Executive Vice President's Message

During a legislative session, BIAW’s outstanding government affairs work garners most of the attention from our membership.

However, our efforts at BIAW in other important areas on your behalf doesn’t stop during this time of year. Here are a few other items you don’t want to miss:

Enroll in ROII

I’m going to be blunt. If you own a business and you are NOT enrolled in BIAW’s ROII program, applying to participate could be the best business decision you make this year. Don’t know what ROII is? It’s BIAW’s workers’ compensation safety-incentive program, and I cannot encourage you more strongly to check it out.

Not only can you receive top-tier refunds on the premiums you pay to the state for workers’ compensation, ROII offers unequaled outcome-based claims assistance, safety and prevention services, risk management services and return-to-work assistance. And all of these services are free of charge to ROII participants. ROII’s team of experts have your back year-round.

At ROII.com, members and potential participants can calculate potential refunds with ROII, view their services, sign up for classes and connect on social media. There are clear benefits of being an ROII participant. Start taking advantage of those today!

Defending your voice in the courts

Back in September, BIAW and the Associated General Contractors of Washington (AGC) sued the governor to hold him accountable for illegal appointments to the State Building Code Council (SBCC). In that lawsuit, we requested access to public records. After receiving the records, BIAW’s legal team filed a separate lawsuit suspecting the governor’s office did not comply with providing all the public records that were requested, as required by law.

In November, the Attorney General’s Office admitted a member of the governor’s staff had made a “misstatement of fact” in a sworn affidavit in the case. The staffer stated the office had received a nomination for the governor’s appointee for the residential construction seat on the state building code council, when in fact no such nomination existed. BIAW will continue our pursuit to hold the governor accountable. All we seek is for Gov. Inslee to follow the law and allow BIAW to represent residential construction and have our nominee and voice on the SBCC.

Why is the cost of housing increasing?

You all know that restrictions, regulations and roadblocks to housing supply over the last 30+ years are the reason housing prices are soaring astronomically. To help educate everyone, BIAW is launching “Cut the Costs,” a public media campaign to help explain why single-family homes are so expensive. This effort is to bridge the knowledge gap and create change in housing policy at the state and local levels. We can’t make housing more affordable by making it more expensive.

Greg Lane

Executive Vice President