to broad, vague and involuntary mandatory warranties.” “We have to look out for the consumers who are obligating themselves to 30-year mortgages,” said Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia.

The industry association opposed HB 1391. The legislation would have mandated a warranty for all new residences. The BIAW says there is no insurance product available to cover builders and that the bill prohibits anyone choosing to waive the implied warranty of habitability, just providing a new and easier way to sue builders.

Washington was the sixth state to reject the mandatory use of fire sprinklers in all new home construction, which had been proposed by the ICC. The SBBC (State Building Code Council) found that the cost of fire sprinklers in new homes would be from $1.50 to $8.50 per sq. ft.

Land-use regulations

The BIAW opposed connecting Climate Change with growth legislation. The BIAW opposes critical areas ordinances (CAO). In Thurston County BIAW et al. v. WWGMHB (Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Boards) et al., the Court agreed with the BIAW.

Environmental regulations

According to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the BIAW is Washington state's biggest lobby against climate change and open space legislation. After the firebombing of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture by the Earth Liberation Front, classified as the top "domestic terror" threat in the United States by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March 2001, the BIAW newsletter said: The older folks in the mainstream enviro groups silently applaud this new and novel approach: If you build it, we will burn it. It's the next natural step in the environmental movement.

Worker protection

In 2003, the BIAW ran a signature drive for I-841 to repeal the state's ergonomic regulations and strip the Director of the Department of Labor and Industries of making any further ergonomic rules. The initiative also promised the voters that repeal of the ergonomic regulations would "aid in creating jobs and employing the people of Washington." According to the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal, experts estimated complying with the ergonomics rule would have cost businesses $725 million for the first year alone. At the time, Washington was the only state with an ergonomics rule. In an opposing opinion piece, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer contends that "Initiative 841 runs roughshod over the working public's right to safety, the normal processes of government and the state's power. Instead of fine-tuning ergonomics rules adopted by the state Department of Labor and Industries, the initiative asks voters to bulldoze aside protections against repetitive injuries." The BIAW and its members spent more than $1 million on the initiative. They outspent labor unions opposing it two to one. The Yakima Herald-Republic supported the initiative.

Right to work

In 2005, the BIAW considered sponsoring a "right-to-work" initiative. Unions see "right-to-work" initiatives as union busting and de-funding the Democratic Party. BIAW Executive VP McCabe said the group wants to do something dramatic to retaliate against recent efforts in the Democrat-controlled Legislature that would have taken a multimillion-dollar bite out of the association and removed much of its political clout. According to the AFL-CIO, the BIAW has "repeatedly threatened to file a right-to-work initiative and freely admits their effort would be in retaliation for labor’s advocacy on an unrelated workers’ compensation issue." Labor Council President Rick Bender said if a right-to-work measure (from the BIAW) makes it to the ballot, union members would "come out in force" to defeat it. Bender sees such an action as businesses declaring war on their workers.

New home impact fees

In 2005 the BIAW lobbied for an excise tax to replace so-called "impact fees" that local governments assess on new construction.

Retro-reform

The BIAW lobbied against SB 6035. The bill would require groups participating in the Retro program to report how they spend money paid by employers. It passed the Senate by a narrow 25-24 margin. Republicans said the bill was an attack on free speech and that Retro groups should be able to use refund money as they wish. Democrats said that the bill was intended to bring transparency to the system in light of a computer coding error that cost the state untold millions in overstated refunds to the Retro pool.

Workman's Comp

In 2010, after the Democratic led legislature declined to reform Washington's state-run workers' single-payer compensation system, the BIAW launched ballot initiative I-1082 to allow private insurers to compete with the state’s monopoly system.