SPOKANE, Wash. — From a possible boost in your paycheck to giving low-level offenders a clean slate; several new laws are set to take effect in 2024 across Idaho and Washington.
Here are some of the biggest legislative changes coming in 2024:
Washington
Street Racing
Legislators in Washington state are getting strict on street racing. Senate Bill 5606 changes the definition of street racing, prohibiting competitions in parking lots where drivers drift, spin and perform other stunts.
"The more times you repeat the behavior, the higher likelihood of a crash, serious injury, injuring yourself, other people," Washington State Patrol Trooper Ryan Senger said.
The law strengthens penalties, like an aiding and abetting charge for anyone who organizes or participates in illegal street racing. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Minimum Wage
Washington state is also bumping up minimum wage again.
Starting Jan. 1, workers 16 and older will make at least $16.28 an hour, an increase of more than 3% over the last year. This hike keeps Washington leading the nation for highest state minimum wage.
Idaho
Student ID to Vote
In Idaho, voters can no longer use student identification to register or vote.
"There's no standard for student ID," said Lincoln Wilson, the former chief of the Civil and Constitutional Defense Division. "A student ID that's made by my kids' high school is going to be different than the student ID made by [the University of Idaho]."
The state now issues free ID cards to those impacted by the change, but youth voting advocacy groups are challenging the law in Idaho's Supreme Court, stating it unfairly burdens young voters.
Clean Slate Act
The Gem State will give some criminal offenders a clean slate in 2024.
House Bill 149, the Clean Slate Act, allows people with one low-level, non-violent, non-sexual crime to have those records sealed. However, the person must not have committed a crime in five years and must not reoffend.
"Minor in possession of alcohol, if you're busted with a beer at a party when you're 19, offenses like that," Idaho Rep. Ilana Rubel (D-Boise) said.
Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
Before it event went into effect, Idaho's ban on gender-affirming care for minors is stalled.
A federal judge blocked House Bill 71, the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, until a legal challenge against it is settled.
"We will continue to fight vigorously to defend the rights of transgender youth in this state, as the state continues to bring on attacks on their existence," said Leo Morales, the executive director of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Idaho.
The ACLU and other groups suing state the bill violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
If enacted, the law would outlaw gender-affirming surgeries, hormones and puberty blockers for transgender children and find any doctor who provides them guilty of a felony.
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador said the judge's ruling puts children at risk of irreversible harm.
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