Democratic state lawmakers are again pushing a proposal to restrict rent hikes across Washington.

Despite the rent cap bill’s dramatic failure last session, backers say its prospects this year are better given new lawmakers, revamped legislative committees and growing public support. The road to final passage, however, could still be tough.

Rep. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, prefiled a “rent stabilization” bill in the House on Thursday. It is similar to where the plan left off last year. 

The bill includes a 7% cap on yearly rent increases for existing tenants, with some exceptions, including buildings operated by nonprofits and residential construction that is 10 years old or less. It also requires landlords to give 180 days notice before an increase of 3% or more and limits some move-in and deposit fees.

“People are suffering, and I don’t know how anyone comes back to the legislative session and doesn’t want to support relief,” said Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, who will sponsor the legislation in the Senate.

Supporters say the proposal would help tenants and alleviate homelessness, but opponents say a rent cap could only worsen Washington’s housing shortage by disincentivizing new development.

Democratic leaders said Thursday that the proposal will likely be heard quickly in the House after the session kicks off next week but could move slowly in the Senate where it died last year. 

Trudeau said the new makeup of the chamber and the membership of key committees could be in the bill’s favor. Last year,  supporters blamed moderate Democrats on committees like Ways and Means and Housing for killing the bill. Two of those moderates — Sens. Mark Mullet and Kevin Van De Wege — did not run for reelection last year and will no longer be in the Senate. 

Trudeau also said that because the policy is being named early as a priority for their caucus, it will give lawmakers more time to consider it. 

“We’re still going to have conflict, just hopefully not as dramatic as last year,” she said. 

Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, told reporters Thursday that he believes his caucus is ready to support the bill, but that it would take passing other legislation to increase housing supply and improve affordability. 

In the House, the outlook is more certain. “We passed it off the floor in the House last year, and we will pass it off the floor this year,” House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said.

The bill is sure to cause some heavy debate.

Last year, it had support from affordable housing advocates, tenants and labor unions. 

Michele Thomas, at the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, said stabilizing rents is essential to help prevent evictions and homelessness. 

“I think lawmakers understand how much rising rents are contributing to housing instability, to homelessness, and to our state’s eviction crisis,” Thomas said.

Among those against the proposal are business groups, landlords and developers. 

Sean Flynn, board president and executive director at the Rental Housing Association of Washington, an industry group, criticized the idea, saying it would drive developers out of the state and lead to less home construction. 

“The fundamental problem that we have in our housing market is a lack of supply,” Flynn said. “This chokes off supply.”

Instead of a cap on all rents, Flynn said the Legislature should try to target tenants who need assistance most and specific landlords who use predatory rent increases without cause. 

One idea that has support from Republicans is creating a tenant assistance program that would give rental assistance vouchers to low-income tenants who may need help paying rent during a given month. Rep. Sam Low, R-Lake Stevens, is sponsoring that bill. 

House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, told reporters Thursday his caucus is working on similar proposals with a more targeted approach to helping tenants. 

Stokesbary and Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said their members likely will not support a rent cap policy this session. Stokesbary said he understands the short-term relief of the proposal but that the state ultimately needs more housing.

“In the long-run, this is a much worse deal for renters,” he said.  

Braun said lawmakers should find ways to make permitting easier and increase available land for home construction. He said there is “no quick solution” to the state’s housing and homelessness crisis.

But supporters of the rent cap bill push back on the idea that solely building more housing will solve the state’s problems.

Thomas said lawmakers have put a lot of emphasis in recent years on increasing the supply of homes and alleviating homelessness, but they have not passed legislation to help tenants struggling to keep their homes. Failing to do so will only result in higher levels of eviction and homelessness, Thomas said. 

“Rent stabilization stands alone,” she said. “Each of these issues are important, and the Legislature needs to address the entire housing ecosystem.”

EAST LANSING — Welcome to the Big Ten, Washington.

Michigan State basketball rolled out the red carpet Tom Izzo-style, with one of the most concise displays of his principles of basketball, looking every bit like the Izzone alumni in the stands remembered from the program’s embryonic era.

A defense that smothered from the outset. An offense that ran in transition and elevated the electricity. Rebounding in punishing fashion.

In short, a physical assertion of everything No. 14 MSU has been about for three decades, and a completely possessed performance obsessed with the details — a swagger-flashing, muscle-flexing, all-around 88-54 domination of the Huskies on Thursday night.

“The last two games, I think what we learned about ourselves is just the toughness of this team,” said freshman guard Jase Richardson, who had 12 points and five of the Spartans’ 10 steals and two of their six blocked shots. “We battled in that Ohio State game. And then today, I felt like our toughness kind of overpowered (the Huskies).”

ON THE GRIDIRON: Michigan State football lands Division II transfer WR Rodney Bullard from Valdosta State

The Spartans (13-2, 4-0 Big Ten) won their eighth straight game and held Washington (10- 6, 1-4) without a field goal for more than 10 minutes to open the game and then scoreless for another nine-plus minute stretch after an early free throw. Their lead grew to as many as 29 points by halftime thanks to continued well-rounded scoring and smothering team defense, moving Izzo to 347 victories in Big Ten play, second-most all-time and six behind Bob Knight’s record 353 at Indiana.   

Jaden Akins led the Spartans with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, with Jeremy Fears Jr. adding 12 points and 10 assists for his first career double-double and Tre Holloman scoring 11 points with six more of their 24 assists on 32 made baskets. Along with Richardson, the four guards also turned it over just four times between them.

MSU outscored Washington 28-2 on the fastbreak and shot a sizzling 52.5% as all 10 regulars scored; 12 of the 13 players in green and white who stepped on the court grabbed at least one rebound. The Spartans also hit 7 of 21 3-point attempts and committed just 12 turnovers.

“I thought we we played awfully well,” Izzo said. “We stayed focused. … Yeah, I did see it in their eyes. That was, it was fun to see that.”

MSU travels to Northwestern for its third road game of the conference season. Tipoff is noon Sunday (Fox) at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Illinois.

Tyler Harris had 14 points for for the Huskies (10-5, 1-3), who shot just 32.7% and committed 15 turnovers. MSU held leading scorer and rebounder Great Osobor to just six points on 0-for-8 shooting with just four rebounds as the Huskies were outrebounded, 40-30.

Huskies just dog-gone confounded

Izzo’s players took the court before the game wearing new “Strength in Numbers” warmup shirts. Then they delivered a “dialed-in” look and performance that Izzo said started to emerge in practice Wednesday.

Everything the Spartans showed in the first 20 minutes is everything Izzo has demanded from his teams for 30 years. So much of it that the game felt in the win column in the first seven minutes.

Nothing Washington could do went right, including, at one point, Washington’s “Zoom” Diallo slamming into teammate Mekhi Mason at the top of the key on offense with no MSU player within 2 feet of the collision. Huskies first-year coach Danny Sprinkle spun toward his bench and shook his head in frustration and disgust.

After Osobor’s free throw opened the scoring, MSU ripped off the next 16 points, starting with a Fears 3-pointer and another by Akins. A Coen Carr breakaway dunk in transition prompted Sprinkle to call a timeout as the alumni Izzone erupted into a cacophonous din of celebration.

The Huskies went scoreless for 9:10 and played the first 10:27 without making a field goal. And the rout was on.

“Just trying to slow the momentum,” Sprinkle said of his timeout. “I mean, the game was actually kind of a little bit out of reach, even at that point.”

From 16-1, when Washington finally made a basket and scored three straight points, the Spartans pushed it to 29-8 thanks to a strong stretch that included contributions from two fairly forgotten faces — a 3-pointer from struggling Frankie Fidler and strong defense and four free throws from Carson Cooper.

By halftime, things started to get really out of hand.

MSU danced and smiled its way into halftime with a 42-13 cushion by holding the Huskies to 5-for-29 shooting and without a 3-pointer in nine attempts. The Spartans turned eight Washington turnovers into nine points and had a 25-19 rebounding edge, as well as a 20-10 scoring edge in the paint while shooting 45.2%.

There wasn’t much to say in the locker room, and it might have been one of the shortest talks in Izzo’s tenure. The players came bouncing back onto the court with more than five minutes to get in shots. And they maintained the same locked-in intensity and pushed it to a 37-point lead a little over four minutes into the second half and led by as many as 41 before Izzo summoned his deep-bench reserves.

Izzo’s truncated halftime message?

“To keep it rolling,” said Akins, who went 8-for-13. “Whatever we do, keep our foot on the gas keep it rolling. And that’s what we did.”

A green-and-white party

Perhaps most importantly was the confidence with which MSU played. It was a bravado his best teams showed in abundance and something that has been lacking in recent years, maybe longer.

Fears got in the head of Washington’s young point guard, with a dose of trash-talking and watching the Huskies freshman in foul trouble. In doing so, that allowed the Spartans’ redshirt freshman to dictate the tone of the toughness and the pace of play all night.

Coen Carr shook off a hard foul that prevented him launching for a dunk in transition early in the first half, nearly getting tackled, only to pogo-stick and hammer one down in transition after a poke-away steal by Booker and feed from Richardson.

Richardson continued to show moxie beyond his freshman year, with his father Jason in the stands seeing a slaughtering not unlike his 2000 national championship team’s 114-63 blowout nearly 25 years ago on the same court. 

“Our competitive spirit wasn’t there tonight, our physicality and our toughness,” Sprinkle said. “And in order to play against Michigan State, you know what their program is built on. We knew what we’re coming into as a staff, we tried to convey that to the players. And obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job of doing that.”

Everyone took a turn going on runs, including Holloman, who also had six assists. Jaxon Kohler had six points, seven rebounds and four more assists. Cooper finished with six points and seven boards, while Carr grabbed five rebounds. The Spartans went 17-for-18 at the free-throw line, finished with a 44-26 edge in paint points and got 37 points from their reserves.

Even Nick Sanders gave the alumni in the Izzone one more thing to get loud about before their belated bedtime, sinking a jumper to seal it with a minute to play, a thorough thrashing complete.

“We still got a long way to go. I mean, it was one of those nights tonight,” Izzo said. “But this team is getting better —the camaraderie, the fastbreak, the strength in numbers, the constantly coming at you. There’s some pluses to that right now.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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“I hope they come by today.”

That’s what Temple Hills resident Eunice Hill said as she looked out on her icy street on Thursday.

Days after major snowfall, the Prince George’s County street she’s called home for 40 years since hasn’t been plowed.

“They’ve always come and cleared the streets in the past. This is the worst I’ve seen,” she said.

A few doors down, News4 spoke with Jerome. He’s lived on the block for almost three decades. He said he’s tried to remain patient but that’s wearing thin.

“I would have appreciated to see trucks by now,” he said.

Here’s what the public works director said about plowing and salting

The county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation said the agency has a snow protocol they activate before and after a storm. First up: the primary roads, to ensure emergency personnel can access passable roads. Next up are the residential and neighborhood roads.

“They started working on the residentials yesterday and they’ve continued on multiple shifts, been continuing on that. As we continue, the low temperatures have not been helpful,” Director Michael Johnson said.

Crews are using chemicals to help treat roads and still have plenty of salt. They started the storm with 43,500 tons of salt and have used a little over 6,600 tons so far, Johnson said.

“They’ll be bringing the enhanced chemicals, and we’ll be applying them this evening,” he said about Thursday night.

As crews prepare for another snow event, residents hope their streets will be treated soon.