Are we all criminals yet?

Have you inadvertently unearthed a dead body recently? Planning to hunt cougars? Whale watching? Do your kids run a roadside fruit stand? These issues and more were addressed by the Washington Legislature's 2008 session. The legislature passed more than 320 new measures, most of which went into effect over the last month. Consider this column a public service announcement to help you avoid any illegal activity.

Most notable was the state's Hands-Free Driving Law. This law prohibits holding a wireless device such as a cell phone to your ear while driving (a previously-adopted law also prohibits texting while driving), with infractions costing $124. Hands-free devices are permitted while driving. Violations will be treated as secondary offenses, and infractions will not be added to the driver's official record or reported to insurance companies. An early bill report suggested that infractions committed within six months of the law's effective date should be addressed with verbal warnings, but this provision was stripped out of later reports.

Other laws enacted this year:

• A state permit must be obtained by individuals planning to sell raw or unprocessed huckleberries. Violators face a $1,000 or up to a year in jail. 
   
• Individuals who inadvertently discover skeletal human remains must immediately call the coroner and the police. This bill creates the position of State Physical Anthropologist, who will be responsible for investigating, preserving, and, reinterring skeletal human remains that are not evidence of a crime.
   
• Antifreeze has apparently become more refreshing since my childhood, prompting the legislature to require the addition of a bitter-tasting chemical to the antifreeze distributed in Washington. Manufacturers, as the bill summary says, must add "an aversive agent so as to render the product unpalatable."
   
• Cigarette retailers must deplete their current stock by August 1, 2009, in order to comply with new "reduced ignition propensity" requirements that will go into effect at that time. These are cigarettes designed to be less likely to ignite soft furnishings, couches, or other potentially-combustible materials.
   
• It is now illegal to get within 300 feet of a southern Orca whale by vessel. The law also makes it an infraction to intercept, feed, or fail to disengage the transmission of a boat within 300 feet. Violators will be fined $500.
   
• Self-service storage facilities may now charge late fees (the greater of $20 or 20 percent of the monthly rental amount).
   
• Hunting enthusiasts may now use dogs to hunt cougars, a practice that was banned by initiative in 1996.
   
• More than 170 of the rights and responsibilities of marriage were added to the state's domestic partnership law.
   
• Permissible levels of phosphorus in dishwasher detergent are now regulated.
   
• Out-of-state sexual felony convictions will count against defendants as part of Washington's three-strikes law.
   
• Local jurisdictions are now permitted to authorize the use of public funds to finance local political campaigns.

A plethora of new taxes and fees were also approved in 2008. If you hope to pay more for gas, welcome to Washington. The state's gas tax went up another penny-and-a-half. This is the last phase of the 9.5 cent increase approved in 2005. The increase takes the state gas tax to 37.5 cents – the highest in the nation.

Motorists using the Tacoma Narrows Bridge will now pay more to cross – $4 for cash toll payers and $2.75 for electronic tolls. Approximately 60 percent of every toll paid goes toward repayment of the debt incurred during the construction of the bridge.

Washington now requires state retailers to collect "destination-based sales tax." Retailers previously collected local sales tax based on the location of the business from which a product was shipped. Effective this year, retailers must collect tax based on the destination of the delivery. As the Department of Revenue explains: if a resident of Olympia orders a pizza from a restaurant located in Tumwater, and the store delivers the pizza to the customer in Olympia, sales tax is based on the customer’s location in Olympia. This requires the retailer to calculate taxes based on every taxing jurisdiction within the state, rather than the single tax rate for the business location.

Mark Twain is credited with the quip: "No one's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."  What do you think: Does the ever-increasing government regulation and taxation improve our lives?